Day 86: I get smarter

After looking through the internet and asking the apartment manager, I came up empty handed on how to program the exercise bike.  So I did things differently: I went through the touch screen before I got on the bike, picking the aerobic workout and putting in my age and weight.  Wow, who knew! Less stress, and a nice, butt aching workout, burning 172 calories, and heart rate at 131, and going 7.94 miles.  I watched a Legos Star Wars television show during the half hour, and the program had the five minutes cool-down included in the half-hour.

I did some 10 pound weights afterwards, just one set.

So what was the show like?  Remember the Lego Movie?

Day 85: Going the extra time

I turned on the television to the Underground Weather Channel--or maybe it was just The Weather Channel--and mounted the cycle.  The cycle's screen had changed, and now had a whole array of options to chose from, but I couldn't find the time set, nor where to put in my age and weight. 

The program was set for forty-five minutes, so for forty-five minutes I went, standing briefly every minute to ease my poor achy bum.  On the cycle's screen was a grassy slope with a path going through it, and the interval program time and resistance bar, again the slowest thing of my day, and the equally excruciating times to go, time elapsed. On the television screen, there was an episode of Hurricane Sandy, part of the "Eye of the Storm" series.  I was mildly interested in the people's misfortunes, and I guessed that everyone covered survived, as they were part of the program, telling again what the narrator had said immediately before, when actors portraying their younger selves were bobbing and screaming in the water.  I don't know if the ninety year old brother did or not.

I shouted out my countdown.  (I was the only on in the building at this point.) My cool down time of five minutes ended, and I saw on the screen that I had burned some 200 calories, rode 7.94 miles, and had an average heart rate of 112.  The story line on the television was following a different story, about a live wire in a tree, and that was when I turned off it off.

In the future, I'd rather watch this "Eye of the Storm":

https://youtu.be/H1mX8ptsmBM

(copy and paste--I haven't figured out how to get it to show up.  Can't show the images, either.  Bummer.)

For fun

Something I found on Facebook.

Days 81, 82, 83, 84: Cycling back

I've been doing yoga, and got the reward of increased flexibility. My work is very physical and the weather has been very hot, so I haven't been doing the thirty minutes.  However, my work shirt is getting looser, as are my pants.  When I put on one of my long sleeve tops, my arms slide in easily and the sleeves are loose.

Best of all, when my husband and I flew to Utah, I fit easily in the airplane seat.

The motel we were visiting had an exercise room and a swimming pool and hot tub.  The pool was usually full of families splashing around, so I went with the exercise room.

The cycle had a television screen, so the first day of thirty minutes plus the five of slow down, I watched a black and white episode of "The Rifleman," as I didn't know about the bowl full of packets of earbuds at the time.  I was glad for doing the cycling, as I did a lot of walking through IKEA, and I did fine. 

The next day, I had ear buds in, and watched the Weather Channel.  Barrow, Alaska and Death Valley, California were the featured stories. 

And then the next day, I went again, and thought, "I can do this."

Then we returned home.

So after work today, I went to the exercise room at the apartment complex.  The cycling machine was changed, and it lacked a back, so there went the relaxing-while-moving-my-knees element was gone.  I couldn't figure out how to get the screen to change over to one of the channels that was offered, so I looked at a photo of a dry clump of scenic grasses with the slowest timebar yet (where are the friendly little dots?) but I did get through the half hour and the cool down (photo of green watery glade), even though my rear hurt.  Looking at my body in the mirror, it looks like there should be some cushioning there, but sitting on that cycle, nope.