A new personal best!

Yesterday I really had to force myself to the gym. I'm having an awful time at work lately (I could start a new blog just on that!) and have been totally stressed out. I'm talking about the "my colleagues won't look me in the eye as we walk past one another because I could spew fire our of my pupils at any given moment" type of stressed. I came home with a headache and just did not feel like working out. I actually told Marco I wasn't going to go. I popped a couple Ibuprofen and we hung out for a little bit discussing my rotten day. After half hour or so started dinner and settled in for a long relaxing evening home.

Marco was hell bent on getting to the gym with or without me (good for him!). He changed into his workout clothes right after supper and was putting on his shoes when I had a change of heart. I still wasn't 100% sure I wanted to go but I asked him to give me 2 episodes of Friends to see if I felt any better and if so I'd go with him. Those must have been some magic words for my body because after the first half of the first episode and half a commercial break I already knew I was going.

We did our weights together again. I've really been pushing myself with the weights and it just makes me feel like such a bad ass. It's so silly because to look at me, I'm still this 241 pound woman, hardly a bad ass but on the inside I feel freaking fantastic like I could conquer the world. I think lifting heavy is a great stress reliever too because after a few machines I quit thinking about work altogether.

As I was doing my quad exercises I asked Marco if we could skip the cardio. Naturally he said no but it was worth a shot right? I can lift forever but cardio is just hard for me to get motivated to do.

We hopped on the elliptical and ellipticalled away (I guess that's what you do on an elliptical machine). Marco has been really pushing himself on the cardio and has really been breaking some personal bests recently. Being ever so slightly competitive I decided it was time for me to break a personal best of my own. I cranked up the music and found a spot to focus on on the wall and ellipticalled away (I find that if I watch TV I tend to work out at a slower pace than if I don't watch TV and concentrate on what I'm doing, hence the picking a spot on the wall to focus on).

I pushed myself into doing 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) in 30 minutes (plus a 5 minute cool down)! I've done over 6 kilometers before but it was in a 45 minute time span. When I was done my legs were shaking like jello but I felt fan-freaking-tastic.

There is one thing that I'm not sure of though. I usually use a hill mode on the machine on a level 13 and go about 4 kilometers (2.48 miles) in 30 minutes plus cool down. This time I did a manual level, so no hills, on level 8 and did 6 kilometers. What I am unsure of is which workout is better for me, a harder level and not going as far or an easier level (not easy, just easier than I usually do, let's keep that straight) and going quite a bit further? I think there are several schools of thought on this and who knows, maybe there is no right or wrong answer. Both workouts hurt in the good way and both workouts get my the heart rate up there, so does that mean they're equal? Maybe a combination of the two would be best?

I'll probably never have the "right" answer to those questions and that's okay with me. I'm too busy doing the happy dance for my workout to care.