My Favorite Abs & a Snazzy Bike

The bike kept making me laugh because it would scroll across the screen and tell me to “ease back into a relaxed state.” What?! No cardio machine is supposed to tell you to relax, lol, that is not my idea of an interval! I wish I could take actual spin classes, but the schedules at both my gyms always have them super early in the am when I don’t have any childcare options.

Day 5 Ironman Prep

I am tired. I had five or so more interesting things to ramble about earlier in the day, but I’ve forgotten what they were, haha. You probably believe me about being tired now =)

The usual took place this morning: 30 min of elliptical plus some abs (3 sets each shoulder crunches and medicine ball side twists). I hit The Rec at 2 pm for a full chest session with a splash of shoulders and 5 sets of weighted crunches to failure at the end. I wasn’t sure what specific weighted crunch I was supposed to be doing as there are about bazillion variations on that one, so I went with weighted decline bench crunches with a 10 lb plate. I’ve been a fan of these for a while now; they’re tough, but you get results. I had sore abs this morning already from my daily 10 minute morning sessions so I expect it will feel more pronounced tomorrow. My calves are doing that thing where you walk and they sort of tighten, almost like a cramp, with each step, especially downstairs. I even have lines of muscle soreness running down my forearms which is not typical for me. I’m pleased with all this; it means progress =)

My favorite abs:



I was supposed to do 20 minutes of cardio on a bike after my weights so I chose this snazzy teched out spinning bike. It had a cool feature where you can plug in your iPod and it will create a workout to the rhythm of your music. I tried, but the plug in for my headphones wasn’t producing sound (or likely I just didn’t know what I was doing ;) I went with an interval program on it instead. I’m really not a bike fan, but by the end I was entertained enough that I’ll try it again. My top 3 preferred cardio machines are ellipticals, AMTs, and stepmills. I think I’m going to have my 6th mini meal and go to bed. I’ve been not getting to sleep till 11:30ish the last few nights, but still getting up by 6:15 for am cardio and it’s catching up to me. I really need a solid 8 hours when I’m training. Night!