Skip to My Lou

I've been trying out new things with my running routines. This week I tried what I call, "Skip To My Lou," workout. It was in this month's issue of Self Magazine, one of the two magazines I subscribe to, and really effective. I never knew skipping could be so hard. Try it out sometime if you want to change things up a little.

The instructions say to load 30 minutes of music onto a playlist and then change every song. I didn't have 30 minutes exactly; I just played my running playlist and went through each interval 3 times and then did an extra skip and extra sprint section to finish it out. Here's the workout.

Run 1 song (I ran at a 5.5 pace)
Skip 1 song (I skipped at a 4.5 pace, but you can definitely go faster)
Sprint 1 song (6.0-6.5 pace)

Repeat until your playlist ends or you've been doing it for 30 minutes (typically 9-10 songs). I worked out at paces comfortable to me, but you can definitely push yourself more if you want. I definitely felt it and didn't get bored with just running. If you have any other fun running/interval type things you've done, I'm always up for trying something new.

Mixing It Up

I've been paying for a gym for the past year, and I've only been a couple of times in the past six months because I didn't feel like driving 15-20 minutes to workout when I have a treadmill downstairs.

I realized today that there is a gym five minutes from my house! So since I'm paying for the gym, I might as well start taking advantage of the things I can't get in my apartment gym like the classes. I love trying out new classes even if I feel like an idiot the majority of the time.

Every book or article I've read about staying motivated to workout says to keep your workouts varied so you don't get bored. So I'm going to take advantage of those classes and go to two classes a week- one on Tuesday and one on Saturday. I went to spinning tonight and LOVED it. It kicked my butt, but I feel great now.

Not sure what I'll try next, but I'm excited to be out doing new things again. It really does make working out more fun than just running on the treadmill every day.

Interval Training= My New Best Friend

I made a decision today. I have to keep running. No other exercise does for me what running does. I just need to suck it up and get out there, slow and steady. So I did it. I did a 45 minute hill interval workout on the elliptical then jumped on the treadmill to run a mile to finish out the workout.

And.I.Ran.Three.

Three miles broken up into half mile chunks. I ran half a mile, walked .1 mile, ran half a mile, etc. I ran a total of three miles and walked another .5. And after a nice stretch, I felt great!

I may not be able to run 13.1 miles without walking anytime in the near future, but I'm not going to give up. I'll keep going until I can run 13.1 miles even if I have to walk between every mile. It's better than not running at all.

Long Time No See

After the raving review from the doctor about my shin splints, I decided to heed his counsel and stop running for a couple of weeks. Too bad I stopped running, walking, and any other form of exercise I could think of. Probably not the best idea to strengthen my muscles, but oh well it's too late to go back and change it right?

So I'm going to start working out again this week and try and throw some running in every couple of days to see how things are going. People say one of the most common causes of shin splints is pushing yourself too hard too fast, so I'm going to take it nice and slow. I joined Weight Watchers this week (since I can't run, which is normally my trick to losing weight) and as part of my Sunday routine I'm going to be planning out weekly meals and an exercise schedule so I can actually fit everything in. I did a 30 minute Biggest Loser sculpting DVD tonight that was rough but felt great and am going to get some cardio in hopefully before bed or maybe tomorrow morning. I really think morning workouts would do me wonders, but will they do me more wonders than more sleep?

Oh well, I just wanted to give everyone an update. I didn't fall of the face of the earth. I'm not running a half-marathon in December but am going to keep running and keep posting on this blog about my progress. My goal is to be able to run 5 miles without stopping because I'm out of breath or in pain by the end of October. Slow and steady wins (or finishes at least) the race.