Money Well Spent And Even More Money Well Spent!

I ran on my new treadmill for the first time last night. For a home gym it was certainly money well spent.  I did discover that there is a difference between a home treadmill and a gym treadmill though.  You have to re-learn how to run on a treadmill because I guess the gym versions have more horsepower or torque or a better surface underneath the tread.

If I ran like usual on my new treadmill every couple of step it would catch, or drag or something, I’m not quite sure how to describe it.  But I would have to catch my step as the tread would slow down for just a second. So I had to learn to run with ‘soft knees’ the whole time and short steps. Doing these two things made it a bit harder to run, but it was easier than running out in the freezing coldness that outside was and it saved me 40 minutes of driving by not going to the gym. Totally worth the investment.

So not that this whole home gym thing is getting ramped up for the tail end of this winter and really in earnest for next winter my wife, Amber, went on the buy and sell board for the teachers and found a recumbent exercise bike for the low, low price of $30!   A recumbent bike would not be my ideal replacement for a gym spin bike or a real bike, but for home gym purposes, and for $30 I’ll take it and it’ll be great for next winter!  Literally I have everything I need now to not sign up for a gym membership next November!  And my basement just became a bit more like the Batcave.  It’s got computers and monitors (TV) trophies of past conquests (all my medals and karate belts) and not a built in training facility!  All I need now is a butler and a kid side-kick.

1000 Burpees & Riding The Bike

As I mentioned a little earlier this month I saw a twitter post of FitFluential a challenge to do 1000 burpees between about mid January and the end of February.  I of course love a challenge like that and decided to take it on.  Problem was it was at about the same time as I had sprained my rib muscles. So I had to wait to begin this challenge.

I started doing the burpees during the second week of February and last night rattled off 175 during commercial breaks in Arrow to complete the set. This was a challenge that I was not about to fail as it was a relatively simple one, especially if I had been able to use the whole time frame to get it done.

This week so far I have ridden the spin bike at the gym for 40 Kms!  I decided to do a bit more bike riding this week simply because my gym membership is over on Friday and while I have bought a treadmill which means I can run at home even when the weather is nasty I can’t ride a bike anymore.

Riding a spin bike is painfully boring but I have found that podcasts instead of music make the time go by a little faster.  Fatman on Batman or Hollywood Babble-on make the stationary Kilometres go by a bit faster, but I bet a get a few odd looks when I am laughing at what is being said.  Oh well.

This weekend will be spend with the usual of playing hockey and doing karate but also with setting up the home gym again, possibly for a few weeks in the basement since winter doesn’t seem to want to let go yet!

Have you been given a fitness challenge that you just had to get done?  What was it and how did you do?

Friend Making Monday–Getting to Know You

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here and over at Losing Weight and Having Fun so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Random Getting To Know You Questions

1. Introduce yourself in under 10 words.

Canadian, ECE, Artist, Black Belt, Student, Runner, Funny, Fit, Persevering

2. How did you find Friend Makin Mondays?

I forget how I actually found it, I think I was just trying to find other fitness blogs and Kenlie’s came up.

3. Have you ever met any of your blog readers?

I have met a bunch of them but only because they were my friends first.  I have added a couple people to Facebook though.

4. How many states have you visited?

I’ve actually visited things in only three states, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida.  And two provinces Ontario and Quebec

5. What did you have for lunch yesterday?

Lunch yesterday was at a restaurant in Buckhorn, I had an open face hot turkey sammich, with veggies and salad.

6. How many different places have you lived in?

I’ve lived in a few places all within about two hours worth or driving. Collingwood, then Orillia then Coldwater then Buckhorn then a few months in Toronto, then Peterborough and now Bridgenorth all in Ontario.  I did live in Glenside PA for a few month too.

7. What’s your favorite color?

I`d say that Orange is my favourite colour.

8. Do you have any pets?

Yep, two cats.  Dr. Talia Applesauce, goes by Talia and Richard Nightwing Grayson, goes by Grayson.

9. What would your ideal job be?

I work as an ECE and so I work at my ideal job already, I get to play with children, create art, do experiments, bake, and rediscover the world everyday.

10. Do you have any tattoos?

Just one, The Triforce on my left shoulder

I Bought A Treadmill

I have finally become one of those people that actually has more than just weights at home.  You and I both know I like to run, and that running in a rural community in the winter in Canada is difficult.  The opportunity came upon me to get a treadmill for the low low price of about $200!

I leapt on that chance even though I probably won’t use the machine until next November.  Spring is coming here and I have a week left at the Wellness Centre so I’m hoping that I won’t have to use my new treadmill just yet, running outside is soooooooo much better than running on a machine.

I’ve also been neck deep in @FitFluential ‘s 1000 burpee challenge.  The idea was to do those 1000 burpees before the end of February.  I heard about the challenge in mid January but with that pesky rib injury was unable to get started on the whole thing until we were into the 2nd week of this month (or so) now, 175 burpees to go.

I only have one week left at the gym, I’ve got to make the most of it.  I can do almost all of the gym exercises here at home and I totally got my $200 worth out of the gym this winter.  My hope is to be there at least twice between now and Friday, maybe three times.  I really want to go out with a bang and be able to carry over the momentum to resuming my home gym workouts!

My Time Is Running Out

It’s February 11th and I only have a few weeks left on my four month, let’s not run outside, gym membership!  I feel like besides being sick a couple of times I have made great use of these four months.  Even the last couple of week with the muscle sprain in my ribs I was at the gym just to ride the spin bike and do a few more isolated exercises.

My only concern is that as of right now there is about 2.5 feet of snow everywhere! And when March comes I doubt it will be warm enough or melted enough that I desire to run outside or workout in the garage!

I might try to extend my membership for another month, it seems like the practical thing to do really, but I don’t know if they even allow that.

In the meantime my goal is to get back up to running at least 12k a week.  With the rib injury I took almost two weeks off running and my body was not a fan of that when I hopped on the treadmill again last week.

1000 Burpees and Friend Making Monday

Fit Fluential has challenged it’s followers to do 1000 burpees by the end of February.  I of course have accepted that challenge.  I had to wait a whole week to start due to my ribs though and so now, three days in I have only done 25.  Once I am able to get the ball rolling on this I actually think it won’t be a problem, I have done 100 at one time before.  If you want in on the action, there is a huge Under Armour prize attached to the whole thing, just accept the challenge by putting #FFBURPEE on a tweet!

 

FFM Random Questions

Random Questions

1. Did you watch the Super Bowl?

Nope!

2. What is the weather like where you live? 

Cold and snowy, really snowy!

3. When is your birthday? 

November 15th

4. Do you prefer sparkling water or flat water? 

I prefer my water flat, and wet.  Sparkling water just seems weird.

5. How many hours did you sleep last night? 

Last night I only slept for about 5 and a half hours.

6. What is your favourite day of the week? 

I think it’s Friday, we usually have lower numbers at work, so I get to see al my work friends and then occationally people will come over and play games and such.  If now Friday then Saturday for sure, workouts and Karate and hockey always make for a good day!

7. If you had to choose between riding a bike or swimming, which would you choose? 

Riding a bike for sure, I can ride a lot further than I can swim!

8. How often do you eat red meat? 

Probably once a week, but if there are steaks to be had I will eat them!

9. What time did you wake up this morning?  I got up at 6:10, always too early on a Monday!

10. Do you have any goals for the week?

My goals for the week include:

Doing maybe 300-500 burpees, hoping my ribs get better and learning something new tonight at PD.