Loving your workout

Because I had skipped body pump on Tuesday, and I was starting to feel better by yesterday, I thought “I could still get a body pump in tonight at Thursday’s class.” I also had strayed away from any other workouts this week, so I wanted this one to be worth it. The weather was beautiful- nice and chilly and sprinkling just a little. I haven’t ran on wet pavement in over 6 months, so I had forgotten how refreshing it is. I knew I could save a little money by not driving to the gym and get an extra running work out in, so why not just run to the gym for body pump and back? I could feel every bit of the run: my feet as they hit the pavement and make a splashing noise, the cold air as it rushes past my arms, neck and face, and my numb hands as they try to circulate blood to keep warm. Because there is no music to listen to, the only rhythmic noise is my steady breathing and, soon, that is all I am concentrating on. I love every bit of it. These feelings are why I continue to run and have ran for the past couple years. This is why I have accomplished four 5ks, one 10k, and three mud runs.

I ran to the gym for 1.64 miles at 12.04/mile. This is not as long as my run home because I needed to warm up a little by walking some of the distance there. Once I got to body pump, the room looked different. Finally, 24 hours fitness saw how sad our gym is and were finally painting the room and getting new weights. Right now, I use these sand weights for body pump mostly because all the iron weights are taken first. Since they are now getting rid of the sand weights, I need convert from the kilograms I am used to, to pounds. Bare with me as I calculate this out loud- one kilogram is 2.2 pounds (roughly). If I have one 2.5 kg weight, one 1 kg weight on each side of the bar, that would be equivalent to 5.5 pounds plus 2.2 pounds, which is 7.7 pounds. That is warm up weight- I add one more kg after that, which would make my heavier weight at 9.9 pounds. Good to know, so I know what I am working with. I spoke to my friend, Kathleen, and asked her if she noticed results faster when she was going twice a week. After a couple texts back and forth with her (and how amazing she looks), I decided I was going to give that a shot. So starting next week, I will try and do body pump Tues and Thurs. This will not only be beneficial because I will be lifting twice a week but both nights are taught by someone different, so it will switch it up just a tad.

My run home was more enjoyable than the run there because my muscles were nice and warmed up and it helped that none of it was uphill J This made it possible to shave 40 seconds off each mile and do 1.83 miles at 11.36/mile. After an hour and 40 minute workout, I felt amazing. Even this morning I still feel amazing because I know I gave a great workout the effort and drive it needed. I will give my boy a rest today, but Saturday morning will be the day I do a longer run. I need to start tacking on more and getting my mileage back up, so I figured bumping it up to 4 miles would be sufficient.

Run there: 1.64 miles at 12.04/mile

Run home: 1.83 miles at 11.36/mile

Believe Walk 2012

The Believe walk was more than I had expected. The streets downtown were shut down and filled with thousands of people, sporting the breast cancer color of pink. People's dogs were dyed pink and wearing tutus, grown men had pink wigs on, and even the kids were getting in on the fun. I felt honored to be among all these people supporting and raising awareness to such a giant cause.

I was not feeling well when I got there but I was too determined to run to let that deter me, so I popped in a cough drop and went on my way. Somehow, I even managed to do my best 5k time yet- just under 32 minutes! This isn't too far off from what I was doing a couple months ago, but for how hilly it was and me not feeling good, I was ok with it. I recorded my times I could find for the 5ks I have done thus far... I still REALLY want to get to my goal of 30 minutes before the end of the year.

April 2012- 32 min, 8 sec
November 2011-  34 min, 35 sec
June 2011- 37 min, 37 sec

Sometimes.

Some days I just don't want to go to the gym. Sometimes, I am so exhausted that all I want to do is lie in bed. It's these same days that I know I have to go. Tuesday was long and exhausting and the last thing I wanted to do was workout. I knew I didn't want to skip a week doing body pump, because it's even harder to pick up the next week. So I dragged my lazy ass there, moping and pouting the whole time. As soon as that class started though, I was fully focused and gave it all I had. It paid off and will continue to pay off. I was sore yesterday and still am a little today and feel myself getting stronger each time.

I am making it official. Next month my birthday gift for myself will be going to the running center and buying new shoes. I am way overdue but this month's bills/activities won't allow for such a purchase. I may try and find a type of runner's utility belt. I swore I didn't want to run with my gigantic smart phone but I finally gave the Map My Run app a chance. I love it. It's accurate, it stores all my runs, and keeps track of the routes I do. Last week I ran a little over 3 miles and saw I was still at my same running average- 12 min miles. I ran with Nicholas Sunday morning and we added sprints and were able to get those miles down to a little over 11 min. Granted, when I do the sprints, my runs become shorter because I wear myself out faster.

Below is a picture from last year's Survivor mud run along with a picture of this year's. It's nice to see how far along I have come. 

This year.

Last year.