worked out!

[Guest guest]

Today was the first "normal" schedule day I've had in a long time so I was able to work out without having to force myself to do it. The "normal" is in quotes because I did just start doing a meeting on Thursday afternoons today but the schedule is similar to my normal Wednesday so it is easy enough to adapt to it and get a good workout in. Anyway, I did 's 4 Really Big Miles for the first time (just got it yesterday in a trade on VF) and I LOVED it!! The music was mostly similar to other Walk Slim workouts and wasn't quite loud enough but that's a minor complaint. My only other complaint is that the camera angles were kind of weird sometimes. They'd focus on 's mid-section for no apparent reason (she wasn't talking about "tummy tucks" during knee lifts or anything) and sometimes it would be on feet and then switch to whole body. It just didn't seem, at times, planned well but it wasn't terribly distracting and the workout is so simple you don't need to be able to always see what they're doing. Again, very minor complaints, I loved the rest of it!

The first mile was a 15 minute mile but it felt faster and while all the movements were the same as her usual walks, the pace at which they changed seemed quick and you went from one higher intensity move (arms going up and down while fast walking in place) to another (right into knee lifts or something) without so much long amounts of walking without doing anything with arms in between. That made it seem to go faster and kept my heart rate up. Mile 2... I don't remember it but I think it was more of the same but faster (12 minute mile). Mile 3 had a few 1 minute jogging intervals (those are fun) and was only 10 minutes and Mile 4 had some different but not very memorable music and was good too. I think it was 15 minutes but had the cool-down as part of it. I somehow missed any cueing to say hey we're slowing down for the cool-down although the pace of the music changed... me not being very good on timing with music anyway, kept working out at a higher intensity, though I did feel like I was fighting the music a bit and wondered why, and had to cool down more in the stretch than I should have. Other notes: On Mile 2 Kay leads for probably half of it and, unlike the 2 Mile workout from Walk Slim, she has a microphone this time. Her cueing and instructions are very precise and she's friendly but in a much quieter way than . Speaking of quieter and , she doesn't talk hardly at all during Kay's time up front (in the 2 Mile workout she's constantly yapping in really silly way and driving me nuts). I did not recognize Kay for the longest time either. Her hair is a different color and she seemed much more subdued in this workout. Usually, I follow her because her movements are generally bigger and more enthusiastic but not in this one (not a complaint, just an observation). also has , JoAnn and Carol with her (though I don't think she hardly talks to or especially JoAnn at all which was a little strange) and her niece and niece's friend (from Walk Slim). There's also a guy (Steve?) in the back who I've never seen before. He was often going at a slightly different pace which I appreciated since I'm usually at a different pace! The entire workout is just under 60 minutes and I was able to keep my heart rate in my training zone for over 32 minutes of it, including the warm-up (it takes me about 10 minutes to get my heart rate into the training zone with her workouts too), cool-down and stretch. The stretch was longer than her usual ones, probably a full 5 or 6 minutes and she held the stretches longer. She was doing her own yoga thing in them too which made it interesting and more enjoyable. I burned about 315 calories, which for me is really good.

I got this AND Get Ripped & Chiseled for my 10 Minute Solution Pilates. I liked that one but reallllly wanted both of these so since the person was offering 2 for 1 (neither of these came in the original cases with the liners... the disks look authentic though...) I took it. I might end up regretting it but I have a lot of pilates stuff I'm not doing because I'm not sure I'm loving it yet and that one I definitely wasn't loving (but was definitely not disliking either). If I end up regretting it I'm sure I'll find something else to trade to get it back some other time.

Tomorrow I'm not planning on working out. I have to work at 7, grocery shop and then go work at the holiday shop at school from 12-3. If I get realllly motivated, I'll do something in the evening, but I doubt it. I'm looking forward to next week when my schedule is again, a little different (I just picked up a meeting Tuesday afternoons and I do one Tuesday mornings then have activities to take the kids to in the evenings so Tuesdsays are now official rest days for me) but overall much more open for working out again.

I hope everyone else is having good workouts today!