Tuesday night

Last night was a good night. I got home from work, had a bowl of cereal for supper, then headed to the gym at about 6:45. I was going to do the Body Pump class at the Y to start getting some weight training back in. But I figured I would be good and go do some cardio before hand too. So I got about 25 minutes of the elliptical machine in before the hour long class. I think this is going to be good for me. I felt good after the body pump class - now we'll see how sore I get today from it!!

The plan is to go and do at least an hour of cardio tonight again. I hate to say it, but I may have to switch over to the elliptical machine for at least half, if not more of the time that I'm there. It's SOOO much easier on my knees and I almost feel like I get more accomplished on it than running on the treadmill. We'll see how it goes!

Monday night

Monday night didn't prove to be too exciting. I started out on the treadmill, but wasn't have a very good time, so I did 1 1/2 miles total running, then decided I wanted to do the elliptical for the last 1/2 hour. Oh jeez. It was SOOOO much easier on my knees!!! In my effort to loose a little before this wedding, I may need to curb the treadmill for a while and go to the elliptical as I can go faster and further and burn more calories on that in an hour that I do on the stupid treadmill. :-)

I'm going to a weight class tonight as I'm hoping a combination of cardio and weights will bring off some weight a little quicker now.

We'll see how it goes!

3-mile Thursday

So I wasn't having the best day yesterday. I was just in a funk. Nothing really in particular - just the winter blues I think.

So when I went to the gym, I didn't know what I wanted to do that night. So I decided I'm going to cover the display thing on the treadmil and just run until I can't run anymore. Well this proved to be pretty darn successful actually!

I got bored pretty quickly though not being able to look at the screen and know where I was at, so I started peeking. Yeah first peek I was only about 1/2 a mile in to it. But I was feeling good with the running, so I kept going. Once I hit 1 mile, I deciced to really see how far I could go without stopping. I got to 1 1/2 and told myself go for 2. I got to 2 and decided to really push it and go for 3 straight. I was getting super tired and had to hop off for a quick 5 seconds to take a couple deep breaths, but I did end up finishing up the 3 miles straight!!! I think I'm going to stick with trying to go the straight distance now rather than breaking up the miles like I had been...

So yeah, it was a pretty good night. That's the furthest I've ran straight so I guess I'm another notch closer to the 5-mile mark!

Wednesday night

Have I mentioned how much I HATE the cold weather. Hate it. Absolutely hate it. I should really try to convince Brock to move to Arizona. :-)

Anyway, well last night I did end up going to the gym, as much as I didn't want to and much would have preferred to stay cuddled up with my blanket on the couch.

But I went. And while it definitely SUCKS knowing where I was at last month and being able to pull 5 miles out that one night, and now where I'm at after taking a couple weeks off, well it's a little depressing. But I'm still going, and hopefully the endurance will start to work up again. I got through my first mile last night pretty easily actually, so that was a good feeling. I didn't know how much I would try to do, so I kinda just went with it and ended up running another 2 1-mile stretches then, for a total of 3 miles of running last night, which I felt ok with.

My goal with this whole thing might be changing though. I originally started doing this so it would motivate me to go work out to loose some weight before the wedding. Granted I'm just now starting to really watch what I'm eating as well, and I'm hoping that will help shed a few pounds. But I may switch focus for a little bit and start doing the elliptical machine soon - partly because it's SO much easier on my knees...and partly because I guess I burn more calories when I do that as opposed to the treadmill. We'll see though. I'm going to keep doing the treadmill for maybe the remainder of this month, and if I'm still not seeing results on the scale, I'll be switching over to the elliptical for a while...

shopping... :-)

Ok, so I didn't go to the gym last night. I was on a mission to get some shopping done that I've wanted to do for a while, so if I play the excuse card, I'll say that I did walk around the mall quite a bit!! :-) By the time I was done, it was 8:45, which meant I wouldn't have gotten more than a 1/2 hour workout in before the closed, and I still needed to go home and clean my kitchen because it was a MESS!!!

But, I am going tonight. No excuses. I have nothing else to do, so that's all I'm planning on for the night!

New Year - new hope

Yeah, so the end of the year didn't turn out so well for working out. We were busy with Christmas and other holiday running around, none of which helped any more on the goal of running 5 miles.

So, now that we're in the new year, I'm going to try to get back on track. And, if my knees have anything to do about it, it's going to be a PAIN to get there (litereally).

I started out last night back at the gym. I knew the night wasn't going to be pretty since I hadn't been there in a while. And it wasn't. I got through running a mile straight, walked my little bit, then started back up running, but was slowed down after another 1/2 mile in to it with shin splints or something that felt like my bone between my knee and my ankle was about to split in half. Yeah it didn't feel good. So I slowed down and walked out another mile at an incline, just to get some good calorie burning in for the night.

So, the plan is to go back tonight again. We'll see how that turns out...

Monday night

Wow, this was a COLD weekend!! I didn't get to the gym this past weekend at all, so I made sure to go last night. Although it wasn't a steller night, I did get 3 miles of running in total. I'm still doing the 'run 1 walk a 1/4' workout. I was hoping to get 4 miles in last night, but I don't know if it was the cold or not working out in 5 days, but MAN my knees were SORE!! They hurt from the get go so it didn't make the going very fun. So when I was done with the 3 miles, I decided to screw it and went home. :-) (I know, I know, I need an attitude adjustment here soon. I'm thinking I'll be better after the first of the year comes...)

I'm thinking I should be able to get in tonight too - maybe even feel a little better about things since it's not stop-you-in-your-tracks freezing cold out too!!

5 mile night!!!

So I didn't quite get in to the gym Monday night as my roommate and I were running much needed-to-do errands around town.

So Tuesday night I was a very motivated girl and went. And boy did I go! :-)

I was determined to do something big again, so thanks to the Biggest Loser finale being on, I decided I wasn't quiting until I had run 5 miles (total, not straight through) that night. And gosh darnit I DID IT!!!

I stuck with my .25 mile walk, 1 mile run routine, and sure enough after a little more than an hour, I had run 5 1-mile stretches with a 1/4 mile walk in between each one, for a total of 6.5 miles total that night!!!!! AHHHH!!!!

I was SOOOOO sore after it and I think I over extended my knee as it wasn't feeling to great yesterday, but it's since come back to normal and I'm feeling great about my accomplishment!

So yeah, after I had the 5 mile night on Tuesday, I decided to let my knee take a night off last night (wed.). And tonight (Thursday), I'm going out to eat with my roommate before she moves this weekend, so I actually got my butt out of bed this morning at 5:00 and went! I only got 2 miles of running in before I needed to head home, which was probably more than I should have done though because when I got home,well, the leftovers that I had the night before weren't sitting to well and I wasn't feeling the hottest. But I slept it off and am feeling a little better now.

So we'll see what happens Friday. I'll do my darndest to get in to the gym Friday night, and if not, for sure on Saturday then!

Saturday

As promised, I went today! I'll make this short and sweet...I got 3 miles of running in - each mile seperated with a .25 mile recovery period. So now you can't kick me tomorrow Tiff!! ;-)

well...

my intentions were good, but once again, no gym last night.

Here's the story...
I've been seeing so many girls at work here in these cute little dresses - sweater dresses, wrap dresses, all sorts of cuteness. So I decide that I too need to be part of this fashion craze. So I headed to the mall right after work. I had talked to my old roommate who had just gotten a cute dress at Penny's, so that's where I went. After trying on about 10 dresses, I decided the sweater dresses are NOT for me (and seriously wonder how anyone with any sort of curve on them can wear these things - I swear - you have to be a rectangle to pull those off). Anyway, by the time I was done with that, and a little more shopping at the mall, it was 8:00. I still needed to go to Target though too and get food for tonight (Brock's brother and friends are coming over for a poker night). Well by the time I was done at Target, it was 9:00. I then still had to go home, make brownies, and clean up my house before I have company over.
So, the gym was out of the picture. I was rather mad at myself for taking so long trying on dresses (although I did find a super cute black dress that I ended up getting...). :-)

And once again, no gym tonight as I have to finish cleaning and making the rest of the food now tonight. But I AM getting in on Saturday. I absolutly 100% am getting in on Saturday. If I don't, Tiff, you have permission to kick me when you see me on Sunday!!!

yeah....

Well once again I've been able to shoot an entire week down the drain!! Since my 4-mile day Thursday of last week, I haven't been motivated to go at all.

Last Friday I went home to my Mom's house, and totally could have gone on her treadmill, but decided to do nothing. Same thing on Saturday. Sunday was my only day of seeing Brock last weekend, so we hung out and sure enough, I didn't get a work out in.
Monday night I did go to the gym, but was NOT in to it at ALL. I managed to squeeze out a mile of running and that was about it. Tuesday night I was planning on going after a friend's jewelery party, but by the time that got over, it was 9, I wouldn't get to the gym until about 9:15 from her place, and would have only got 1/2 an hour in before they closed, so once again, I decided to skip it. Last night, Wednesday night, I was all about going up until about 7:30 when I was snuggled in my blanket on the couch, was still cold, and so once again, I talked myself out of going, and ended up falling asleep on the couch about 8:15 (which was pretty nice actually).

Man, have I mentioned before how much I HATE winter?

I'm going to do my darndest to get in tonight. I've decided to start trying something new here...usually I get home, eat, watch a little TV, then go to the gym around 7:30 or 8:00. Well since I seem to sit on the couch and have a hard time getting out from under the blanket then, I'm going to start going right as soon as I get home from work. We'll try it tonight and see how it goes!!

Wow, what a night

So last night was a good night...

I was sooooo tempted not to go to the gym as I had taken Wednesday night off due to a bad pain in my side, and the fact that it was so flipping super cold last night - it would have been SO easy to stay in and watch Grey's curled up in my blanket. But, I was good and got up and went to the gym.

I figured I'd just start going and see how things went. So I started off with a walk for a couple minutes, then sped up and started the run. I got a mile in to it and barely was tired!!! So I figured ok, go for another 1/2. I got finished with that 1/2 then and figured ok, push it out and go for 2! And I did!!! After the 2, I slowed down and walked .25, then sped back up. I was tired by this point, but I surprisingly pushed out another mile run, so I had my 3 miles of running in that I usually get to. I slowed down again and walked out 1/2 a mile, then figured ok, just go for 1/2 a mile running more here. So I started in to it again, and although I was super tired and sweating like no other - I pushed out that 1/2 mile, and was so happy with myself that I said go for it - try the other 1/2, and I did it! I had just run 4 miles!!! I slowed down again and walked out the remaining distance that got me to 5 miles total that night!!

I was so flipping proud of myself that I cranked out 4 miles of running - and 5 miles total distance!! It was definitely a positive night that I needed again to keep me wanting to do this.

I don't know if I'll be up to doing another run tonight as I'm headed back to my Mom's. . . although there is a treadmill in the basement...we'll see!!

Little bit farther!

Well so far this week I'm doing good getting in to the gym! I went in last night and actually ended up going the furthest I've ever gone so far!

I started out with my quick warm up walk, then started in for the first part of the run. I had been going 1 mile stretches the past couple days, so I decided to push a little bit and go for 1.5 for the first one, which I did! After getting done with that, I walked for .25, then got up and ran another 1 mile, slowed down for .5, then sped back up for the last running stretch. I was so stinking tired by now though. I was hoping to do another full mile, but didn't think that was going to happen once I got about 1/2 done with it, so I pushed myself and finished out with another 1/4, for a total of .75 for the last running stretch - so my total of running last night was 3.25. I did decide to go a little longer on the walking stretch at the end though and finished out with a total of just over 4.5 miles!! I think it's the furthest I've gone so far to date! I was thinking of staying on and going the full 5, but my legs were SORE and I was a tired girl, so I decided to duck out just a bit before getting there.

I'm definitely feeling the extra push today too. I woke up this morning and man my legs were not ready to get up. My calves are tight and my quads are achy, but I'm still planning on getting in again tonight, so we'll see how that turns out!

I will be better I will be better

Ok, so I took a little more time of in November than I probably should have with my running stuff...and man did it hurt.

I AM going to be better about getting in this month. I'm used to the cold so that's no longer an excuse (although I still hate it...). Christmas shopping is done so I can't pull that excuse out either. And yeah - I'm less than 6 months away from this wedding and I need to get going on my goal again!!

So, we're starting December out right. I went to the gym last night. While I don't feel I can run 2.5 straight right now anymore, I'm still getting at least 3 total miles of running in (which is what I was at earlier too). I started last night and decided that instead of doing the 'manual' program on the tredmill, I'd do the 5K button and see what that was about. mmm...yeah - not ready for that one yet. It started out slow, sped the walk up a little bit at a time, then started you running at a 10 minute mile shortly there after. I thought Ok, let's try this. I actually got to about .75/.8 of the running doing the 10 minute mile pace (which I was really surprised at), then had to back off as I felt like I was going to run out of air. So I slowed up to my 5 mph pace and finished out the rest of the mile. I walked for the next .25 miles, then sped back up and did another mile running at my more comfortable 5 mph pace again. After finishing that one, I was super tired, but wasn't going to give up, so I walked out another .5 mile, then sped up and ran out my last 1 mile stretch. After that I was so extreamly pooped!! I cooled down with another .25 mile walk and headed home.

Hopefully things will start picking up for me again here soon and I'll be able to run these 3 miles straight by the end of December. Yeah - I think that'll be the next 'short term' goal now... this could be interesting... :-)

Yeah....

...haven't been good again. Planning on getting back after the Thanksgiving weekend.

Wednesday night

Yeah the Wednesday night workout didn't happen...I decided to stay home and play with my new VERY cool cell phone!!! :-)

Tuesday night

Well surprisingly I've been able to get back 'on track' (hehehe - running - on the track...nevermind) fairly easily. I went to the gym last night again - even though I really just wanted to stay home and watch TV. But I went and it went pretty good. I started out with a quick warm up walk then started in with the run. I was doing pretty good and started to wonder if I could do 3 miles straight. Well about 1.5 in to in, I knew that wasn't happening. But I did crank out another 1/2 mile, to get 2 straight miles in. I felt like I was about to die then. :-) I slowed down and walked for 1/4 mile, then sped back up and went for another mile, to get my 3 miles in. I wondered if I could crank out another 2, but my legs felt like they were seriously about to fall off by the end of that 1, so I didn't push it any more. I walked out another 1.25 miles for a total of 4.25 for the night, which I think has been the farthest I've gone so far in my hour workout!!

I'm planning on going agan tonight so we'll see how that goes!!

Back in it

Alright - I'm back in the game.

I will admit - the last couple weeks have been a nice little break - although I totally could tell I wasn't doing much. It's crazy how much a couple days off can affect things.

I got back in to the swing of things Sunday night. I was totally planning on going to the gym at 7, come to find out from my roommate who had just been there, that they close at 7 on Sunday! So I was mad about that but not about to just give up another night (especially after having my family's Thanksgiving this past weekend and eating entirely too much and so starting to feel it...)

So I decided to try the exercise programs on On Demand on TV. I feel like a FOOL when I do these, but it actually turned out to be not too bad! I found a Biggest Loser one, which I found to be REALLY good. It's nice to see 'normal' size people doing the workout (and making mistakes and not doing it perfectly all the time) instead of the fit, toned, muscular people that you usually have on these types of things.

So anyway, it was a 20 minute program that was geared more towards toning with weights than a cardio workout. And I actually broke a pretty good sweat doing it, which either proves I am still completly out of shape....or I needed to turn down the thermostat in the house. :-)

After doing that Sunday night, I decided to start doing this On Demand thing in the mornings before work. So Monday morning that's what I did! I woke up at 5:45 and went out and did the weight toning one again. Then last night I went in to the gym as well. I figured I would be all sorts of out of shape because I hadn't had a good workout in a good 2 weeks. I warmed up a bit then started running. I was hoping to get a mile in running wise. Sure enough I did, and was doing ok, so I kept going for another .5, to get 1.5 under the belt. I slowed down and walked for about .25, then sped back up and was going to try to get another mile in. Sure enough I was still doing ok, and was able to get 1.5 in. So I got 3 miles of running in total, which I felt great about! With another 1 total of walking, I was still able to get back to my 4 miles total for the night.

Oh yeah - the morning weight workout didn't happen this morning either. I was actually a little sore from doing it, and when the alarm went off at 5:45 this morning I said "nuh-uh" and shut it off and crawled back in. I'll do the weight workout tonight before I go to the gym again. :-)

slacker

So I've been a slacker lately. :-)

As much as I'd like to say I have been super busy and haven't had time to get in to the gym, well, it wouldn't be entirely true. I have been a little more busy lately with various wedding things, but if I really wanted to, I could have gotten in to the gym.

A LOT of my procrastination has been on the craptastic weather we've been having here. Have I mentioned before how much I HATE the cold? Yeah - HATE it. And the past couple nights it's been rainy out too. Fan-freaking-tastic. All I've wanted to do is curl up on the couch in my blanekt and sleep - which I've done the last 2 nights!

I'll get back in the swing of things soon. I'm going to try to get in after work tonight and tomorrow and maybe sometime Friday.

I'm still not giving up. Just taking a little break. :-)

Tuesday night

Well I got back in the swing of things - sort of.

I did my American duty and voted last night (yay Obama!!!). And yeah - you can be totally jealous that it took me less than 5 minutes to get in, vote and get out!

Ok, back to the gym...so I started off with a 5 minute warmup then started out running. I knew I wouldn't be at full-strength since I had been so bad about getting in the last week. But I thought I'd push and try to get 2 miles of running straight in. So I sped up and started going, but oh the going was tough. About 3/4 miles in to it, my side/stomach was cramping up something FIERCE!!! I finished out a mile of running, but had to slow down and take it easy as I couldn't breathe well because of the pain in my side. So I slowed down and caught my breath and walked it out for a while, then thought I'd try a run again. Yeah that wasn't a good idea. Same thing. So I decided I'm not blowing another night of working out and that I'd just walk the hour out at a fairly speedy walking pace and at an incline. That seemed to work. Towards about the last 15 minutes of my hour I was feeling a little better so I decided to try to run again and was able to get another 3/4 miles in of running.

Although I was mad that I couldn't have run more, I was happy that I pushed the walking pace and did an incline though because I still got 4 miles total in.

Tonight better be better... :-)