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)
Dissatisfied already with the results I’ve been getting with the speed set to 6.7, I bumped it up to 6.8 around the 15-mniue mark of today’s workout. This works out to an average of 8:49/km, which is a pretty zippy walking pace. The incline is still set to 5, which translates to a 5% grade (it goes up to 15, which is very steep).
The result was an improved pace of 8:43/km. I should add that I read the following just now when looking up how the incline increments translate (I couldn’t recall if it was a one-to-one on percentage of incline, which it is):
Before you start tinkering with the incline knob or button on your treadmill, it’s important to first ensure your form is on point. A lot of people naturally feel the need to lean back in order to compensate for the increased incline. Still others hold onto the hand rails. Both are big no-nos say pros.
Hanging on to the machine reduces activation of the leg muscles, which essentially defeats the purpose of increasing incline. So, whether you are walking, running, or sprinting, you should never set the incline or speed so high that you can’t move hands-free with proper form.
Well, whoopsy-doodle, I have been holding onto the front-facing handles (that also measure heart rate) all this time because a speed of 6.5 or above is high enough that it’s hard to stay stable on the treadmill without doing so. How much have I been cheating myself out of a good workout? At least a little, it seems. Maybe I should go back to doing runs at a 1% incline. Or just go back outside. Things to ponder.
It was actually a nice day today, with the sun out and everything. It got to 17C, which is almost (almost!) the normal temperature. But because it was a day of chores and errands, I ended up doing another treadmill workout instead of a run. I only kind of regret it, mostly because the next time I go to do a run it will almost certainly be raining.
And then I was slower again today than the previous workout, despite not feeling tired like I did last time. I also forgot to set the speed to 6.7 and so the first part was 6.5, which may have also had a slight effect.
Today was the first time since I upped the speed that the workout felt like a real workout. Around the 3K mark, I began to feel tired, and my pace started to flag. I picked up toward the end, but as you’ll see my lightning pace of yesterday has been tempered somewhat.
I didn’t have any issues per se, just feeling tired partway through. I can’t say for sure why this happened. Too much exercise? Not enough sleep? Incubating an alien? Who can say?
The sun actually came out this afternoon, woo, and I thought about going out for a run! Yay, run!
Instead, I laid on the bed and had a bit of a nap, which is pretty much the opposite of running. Afterward I felt slightly refreshed, but significantly guilty, so I was off to the treadmill for a late afternoon workout.
The results were very similar to yesterday, though my pace was just a tad faster. Everything went fine, so there’s not much else to say.
It’s like January out there. Steady rain and only 9C in the middle of the afternoon. Global warming, amirite? (I am right.)
I did another morning workout when I couldn’t pick a task to focus on. A treadmill very much requires focus once you climb on and push the start button.
Today I set the speed to 6.7 from the start, curious to see how much of a difference it would make. Behold: My pace of 8:41/km, which is indeed my best pace yet! I also wore the orthotics in my shoes, and my left foot seems happier as a result. The faster pace led to a not-unexpected increase in BPM but it’s still low, so in all I am happy with the change. I’ll keep this setting for the next handful of workouts, then adjust the speed further (faster) if and when I start to plateau on this setting.