Today’s Workout – Semi-Tempo Run
Total Mileage: 13.10 miles
Total Time: 2:00:00
Average Pace: 9:09 min/pace
Today for the first time in several weeks I did not want to run. Nope not one bit. I wanted to sit and not do anything. I don’t know if it was the fact that I was just tired from yesterday or what but I just sat here and fought with myself for a couple of hours before anything happened.
I had two ideas in my head of what I wanted to do.
1. Stay home and use the home treadmill for some kind of mild speed/tempo workout.
2. Run to the gym (5.5 miles), do a small speed workout, and then run back home.
Each had their pros and cons, but option 1 ended up winning because honestly I didn’t want to think much.
I quickly came up with a simple workout that would incorporate some speed and would make the monotony of the treadmill not quite as bad.
The workout went pretty well. I wanted to keep a little speed work in it but didn’t want to over do it because yesterday my 10k also worked as a tempo workout so I knew my legs would be a little tired. I wanted top stop 2 miles in and highly considered it, but thankfully I kept going and my body slowly got into it.
I was quite the sweaty mess afterwards, but I really think I needed it today.
This is an attempt to show you how sweaty I was, but I am not quite sure it shows it well enough.
I thought I’d share with you my home treadmill. We have it set up in our “study/work” room.
The treadmill is a Sole F80 and was a present from my in-laws last year when Wes finished his boards for medical school. The main purpose for getting a treadmill at home was to help with early morning workouts, especially during the cold winter months in Erie.
I really do love our treadmill, and if you have any questions about purchasing a treadmill for your home let me know because we did quite a lot of research before deciding on the F80.
I end up using the treadmill more often then my husband, but it definitely is a bit harder running on it. You don’t have anyone pushing you and you are completely by yourself. Sometimes I go to the gym just to make sure I don’t chicken out of my workout, but recently I have had some pretty good workouts on the treadmill.
Along with the treadmill we have quite the assortment of foam rollers, workout balls, and random other recovery related items.
We also have some weights, which I will be completely honest haven’t been used in a couple months.
That is our at home workout area for you. It’s not a lot, and most of the time we still hit up the gym (though I am canceling my membership at the end of this month) but it is nice to have the option to workout at home.
Do you have any workout items at home? Do you belong to a gym?
Check back tonight for a new product review and GIVEAWAY! I promised you it was coming!
Not surprisingly I have nothing (since I run outdoors >300 days a year) … but we did have an elliptical that my wife used (works well with her bad arthritis), sadly it died a horrible death of twisted metal this year. She has been walking and using the Wii for yoga, etc … but we’re getting something else soon. Thanks for the opinion on the F80!
Looking for those types of machines can be overwhelming! I enjoy having it during the winter mostly, I am not quite as brave as you and my husband at braving the crazy winter weather!
Brave? My wife (and many others) have a different word 😉
That looks like a nice treadmill! I used to go to gym at our old apartment complex last winter, but we’ve since moved. I will need a treadmill come winter for sure – we just have an old crappy one right now. Way to get in a great run even when you didn’t feel like it! Question about your training – do you do rest days? You seem really knowledgable on training so I was curious what you thought of them? Thanks for any input! 🙂
This is a tricky question because every person is different. I currently do not have a rest day. When I was working full time I took one rest day a week and that was on Friday. Now instead of a rest day I do a shorter VERY slow and VERY easy run. I find that if I do this it seems to help my legs recover. That being said I do believe in rest days and sometimes they are 100% needed. I would shoot for 1-2 a week. When I am employed again I will probably go back to taking them, schedules change everything when it comes to training and resting.
Totally agree with what Sara said.
I did a 95 day streak of at least 5 miles per day, with an average of 7.5 miles … and it was Nov – Jan (so avg temp on my runs was <20F). During that time I really build up an appreciation of the value of the 'easy run'. I had read about it but could never actually bring myself to do it that way.
Now I tend to run 6 days and make 1 day an easy run. But I will occasionally not take a day off, and sometimes take 2 days if I get more family time … but not stress too much either way
Oh boy I have those days too. I have to negotiate with myself-it’s pretty pathetic. Ha! But I’m so happy you pushed through.
I don’t have a treadmill- I’m a run outside rain, snow or landslide kind of girl. Running on a treadmill kinda takes all the joy out of running for me, so I try to avoid it if at all possible.