I found out this morning that working on new exercise equipment can be dangerous. I'm in Cheyenne, Wyoming this week. A friend had to come over for meeting, so I rode along. It's my last trip for a while, so I thought I'd take advantage of it. He went to his meeting this morning, and I headed to the fitness center at the motel.
They had two treadmills, a stepper and a bike. I love riding an exercise bike. The hardest part is figuring out the controls. I programmed a warm up which was seven minutes and kept going up in intensity. I love being able to program things cuz my bike has none of that. It broke a long ago and I can't even adjust the tension. After the warm up I put it on manual so I could do my intervals. I loved watching my speed and heart rate. I started out on intensity 2 and did the first one minute interval at 4. Then the next one was at 5 and I only went back to 3 for the regular part. Two just seemed too easy after the interval. I did a couple intervals at 5 and the last one was at 7 just to see if I could do it. I have learned I can do anything for either thirty seconds or a minute. When I got off the bike, I was on such a high. Exercise is addicting.
Now for the dangerous part. It's dangerous on my pocketbook. I want a new bike. I want one that I can program and change the intensity on. So all my change is going in a jar for a bike. I hope to have one by the time the weather gets yucky this fall and I can't walk outdoors.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
$85 and Five Minutes
A couple months ago on a bad weather day I went up to the rec center and walked ound their track. It takes 11 3/4 times around to equal a mile. It took me twenty-five minutes to walk that mile. My feet hurt, I was out of breath and it was a tough walk. I have tried to walk at least 3 days a week since then. I have to be honest and admit sometimes it is only two. Sometimes it was with my walking DVD in the house. Springtime in the Rockies isn't the best.
Tonight I decided to try a little test. I walked over to the middle school track which took 2:15. A mile there is only four times around. I started around the track. At the end of the first 1/4 a mile it was only 7:15. Pretty good. Amazingly enough I was pretty much able to keep up the pace the whole walk. The feet felt pretty good. At the end of the mile my stop watch read 22:17. That means I walked the mile in 20 minutes!
Now I will explain the rest of the title. Last weekend I went to Salt Lake City to look for a new pair of shoes. I'm the kind of person who used to go to Walmart for shoes. Then when I worked on my feet I started buying nicer shoes at Payless. A year ago I went to Sketchers in Park City and paid an outrageous amount for a pair of shoes. Two of us went in together cuz the special was buy one, get one half off. So I think they ended up being about $40. That seemed very high to me, but they were worth it. It was nice to go to work and not have my feet hurt. I can almost tell my weight by how my feet feel after a day of work. I knew last summer I had gained weight because my feet hurt, and I wasn't on them all day.
Two weeks ago a friend of Lala's brought me a pair of shoes. She said her Grandmother had given them to her, but they didn't fit. They are Reeboks and felt very nice on although they were obviously well worn. But what I liked the best was that they are very light shoes. I hadn't realized how heavy the sketchers are until then. So I ended up at New Balance in Salt Lake on Saturday.
The first thing they did was have me take off my shoes and walk over a gel-filled pad. Then she showed me the image that shows I have fallen arches (big surprise) and put a lot of weight on my big toes when I walk. She showed me several shoes. She also was able to explain the difference between the different kind of shoes such as walking, running, cross trainers, etc. She told me Sketchers are good shoes, but they are heavy. Well, my little 7 1/2 feet are now a size 8 1/2 D. She told me your feet can grow 1/2 a size every five years. I knew they were wide, I think that comes from all the years of going barefoot. At least that is what Mom always told me.
I finally settled on a these shoes. They actually felt better than the $95 dollar pair. Skeeter was with me, and helped encourage me. He told me it wasn't like I was buying shows to sit at an office desk or watch tv in. These shoes are an investment in my health, and I've proven I'm serious about the life style changes I've made. He even said he'd pay for them. So I bit the bullet and pulled out the debit card.
Since then I've taken a couple of walks in them and absolutely love them. My feet are tired when I get home. But they don't hurt the way they did. I know that is part of the reason I shaved five minutes off my time. By the third lap around the track I would slow down because my feet were hurting. So all in all, it was a good investment. Now we'll see how long they last.
Tonight I decided to try a little test. I walked over to the middle school track which took 2:15. A mile there is only four times around. I started around the track. At the end of the first 1/4 a mile it was only 7:15. Pretty good. Amazingly enough I was pretty much able to keep up the pace the whole walk. The feet felt pretty good. At the end of the mile my stop watch read 22:17. That means I walked the mile in 20 minutes!
Now I will explain the rest of the title. Last weekend I went to Salt Lake City to look for a new pair of shoes. I'm the kind of person who used to go to Walmart for shoes. Then when I worked on my feet I started buying nicer shoes at Payless. A year ago I went to Sketchers in Park City and paid an outrageous amount for a pair of shoes. Two of us went in together cuz the special was buy one, get one half off. So I think they ended up being about $40. That seemed very high to me, but they were worth it. It was nice to go to work and not have my feet hurt. I can almost tell my weight by how my feet feel after a day of work. I knew last summer I had gained weight because my feet hurt, and I wasn't on them all day.
Two weeks ago a friend of Lala's brought me a pair of shoes. She said her Grandmother had given them to her, but they didn't fit. They are Reeboks and felt very nice on although they were obviously well worn. But what I liked the best was that they are very light shoes. I hadn't realized how heavy the sketchers are until then. So I ended up at New Balance in Salt Lake on Saturday.
The first thing they did was have me take off my shoes and walk over a gel-filled pad. Then she showed me the image that shows I have fallen arches (big surprise) and put a lot of weight on my big toes when I walk. She showed me several shoes. She also was able to explain the difference between the different kind of shoes such as walking, running, cross trainers, etc. She told me Sketchers are good shoes, but they are heavy. Well, my little 7 1/2 feet are now a size 8 1/2 D. She told me your feet can grow 1/2 a size every five years. I knew they were wide, I think that comes from all the years of going barefoot. At least that is what Mom always told me.
I finally settled on a these shoes. They actually felt better than the $95 dollar pair. Skeeter was with me, and helped encourage me. He told me it wasn't like I was buying shows to sit at an office desk or watch tv in. These shoes are an investment in my health, and I've proven I'm serious about the life style changes I've made. He even said he'd pay for them. So I bit the bullet and pulled out the debit card.
Since then I've taken a couple of walks in them and absolutely love them. My feet are tired when I get home. But they don't hurt the way they did. I know that is part of the reason I shaved five minutes off my time. By the third lap around the track I would slow down because my feet were hurting. So all in all, it was a good investment. Now we'll see how long they last.
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