the metaphorical horse. obvi.
two days ago i finally managed to get back outside for a run. it had been nearly a month since the last one due to a stomach bug and a lingering cold, and then levi developed a habit of waking up to nurse at EXACTLY the time i would've been getting up to go outside or get on the treadmill. add the other pressures of full-time work, motherhood, and church commitments and you're left with a fitness-less several weeks. not acceptable.
sunday, though, the stars finally aligned enough for me to get out the door at about 8:30am while adam and the boys watched tv and ate breakfast and oh.my.gosh it was so hard......
...and it was so awesome.
i had only made it to about week three of rundouble's couch-to-5k training app when i took my long pause, so i decided to go back to the beginning of week two since i figured i'd lost quite a bit of fitness. it's a good thing.
let me explain my running route. you turn off our main road onto a long lane (about 1/2 mile, i think), and our driveway is about 100 yards down; i run up and down the lane since there's almost no traffic and it's a nice view of pastures, mountains, and fall foliage. i'm not running long distances yet, so i don't get bored with it. the problem is that it's all downhill one way, and all uphill the other.
this is great on the downhill side. this is not great on the uphill side.
it's not a steep grade or anything, but 1/2 mile of uphill is KILLER on the thighs. i spent most of yesterday hobbling around like an old woman.
last night i used the treadmill since adam had a meeting and i couldn't run until after the boys were in bed. generally speaking, i try not to leave them alone in the house while i go gallivanting around the countryside, so the treadmill it was. i set a custom program:
4min: 4mph and 4 incline
2min: 6.5mph and 0 incline
4min: 4mph and 4 incline
2min: 6.5mph and 0 incline
4min: 4mph and 2 incline
2min: 6.5mph and 0 incline
4min: 4mph and 2 incline
2min: 3.5mph and 0 incline
my treadmill splits your designated time evenly into 12 segments, and i programmed it for 24 minutes for 2 minutes per segment (the 4min sections are just 2 segments combined). as you can see, i'm still mostly walking (though my optimistic nature prefers to call it 'going for run'), but i'm working on that part; today i'm going to slightly increase the running and slightly decrease the walking for a total increase in time of 5 minutes, or 2.5 minutes per segment.
usually the treadmill is boring, so it was a good thing i re-discovered 'once upon a time' over the weekend. hello, netflix!
two days ago i finally managed to get back outside for a run. it had been nearly a month since the last one due to a stomach bug and a lingering cold, and then levi developed a habit of waking up to nurse at EXACTLY the time i would've been getting up to go outside or get on the treadmill. add the other pressures of full-time work, motherhood, and church commitments and you're left with a fitness-less several weeks. not acceptable.
sunday, though, the stars finally aligned enough for me to get out the door at about 8:30am while adam and the boys watched tv and ate breakfast and oh.my.gosh it was so hard......
...and it was so awesome.
i had only made it to about week three of rundouble's couch-to-5k training app when i took my long pause, so i decided to go back to the beginning of week two since i figured i'd lost quite a bit of fitness. it's a good thing.
let me explain my running route. you turn off our main road onto a long lane (about 1/2 mile, i think), and our driveway is about 100 yards down; i run up and down the lane since there's almost no traffic and it's a nice view of pastures, mountains, and fall foliage. i'm not running long distances yet, so i don't get bored with it. the problem is that it's all downhill one way, and all uphill the other.
this is great on the downhill side. this is not great on the uphill side.
it's not a steep grade or anything, but 1/2 mile of uphill is KILLER on the thighs. i spent most of yesterday hobbling around like an old woman.
last night i used the treadmill since adam had a meeting and i couldn't run until after the boys were in bed. generally speaking, i try not to leave them alone in the house while i go gallivanting around the countryside, so the treadmill it was. i set a custom program:
4min: 4mph and 4 incline
2min: 6.5mph and 0 incline
4min: 4mph and 4 incline
2min: 6.5mph and 0 incline
4min: 4mph and 2 incline
2min: 6.5mph and 0 incline
4min: 4mph and 2 incline
2min: 3.5mph and 0 incline
my treadmill splits your designated time evenly into 12 segments, and i programmed it for 24 minutes for 2 minutes per segment (the 4min sections are just 2 segments combined). as you can see, i'm still mostly walking (though my optimistic nature prefers to call it 'going for run'), but i'm working on that part; today i'm going to slightly increase the running and slightly decrease the walking for a total increase in time of 5 minutes, or 2.5 minutes per segment.
usually the treadmill is boring, so it was a good thing i re-discovered 'once upon a time' over the weekend. hello, netflix!