they are fixing some problem areas in the walkways today. this means that on and off all day we have been listening to the drilling, chiseling, and hammering of concrete. the concrete between floors and metal studs in the wall are all reverberating with horribly loud and annoying sounds. the furniture is vibrating and my head is throbbing (alright, this is probably partially blamed on the stair climbing but the noise and vibration of the floor, ceiling, and walls is the bigger villain, methinks). i’m really hoping that they finish fixing at least our floor and the ones above and below us today. i think i’ll jump off the balcony if i have to listen to this all day tomorrow too.
today’s cardio was all walking but it was the most exhausting and excruciating 45 minutes i’ve ever had. i only walked but i walked the stairs. i walked down the east stairs and up the west stairs. for 45 minutes. i’m so done. let’s see if i can calculate my steps.
– 22
+ 24
– 24
+ 24
– 2
+ 2
– 2
+ 2
– 5
+ 5
– 2
carry the one, that’s 57 flights down and 57 flights up for a grand total of 2057 steps. i had to leave the stairwells a few times for a cool-down lap across the building but i stayed in motion the whole time. i’m pretty certain i had at least two coronaries and sweat a gallon and a half. you can see that the last few laps were small, cool-down laps around the top floors of the building (stay close to home in case you die). i’d like to get to the point that walking up the full twenty-four doesn’t kill me. after six or seven flights i am gasping like crazy and my heart is pounding out of my chest. it’s good cardio though and good for my legs so i might try to keep at it and build up my endurance for it. maybe one day i can throw in a third lap of the full building.
other than some fairly impressive waves (the gulf came all the way up to our beach access walkway) and a stronger-than-normal breeze, gustav didn’t touch us. we stayed under tropical storm watch all weekend but all we got was clouds – no rain, no lightening, no severe wind. it really made for a nice labor day weekend. my only regret is that we were going to get out and ‘yak saturday afternoon while the water was still nice and calm but the waves started earlier than we expected. friday and saturday nights we went out to our favorite hangout and hungout till 2 or 3 in the mornings. yesterday, i started the new month by getting back in the gym. i did all weights, no cardio but then we got changed and walked down to our favorite shopping plaza and walked around so that was sort of like light cardio, right? i think my plan right now is to try to do weights three times a week and cardio twice. today will be some sort of cardio day. we’ll see how things work out.