That heart monitor is off, and I am very happy. Now, I just wait for the results and hope they are okay.
Tonight I had drinks with Former Coworker Abby. I really miss our Twitter meetings. We used to discuss Official Woman’s Day Twitter business for about 5 minutes and blogs for another 25 minutes. Now, we just meet up and talk about blogs with no pretense of Twitter meetings.
So about that new trainer of mine.
See the lovely lady who isn’t me, Tina or Anne? That’s Jaz, my new trainer.
I’ve taken a bunch of her classes in the past, and I just love her upbeat attitude and how her classes go by so quickly. I struggled some last year with runner’s knee and I’ve had some recurring lower back pain for awhile. I know the lower back pain is due to my weak core, and a few months ago Jess suggested I work with a trainer to figure out how to put an end to it.
Jaz is awesome, her rates are incredibly reasonable for half-hour sessions and her studio is very close to my apartment, so I decided to work with her.
Either that’s a terrible picture of me or I’ve lost weight since then (both?), but my goal really and truly isn’t to lose weight–not right now. I want to have a strong core that can carry me 26.2 miles in less than 4 hours, a lower back that doesn’t hurt, and some other buff muscles.
Jaz works a lot with TRX and kettlebells. I’m going to try to pay much more attention to the exercises we do than I did with trainers in the past so I can maybe one day be confident in a weight-room setting by myself instead of resorting to classes to get strength training in.
How do you get strength training in? Have you ever worked with a trainer?
Yesterday: session with my new trainer (more on that in another post), 4 miles, three-hour new business pitch at work with a client whom I would really enjoy working with, communications training to the approximately 100 Junior League co-chairs, followed by another Junior League meeting. In case you’re counting, that’s two rounds of public speaking in one day. I didn’t pass out, so I consider both sessions a win.
Today, I had a follow-up appointment at the cardiologist’s. My heart murmured sweet nothings to him, too, last week, so he insisted on an echocardiogram today, or, as the nurse/technician lady so helpfully told me, “It’s a sonogram, like what they use on pregnant ladies.” I hoped there were no secret babies hiding in my heart.
This is not actually the echocardiogram machine, but Like They Use on Pregnant Ladies lady didn’t seem like she’d be too happy with me taking a picture, so I took a picture of the EKG machine instead. I had an EKG last week, too, so this is relevant to this post now.
Then, they covered my chest in electrodes and hooked me up to a heart monitor. But not one of those fun Polar monitors that tells you your heart rate and how many calories you’ve burned. No, this one will hopefully say “just kidding! She’s just fine!” I should also add that this wasn’t the shirt I was wearing to work today. Nope, I was the girl wearing a fairly sheer white blouse over a sea of black wires, because I know how to keep things classy.
I’m hooked up to five electrodes all over my chest, and sitting at my desk today, every time I slouched, they got really uncomfortable rubbing against me. As did the actual monitor.
I was really annoyed by the electrodes and the monitor and whined to any of my coworkers who would listen–until I whined to a coworker who has diabetes and has to wear a similar sized device everyday to moderate her insulin. I only have to wear this for twenty-four (annoying) hours. That totally put things in perspective and made me realize how lucky I am to have my health and that I am taking care of it.
They want to track a normal day for me, so I was allowed to exercise. Knowing that they wanted to also track my exercise, I slept in this morning and left my run for tonight. My plan called for seven, but it was getting dark when i started, so I did five to get home before it was totally dark. All I wanted to do was forget worrying about this (while I’m thinking and hoping it’s nothing to worry about, I’d be lying if I said I weren’t a little worried), so I went for a nice tempo run. One mile warm-up, three miles tempo effort, one mile cool-down. I was aiming for 10K pace (8:22) for the tempo miles, but I didn’t look at my watch and just ran. 8:17, 8:12, 7:58. I think I sweat all the worry out.
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Do you remember when I went to the BrunchCritic launch last year? I just found out that they’re starting a Brunch Critic Buns ‘n’ Biscuits boot camp and brunch series. As you all know, I love a good brunch as much as I love a good workout, so this sounds like so much fun. Unfortunately, I’ll be out of town, but if you’re around, they’re having events on both Aug. 18 and Aug. 25. If you go, please have a mimosa for me.
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EDITED TO ADD: I forgot to draw my Physique winner originally.
Thanks to everyone for your feedback and entries, but Becky, you are the winner! Can you please email me at theodora AT losingweightinthecity.com with your mailing address and phone number?
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This is just a little bump to show me to not take my health for granted. What reminds you to not take your health for granted?
