Happy, happy Friday!
When I run outside I am happy to keep a comfortable pace while I listen to music or an audiobook, enjoy the scenery and zone out. On the other hand, when I run on the treadmill I need a lot more stimulation.
One way that I entertain myself is by reviewing BodyPump choreography if I’m scheduled to teach in the next couple of days. It keeps my mind busy and not focused on the very slowly passing time. The other way I entertain myself is by turing my treadmill runs into challenging workouts with sprint intervals while I listen to really upbeat and motivating music. I wanted to share with you the treadmill workout that I have been doing for the last few months. It’s a 5K run with varying sprint intervals.
It usually takes me a few minutes to get warmed up and my mind ready when I get on the treadmill so I start with an easy 10 minute warm up jog at a really comfortable pace. I’m usually about a mile in by the time this is done and then I up the pace and move into 10 minutes of intervals. For the first five I do a 45 second work/15 second rest while increasing the pace slightly every rest interval. By the time the first five minutes are up I have worked into a pace that is challenging to maintain for 45 seconds. I then reduce the work to 20 seconds and rest 10 seconds for the next five minutes, which is essentially 10 tabata intervals. I continue to up the speed during this time too so that the last few intervals are really fast and really hard but doable because you’re only on for 20 seconds.
By the time the second 10 minutes is up I’m usually about 2.3-2.5ish miles in and I reduce the pace and jog out the rest of the 5K to recover. The entire workout usually takes anywhere from 25-27ish minutes. I noted the treadmill speed that I generally use for this workout above but the workout can be performed in the same way whether you’re faster or slower. I always feel like I got a really great cardio session in after doing this treadmill interval workout. It’s quick and effective!
Try it out and let me know what you think!
In other food and fitness news…
Thursday lunch was a salad with greens, artichokes, feta, pecans, red pepper, cucumbers, tomatoes, dried cranberries, chick peans and grilled chicken with white balsamic.
Dinner was a burger with chili aioli and a side of avocado with roasted baby potatoes and roasted brussels and mushrooms.
After salad overdose this week, lunch today was a blackened turkey sandwich on locally baked eight-grain bread with feta greek dressing, avocado, turkey bacon, tomato and muenster along with some salt and vinegar kettle chips and grapes and raspberries.
As far as workouts go, I did the above treadmill workout yesterday while reviewing BodyPump notes and then taught BodyPump. Class was AWESOME and my body felt AWESOME! I was grinning ear to ear the whole time. Love those days!
Today was just early AM yoga to stretch it out after yesterday’s tough workouts.
How do you stay sane on the treadmill?
