Tuesday on the Treadmill (Day 219)

Today began with a ten mile ride on the spin bike after breakfast. Next was a post ride protein shake, then time to get ready for the gym. I ended up arriving at the gym later than expected (so I could meet Kim during her lunch break) so I was a little hungry by the time I started on the treadmill. I began with 10 minutes walking at an incline, followed by a 20 minute set of intervals. 1 minute @ 6mph, 1 @ 7mph, and 1 @ 8mph, then start over back at 6 again. Once I finished the interval set Kim had arrived, warmed up, and started her C25K workout. I joined her in the interval portion of her routine (running at 6mph for 1 minute, then walking at 4mph for 1 minute, then repeating) for 10 minutes, then I increased the speed to 7 & 4 for the next 10 minutes. After the cardio portion of the workout was over, Kim caught up with a quick little leg workout as I trained shoulders. 3 sets of machine military presses, 3 sets of side lateral raises (dumbbells), and finally 3 sets of upright rows. I wanted to do one more exercise, but I could tell I was spent and needed to eat.

Once back home I had a chicken breast and a double serving of designer protein (with much less water today, yesterday I made it way to weak) with a little Nestle's Quik. Pretty good protein shake. Kinda tasted like college!

The rest of the day I spent grilling chicken to have over the next few days, washing clothes, tending to the herd of dogs, etc. Fun stuff. I'm putting off preparing for an upcoming insurance audit. I'd rather have a root canal.

Anyway, on the day I had 2300-2500 calories and burned around 4000. Decent deficit for the day. Looking back at when I started NS I was training about 25 minutes per day and walking slowly uphill on the treadmill for about 30 minutes per day. I wasn't hungry at that point. Now, with a minimum of 1.5 hours (and usually more) of cardio daily, plus a workout, I'm staying hungry if I don't hit around 2000 calories. I looked back at a time where I was hungry every night and now it's obvious this was the time when I had kicked up my cardio to around an hour a day and was still taking in 1500-1800 calories. I could get by, but I was staying hungry. Even with the amount I took in today, I was still a little hungry late in the day. I've been adding protein shakes, and actual meals instead of trying to snack my way through the evening. Sometimes a PB sandwich (well, 1/2 of one anyway) or a bowl of cereal if I don't have a shake. Now that I've got lots of chicken grilled up, I may try a chicken breast post dinner, or even put it on a slice of bread and have a sandwich. Yum!

The rain has ended here and hopefully it'll be dry enough for me to run around the lake tomorrow. I need to keep training on real terrain along with the treadmill. We did walk about a mile this evening, but Kim needed to get some more work finished up so we cut the walk short.

Tomorrow is Belle's (our Pug) Birthday. She'll be 3. Pic of the birthday girl below....