Sweat

Today is probably going to be the last quiet day at the gym for the next two or three months.  With that in mind, I made the most of it and headed there early to get it out of the way.  I was right.  The place was a ghost town.  I picked out my favorite elliptical and got right to work.  After all, I had the damage of a New Year's Eve wedding to work off before my first official weigh in of 2011.  I tried to behave myself last night, and for the most part I did.  Well, until dessert time.  Not only was there a huge selection of cupcakes (in lieu of wedding cake), but the groom's grandmother supplied an entire buffet of pastries and cookies.  Needless to say, I screwed myself over pretty late last night.  So this morning it was important to work a little of it off.  I generally do an hour and then a ten minute cool down.  Two minutes into my cool down this morning, I feel a loud snap and then a lot of rattling. My damn machine broke!  I guess I don't know my own strength.  I alerted the woman on duty and then hopped on to another machine to finish up my workout.  I went a few minutes above my plan, but that's okay.  So listen up, 2012.  Don't give me any shit or what happened to the elliptical is going to happen to you, too!

I love tracking things and keeping stats.  This year, my love of that is what helped propel me through every single workout I accomplished.  I tracked every workout I did in the iMapMyRide app on my phone, like a freak.  The initial goal I set for myself to accomplish was to travel 1,200 miles in 2011.  I thought it was a lofty goal when I set it, but I soon realized it was too low.  I hit my goal in early June.  I then challenged myself to do 2,400 miles for the year, which I also accomplished.  I was hoping to hit 3,600 miles by the end of the year, but I fell just short.  August and September were hard months for me to get a chance to workout.  I traveled to Texas in August and spent as much time with Mom as I could in September.  I worked out more days inJune than I did in August and September combined.

I just added up my mileage and calories for the year and I'm quite impressed with myself.  And I have every right to be.  I wore myself out.  

Of the 365 days in the year, I managed to sweat my ass off 257 of those days.

I logged in 1,702.33 miles on the elliptical

I logged in 1,533.31 miles on the bike

I logged in 53.18 miles on the treadmill

I logged in 23.78 miles walking outside.

That's a total of 3,312.60 miles for the year.  As for approximate number of calories burned, that would be 252,909.

Now that 2011 is behind us, I can put this challenge behind me, too.  I focused almost exclusively on mileage.  I need to expand my workouts to include building muscle.  I have little to no upper body strength and I'm sick of it.  I'm a little intimidated by using the weight machines, mostly because I've never really used them before.  After a few rounds with them, I should feel a little better (and a lot sorer.)