I did a 30-minute workout today and bumped the speed back up to 6.5, leaving the incline at 0. I had to put in a wee bit more effort, but that was good. Even better, I made sure not to touch the metal on the handgrips, so I did the entire workout without getting zapped. Woo. Upping the speed resulted in an average pace that was a whopping 43 seconds faster (from 9:49/km to 9:06/km). Despite that, I actually only burned 23 more calories. But 23 very intense calories.
The filter in our humidifier is not working optimally, so the humidity has been lower than we’d like (we’re replacing the filter soon). What this means is that the place is generally drier than it would normally be, and since it’s been quite cold and dry outside…twice, while on the treadmill for today’s workout, I got a nice static shock. Except not really nice.
The workout was the same speed/incline as yesterday, but only 30 minutes long (I walked to the store earlier in the day, so had less ground to make up). Somehow I managed to walk slower. How is that even possible? Science!
I missed runs on Wednesday and Friday due to all that dang snow and, as they say on the interweb, had a sad.
Today I was feeling lazy, but mid-afternoon I got on the treadmill, queued up some YouTube videos and did a not-overly strenuous walk until I hit my Exercise and Move goals.
It was kind of casual, but like I said, it was a lazy day.
Here is a depiction of how I felt, in convenient cat form:
Also, I ate a bag of kettle chips and felt guilty enough that going on the treadmill was inevitable.
I even tried something different–actual running! For one km, at least. I set the speed to 9 (pace of 6:40/km, which is well below my normal running pace) and the incline to 1 (to simulate wind resistance) and my shins almost immediately began to hurt. Was it the speed? The incline? Both? The phase of the moon? I bumped the speed up to 9.5 at one point, bringing it closer to my regular running pace, but it still felt uncomfortable, so then I walked with the speed set to 6.5 or 6.6 for the rest. Overall, a weird and not particularly pleasant experience.
I’m just going to have to get used to running in the rain again. Though today was not actually a run day.
I really wanted to get out and go for a walk, but the entire day was an extended torrential downpour, the kind that gets through everything and you end up soaked no matter what.
So I stayed inside and hit the treadmill mid-evening to complete my activity rings. Even though it wasn’t exactly a day bursting with activity, I still felt kind of tired and after trying a speed of 6.5 for a bit, set it back to 6. It was a very blah way to end the weekend, but I did sweat a little!
Tonight was a short slapdash effort to simply complete my activity rings before midnight, when I turn into a pumpkin that goes to bed and does not work on activity rings in any way.
I had legit reasons for not going out, too, but they shan’t be discussed on a blog (don’t worry, it’s nothing scandalous).
I started out at a speed of 6.0, but that ended up feeling pokey, so I switched to 6.5, which actually felt a bit too fast for my current energy level. I persevered till both Exercise and Move rings were complete, though. Also, I watched a Tech Chap video, and he’s easy on (my) eyes, so that helped. I’ll spend the rest of the evening talking in a faux British accent.
Today the rain got real, and I contemplated going for a walk, getting utterly drenched, then turned to the treadmill, which stood inside the perfectly dry condo, and did a workout on it, instead.
I bumped the speed back up to 6.5 (it was 6.0 for the previous workout) and managed to avoid flying off, even without holding onto the grips. The workout went fine. I went a bit past 30 minutes, completing my exercise goal, coming close to the move goal, and, most importantly, letting the current YouTube video playing on the iPad finish.
I’m pretty sure I missed one of these, but on we go.
Today I spent most of the day indoors, with my achy legs, and noshed and surfed and went on the deck for a bit to shoot some photos of birds on the wall garden. But mostly I just kind of existed, watching my various activity rings barely budge.
By 8 p.m. my move streak was at risk and I needed to do something to make up for all that noshing, so a treadmill walk it was.
I kept the speed lower and the incline to 1 (basically simulating walking outdoors) and walked until I hit two conditions:
Hit my Move goal
Finish watching the current YouTube video I was watching
It took 54:25 minutes and 5.65 km, but I did it!
I sweated way more than some of my recent runs. I may need to adjust the fans in here. Otherwise it was fine. I can probably bump the speed up a little, but tonight I was willing to sacrifice time in favour of a more moderate pace because I really just wanted to flake out to start with. This was evidenced by the fact that my speed was a long, graceful downward arc.
Today isn’t a workout day, but I did want to go for a pleasant afternoon walk to hit my exercise goal. As I prepared to don m walkin’ shoes, I noticed that it looked wet outside. Rain!
This is pretty normal for June, actually, so instead of waiting for the shower to pass, I jumped on the treadmill for a half hour of hands-free walking. It went fine, though I felt a bit wobbly at the start, having forgotten just how much leg power is needed to stay on the treadmill when you don’t cheat by hanging on with your hands.
The workout went fine otherwise, with stats very similar to the last workout, save for the expectedly lower BPM and calorie burn. I’ll celebrate with a giant tub of ice cream*!
The weather forecast today contained the words “atmospheric river” and that meant it was time to hit the treadmill!
I did a 5K “hands-free” workout and performance was very similar to the previous workout. I was slightly worse in most respects, and I blame that on being somewhat more enthralled with the videos I was watching on the iPad.
Other than that, it was fine, and I’m glad to have worked out, even if I would have preferred being out in the sun. Maybe in July, ho ho! Seriously, though, the 10-day forecast has some kind of rain listed every day except for one random Wednesday. Not that I’m asking for another heat dome, mind you!
Today is a run day. It also happens to be pouring like crazy out there, so hard the rain was banging like a drum off gutters and things.
I opted to stay inside and do a 5K workout on the treadmill using my new hands-free “real workout” technique!
Because it’s been warm and wet, it’s also been a tad humid and for security reasons, I don’t work out on the treadmill with the deck door of the living room opened, so I ended up sweating a lot. Like, a whole lot. Copious amounts. Almost excessively. I can also vouch that doing a full 5K hands-free definitely feels like a bigger effort than hands-on.
That said, it all went well, and my pace improved over the previous outing, too. I also burned more than a few calories, which puddled around my feet.
After reading that holding onto the hand grips during a treadmill walkout is a Bad Thing (because it takes a lot of work off your legs) and while also feeling lazy today about going out for a run, I decided to try a treadmill workout hands-free. Good news: I didn’t fall off!
I set the speed to the usual 6.5 (pace of 9:13/km) but set the incline to 3 instead of 5 to see how that would go. It definitely felt weird to not be holding on, but in the end it turned out I really didn’t need to. I’ve been needlessly wimping out this entire time! I went for 30 minutes rather than the usual 45ish, so next time I will go longer and may bump the incline back up to 5 to see how that goes, then I’ll be able to see a true direct comparison between holding out/easy mode and testing just how coordinated I really am on top of moving objects.
No issues during the workout. Note the increased BPM. It’s like I really was working harder! The pace was slower because I could not count on the steely grip of my hands saving me from going splat.
Stats:
Speed: 6.5
Incline: 3 (down from 5)
Pace: 9:01/km (8:43/km)
Time: 30:03 (44:09)
Distance: 3.33 km (5.06 km)
Calories burned: 252 (332)
BPM: 126 (121)
