Today I learned that the gym is pretty dead at 7 am on Friday. I got
a treadmill immediately and run 17 minutes and spent the rest of the
45 minutes walking between 3.7 and 4 mph. There are a bunch of army
guys lifting weights and I felt bad for the littlest army guy of them,
though they didn't seem to be picking on him. Indeed, there was a lot
of butt pats.

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So i have been going to the gym 4 days a week and think I may need to
increase that, if only for one reason. On days when I dont go, all I
want to do is eat. And eat I do, often in Matt-like quantities. I
also have no resistance to foods that are bad for me. I ate a
snickers today (I blame Destrago for this because he was talking about
them last night). Uff. Tomorrow I run 17.5 minutes. I am hoping I
sleep well tonight.

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I ran for 15 minutes on the treadmill and the walked another 20
minutes at 4 mph. Why is it that I feel like I could walk forever at
4 mph but 15 minutes of running at 5 mph is exhausting? I think I am
going to pick up a dynadisc so I can do a strength session on the
weekend. Last night I impressed the boy with my biceps of steel. I
also went and bought some running shorts on clearance at REI. They
look really goofy, but are much more comfortable than pants or
capris. Today, I did learn that a breakfast of bacon and whole milk
was not the best idea before working out. Then again, the boy ate a
turkey burger and then biked ten miles to work.

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I did my strength training workout today and noticed that my balance
has already majorly improved. I have also noticed that I am more
committed to working out then perhaps I have ever been before. If I
am going to miss one, I will find a way to make it up. I think I
experienced my first real runners high yesterday. After running in
the morning, I felt great all day. Then again, yesterday was the
warmest day we have had for awhile. My plan of trying to get going in
the morning without caffeine seems to be going well, though this
morning I was so out of it that I put my sportsbra on over my regular
one and didn't notice until I got changed.

If anyone would like to come to my house and tell Mr. Prancy Pants to
stop getting hyper and barking at the cat in the middle of the night,
I would appreciate it. (and that's his nickname bc he seriously
prances).

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I ran 1.25 miles today. Straight. In 14 minutes. It was the first
time I didn't feel like I had to summon all of my mental energy to
push myself to the end, which was great. I picked up "running for
mortals," which is basic but very very encouraging.

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I ran 10 minutes, then walked some, then another 5, averaging about
5.7 mph. Yesterday I wasn't able to get to the gym so I did that
workout today. For some reason, on days that I dont workout I want to
eat everything in sight (like last night's mashed potatoes), but days
that I work out, I am much less hungry. I do, however, kinda want to
make mac and cheese tonight, so maybe my observation is incorrect.

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Today I did 2 sets of the strength training routine with the same amount of weights as before. I have worked up to being able to balance on the upside-down Bosu on 1 leg for 15 seconds at a time, which I was very very happy with.

Since that is about all that I have workout-wise, I will share a story from a few days ago concerning something I witnessed at the gym. I saw a guy on one of the stationary bikes who I wanted to yell at on behalf of his knees. I was on a treadmill and good be nosy and look at the settings on his bike, which I did, because I am in fact nosy. He had the resistance turned up really really high and was pedaling at about 60 rpm. He also had the seat set too high, so he would first jerk his entire body to the left, and then the right in his "ride." I can not convey just how funny this looked, but I finally figured out a good comparison -- it looked like a full body dance version of the head bob in SNL's "What is love, Baby don't hurt me no more" Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan sketch. What made this worse is that the guy would talk to several women who passed him and he totally had the same type "oh hey what's going on, oh yeah, i'm just working my hammies" type vibe.

I ran a mile... straight through.  It took me 11 and a half minutes but I RAN A MILE.

Now I want a nap.  I have also determined that scales lie because I weigh the same but can fir into smaller jeans.  Not that I can ever wear jeans, but that is a whole different story.

Woohoo

I ran 1.25 miles today (divided into 3 intervals)!!!

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Day 2

So today, I did the circuit training strength plan. I got into the gym, found a small corner, stacked all the things there, and growled if anyone came close while I warmed up. I am friendly like that.

First, I warmed up on the recumbant bike for 5 minutes. Then:
1. Bridges with my back on a Bosu ball. 15 reps. This was not terribly difficult so I may add in arm raises with a medicine ball or trying to do it on one leg.
2. Supergirls -- 25 reps.
3. Plank. I am supposed to work up to 1 minute. I did about 25 seconds.
4. Ball squat curl to press. 15 reps with 10 lbs in each hand.
5. Ball dumbell chest press. 15 reps with 10 lbs in each hand.
6. Bosu Ball lateral raise. 15 reps with 7.5 lbs in each hand.
7. Front step-up to balance. 15 reps for each leg with 10 lbs in each hand.
8. 1-leg Bosu ball squat. Ummm, I need to not only work up to the squatting part of this but also to the 1 leg.

Since the circuit only took about 30 minutes, I got onto the bike for 25 minutes. My goal was to keep my repetitions per minutes at around 90. I did 5 miles.

I feel really good this afternoon. The circuit training was certainly challenging. This time it wasn't as smooth as I think it will be since I was trying to figure out which weights were appropriate. After doing some biking, my legs are a bit sore, but sadly all the soreness is in my quads and that is a welcome reminder of biking season.

I ordered a foam roller and can not wait for it to arrive.

Day One

Today, my plan was to go to the gym and do my normal workout on the treadmill (mainly walking at 3.5-4.0 mph with some inclines for 45 minutes) while adding in two 5 minutes periods of running. I armed up for 5 minutes walking and proceeded to start the first one at 5.5 mph. After 4 minutes, I was winded but felt okay and finished up a little gaspy, but fine. I walked for another 10 minutes and did the second one. After a minute, I thought "hmmm this is not as easy as the first one." After ninety seconds, I was figuring out the percentages of how much total running I had done and how much of this interval were complete. After three minutes, I was fairly confident that I, like a dragon, could open my moth and breathe flame because my lungs were on fire. At 4:30, I thought "perhaps I was made for the sedentary lifestyle. I mean, isn't that a lifestyle choice and who is denying me choice. I am pro-all kinds of choices." I did, however finish, and felt really proud of myself and good. I was not able to do a full 45 minutes of inclines and walking quickly, so I was on the treadmill for 35 minutes instead. Tomorrow is weight and core work day which I am especially excited about because I got to try out some of the exercises on Sunday and they seem slightly brutal but effective. There is also a lot of balance work involved which will be incredibly helpful for biking.

Things I learned today:
1. Coming straight inside from -10 degrees and only warming up for 5 minutes might not be enough. Next time I think I will walk for 10 minutes or so before the first running set.
2. I need to bring my inhaler with me. This falls into the "no shit sherlock" category.
3. Perhaps I will bring my heartrate montitor with me so I can play around with the numbers later.
4. The difference a good pair of running shoes makes is incredible. I got new shoes this weekend that stop my ankles from bending inward. I didn't trip at all on the treadmill today and running felt a lot better than it had previously.

Next step: Run 5 minutes, rest, then 10 minutes on Wednesday. Get a foam roller. Right now my legs would LOVE one.

Welcome!

So this is my first post on my all things biking, running, fitness, and training blog. I am working up to doing a 5k race, the Race for Justice on April 13 and then training for a duathalon in September. One of my friends is training to become a personal trainer and is an avid biker and marathon running and she devised a workout plan for me. So, I plan on posting here about what I did each day, how it is going, and what the process is like so I have some record of my progress and what I'm doing right and what is not going well. I may also post some pictures, random thoughts on random things, and vignettes concerning my pets. Oh, and when biking season comes (or even before then), I will definitely post way too may love poems to my bike.