Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Broken Bikes, a Headache, Allergies, and a Local Bus

It's been one of those days, and it's not even noon!

First, woke up at 4:50am with Woody for the gym. It was 40* outside. Got to the gym, two of the three (non-spinning) bikes were broken, the other was occupied. While my heel is starting to feel a little better, my cardio options are still limited. I tried the one open spinning bike, but the TV wasn't working and 5 minutes into the ride I realized the mileage counter wasn't working. What's with that? Adding a few miles on the elliptical to my cardio routine is one of the items on my 'healthy to-do list' for the week, so I decided to try that. I kept looking to see if the bike was opening up. It did, and another woman jumped on before I could get off the elliptical! I ended up doing 3.5 miles on the elliptical. My legs were feeling pretty good, but it wasn't very comfortable for my heel so I decided to keep it relatively short and do some crunches while I waited for the bike to open. By this time, my headache had begun. I'm completely congested because of these annoying allergies that are worse this year than usual.

With one eye on the bike I wanted, I did a short dumb bell workout and a few planks. Time was starting to run short if I wanted to get more cardio in, so I decided to use the recumbant bike that was free. As I wiped it down (I do not trust that the last person who used a machine actually wiped it off) the woman started slowing down and got off the bike! Finally!! I grabbed my stuff and was waiting as she cleaned it off (thank you!). For some reason, when I first got on the bike though, it wouldn't start! Of course! Just my luck! So, after a minute, I tried again and the lights lit up! Whew! So, my bike ride was finally under way and I got in 13.25 miles. Afterwards, I did a bit of stretching, crunches, and used the foam roller. My workout definitely took a lot longer than it should have today and I did not get in nearly as much strength training as I wanted, but I did get it done.

After my workout I went down to the farmers market at Union Square to get a few things. You can definitely tell it is Spring, the market was busy! A lot of vendors are back for the season and there was a lot to choose from! I wish I could have bought more, but I limited my items to: asparagus, sweet potatoes and apples. In addition to our weekly staples, at Trader Joe's I picked up wild salmon, all natural sweet Italian style chicken sausages, a red pepper, eggplant, and garlic spread and a bag of brown rice medley. I have a few good dinners planned for the rest of the week, including one for my Birthday! On my way home I learned once and for all that I should always wait for a limited bus when I'm that far downtown. I had just missed one and figured it would be a while before the next one came, so I got on a local. BIG mistake.

Let's back up a minute to last week. I made a few things I want to share with you. First, was this really easy and tasty 'slaw.' Just a few ingredients: pre-cut cabbage, red, yellow, and orange peppers, and carrots (all thinly sliced using a peeler) and a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and pepper. Super easy and really delicious.
We used it three ways. Here, cut a mini pita in half, spread hummus on the sides and then stuffed with the slaw and a little bit of feta cheese.
Woody topped some grilled chicken with the slaw for dinner while I used it here under the asaparagus that I baked in the oven with extra virgin olive oil and pepper wrapped in foil. I cut up a few purple potatoes, put them on foil with evoo and garlic, wrapped that up and threw it in the oven too. The oven was on double duty that night! Both the potatoes and asparagus can be in at the same time, but potatoes definitely need to go in before the asparagus.

How do you deal with a gym workout that doesn't go as you had planned?

One more plug for the GOTRM event tonight from 6-8pm at Lugo Caffe (1 Penn Plaza). Hope to see you there!
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Workout Stats -
13.25mi bike
3.5mi elliptical
3x10 front arm raise
3x10 overhead tricep extension
75 crunches
2x35sec planks
stretching and foam roller

5 comments:

Sanura said...

Ahhh, determination wins! Yesterday was problematic for me, too. The goal is to wake up running, but the boyfriend woke up cleaning the house. So, I had to pitch in to help. Finally, when I made it outside around 4 p.m., the first few minutes was a blur because of the pollen getting in my eyes. It's still in my eyes as I write this and there's another run scheduled for this evening.

Robyn said...

My old gym used to have just 1, 1!, eliptical with the arm parts that swing too. I would eye that thing my entire workout. Glad you finally got on the bike. I still need to go to the farmer's market when I can actually buy stuff b/c your goodies always sound great.

Kelly @ Healthy Living With Kelly said...

The best part about working out of a gym is a KEY! My husband and I always go workout before the gym opens on the weekends...it is so nice to have the whole place to ourselves! I leave the lights off and run in the dark...so relaxing!

Thomas Tan said...

I resort to either the '300' or 'Spartacus' workout whenever my gym workout didn't go as I had planned. The great thing about these workouts are that you can do them at home and you only need a set of dumbbells. I love the Spartacus regimen because it is an intense cardio workout and not time consuming. When I through with them, my legs are usually trashed!

Kruns2 said...

That's funny. I never trust that the last person on the bike has wiped it down either unless I saw them. I see way to many people that hop off with butt-sweat and go on their merry way. :)

Thanks for the cole-slaw idea. I'm all for healthy but I gotta have it simple as well. Luv it!