Day 7: Love-Hate Workout Relationships

I gave you some of my preliminary thoughts on cardio a few days ago, but this morning, as I was doing my cardio workout, I had a few more thoughts.  I realized that I have a complete love-hate relationship with cardio and all that it entails.  Right now (you know, today...we'll discuss again soon), I am in complete L-O-V-E with cardio.  I have gotten better at grabbing my water bottle without a tragic wrist accident.  I've come to grips with the fact that my feet will inevitably fall asleep and I will feel as though I'm running on stumps of legs.  I have even...wait for it...started enjoying watching my ponytail swish from side to side.  It has become kind of like a metronome of sorts.

What I love about cardio, at the moment, is that it is my time.  My time to zone out.  My chance to listen to the music that I want.  My chance to get lost in my stream of consciousness thoughts.  Working with 2nd graders all day doesn't provide a lot of quliaty "me" time, so I have begun to cherish this quiet time to myself.  You know, sometimes I think about my day ahead and the snot, tears, whining, hugging, shhhing, fighting, nose-picking (and eating it) and realize that, at times, I would rather stay glued to my cardio machine and never leave.  I digress...the point is, there are few times in the day when I get any peace of mind.  I love that recently, while on the treadmill or elliptical, I totally zone out and just...think.  I can take time to think about this competition, which makes me push myself harder.  I can take time to think about my relationships with people, which I'm hoping will make them better.  I can take time to think about work, which makes me want to hop off the cardio machine and hide more prepared for the day.  I especially like that my quiet cardio is in the morning.  While it royally sucks to get up at 5:00am every day, it really is such a peaceful way to start the day.

Now, this is not to say that I would rather be doing 1, 343, 845 other things instead of cardio.  In fact I think I just thought of 15 things in the past 10 seconds.  This is also not to say that the cardio I do is incredibly hard and tiring (and verrry sweaty).  But if I am going to be in the gym, attempting to rid myself of the rest of my muffin top, zoning out on a cardio machine is currently at the top of my "what I love about the gym" list.  Since I have been loving cardio a little more than usual, I think I've been able to push myself a little harder while there.

I have been wanting to hop on a treadmill (which will have its own post one day soon) and run as my cardio but I have extreme fear of the treadmill (again, details to come later).  Well, today some bitches and a dude were on all the ellipticals (OK, they only took up 4 but there are only 4 of the kind of ellipticals I like...Hi, my name is Rachel and I'm an elliptical snob).  I decided today would be the day that I would try the treadmill and that's exactly what I did.  I, surprisingly, found my rhythm running pretty easily.  While I was gasping for air (air which was filled with the nasty, sweaty, moldy smell coming from the guy to my right), I zoned in on my swishing ponytail in the mirror that was 25 inches from my face and zoned out in my brain.  I was able to run intervals for about 20 minutes and quickly hop off and jump on the elliptical for another 20 minutes.  I found my rhythm on the elliptical pretty easy too, although I realized it's easier to run after doing the treadmill as opposed to before.  By the end, my pony tail was swishing a little less because of all the sweat on the back of my neck and I felt like I was leaving the gym with a quiet, calm mind, ready to call out sick from work take on the day.

I'm not sure if I will forever love cardio...heck, I may hate it my Friday.  I'll keep you posted!  I'm not even sure if, in a way, I'm convincing myself that I love cardio because I know that I have to do SO much of it in the next 12 weeks.  Right now I'm doing cardio 4 times a week (3 times just abs and cardio, 1 time I do cardio after lifting).  Soon I will have to do even more cardio.  So I'm trying to see the positives in cardio and how it is helping me mentally prepare for both this competition and just life in general.  On Friday, I plan to turn up my Lady Gaga (is she a man?!) and zone out again so I can start my day off on the right foot (no pun intended...roll eyes).

Well, tomorrow officially marks 1 week completed and with that will come a picture...dun dun dun.  I figured out how to upload a picture so I will leave you with a picture of me and Randy Couture.  Maybe I'll just peruse his website while I eat my salad with veggies and chicken :)

Pounds lost: 1.5 (ruh roh...post on weight loss coming, too)
Food cravings of the moment: peanut butter, any dinner out with my friends where I can actually eat a meal.

Until next time!
xoxo