10 Reasons To Love The Treadmill!

"10 Reasons To Love The Treadmill"

I saw this title of an article on the internet a couple of weeks ago (can’t remember if it was RunnersWord or The Running Blog). I didn’t read the article but decided to see if I could come up with my own reasons to love treadmills, especially as I mainly use treadmills for training rather than running outside. Here goes:

Run anytime:  When you have a treadmill at home or a gym membership you can run whenever you want to!Whether you’re an early bird or a night owl there is an ideal time for you! Personally, I don’t feel safe running in the dark, you never know who is around, and I know my parents wouldn’t want me running around the dark streets near my house alone! With a treadmill you can run late at night if that is what you prefer without the added danger.

Climate control: no debating whether to run in the rain, whether to slip over on the ice or brave the gorgeous sunshine to sweat to death. With a treadmill you can just go and run, if it is warm turn on the air con, if it’s cooler, don’t. I give you the power to control the weather for your run ;)

Distractions: Other things apart from your ability and current mood can play havoc with your time! Aiming for a personal best? I don’t think so, not with slow people blocking the pavements, cars parked up on the curb and people riding bikes on the pavement. I understand other people have just as much of a right to be walking on the pavements as we do running on them but on the treadmill it’s just you, yourself and the open machine!

No carrying a water bottle, phone, iPod, keys etc: you can throw everything in a locker and your phone/iPod and water in the water bottle holder on the treadmill! I find it awkward when I go out for a run if I want to take my phone (safety) my Ipod, a bottle of water and my keys to get back in my house. And I always worry about things falling out of my pockets and losing them, especially my keys.

No having to ditch layers during your run: so it’s freezing outside, and in order to brave the cold you need running tights, top, jumper, coat, gloves and a hat! But 10 minutes in, you’re sweating, what do you do with your layers? You can’t not wear them at all can you? Or put them in a locker? With a treadmill you can, you can run in your PJ’s if you wish, only at home though, not at the gym!

Speed: if you have a pace target it can be difficult to stick to this, or even exceed it if you don’t know the pace you are running, a treadmill can set your pace and you can always see it in front of you, adjusting it up or down accordingly.

Incline: Easier to do hill training whenever you want: finding an outdoor hill is not a challenge for me, I live surrounded by hills! But for some it can be difficult! Want to do a 2k run up a steep hill for training? Go for it, it’s easy on a treadmill, just incline it!

Entertainment value: as amazing as the views can be on an outdoor run can be, and I’m not disputing this(!) sometimes all you see is grey pavement, grey sky and boring houses. Why not watch your favourite TV programme? That film you never got to see in the cinema that’s on the TV and you’d miss if you were out for a run? It’s called multitasking! Watch TV or a film whilst you run and sometimes the view may be better, plus the time can fly by!

Distance: Using a treadmill you can set an exact distance you want to run (if you want to be precise) rather than running around the block 3 and a half times until you get to the 5k you’d planned.

Unwanted substances: In the gym and on the treadmill (hopefully) there is no dog poo, which I have seen a lot of on the pavements running outdoors; is it so hard to pick it up? Surely if you have a dog and take it out for a walk, you have the responsibility of clearing up after it? Sorry rant over. Also unexpected pot holes and uneven pavements aren’t good for your ankles! 

So there is my 10 reasons to love the treadmill, I could probably come up with more but they would start to get silly! 

I haven't blogged in a few days because I've not really had much to say, I have not been running and although I'm new to it, I really don't like it! Friday I went to the Ab Box class but didn't go in the gym afterwards. I wasn't going to run I was going to use the cross trainer but after doing squats, squat jumps and star jumps I thought it was best to leave my knees. Because I can only feel my knees hurting whilst I am running I went for a walk on Saturday. A nice brisk (but cold) walk, and it turns out at 5.85k it could be decent running route if made up slightly to 6k. There are a few hills, both up and down so would be good to up my outdoor distance when running again.

Today I had planned to go to the gym and to try and run and if not go on the cross trainer. Then I looked out the window and it was freezing! I thought it was pointless driving to the gym to just use the cross trainer when I have a cross trainer at home. I planned to do an hour on the cross trainer today because I know the distance on my cross trainer goes up fast and it doesn't seem to burn many calories. 

I completed 50 minutes on the cross trainer, covering 19km and burning 430 calories. To be honest, I don't know why I didn't either round it up to an hour or 20km. The programme I was watching on iPlayer went off so I stopped, silly really.

I am going away tomorrow for a couple of days so I won't be in the gym but hopefully I will be doing some walking. BUT I was also probably be eating awfully for 2 days so a lengthy gym session is needed on Thursday. This week is not going to be a good week for either food or exercise but we all have our setbacks. I will try my best and not deliberately pig out and will get back to it on Monday. Hopefully by Monday I will be able to run again and I can carry on training. I will only increase my distance slowly this time as I think I did too much too soon before.

Anyway I am off to bed with a hot chocolate as I'm finally back to Uni tomorrow and then off for a lovely trip away. Sorry for the long post and I'll update you all when I'm back on Thursday.

Love and happy running!

X

Words, Words, Words.

Disappointed.
Annoyed.

Aggravated.

Upset.

Frustrated.

Let Down.

Disheartened.

My current feelings with my running after another failed attempt at 5k due to bad knees.

Time for rest!

Love x

Wiggling Wednesday

Just a quick update of my Wednesday Weigh In, and my exercise for today. As I've said in previous posts (here) I work on a Wednesday night so usually spend the morning doing nothing and the afternoon with my boyfriend. Last week I went for an (outdoor) run and this week I went to Dance Aerobics, an Abs Class and then a quick half an hour in the gym! The instructor for the dance aerobics just kept telling us to wiggle, which most certainly made me and my friend laugh and laughing is good exercise right? I burnt 619 calories which is a good effort for a 'lazy Wednesday'.

I ran 2.7k in the gym to make my km's at a nice round number and I aim to run 5 or 6 tomorrow (depending on how I feel and how my knee's feel!) They felt fine today so hopefully it was just a blip!

After my Wednesday weigh day, I have lost one more pound. At first I was disappointed but I soon realised it is healthy to lose one pound a week, if I was losing much more than this, especially as its week 3 and I am building muscle. As I don't have a lot of weight to lose, this is a good result. In 3 weeks I have lost 5 pounds, 5 pounds out of the 13 I aim to lose. Hopefully I can stay on track!

Love x

[Insert Good Title Here]

The last 24 have been a whirlwind (more like a breeze really) of emotions. My Sunday post showed my optimism and excitement for the week ahead, especially in regards to training and running. I was still full of this enthusiasm until about 7 o clock last night when I got to the gym, as soon as I pulled on the car park I knew it would be very busy, but not quite as busy as I expected. I thought 'ah well I have new shoes' and looked down at my new shoes which I purchased earlier that day! 

I was hoping all the 'newyearsresolutioners' would have disappeared by now but by the looks of it Monday night is the best night to go. There were people waiting, almost queing, for all the machines and I just wanted to turn around and walk out but I had a 5k planned so I thought I better get on with it, when I could get on a treadmill anyway. The only machine free was the wave machine (which looks  like this!)

 I jumped on that and kept my eye open for a treadmill to become free. After about 10/15 minutes one finally did! I started with a brisk walk on the treadmill and decided to run. All of a sudden BAM! a pain in my knees that I've never felt before and not just one of my knees both of them! I couldn't understand why! I've had 2 rest days (Saturday and Sunday) where I did no exercise, although this was more due to the inability to walk down the stairs and not by choice! I managed a 3k walk/run but had to give up after that! I felt awful because I had 5k planned but was slightly consolidated by the fact that I'd been for a 3.3k walk earlier in the day!

I did a few 5 minute little exercises on the bike and the arm machine but decided it was time to go home, have a hot chocolate and feel sorry for myself, and I most certainly enjoyed my hazelnut hot chocolate in my pj's! I felt totally and utterly drained when I got home so around 10 o clock I went to bed, but was wide awake with a niggling feeling that something was wrong, like I'd failed myself. This may sound really stupid now, but it's what I felt at the time. I know its not the end of the world that I dropped 2k, especially since my 10k isn't until May.

On a more positive not I have decided a date for my first parkrun and I'm planning to do one once a month to give me some more incentive! I will (definitely) be completing a parkrun on the 11th February. Which gives me 2 and a half weeks.I will be back at uni by the so won't be able to train on a Friday so that will give me a good rest day before the race.

So yesterday I bought new running shoes and planned my first parkrun, which put me in a more positive mood for today's gym session, and I was just hoping my knees felt ok! I had some motivation but not a whole lot, I just felt a little deflated to be honest! I started running today and could feel my knees so I decided to run less distance and try and do a few sprints(ish). I ran on 10.5km/h for one minute and walked for one minutes. Once I'd gotten in to the running my knees felt fine so I ran until 5k. It was a lot easier running faster than I thought it would be. I'm not measuring my time at the moment, just trying to get the distances done. Despite A LOT of walking, I did the 5k in 40.19 minutes and burnt 352 calories.

With my poor workout yesterday, maybe not too poor, I think I'm just being to hard on myself, I burtn 458 calories. I did more today and felt like I had a better workout and burnt 674 calories. So I'm in a much better mood today and can't wait to watch the Biggest Loser later.
I have 2 classes booked at the gym for this week but may go to 3. I have completed 11.6km of my planned 22km's so I'm easily on track to get this, and maybe even beat it! We'll have to see how my legs and knees hold up!

It's weigh day tomorrow so I'll keep you updated on my weight loss progress too!

Love x

Sunday Summary

So it's Sunday, the start of a fresh new week tomorrow! I am finding that I am excited when Monday rolls around because I have a new food plan and a new distance target for my running! I have been kindly and rightly advised to listen to my body, so the last two days have been rest days. After running and exercising 5 days in a row I think I needed it! I feel much better and much more refreshed and I am raring to go tomorrow! I think rethought my distance plan and my aim is to now increase my distance by 10% each week and take at least 2 rest days a week.I want to be prepared for my 10k not injured.

My legs are feeling much better but my abs are still pretty achy so I think just running is on the agenda tomorrow (5k target). I have been having a few problems with my one too (ingrowing toe nail maybe? does anyone else have this problem?) but after a long soak in the bath and some Germolene, it is feeling much better and hopefully will be ok tomorrow, if not I may be off to the doctors!

This week I have ran 21km, exceeding my target of 20km and have burnt 3901 calories through just exercise.

Weigh In:
09/01: 9st 10
11/01: 9st 9
18/01: 9st 6
Weight lost: 4lbs 


Total distance to date: 39km <-- Pretty impressive (for me) in two weeks! :)

Time to go to sleep and look forward to a new week.

Love x

Achinngggg!

So after my abs and boxing class and a 4k run yesterday I am aching all over! I am struggling to walk up and down the stairs and it has been raining all day so my Saturday walk today has been postponed until next week. I really really enjoyed the ab and boxing class yesterday and because I thought it would be mainly upper body I had planned to go into the gym for a run after. We used our legs a lot more than I thought, doing ducks, squats, squat kicks and sitting on an imaginary seat against the wall (I don't know the name for this one). My whole body is aching, I felt much better once I was up dressed and popped up to the shop but there was no way I could have walked any further than the front door to the car and back again! I'm quite dissapointed in a way because I really wanted to do some form of exercise today, only a walk because I was going to have a break from running. I had run everyday this week so far, so five days in a row. This doesn't sound very impressive compared to janathon participants or anyone who has run for 100 days in a row but for me it is an achievement! I am planning to run tomorrow afternoon because I'm doing an early shift tomorrow at work, a lovely 8 til 2, so I may use the twitter inspiration to do a long Sunday run! (well long for me anyway)

Today I have done nothing, just sitting around, planning my food for next week and making some flapjack.

Oaty seedy fruity nutty healthy bites? Do you think that is catchy enough? ;) I made this recipe up myself so here it is!

Ingredients
110g Utterly Buttery or low fat spread
4 tbsps Honey
100g Oats
30g Sunflower Seeds
10g Coconut (you could leave this out as you can't really taste it!)
15g Mixed Peel
15g Mixed Fruit Mix
30g Raisins

Method

1. Put the butter and the honey into a saucepan and heat gently until the honey and butter has melted. Remove from the heat and stir in all the remaining dry ingredients.
2. Press the mixture into a greased 28cm x 18cm (11" x 7") baking tin and level the top.
3. Cook in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes at 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 until the biscuit is golden brown. Mark it into bars while it is still hot. Cool slightly, then cut into slices. Remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.

I worked this out as for the whole thing being 1541 calories, so you can just divide this by however many pieces you cut it into. I cut mine into bite size pieces (approx 25).  This recipe may need a bit of tweaking, out of the 25 pieces I probably got around 17 that looked good, some of the others fell apart or were the edges so too crispy. More butter and honey may be needed but I wanted to keep the calorie count down.


I have been pretty good this week (apart from drinking some wine last night) so I am off for a Saturday treat, a meal out with my boyfriend. I am planning to be as good as I can but all will power may go out the window as soon as I walk in. I'll let you know.

Love x

6k run done!

As you've probably guessed I have a plan of what I want to run each day. Today my plan was 5k and a Key Toning Class at the gym. I turned up at around 12.05 and gave the receptionist my card as asked for the Key Toning class at 12.15 and she told me where to go. I could hear the music and assumed the instructor was playing the music to get everyone in the mood. I opened the door and everyone was already going for it, working their poor ab muscles on the floor with what seemed like a devil woman screaming at them. I quickly closed the door and went back to reception and said that they'd already started and I'd just use the gym instead. Admittedly, I was slightly annoyed when the receptionist said "oh yeah, I think she started at 12 cause she thought everyone was here." WHY WOULD EVERYONE BE THERE MORE THAN 15 MINUTES EARLY? Its quite a new class so I don't see why she'd do this as there wouldn't be usual regulars going or anything, and even if there were regulars, are new people not allowed to join in? Its a good job I'm a member and didn't have to pay otherwise I would have demanded a refund because to be honest, that's just unfair!

So rant over...
I went in the gym and planned to do 5k, I started on the 'wave' machine for 5 minutes to warm up and then went across to the treadmill. I actually started pretty well doing a 2 minute run 30 second walk sequence, doing some 3 minute and some 4 minute runs.I did 5k and then decided to carry on for another kilometer so I did 6k. This is the longest I've ran in one go so far! And I really enjoyed it, and I felt like I'd achieved something, and extra km was even far! I think I will either do 5k or 6k tomorrow and go for a 5k walk on Saturday. May even have chance to do a run on Sunday which I am quite looking forward to!

Stats:
Distance: 6k
Time: 47.05 mins
Calories: 432
Speed: 7.7km/h average speed

Love x