Monday, October 09, 2006

Faster than, well, before

This morning I ran my fastest treadmill mile ever. My 1 mile time was 8:14 and that was absolutely as fast as I could possibly sustain for a mile. I'm not fast and I'll likely never be fast, but I'm faster than I've ever been before. Maybe someday I'll run a sub 8-minute mile. I'll work on that. I've probably never written the word fast so many times in one paragraph in reference to myself. The unfortunate part of trying to run the fastest mile that I could was that I had a workout class right after that and it was rough. Today starts the newest 12-week session of classes at the gym. I'm so fortunate that my gym is about 200 steps from my desk at work- the on-site fitness center is the absolute best "perk" about my job- other than the paycheck, of course. Here's what I will be doing for the next 12 weeks.

Monday- Friday I get up at 4:30am (well, 4:33 to be exact because it's the latest I can get up and still be on time) to be at the gym at 5:30am when it opens. Group classes usually start at 6am so I use the elliptical trainer or treadmill for about 20 minutes before class.
Monday 6am- Cardio intervals. It's a class of 30-60 second burst of intense cardio with 15-30 second cool downs. Some light weights to still keep it aerobic are thrown in.
Tuesday 6am- Butts and Gutts. Core and weights focusing on, well, butts and gutts.
Tuesday 12:10pm- Spin. 45 minute spin class.
Wednesday- 5:30- 5:55am- boot camp. A high intensity aerobic/weight workout with stuff like mountain climbers, pushing the weight bags, etc.
Wednesday- Day off from 6am weight class to run longer distances- still on the treadmill because it's too dark outside at 6am.
Thursday- 5:45am- spin class, 40 minutes.
Thursday- 6:30am- yoga fitness, 20 minute yoga stretch/strength.
Friday 6am- Total Body Conditioning. Weight workout focusing on higher weights to really exhaust the muscle groups.
I may end up taking a few Wed. mornings off from boot camp in order to swim. We'll see. I'm just not as motivated to swim these days. I don't think I work out hard enough on my own with swimming.

This whole plan could easily be derailed by a lack of sleep. Last night I was up with both M. and C. overnight. C. ended up sleeping in our bed and then a couple hours later, M. woke up and I ended up in his (twin) bed with him. I don't need any feedback on how their bad sleeping habits are our fault. They can usually make it through the night on their own but they've both been out of sorts lately so I do what gets everyone as much sleep as possible. But still, getting through class on something around 5 hours sleep was rough. That's life, I guess. That's also another reason I won't be training for anything like an Ironman until everyone is old enough to sleep through the night.

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