September Workout Plan: Yep, Epic Fail

Over the last year, I like to think I’ve made some pretty healthy lifestyle habits.  Oh, I am not an angel by any measure of the word, but I’m better than I have been.  Through this “being mostly good most of the time” workout and diet ethic, I’ve easily lost at least 5 lbs per month (or more).  Somehow, the month of September was the end of the ride.  That, or 165-170 lbs is a huge sticky point for me.

I didn’t experience anything new this month that I haven’t before.  I’m not denying it was a hectic month, because it was absolute crazy-sauce!  But I’ve wrangled crazy before and rocked the house with it.  I’ve dealt with a parental visit before, but this time it drove me to exhaustion and eating more.  I’ve dealt with March, the other OMG-birthdays-and-events-every-week month, but this time I actually skipped workouts because of either exhaustion or time crunch.   Just dealing with that all at once, plus various stress at work…I wish I could say it sent me over the edge and I all out binged and didn’t work out a day – because that would explain it better.  Instead, I’ve been still “pretty much” good and “pretty much” followed my workouts, but I still kept flucuating between those 5 frustrating pounds.

Besides life contributing to an epic fail – the workload was just a little bit overbearing.  Maybe it was just a bad month to try really ramping up my workouts, but I think it was also just too much, too quick.  Instead of jumpstarting my metabolism, I think it shut down the first two weeks.  I was constantly exhausted, constantly freezing, my workouts got harder instead of easier, the weight I could handle went down instead of up, and I wasn’t losing at all.  It got better performance-wise the last two weeks because I ate more good food but still – no loss, just floating around.

Let’s take the workouts day by day…

Day 1: 20 mins on Cybil, 20 mins arms/squats, 20 mins running

This is the one I did most often, and loved (sometimes with the other strength set of abs/bootie).  I liked the break in between 2 different cardio sessions, and I could go as hard or easy as I needed.  It was also a good workout to do when I was a little sore and/or tired because it was only 20 mins mild pounding.

Day 2: 5k run for time, 20 mins core/bootie, 15-20 mins yoga at home

I only did this twice and usually skipped the yoga for a good stretch.  I did actually perfect my treadmill stretch program but yoga is still better.  I’m glad I did put this in because I accomplished my goal of running a 5k in under 30 mins (29:35).  However, this was too much workout at once.  With warmup and cooldown it was 40 mins, then stretching, and then half a full body workout and THEN YOGA?  What was I thinking?  I think a 5k + yoga OR one body part is about all I can do in one day.

Day 3: 40 minutes of DDR, 15-20 mins yoga at home

Not much to say about this, although I did it MORE than once a week because I didn’t have to leave the house and it’s easy to just substitute a quick stretch for yoga when I am pressed for time and don’t even have an hour for the gym.  This his been and will probably continue to be a once or twice a week staple in my workouts for a long time to come.

Day 4: 1 mile run for time, 20 mins full body strength, 20 mins on Cybil

Again, glad I did this (although I think I only did 2 or 3 times) because I have a new best time of 8:45.  However, 20 mins full body strength is a retarded thing to say, because a full body strength train session is about 40-50 mins if I’m rushing it.  And how do I figure out what to skip if I’m supposed to work my whole body?  So I spent way too much time on this one, or skipped it.  1 mile run + half body strength train + cybil is about all I can take in one workout.

Day 5: 4 mile run, 15-20 mins yoga at home

I enjoyed these, but again, usually replaced the yoga with a treadmill stretch.  This was a great day to just space out to music and/or whatever was on the TVs and not have 3 parts to my workout.  I think I did this every week.  I’m a little sad I’m not doing any long runs this month, but I’ll add them back in November I think.  Unless I fall in love with what I’m doing and run away to Vegas and marry my exercise program.  Zliten might be sad but hey, these things happen.

Anyways, I definitely learned a lesson in how much working out I can tolerate.  Someday, if I’m ever part time or unemployed or the fiance wants to start training for marathons or my friends all decide they hate me, I could perhaps consider more time.  But about 1 hour 5 days a week is all I can handle with my current life.  And to make myself feel better, it’s not necessarily about my capacity to handle the actual workout load.  Sure, the hard ones tuckered me out, but I wasn’t passing out on the gym floor.  It was mostly the time commitment.

I would get off work at 5:30pm, change in the bathroom at work (I just got used to it when I worked out at work and it stuck), and by the time I’m at the bottom of the parking garage its 5:45 – then a 15-20 min drive to the gym, then 10ish minutes parking/showingpass/locker-room deposit-bag-and-pit-stop and then I’m working out at 6:10.  A particularly demanding day and it’s 7:40 after a workout, then 5 mins to collect crap and drive home, then shower and dry off and get dressed and HOLY SHIT ITS ALREADY 8pm and I’m just having dinner.  2.5 hours since I left work.  Time gets sucked into a black hole somehow when I hit the gym.  I wish I could squeeze more workout and less other stuff in that time, but until I figure that out, them’s the facts.  And I can’t have it suck that much time.

So that’s that.  Epic fail, with lots of lessons learned.  Tomorrow, I’ll talk about the plan for October, which is actually underway, being that it is the 8th of the month!