I'm not crazy...I'm just bored!!

Another morning in the saddle. Spin class. Instructor asked what kind of workout we wanted: easy, medium, hard, or extremely hard. I yelled back "I didn't come to the gym to be pampered!!" No one refuted my comment - so it was a good, hard class!

25 minutes on the elliptical

30 min on the TM. All at 6%, walking at 4.0mph and running at 5.5mph. 3 min walk, 5 min run, 5 min walk, 5 min run, 5 min walk, 5 min run, 2 min walk to bring the HR down. Wiped it down, and got the heck out of dodge. Oh, I did get the last 2 min of my 5 min run up to 6mph - wow, I was cruising, hahahaha!

Oh, got a reply from my PT - short version? There is little to no difference between running and walking at 6% incline. If it feels better to run, do it. Best.Answer.Ever. Now to make my body willing to run at a 6% incline....it is NOT easy!

MileS - yes, two :) nice! 

Spin class - early morning, with a heavy gut from Flemmings last night (hubby's work took us out!!), but it was oh SO good!!

Out to the elliptical to warm up the feet and calves for running - 30 minutes L12

TM time! 6% - will I ever get used to it? run 7 min (5@ 5.5mph, 2@ 6.0), walk 3 - repeat 3X. adding up the times, it puts me right at 2 miles - awesome. I really needed those 3 minute breaks. I don't know if I will ever get up to my full 30 minutes without pain to be able to start dropping the incline.

Then, I got to go back to the gym - and get paid! Yes. I got paid to go to the gym, awesome! One of my neighbors who has a foster child through the company I work for, asked me to take her daughter to the gym and help her exercise for an hour a few times a week. Really? getting paid to go to the gym? please...no...don't twist my arm! :) I walked on the track and had her do intervals (walk one lap, run a lap and then until she caught up with me) for 20 minutes. Then we did planks 30/30/30 sec with 20 push-ups 3X. She said she felt like jello afterward, so I think I did a good job :) If anyone has any suggestions of things for her to do (cardio max is about 20 minutes right now and hasn't done resistance stuff before) I'd love to have some suggestions. So I don't kill her :)

I did it, yes, I did it! But, we must start at the beginning :)

Early spin class to get the cardio burn in. First morning in a LONG time my legs have felt tired. Oh, how I love it! Spin wasn't easy, Danielle is probably one of the toughest teachers at the gym - and I LOVE her classes!

Got kids off to school then went back with 2 little ones in the daycare. A tender mercy today: only TMs were open, no ellipticals. So, I decided to skip my normal warm-up there and just go for it on my hill climb (always a 6% grade!). Figured I could do 40 minutes total and get 30 min of running in (which is what I have to get to in order to start pulling down the incline). Yeah, okay this IS happening! So, I did. 7 min running (5 min @ 5.5 then 2 @ 6.0) with a 3 min walk break at 4.0mph. Repeated twice. Next two 10 min sets were: 5 min @ 5.5, 2 min @ 6.0 then 1 min @ 6.3. I was definitely ready for the 2 min break at the end of those ones!

Only a problem came with 3 min left in my last set of 8 min running, the day care called my name. Crap. Oh well, they will have to wait for 3 minutes. With 30 seconds left they called my name again, fine! I'm coming this time, just give me 30 seconds. So, I didn't do the last 2 min walk - grabbed the diapers then went down, except it wasn't a diaper change. Baby was getting tossed from the nursery for biting! Little stinker. He doesn't bite at home, because his siblings give him what he wants when he whines. This is going to take some work! Any suggestions on how to curb a 19 month olds biting issues would be greatly appreciated.

I'd planned on and was looking forward to masters swim, but now had an outlaw on my hands. Not even chuck-a-child would take him! So, I called a neighbor in desperation and she said she'd be happy to take the naughty child, and even his big brother for the hour while I swam. Ran (read: drove as fast as the law would allow) the kids practically home, went back to the rec center and changed and got in the water as fast as I could, but still missed the first half of class.

Even though I only got 35 minutes in, it was a GREAT class and I actually learned how to do breast stroke properly - it is deceptively HARD! I could barely get through the 75 doing it - the right way, not the way I'd done it all my life. My arms/shoulders/back and inner thighs will be sore tomorrow! Totally worth driving the kids to the neighbors and going back for.

So, I'm happy on 2 accounts - I did my 30 minutes on the TM at 6%! Granted, I think it needs to be consecutive, but I still did it! Also, if I would've gotten on an elliptical to warm-up I would've totally missed out on my running today, because of the outlaw. Thank you everyone at the gym for using the ellipticals this morning :)

Too tired to wake up early - this has been a theme as of late.

Went and sat in the day care to observe my little outlaw. Caught him in the act and he got some 'bite juice' (vinegar). 2 hours of sitting in that day care is boring - no wonder he starts biting people! :)

No workout, but I think it was a good thing for my foot to have a day off. Felt really good - nearly forgot about it - by the end of the night.

I wanted to avoid the daycare today, but I seriously can NOT wake up in the mornings lately.

Spent the first hour watching my little outlaw in the daycare. He was having a great day and had NO problems at all. So, I left in confidence and went to the TM for the second hour to finally get a workout in. HA! I was at 19 min when they called me back and he was sitting in the time out chair. He got some bite juice and had to wait another minute in  time out, apologize, then we left...with our heads hung low...

My neighbor has a TM and so I asked her if I could use it for just a bit and she said it would be fine, so I got another 30 minutes in, but man alive...I'm getting tired of this mess.

10 minute sets on the TM @ 6% incline. 5 minutes @ 5.5 mph, 2 min @ 6.0, 1 min @ 6.3 then 2 min walk @ 4.0 - 8 min running and .75 in distance covered each set. Repeated 5X. Total of 40 min running and 10 min walking.

Thank goodness for the weekend. I think I'd better start liking waking up early...at least until the little terror stops biting!

Stupid gym. I can't wait until I get to run outside on Saturdays and avoid the headache there!!! 

In order to get an 8:00 spin pass before 7:30 you can swim or do lift, but if you do the 7AM spin or anything else you have to wait until 7:30 to get a pass. Well, when it is 6:45 and there are only 4 passes left, you know your chances are slim to none. So, I played the game and took my lift pass and figured I'd just give it away and/or ditch class - two can play this game! BUT, just as that happened the wicked aerobics director of the West walked up behind me "but, they have to DO the lift class!" yeah, yeah...fine, whatever. She even sought ME out on the TM (I decided to get a 10 min session in before class) and make sure that I was planning on coming to class and said "well, we're setting up right now" "oh, well class doesn't start until 5 min after, right?" "yes, but it is best if you set up beforehand, because you need a partner...blah, blah, blah," "Okay, I'll be there by 5 after." Whatever. So, I went to lift class and did everything she couldn't - HA! Take that!!!

So, with tired legs and arms from lift (I think she was trying to challenge ME personally! - yes, it is always all about me) I snuck out (thanks to a partner who offered to put everything away, she knows how crazy spin gets!) before she could say anything and didn't stretch, but went right into spin. Allison was crazy hard and I swear gave us about 10 seconds of recovery every 5 minutes. Holy cow, my legs were burnt. This is why I wanted to run first, but dumb stupid rules made me do lift!

After class I headed out to the TM for my 'long run' of the week. I wasn't sure this was going to happen. I was spent. I just kept thinking...you would be doing around 18 miles today if you weren't injured so suck it up and work it out!

I modified my normal 10 min intervals, because today is long run day. All, again, at 6% incline: I ran 1.25 miles at 5.3-6.3mph and then walked .05 to recover - this took me to nearly 15 minutes, so I decided to do this 4X and finish with 5.0 miles. Between set 3 and 4 I walked .15 to even the mileage out to 4.0, then I could finish my last 1.25 with a total distance of 5.25 (between walking and running). Speeds were the same for all of the sets, a little slower than normal, but longer. Good pseudo long run, right?

Well, since I'd done my 8 min before lift I had a total of 5.75 miles of running and wanted to round it out to 6.0 - but I was tired of that D$%# 6% incline. I swear my PT is just laughing his head off thinking about me trying to run at that incline!!! So, since this was my 3rd day of over 30 min with no pain (so far) I decided to try 4% just for the last quarter to get a taste of what next week has in store :) Oh, my DREAMY!!! Do you know how easy a 4% incline is?!? I was cruising along at a 8:27 pace and felt incredible. I was at a decent pace!! I'm sure I couldn't do that pace for a long time, but 4% feels SO much nicer than 6%!! I can't wait.

So, I got a good 3 hours in at the gym. I certainly hope all this cardio and crazy incline work will help me to get back into the groove again quickly when I'm allowed to run outside. I still hate hills!