Week at the Gym

Well this week I made a huge sacrifice, I joined the gym.  With rainy season coming up, and well not as much commitment as I hoped, I thought it was time.  The final straw?  All the evening traffic on my way home from work.  I have tried the wake up early route, but I hate waking up when it is dark, and well it feels a bit strange.  Post work:  well if it takes 45-60 minutes to get home, and an average workday ends at 5:40 or so....starvation mode would kick in when I got home, and it would be dark outside.  The solution, join a gym near work, get my exercise in straight from work, and go home for dinner.

So I started on Tuesday.  Here is my workout summary for the week:

Tuesday: 10 minutes elliptical, 10 minutes recumbant bike, 15 minutes treadmill, 15 minutes stationary bike, 15 minutes upper body weights, 5 minutes stretching.

Wednesday: 20 minutes treadmill, 15 minutes elliptical, 15 minutes recumbant bike.

Thursday: treadmill 5K in 55 minutes (average speed of 3.4 mph, 3 minutes of incline, intervrals from 2.7 mph to 4 mph).

Here is what I learned:

1.  The treadmill is boring for an hour: song choice is key
2.  My gym is empty after work (mostly)
3.  I need to learn about the weights
4.  I want to find some cool cardio workouts with intevrals to keep myself interested
5.  I was shocked that I walked at 3.4 mph, my last few outside walks have been closer to 2.8 mph -- with more hills.  My incline dose was at 3.4 mph
6.  I need more hills practice
7.  The elliptical trainer still kicks my butt

The goals:
1.  Go to the gym Monday-Thursday consistently. 
2.  Fit in 4-5 days of exercise per week.
3.  Add strength training sessions of 20 minutes 2x per week.  4.  Do at least 45 minutes of cardio per session. 
5.  Improve 5K walking times to 40 minutes (4.6 or 4.7 mph).  This sounds ambitious, but I hope to meet this goal in 3 months: requires 5% time increase per 2 weeks.
6.  Lose 15 pounds over 3 months