Interval training

I went running at the gym tonight. I thought I'd try intervals again, but I didn't do so great. The main problem was that it was super hot and stuffy in there. Gross. Could hardly stand it. Guess I've gotten used to the freezing cold weather we've been having!

This is what I ended up doing:
walked for 5 minutes
ran for 4 minutes at 5.6 mph
ran for 1 min at 7.0
ran for 4 min at 5.6
ran for 1 min at 7.0
ran for 4 min at 5.6
ran for 1 min at 6.5
then I just walked for another 10 minutes or so between 3.5-4.0 mph. I did put the incline up to 2 at one point for a couple of minutes. I tried to run again at 6.0 for a couple minutes again, but I was dying, so I called it good and walked for another 7 minutes or so to cool down.

My muscles were sore last time I did the interval training, so it definitely does something!

Skating

Looks like I need to up the exercise - I've only been getting in about 1 day a week. Terrible. Shame on me. It's been so doggone cold and that's my excuse. Today though, was beautiful. The sun was shining and it was somewhere in the 20's. So I went skating - figured I better get some Vitamin D while I can. Grabbed my skates, a hockey stick and a puck and headed to the rink. There were a bunch of guys playing hockey, so I skated on the other rink. Not quite as nice, but I had it to myself. They did flood it again since last time I was there, so it was better, but still not smooth. I was able to skate a couple of laps after the guys left on the hockey rink and that was really nice. But I got tired after about 40 minutes and came home. Fun to get outside again!

Interval training

I went to the gym again tonight to run on the treadmill. I was sick for 2 days, so felt good to get moving again. I was reading about interval speed training where you throw in some faster runs for a minute once in a while, so I thought I'd try it out. So this is what I ended up doing:

Walked for 10 min at 3.8 - 4.0 mph
Ran at 5.6 mph for 4 min, then Ran at 7.0 mph for 1 min
Repeated that 3 more times, then ran 3 more minutes at 5.5 mph.
Walked for 7 minutes to cool down.

Total: Ran 23 minutes, Walked 17 min

It felt really good to run faster like that, but I definitely got tired out. We'll see if I'm sore at all tomorrow. When I was running at 7.0, it reminded me of when I first started running and how hard it was. So, I can tell I have improved when I haven't had to work so hard to run now!

Running at the Gym

I went running at the gym today. I ran for 10 minutes, then walked for 5, and then made myself run for 15 more. I mostly ran at 5.5 mph, but did run at 6.0 for quite a while and even bumped it up to 6.5 for a couple minutes. I really had to fill my head with all the encouragement I could to keep going:

"You can do it! Think of all the junk you've been eating - you gotta run it off! Just 5 more minutes! You can eat more tonight if you keep running! You can do it! You've done it before! Keep going! 2 more minutes! You can do it!"

Not sure why I just didn't want to run today. I think I really have to start running more often again - keeps the motivation up. Otherwise I get lazy about running. So there's one New Year's resolution... we'll see how long it lasts!

Skating

I went skating today. Does that count? I went to the local skating rink and skated around for about 1/2 an hour. It was a beautiful sunny day and I had to get out and do something. Hit the puck around for awhile, but mostly just skated laps around the hockey rink. The ice was really lumpy - hopefully they flood it again soon.

Now I need to come up with titles....

I went running at the gym tonight. I was starting to feel really lazy and fat (eating too many cookies!) and figured I better get in some exercise. I ran for 10 minutes at 6 mph, then switched treadmills because the fan didn't work and I was getting hot. I ran for another 10 minutes at 5.5 mph and then had to stop. I could tell my leg muscles were super tight and they were hurting, so I figured that was good enough. I walked then for 10 minutes or so and ended up running just another 2 minutes after that. Somehow I'm going to have to make myself keep running this winter. It's hard when it's cold and snowy!

C25K – Week 9, Day 3! I did it!!!

Yay! I've officially completed the C25K running program! So after a year plus a few months, I can finally say I've completed the whole program. I started out once and got to about week 7, I think. I did run a 5K though during Week 6. I ended up quitting for the winter for various reasons. I started back at Week 1 in the spring and again ran up to week 7 or so, and quit because my knees were bothering me. So this fall, I figured I have to get this program done, once and for all. I started somewhere in the middle this time though, and finally made it to the end!

I did my last 30 minute run tonight at the gym. It went really well. I just wish there was some extra challenge for the last run to make it feel like I've accomplished something though. Since the last week is 3 30 minute runs, there is nothing too special about the last one. I knew I could do it, it was just a matter of getting it done.

Anyways, I ran the first 5 minutes at 5.5 mph, then upped the speed to 6.0 mph for the next 10 minutes. I was getting tired then, so I went back to 5.5 for another 10 minutes. Then I ran the last 5 minutes at 6.0 again and upped the incline for the last minute to 2.0. I think I need to start running faster.