Feb'09- My running improves further

Well, the skepticism regarding the elliptical's figures got me thinking. I decided to take my treadmill workout in more serious fashion. It was as if, I turned on a switch. I was soon, able to run, 10 minutes continuously on the treadmill - and a total of 14 out of 20 minutes on the treadmill, I ran. My typical workout was -

3 minutes walk at 6 km/hour to warm up

10 minute run at 10 Km/hour

2 minute walk at 5.5 km/hour

2 minute run at 9.0 Km/ hour

1 minute walk at 5.5 Km / hour

2 minute run at 8.5 Km / hour

..and then cool off by walking for 2 minutes. This was then followed by a 25 minute workout on the elliptical and rounded off with the abs and back muscle exercises - 2 sets each of crunches, situps, leg raises and back workout.

This was in my books atleast, a big improvement from where I started in December. From a 1 Minute to a 10 minute continuous run (and a cumulative 14 minutes)

My smoking still continued at 6 cigarettes a day. Phillip, my instructor, kept telling me to quit it if I wanted to improve my cardio activity. I, however, was not even able to conceive how to quit. I was happy with myself in having persisted on my exercise schedule for 3 months. I was also quite disciplined regarding my food intake. I justified my smoking by telling myself that I could tolerate this - and in any case I had reduced.

The truth however, as every smoker knows, is that quitting is hard, and it has to be complete. There is nothing like a slow reduction of smoking and gradually quitting

Overall, Feb'09 was a good month for me. I was there at the gym 24 days out of 28. And continued with the same routine - alternating my days between cardio and weights. End of Feb'09, I weighed 92.5 kgs. In 3 months, I had lost 7.5 kgs.