It’s now been four months since the Scientist and I joined the gym and it’s going pretty well right now. The Scientist has lost 15 kgs or more, I think, and is looking quite good these days. His blood pressure has dropped so much that he is hoping to reduce his medication dosage when he sees his doctor next time. My weight loss is only 5.6 kgs but I have lost quite a few centimeters around my waist and hips… I’m not quite sure where the weight has shifted but my clothes are fitting a lot better these days.

Early last month I was sick with what I assume was a flu and/or stomach bug and missed a couple days at the gym for the first time since we started. There simply was no choice as I had a fever and other flu symptoms…at the very least I didn’t want to spread the germs around. As it is, I suspect I picked whatever the bug was at the gym due to the failure of many members to clean the equipment. There are wipes provided for this but so few people use them. Anyway, missing those two days seemed to really throw off my routine and it’s been a struggle getting back into the swing of things over the past few weeks. Having holidays in the middle have also been disruptive even though we have continued to go six days a week. We even went on Christmas Day, which was reasonably crowded considering it was a holiday.

Despite the difficulties, I have managed to bring my weights workouts back to where I started and beyond. My shoulder isn’t 100% but it seems to be mostly okay now. I also started back to doing my rowing again, which I was missing while my shoulder was healing. The gym held a competition for fastest 1000 meter row last month and it motivated me to improve my 1000 meter times while doing intervals. I managed to get down to 4 minutes 35 seconds as a best personal time. I never competed officially but I think I got just behind the two fastest times for women and one of those was a trainer at the gym who is probably half my age. I think that’s pretty good for an almost 48 year old.

Anyway, I hit another hurdle near the end of the month where I just couldn’t keep up the rowing for any decent time, even when doing just 500 meter intervals. And just about every time I rowed, I started coughing a lot. I persisted and kept trying to reach that satisfied feeling after rowing but I found myself exhausted pretty much every time. I gave up trying to improve my 1000 meter times. But I did keep rowing most days and finally last week I found myself gasping for breath and having to stop even though I was rowing pretty slowly. I gave up the rowing and moved to my weights routine and eventually felt improved although I was tired out by the whole experience. To backtrack many years, I was treated for an asthma cough one bad spring and summer when my hayfever was quite bad. Later on I was told by a specialist it wasn’t asthma but reflux cough…not sure myself that it couldn’t have been both but it’s nothing I will quibble about as it’s possible to get an inhaler over the counter here. I haven’t had any issues for many years so all the puffers were out of date, aside from a prescribed one for Game Fanatic. I bought a new one the other day. I also pulled out a peak flow meter I’d bought all those years ago and found I was getting much lower readings than I’d had at my clearest before. I used some of the medication and it improved heaps so I took it with me to the gym the following day but didn’t end up using it. I didn’t feel great but I wasn’t gasping for breath either. The next day I tried using medication before I exercised and felt so much better for it. I was still having a bit of trouble keeping a normal breathing rhythm while rowing but my lungs were definitely clear.

Today I walked to the gym and I was quite warmed up by the time I got there. I also used the inhaler before I got there and my lungs were definitely clear. I usually do three or four 1000 meter intervals with two minute breaks between them (depending on whether it’s a cardio or weights day). Today was a weights day but I did 30 minutes on the rower with no break and felt okay after I finished. Then I did my weights routine which I reduced a bit due to the extra time I’d already spent rowing. And I felt really good after I finished for the first time in ages. I’m not totally sure,  but I suspect I’ve been having exercise induced asthma episodes. Something else to discuss with my doctor when I see her next…which should be soon as I am due for regular blood tests any time now. Tomorrow is my day off exercise but I’m really hoping to have another good workout on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, my knee is still making slow progress. I think I’m probably around 85-90% of where I’d like to be and it’s just taking a long time to progress any further. The progress is mostly showing on the stairs…going up is a lot faster although not exactly the smoothest movement. Going down is still slow but I think I am better than a couple months ago. My knee still gives way, sometimes several times a day and sometimes a lot less often. I’ve resolved to start doing squats again as that’s the one exercise I have been really bad about doing as they are quite difficult…so I have avoided them. Maybe it will be the key to reaching my goal…