Spinning Myself Silly

I went to my tenth spinning class today. People tell me that it just gets easier, but it definitely wasn't easier today. The teacher was mediocre, and the music was awful. It was basically just techno music with no words for the entire hour. Some people may feel like that's energizing, but I just got bored. I was sitting there watching the sports conditioning class going on and just hoping that the class would end. Let's just say it didn't motivate my best efforts. I will not be going to that class again.

Oh but I did get rewarded for my hard work. We splurged and got pizza for dinner (healthy pizza), and when I got there I found out that Tuesday is buy one get one free day. Score two pizzas for me. Good thing I stuck out the mediocre techno obsessed man.

Georgia or Bust

I've tried this before, but I'm serious this time. My half-marathon training begins today and ends in 14 weeks in Albany, GA at the Snicker's Energy Bar Half-Marathon followed a week later by a cruise (not a bad reward/motivator).

My training is going to include three days of running (two normal runs and one long run), two spinning classes, and two days of strength training a week. I've been doing almost this same plan for the last four weeks and now I just have to up the mileage with my Saturday long runs.

I'm going to try and make this blog what I started it to be, a running journal. For now, I'm going to get dressed and go to the gym for my first day of training.

My Perfect Running Playlist

I’ve already posted about how good music can make such a difference in whether or not I can through and enjoy a workout. I base my satisfaction with spinning instructors on their choice of music, and I can just keep running if I have good music. I did a Google search looking for running playlists, and a lot of the stuff I found was either older music or slower. Not quite what I was looking for. I’ve got some good song that I love to run to but have been looking for new stuff. I’ve added a few new songs to the playlist and decided to organize my playlist into “intervals.” Most of the time I run one song at my slow pace, one song at a medium pace, and one song fast and then repeat. I decided to make the music match my interval paces. So I did. And I don’t like to listen to the same songs all the time, so I created a 52 song playlist (17 songs at each pace) so I can just go to my playlist and start running. Here’s what I came up with. They go in sets of three (slow, medium, fast). I’ve put stars by my all-time favorite running songs. If you’re looking for good running music, those are the ones to go for first. And if you’re wondering, this is about three hours total of music.

1. Almost by Bowling for Soup
2. Don’t know the name- Track 5 on Lisa’s CD J
3. *Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne

4. I Miss You by Blink 182
5. Too Good to Be by New Found Glory
6. *Move Along by All-American Rejects

7. Over You by Daughtry
8. Tell Me That You’re Alright (not sure who sings this, Lisa’s CD again)
9. Pump It by Black Eyed Peas

10. N.J. Falls Into The Atlantic by Senses Fail
11. When I Grow Up by The Pussycat Dolls
12. *Rompe by Daddy Yankee

13. Here by Hello Goodbye
14. Dirty Little Secret by All-American Rejects
15. Hips Don’t Lie by Shakira

16. Low by Flo Rida
17. Counting the Days by Goldfinger
18. **I’mma Shine by Youngbloodz from the Step Up Soundtrack (if this doesn’t get you going I don’t know what will)

19. My Happy Ending by Avril
20. Up Against by Taking Back Sunday
21. Shake It by Metro Station

22. Freak Out by Avril
23. The Young the Hopeless by Good Charlotte
24. Misery Business by Paramore

25. All the Small Things by Blink
26. American Boy by Estelle
27. See You Again by Miley Cyrus

28. 1985 by Bowling for Soup
29. Disturbia by Rihanna
30. Dance, Dance by Fall Out Boy

31. Some Hearts by Carrie Underwood
32. Sugar We’re Going Down by Fall Out Boy
33. Crazy in Love by Beyonce

34. Save Tonight by Eagle Eyed Cherry
35. Better Life by Keith Urban
36. *Red High Heels by Kellie Pickler

37. Sophomore Slump or Comeback by Fall Out Boy
38. Womanizer by Britney Spears
39. Check On It by Destiny’s Child

40. Somebody Like Me by Keith Urban
41. Pocketful of Sunshine by Natasha Bedingfield
42. So What by Pink

43. Behind These Hazel Eyes by Kelly Clarkson
44. Hot N Cold by Katy Perry
45. That’s What You Get by Paramore

46. Ohio (Come Back to TX) by Bowling for Soup
47. Single Ladies by Beyonce
48. *If You’re Going Through Hell by Rodney Adkins

Not Too Bad, Not Too Good

Last week I was just too busy to get any workouts in. I did some weights on Monday and played competitive volleyball for a good hour on Saturday (and wow am I sore!!), but that's it. It definitely showed at my WW meeting on Saturday (I stayed exactly the same).

So this week is going to be better. I went and ran 3.1 today and felt great. I've already got a workout scheduled with my friend on Weds night and am going to a spinning class right after work tomorrow. This weekend I'm meeting up with friends in NYC and one of those friends is the one who initially got me into running. I'm planning on at least one run while there with her.

I picked out a new half-marathon to train for, it's at the beginning of March in Albany, GA and sounds like a great one to try for. It gives me a month to get back in shape (I'm getting there now) and then start training hard in December. It means a lot of treadmill running or freezing outside, but I'm determined to make it this time. Thanks to inspiration from my friend Melanie, I'm going to be tracking the number of miles on my sidebar along with the amount of minutes I've worked out total.

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.