Monday, March 3, 2008

A Better Attitude...

Well I read Mique's post last night and I felt bad for being such a whiner. I woke up today with a much better attitude about all of this business. I have a friend who is trying to get back into working out so we decided we would switch babies to go to the gym Mon, Wed and Fridays. That will let me do a little weight lifting and cross training and justify my monthly gym dues to hubby. It will also give me one day on the treadmill to work on my pace.

I was worried about getting bored on the treadmill today and I was nervous since I'd had such a hard time last week. I usually just run on "manual" on the treadmill but I decided to get crazy today and chose "random" so the incline would randomly increase or decrease over time. I only put it on level "3" though so I never went on a very high incline and that was fine by me. I decided my goal was to try to stay in the 11 min mile range and never go below 12 min miles. I also decided that to head off the dreaded 30 min turn off on the treadmill I would re-start it after 2 miles. I felt great today! I tried to do what they call "reverse splits" that is where you run slower at the beginning and pick it up at the end. I ran slower at first and then when I restarted at the 2 mile mark I tried to pick up the pace. I ran as fast as 10:30 min miles and as slow as 12 but I did stay mostly in the 11:30 range. I think I finished in 46 min which I thought was pretty good. My ipod time was even less but I am wondering if I didn't start it right away or something.
I didn't sing out loud (there were quite a few people in the gym) but I did plenty of head bopping, air drumming and mouthing the words with a lot of passion. I kind of feel like the old man on the treadmill next to me was staying on his just to watch me because he got off right after I did. Oh well, if I can provide someone's entertainment for the day that's great!

It is interesting that you don't like the miles thing Jessica because I personally love it! I hated getting to the last five minutes of my run and know that even if I sprinted all the way home I would still not be done! When I got to the last .2 miles today I cranked that treadmill up as fast as I could stand it! I ran the last mile the fastest, I LOVE that if I run faster I can just be done!

Now I just have to figure out how to measure my miles on the trail so I will know how far I go with the jogger. I really want one of these but I am not sure I can justify the cost. I really just need to get that dang GPS watch working. Here's to a better week for everyone!

2 comments:

jess said...

maybe i'll like the miles thing better on the treadmill - i can see how that would be helpful to know exactly how much you have left and to run faster to be done. i'll think i'll try it out tomorrow.

brooke said...

Don't you know that anyway? I measure out my run before I leave (or at least I used to). So I knew exactly where I had to turn around and then it was just how fast could I get home (or back to my car)!