Update, etc.

This week was super busy...from going out of town for my Grandma's funeral, and returning home mid-week and playing catch-up.

Yesterday, I was surprised when someone gave me a drum set!!!! It needs a little TLC, but with a bit of care, it will be better than the one I play in the band! Now I can practice, without having to leave home!!! I also brought my electric guitar amp home (finally)...so maybe I'll get back to practicing that thing, too! (I had wrist surgery-- screws and a metal plate put in...Aug. '08...) I feel bad for letting it go so long!!! I've only played guitar on 1 or 2 weeks in the band since then.

I still have managed to avoid the temptation of getting on a scale...almost 3 weeks now?!!?? I thought I must surely be gaining weight,--I definitely feel much fatter-- but this morning, I put on some workout pants that were tight in Feb., and they fit!!!

On the overtraining issues...continued...

I worked out with a personal trainer-in-training yesterday. I've been tracking my workouts and also how it feels afterwards. This feels like such a set-back, but I know it is better in the long run. I need to focus on being healthy, rather than obsessing over the scale.

To answer R Harlow B's question...historically, maybe up to 5 hours per day. Recently, it seemed to be 2-3 hours per day-ish, at what I considered to be about 75% of my max intensity level, mostly all cardio, without enough 'real' muscle training to support it. (Weight training up to that point was 25-rep sets in low, low weight settings--maybe 6 sets per day.) I tried to do 6 days per week, but average was probably 5. Some days were 2 workouts, though...so maybe 7-8 workouts per week or so???

I had spent 6 months starving (very little food, sometimes days without any food whatsoever) my body to underweight and lax abuse, followed by about 18 months of fattening it up with JUNK, with nearly no exercise whatsoever, followed by 2 or 3 months of 'starving' again (about 300-500 calories per day), for a quickie 20 lb. weight loss. Add to that the gradually-building obsessive-compulsive 2-3 hour cardio workouts to a body in need of nutrition and weight training--and trying to all of a sudden run 'distance'...without proper nourishment, etc...

There are a lot of factors that come into play as to how much working out a body can take. It varies greatly from person to person, and situation to situation. If you take care of your body, you can do long, hard workouts without compromising quality. Under 'normal' circumstances, I could always do several hours per day, without much soreness. It was during the month of Feb. that I obviously began 'hitting a wall', physically--and had I not been trying to train for a race, or started this blog, I would never have noticed the combination of factors taking place.

February was not a good month, in so many ways. I was 'binging' (probably my body's way of telling me it was depleted and struggling), with virtually no weight loss, and no noticeable fitness gains, although I was trying to increase my running distances.

So...I hope that answers your question.