Run baby Run

I have found the best treadmill workout.
I sort of learned to bond with the thing while training for the marathon, due to my silly leg, I couldn't run outside on the uneven roads. Which left a lot of quality time for me and the dear dreadmill.... But this is a way to make the time fly by!

Here is what you do.

And you can adjust the incline of the treadmill, the length of the intervals, and the speed, so you can make it fit whatever level you're at!

Here is what I did yesterday as an example.

I run a 10 minute warm up
Then set the treadmill to a 7% incline
Walk for 2 minutes around a 3.6 mph
Then run for 1.5 minutes around a 6.5 pace.
Then alternate between the walk and run for as long as you can last, or how much time you have.
I make sure I do the walk at the same speed, but the run gets a little faster every time.

I did it for a half hour (not including the warm up) because I didn't have much time. I ran a little over 3 miles and burned over 550 calories!! The calories come off much faster if you run intervals, especially on that incline!

It makes the time go fast because you're constantly changing what you're doing. And you get a walking break every 1.5 minutes! Who doesn't love a walking break?!

Everyone should try this. Seriously.

Just make the incline a 5 or 6
Or make your walk pace a 3 and run pace a 5. Or a 4 and 8 if you can kick my butt.
Etc.

Whatever you do, make sure you're really tired by the end of that 1.5 minute run, then you get 2 minutes to get yourself together and do it again!

It is definitely a way to make the treadmill bearable, especially as it gets colder!

Here are my goals this week. I've been sick this last week so it gave me just the excuse I needed to be a whimp... So i'm writing my goals out to make sure it doesn't happen again!

Monday: Run 4 total miles doing the workout above. Arms for 30 min.
Tuesday: Long run day...8 miles. Intramural football game.
Wednesday: Arms and Abs 1 hour. Intramural soccer game
Thursday: Whatever I am feeling...rest, weights, run. Let's be honest though...probably nothing.
Friday: 5 mile run. Arms for 30 min.
Saturday: 20 minute interval workouts my friend gave me (burpees, push-ups, sit-ups, squats)

Who knows how that will go, but at least it is an idea!

Lessons Learned

If you want the motivation to run 8 miles. Make that run end at Yogurtland.

Works like a charm.

And if you want to run that run faster. Put a real dark, ominous rain cloud over your head.

And if you want to catch a cold.

Do the aforementioned things.

Can't win em all I guess.

And if you get a call from an unknown number. Don't answer.

Because it might be your Stake President asking you to speak at Stake Conference on Sunday.

Like Jane Fonda

I survived my 8 miles! They were slow and a little bit sore from the race still, but I finished and that's all that matters.

Got my hair cut today, and like usual they make my hair look better than I ever can. So no way was I going to the gym to sweat it all away.

So I did these videos in my living room.

Everyone has twenty minutes to spare! So if you read this, get down and do these two videos! You won't regret it. 10 minutes of arms 8 minutes of abs. Short and sweet.

Here is the arms link. I only have 5 pound weights so when she says switch to the 3 I just keep my 5. It hurts, but it's the only option i've got. I'm sure a can of beans would work nicely though

http://www.fitsugar.com/10-Minute-Workout-Sexy-Sculpted-Arms-21620326

Here is 8 minute abs. You can thank me for the man in tights later.




Really, less than 20 minutes! Doing something is ALWAYS better than doing nothing!

And if you're feeling extra crazy, here is 8 minute buns. Pretty funny looking but totally hurts!





If anyone out there tries any of these let me know how they go!

Living in a world of contradiction

Contradictions.

Obviously life is always full of them. There are always things we want to do that oppose the things we should do.

But sometimes life seems more full of them than others.

This is definitely one of those times.

Everything I want seems to contradict another thing I want. There are few circumstances where I can have both, so I find myself with a lot of hard decisions on my plate.

Decisions that need to be made on a timeline. And I know that anytime I need to make decisions on a timeline, things go real wrong. If anything, I just shut down to the point where no decisions get made. But the deadlines still approach, the decisions do not go away, and I am left standing on their doorstep not knowing what i'm going to say until the exact second they open the door.

I'm like that at restaurants. I am always deciding between two things up until the very second the waiter asks me what I want. In the rush of the decisions I spit one out. In that scenario, I almost always spit out the wrong one.

Some things are too important to spit out the wrong answer. Luckily some aren't as influential like what I eat for dinner. But some have consequences lasting far beyond the next meal.

But for now, like usual, I will put the decisions off to the side and make one minor one now.

Homework vs gym.

Yesterday I picked homework.

Today I pick gym.

8 miles on the agenda today. Longest i've run since the marathon so we'll see how it goes!