I have been exercising!!!

Yes I have come back from vacation and I am workin my new treadmill!! I just love it! I love to be able to just jump on ANY time of the day (10pm one night) and get in a good workout!! So happy with it! Ahhh it's good to be in the treadmill club!

Lets see....

My beautiful treadmill. It has taken up quite a bit of my living room, and I can't open my front door all the way now, but I still LOVE IT! I also love the window right next to me so I can open the blinds and see outside and get some sunshine in!

Monday I did week 1 workout 1. I did all the running, and stayed in my walking times, but my speed was only at 3.8. I find that if I have to run for longer periods of time, I need to decrease my speed so I can actually finish it!! I also added a sprint in!! A 90 second one. Which I can't remember if I need to do 2 90 sec or one, but regardless this was an improvement to my first week of running when it took everything just to finish! I ran at a 5.0 and some may think, dang that is slow, but for now it is pretty darn fast for me and I am a huffin and a puffin when I am done.

Tuesday I didn't get a workout in. :( Between volunteering, parent teacher conference, errands and working on my quilt that is due (tutorial on how to make it and pictures) next Tuesday....I didn't get time in. Oh well.

Wednesday I had saved my workout to after I put kids to bed, but then by that time I was actually quilting my quilt and really didn't want to stop...until my needle broke and I had to wait until Trav got back from the store with new needles. So I got in a 20 min workout, but I did a 10 min running session at 3.8 too! I love that if I don't have much time, no problem...just run more and you got your workout!

After my workout...I do admit that I did do some other things right after, but still I am in my exercise cloths

Thursday I did week 1 workout 2. I did the walking lunges on the treadmill. Which I must say that the lunges don't hurt as much as they used to. I did try a set in the tippie toe and that worked them more. I was also able to get in a 90 sec sprint at the end of 5.0 Also on the last two running intervals, I moved my pace up to a 4.0. I felt more of a workout and the best part I was able to maintain it.

Kimball's wonderful picture skills....all my picture takers are gone!

So as I have discovered that running isn't that bad, expecially the better in shape you get the easier it becomes....what I have learned though is:
1. The first running session is ALWAYS the hardest! I find myself wishing it was over faster and towards the end of the session my muscles start to hurt more even though I have already did a stretch.
2. My breathing is getting better, but when I try to do a set breathing or concentrait on my breathing, I find it harder to maintain...so is there a breathing method to use? Do you do it with stride? Do you do a count?? Not sure.
3. Since I am not huffin and puffin so much as I do my running sessions, I am not as out of breath when I am done (meaning I think I can either up my speed or do a longer running session) but my muscles hurt more.
AND
4. I can finish the workout feel good, and the only thing that I need to do is just finish....I feel good as I do my workout and I think I feel that runner's high as soon as a running session is over, but the hardest part is just enduring the workout.

With the things that I have learned....I have some questions....
1. The breathing....is there a specific method or is it just an individual thing?
2. What mind tricks can you play? I find that I like to count as I am running. It makes it go by faster and it keeps my mind off running and doing something else. Where I do my running is in the living room, and since we have no tv, radio (I don't have my mp3 right now) and all I have is kids movies to watch, I end up watching those since my kids are in the room when I run. So any good movie suggestions that have good pace? Or a musical? I get kinda bored of the music, and running with it. But mind tricks, any are good. :D

So I think I am taking those first steps to becoming a runner!! YEAH!!!

Tomorrow what I have planned is the final workout for week 1. (I have missed only have 3 workouts to do in a week). I want to make a goal of running a whole mile without walking. I haven't done this since hmm....elementary...and even then I think I ended up walking some. But with running a whole mile, I want to see how long I can run in a stretch. Right now I am at 10 minutes.....I would LOVE to get up to 20 minutes of running but will accept 15min. So we will see.

There is my SUPER LONG post (novel) with some workout pics. How is everyone else doing? Annie is your knee still feeling better after getting those shots? And have you figured out what you can do to get the same workout intensity in? How are you doing DC? Haven't heard from you in awhile...I heard about your tooth....feeling better now? Did you get any exercise in? What about our Jenergy? Getting in your workouts? Finding the time? How about eating? I think we are all in a funk and just need to push past it! Hang in there women!