Conquering the dreadmill

It's every runners worst dream: motivation is diminishing and the cold is only making it harder to drag your ass out of bed.

Then it appears, the single tredmill covered in dust in a corner. They offer many things, but inspiration and an exciting view just isn't one of them.

Sadly, when the cold arrived and my workload grew mountainous, it became hard to run; to find the time to head outdoors and breathe. But down the hall from my boyfriends apartment, is a small home gym. Completely equipped with a single tredmill, small incline plane and as many weights as one could possibly need.

I am back. My athletic, motivated, get-up-off-the-couch-no-matter-what-the-weather self, has returned. While the indoor gym is not the best solution, it is providing an outlet for my energy and gives me a chance to de-stress in a safe and healthy environment. I've been pre-occupied, as my readers may have noticed, and became swamped with work — completely unable to function as there was no way to get away from it. But here it is, black and a little clunky in a small, closet of a room.

Lately, for the past two weeks, I have started exercising for 30 minutes to an hour every day. The workouts vary slightly each day, just to keep things interesting. Music blares in the background from a specially chosen playlist of upbeat and fun songs that will keep my energy pumping.

Here's how the workout usually goes:

Tredmill: 2 x 15 minutes high intensity.

Squats: 2 x 20 (don't wanna be too sore)

Crunches on incline plane: 4 x 20 (surprising how little the amount is but how sore you'll be the next day)

and

Push ups: 2 x 20 (I have a messed up rotor cuff and am not supposed to do push ups)

The push ups are interesting, normally I wouldn't do them as they damage my shoulder but I've added an interesting twist. In the gym is a small weighted ball, similar to a balance ball but smaller than a medicine ball. Putting one hand on it, and the other on the ground, I'll do one push up; then while in plank position, roll it to the other hand, procede to do another push up with the second hand on the ball and first on the ground. It's quite a balancing act.

We'll see how this workout goes, I've just signed up for a Resolution Run with Tri and Run Sports on January 1. That'll be the test for the tredmill workout. This is one race that I will not miss.

Back at it...kinda

I'm sorry everyone, I've been gone for way too long from the sport of running. While excuses are a pain and not necessary, I've been swamped with work and have been in the newsroom for a minimum of 12 hours a day.

But enough of that. I have been away from the running world for the past two and a half weeks and because of it, I wasn't able to train for a race yesterday.

After Nov. 15 when I ran the Fat Ass Trail Run, I felt so good that I immediately registered for the Egg Nog Jog. The Egg Nog Jog didn't cost anything, simply a donation to Coats for Kids was sufficient. I didn't mind giving up the $5 that I had put forward, but I was disappointed with the lack of training I had done.

It's amazing how quickly your life can become derailed when work begins to pile up. It's not even piling up because of procrastination. It's all just being handed to me and needs to be done in a short period of time.

But yesterday, when I was supposed to be at my Egg Nog Jog, I hopped on a tredmill and ran for the first time. I only did 20 minutes on the tred mill but it made me feel like I was actually doing something. Along with that, I did a few squats with weights and an ab workout.

To continue my renewed love of running, I went again today. It's been extremely cold lately and I haven't the time to get out first thing in the morning, it's too dark, cold and unsafe to go out. Luckily, in my boyfriend's place, there is a tredmill that rarely gets used.

Last night, I searched the internet for different tredmill workouts that would give me a challenging work out and make it possible for me to begin running out doors again when it warms up. I found, frog in a boiling pot.

Yes, frog in a boiling pot. Something about adding .5 to your level of speed every 2 minutes. Apparently, the person will adjust to the speed after one minute, become comfortable with it, and soon be running at a pace they never thought possible.

I decided to try this theory out this morning. Starting at a normal walk, about speed 3.0 and escalated up to a 6. It's interesting how each tredmill changes what speed their levels actually run at. Some tredmills I can run at level 10, others like the one this morning, I was booking it at level 6.

It felt good, amazing to be running at that speed and feeling like the only person in the world at that very moment.

After working up to level 6, I slowly lowered the levels back down to 3.5, took a drinking break while continueing. After a short refresher, I went straight back up to 6 for another couple minutes.

Once that was finished, I had worked up quite a sweat, and went directly to some ab exercises.

I look forward to doing it all again tomorrow.