Long Run and Playdates

 Saturday was a long run in the basement with Doris Day and Cary Grant.   I kept the treadmill at a 1% incline and ran easy for the first 45 minutes and then at marathon pace for 10 minutes with a 5 minute cool down. 

Every time that I stopped in the first 45 was to either help the boys resolve a disagreement or let Tucker take a turn – he loves to run too. Ha!
 Two minutes into the 10 at mp (8mph, not 7:51 – my watch isn’t accurate with gps off), I started to worry that I wouldn’t be able to maintain it for 10 minutes, so I stopped. That was a silly thing to do. I tried again and, wouldn’t you know, I really could do it. 

After running and house cleaning, we dropped Jackson off for a play date 
  and Tucker got my undivided attention in the nerf aisle at Target where he showed me his Christmas wish list. 
   After that, we stopped for ice cream because ice cream and tank tops are a must on a snowy day. 😉

That smile. It gets me every time. 
  

The Ultimate Treadmill Workout

In my quest to build a better running base, I ordered The Ultimate Treadmill Workout from Amazon. It came earlier this week while I was in Chicago and I gave Week 1, Run 1 a go this morning as it was super windy outside. The downside was that I forgot to let Ruger out before leaving for work. Oops. Good thing he doesn’t mind holding it. I drove home anyway just in case he decided to let loose and he was fine. In fact, he acted confused when I opened the back door for him, but I digress. 

Back to the workout. 

 I walked for 5 minutes and did this dynamic stretching routine from Runner’s World as a warm up. The book didn’t talk about warming up, but I always do anyway just to get my body used to the idea of moving……and because it helps prevent injury. 

The run was basically 1 minute intervals with a 1 minute recovery at a progressively increasing incline. There was a 2 minute recovery in the middle and then decreasing incline while in easing speed. The idea is that the last minute interval should make you feel “maxed out”. I wasn’t sure how difficult the intervals would be so I didn’t run them hard enough. I also had trouble remembering which button to push on my watch to start track the next interval. A hint: it’s the exact same one every time.

Here’s my Garmin info: 

  

  

In other news; after today, I only have to run 40.3 miles before the end of the year to reach 1,000 miles for the year.