I haven't been slacking off. In fact, today (Monday) is my first off-day in four days. It's just that on Saturday I went to our apartment complex fitness center and lifted weights for the first time in years. I did the same thing yesterday and am pretty sore today-especially back and biceps. Not my chest so much--I think I was in pretty good shape from all those push-ups.

Plus, what they have is a Smith machine, and even back when I lifted weights regularly I never did like them for bench press work--thought they were kind of gimmicky--you think you have 150 pounds on there, but the machine helps out so much that you're likely lifting 20% less. But it went well, and I even enjoyed tossing around the barbells again--never thought I would see the day.

What I'm really going to focus on down there are the elliptical machines. Again, this is another piece of equipment that I always thought was more gimmick than reality. But I'm willing to give it a try--as noted, I've been busting my hump on my cycle for five months, and I really can't see any noticeable difference.

I did a 40 minute session on the elliptical and at the 30 minute mark, I was actually ahead in calories burned than at the same point riding. And for the 40 minutes (plus 5 minute cooldown), I burned 560.1 calories. I guess it's because you nominally use the upper body--which means more calories burned--it makes sense.

So I think for the next three months or so, I'm going to stress elliptical, with a split-routine using the Smith and dumb bells (and chinning machine) they have down there. I'll try to make a progress report each week.