Well here we are, somehow 6 weeks after I hopped on my partner’s Peloton. Where did the time go?
Somewhere along the journey I hit 1,000 minutes of working out. Cool!
I’m rediscovering my comfort and confidence on the bike. While I still often cry at the end of a ride it’s not a bad thing. It’s often tears of relief that I completed a ride. So thankful!
I have been alternating cycling and weight training with 1 rest day a week. My butt needs the time out of the saddle and my legs need time to recuperate.
What has changed in 6 weeks?
**remember your mileage may vary. If you start a new training regime you may have different gains or meaningful measures of success**
First, I’m able to ride longer. I started out with 5 minute warm up, 20 minute beginner rides, 5 minute cool down. After a month I felt good trying an advanced beginner ride of 30 minutes. I now regularly do a 5 or 10 minute warmup, a 30 minute ride, 10 minute cool down and a 5 minute stretch. Yay!
Second, I’m not as sore after my workouts. Thank goodness because the first two weeks I was limping through my neighborhood on my daily walks.
Third, I have better form on the bike and can sit up without holding the handle bars, find a relaxed upper body during max effort and even standing up out of the saddle during rides. It’s very different from on my road bike but I’m learning. Yay!
Fourth, I’m feeling good in the strength classes. Lots of moves I’m still learning. My upper body workouts have felt particularly awesome. Best part, I’m lifting more weight with better form and control. Wahoo!
Fifth, my heart rate and blood pressure have dropped by a whopping 20 points. Talk about a satisfying and meaningful measure. My motivation for adding higher intensity cardio and weight training to my life was to address a disturbing upward trend in these metrics. My moving about my day heart rate is 64 bpm and my blood pressure is back to 124/75. That’s right where I want them to be.
Sixth, my stress management and resilience are feeling good. I’m having less anxiety and sleeping well. So good!
Seventh, I now have different things in common with my partner and our other friends who use Peloton. We share favourite classes and instructors as well as equipment tips and tricks. That means less shop talk about our paid work. AMAZING!
What are meaningful measures in your fitness journey? I want to hear all about it!
Go you! 🌟
Thanks for writing this and framing your progress this way, it makes *my* plans feel even more achievable.
Love your markers of progress. Nice work! I’m curious about whether it’s affected your walking at all, after the initial acclimatization.
It seems to be about the same but it’s been super gross footing. I’ll have fewer variables once the snow & ice are gone.
Yeah. Cheddar and I are done with the ice. So done.
Amazing Nat!! Good for you getting back at it and reaching goals. I have been struggling myself to get back into fitness. Your journey is inspiring.
Thanks for sharing 😁
You got this Cass! I’m a firm believer in showing up and trying. Sometimes it goes great, sometimes humbling to be more of a beginner again but. Spoiler alert! I always feel AWESOME when I’m done a workout 🏋️♀️
That all sounds like amazing progress!
In the last few months, I’ve gotten back into running (after a months-long break to let an injury heal). Since I restarted, I’ve built up to 3-4 miles every other day! I think that my cardiovascular system is capable of longer distances, but I’m trying to let my bones and joints catch up. 🙂
I’ve also been monitoring my blood pressure more closely in recent months. It’s not clear yet whether my slightly elevated numbers are stress/sleep/lifestyle related (I recently finished my PhD and am in the process of figuring out what to do next!), or whether there’s another underlying issue, but I think I’m seeing some small improvements from working on the former (and am in communication with my doctor about whether we need to look into the latter).
Those are awesome measures of progress. Congratulations on completing your PhD!!