I’m feeling particularly fit today. Looking younger, too, if I’m any judge. Then I walk into the market and some punk stocking shelves calls me middle aged. He means no offense, and it’s true (I looked it up)—but this is a first for me, and it rankles. I consider calling him a slobbering infant, but think better of it. Instead, I go home and hit The Machine. Continue reading

Today’s workout has a different soundtrack. Or, I should say, an additional soundtrack so loud it all but drowns out the first. This one sounds like a 400-pound, waterboarded rodent: squeak-SQUEAK-squeak-SQUEAK-squeak-SQUEAK-squeak… It almost hurts my ears, and definitely grates on my nerves. Continue reading

Kind of settling into the faster-pace, shorter-time thing now. The more I don’t think about exercise and don’t check the time, the better I seem to do, pace-wise. When I feel my endurance fading, I try pedaling backward, figuring this will use different muscles. Continue reading

After 31 days—a mere 15 workouts—I’m down almost 7.5 pounds and 10 beats on my resting pulse rate. Which means I’m dropping about half a pound per workout, or about a quarter pound per day. And I’m not exactly starving myself. Coolness. This is turning out to be a lot easier than I thought it would be. Continue reading

Still have the lower back thing going, and a knee wonked up from moving furniture yesterday, but The Machine’s elliptical motion strains neither. One day soon, hopefully, I’ll be able to take my socks off with my hands instead of my feet, and resume those toe-touches (okay; attempted toe-touches) and warm-up / cool-down routines. Continue reading

Had a store-bought peach today (see tomorrow’s post on this), but it doesn’t seem to have the same effect. Maybe it’s the peach, maybe it’s the x-ray series. Have to try again later. Because my “speed” on the elliptical has been steadily rising, it’s also hard to gauge the x-rays’ lingering effects (if any): less time at greater speed doesn’t necessarily mean overall performance is declining. In fact, it could mean the opposite. (Though I still say the x-ray kicked the s@#$% out of my performance for a few days there.) Continue reading

Still feeling subpar while on The Machine, and still blaming it on the x-rays. But I manage to go a minute longer today, at a faster pace, so I’m headed in the right direction. And it occurs to me to wonder, given all this energy I’m expending, whether that big, fast-spinning wheel behind me might be used to generate electricity. Could be a whole new business model there. I resolve to do some quick research and see if anyone else has thought of this. Continue reading

I think it’s safe to say the x-rays had an effect, as today’s workout lasts a mere 12 minutes. True, I got too little sleep, and had no peach, but still—12 minutes? On the other hand, that’s 12 more minutes than I used to exercise each day, so perhaps I shouldn’t beat myself up. Continue reading

Had a peach yesterday, got distracted with an upcoming dentist’s appointment and forgot today. I must still have peach juice in my blood, though, because my recent 16-minute record now seems ancient history.

I run the clock up to 17 minutes before leaving The Machine—2 minutes less than my last 2 workouts but still quite respectable. Coincidence that I had no peaches today? I think not. Continue reading

I’ve always wanted to use the word redux, so there it is. I’ve always wanted to be fit, too, and peaches seem to be helping—so here I go again. Sans warm-up. (I like that word, too. Perhaps I was more French—and less fat—in a former life.) I have another two just-picked peaches, wait a few hours, and hit the pedals.

The Machine squeaks loudly today–really loudly, like there’s a chicken tied inside and I’m kicking it with each stride. Shakespeare’s ears twitch with each new squawk. To compensate, I crank the Heroic Soundtrack just short of plaster-peeling volume. Continue reading