Judebert

It's not all that bad a cold, but all exercise is hereby curtailed until I no longer require Sudafed to function.

That is all.

Judebert

I've been keeping up with my exercise, but I haven't been weighing myself any more. It's just not worth the heartache.

My 75-second run interval has been working out well for me. Halfway through my run, I still feel like I've barely gotten started. I'm still happy when it's over, though. Why would anyone do this for pleasure?!?

I've been ignoring the Wii almost altogether. There have been too many interruptions and alternative exercises as I prepared the kids for school. Maybe I'll pick it up again later. Meanwhile, I'm running two to four times a week.

Yesterday's run was interrupted after only 1K or so: my eldest daughter had boarded the wrong bus. I had to stay home to make sure all three daughters got to school on time. I made it up by running today.

Then I climbed stairs, donated blood, and climbed stairs again. That last flight was a killer. I'm going to go sit down for a bit...

Judebert

I let Wii Fit weight me last week. It had the temerity to insist that I had gained two pounds! All this running, and I gained weight? Stupid board. Stupid body. I'm trying to turn it into motivation for enhancing my workouts.

I've found a nice, slow pace that I can keep up without feeling like I'm about to collapse. So the next step is to actually keep it up without collapsing. I increased my running interval to 75 seconds, keeping my rest interval at 60 seconds. It was a pain to enter into TikTok on my Treo, and I still need to stop and restart all the timers partway through my run. Perhaps there a newer version that would make the job a little easier.

This morning's extended run did seem to take a little more out of me, although perhaps that was just the result of working so long yesterday. I was hotter and sweatier than usual, but I didn't get dizzy, and I wasn't gasping when I got home. That's pretty much the result I was looking for.

Active only has two upper-body workouts, and I've moved to the harder of the two. I think I need a stronger elastic band, because the exercises just aren't challenging enough. Perhaps they have some different exercises among the sports workouts. Then I could make a custom workout with more interesting stuff.

I think I'll give the Wii Fit another shot at depressing me at the end of this week.

Judebert

I've kept pretty close to my intended schedule, despite an incipient sinus infection. My only deviation last week was skipping my Friday run. Why? Because Active is trying to kill me.

On Tuesday I was tired with the upper-body workout bundled with Active, so I chose a sports workout just for fun. It was pretty rough, particularly when they wanted me to squat and jump for roller blading. All in all, it was mostly a leg workout, with a little balance thrown in. The side lunges were particularly finicky.

On Wednesday I felt fine and took my normal run. On Thursday, my legs were killing me, particularly the inner thighs (I think that was a result of the side lunges), so I did the upper-body workout again.

On Friday, my legs still felt terribly sore, so I decided to eschew my run.

Lesson learned: Active workouts leave you fine the next day, but sore for the next few days. From now on, I'll do upper-body on Tuesdays and other workouts on Thursdays. That way I can run on Friday and recuperate over the weekend.

Judebert

This morning I went out to run, despite the rain. It was an interesting experience. The rain soaked my shirt more thoroughly than usual, making it about 5 pounds heavier. Of course, it also helped keep me cool, so I felt as though I could exercise longer. In the end, I finally cut the run short halfway through because my feet were getting soaked, and I didn't want to wind up with blisters. The warm shower afterwards was particularly nice.

My Wii was returned last week, so I've managed to work out with Active once. I did the upper-body workout. It seemed pretty easy at the time, but my shoulders, neck, and arms were sore for days.

I was surprised to find that Active doesn't have any abdominal workouts. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough. All in all, I have to say that Active is a step up from Wii Fit, especially in terms of effort, but also in polish. It keeps the workout moving much more effectively, without all the breaks. Its user interface is a little harder to figure out, but at least you're not trying to do that in the middle of exercising, so you've got time to work on it.

Its bad points are a reliance on lunges and other lower-body exercises, the inability to skip exercises, and the lack of any abdominal workout. Additionally, the Wii just isn't designed for us big folks! Lateral Shoulder Raises are an exercise in futility, as I regularly wind up jerking the nunchuk cord on the lift. The elastic band stretches to its extremes when I lift it over my head, and that causes it to grab and twist my skin painfully. And the Active program itself just doesn't understand how far down I'm really squatting.

Still, using it for a lower-body workout is probably a useful alternative to running in the rain.

Anybody got a nunchuk extension cord?