Weight, weight, don't tell me...

Precor AMT-- Adaptive Motion Trainer http://www.precor.com/comm/en/amt/amt100i/

This is a tough time of year to try and not gain weight, let alone lose any. I haven't ridden my bike to work but 2 or 3 days this year so I am having to rely on exercise in the gym. Thank goodness for the AMT. I am finding my 3 times a week 30-40 minutes on this machine to be a pleasure and not exacting a toll on my knees. I can crank out, get my heart above 160 yet not stress my knees. I can get my heart rate that high on the treadmill with when I have it on a steep incline, but it is not nearly as comfortable of an experience as the AMT and sure enough, when I get excited and crank up the speed, I take it in the knees. I pretty much am now saving my self for running long outside. Of course nothing beats a nice long run in the out of doors, the time passes so quickly and pleasurably. But the day to day exercise routine for me has been compromised by my eroded meniscus and swollen stiff knees really do affect my whole outlook. My current routine is to do Pilates mat class for an hour then 30 min on the AMT twice a week, and on the 3rd day I do a shorter mat workout, some sun salutations, push ups, hand stands and then do 40 min on the AMT. I guess this is working. I have been under 210 since September. I got to my all time low post 20s weight-- 204 as my training peaked for the Denver marathon in October. Post marathon and when I stopped riding every day, the holidays were upon me and I started to gain some weight back. As I started to creep towards 210 I would have a good week and drop down again, hovering about 207. I hit a few days at 211, but managed to keep below 210. Since the new session of Pilates started and I graduated to the intermediate class on Tues-Thursdays, I have rededicated myself to the p-diet and in a matter of two weeks I am now back down to 204. A few days of low-carb induction, then a return to sensible eating, combined with the AMT cardio and I am back on track. I really want to start weight training again, but I decided to see if I can get under 200 first. My experience in the past with lifting weights is that I gain weight from the increase muscle mass. My goal to reach 185 by May 21st will benefit from lifting, but more so, when I attempt my to return to triathlon this summer, I will definitely be aided by improved upper body strength. I discovered that losing 20+ pounds makes doing push ups a lot easier, and I can now do handstands quite easily. I suppose I could get all the upper body toning I need from push ups, but really hate to see my baggy triceps when I hold my arms horizontally during Pilates class.

The AMT routines I've tried recently are 1) intervals and 2) pyramids. For intervals I did 2 minutes for each resistance, and did 1-5-1-10-5-15-10-20-15-20-10-15-5-10-1. For pyramid I did 3 minutes each 1-5-10-15-20-15-10-5-1 then 1 minute each 20-1-20-1, and brought my heart rate back down at 1. I was able to achieve 165 bpm max on the pyramid and sustained 140+ for the whole workout. It made it interesting and I sweat like a pig so I believe it was working. The interval seemed less intense. Both burned 450 calories and covered 2.8 miles.

I bought some new tires for my bike on Sunday-- Continental top touring 2000. I bought some 37's which will help my inclement and adverse commute. When I start riding long I am going to get some road tires- perhaps some 25's. Now, there is nothing stopping me from riding, weather be damned! did I mention it was a high of 7 degrees today and its going to be colder tomorrow? hmmmmm. At least its not snowing.