Tag Archives: treadmill

Apr 06 2015
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My Story, Trots

Hamster Ball

It has been a long time since I last wrote without the purpose being work, school, or dictionary- length to do lists.

So once again I come back to my blog, my old friend who I have been avoiding only for productivity related reasons, I swear. It’s not you, it’s me.

My workouts are still going, and my running is still going,

I am less than a month away from a 5km race that I signed up for after running for three 2- minute intervals and it seemed liked a good idea. It must have been the runner’s high. As of now I have one 5km run under my belt in a time of 26:07. At least I’m not risking over training and burning out.

My post- surgery PB is 24:32 so that is my ultimate goal regardless of what my physio might tell you. I’ve got a ways to go but I’ve learned to never doubt what your legs can do on race day. Or maybe the lesson is to never doubt what your heart can make your legs do.

The weather in Toronto is still anti- running (says my inner 80 year old) and as much as I’ve always boycotted “riding the treadmill”, after several months of doing my best my hamster in a ball impression on said treadmill, I’m finding it hard to drag myself out in the blasting wind and freezing temperatures. Apparently missing outdoor runs has aged my attitude about weather by a few decades. Very fitting, as it now matches my 80 year old perspective on… pretty much everything else.

April is a good time to re-evaluate your fitness goals for the year that you probably set in January with the best intentions but then forgot about at the first sight of cake. It is time to get out your thesaurus in an attempt to make your goals sound different than the unaccomplished attempts of January and get back on the horse. Or hamster ball, as the case may be.

There is still a lot of 2015 to come; keep your eyes on the prize, my friends.

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Dec 20 2014
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My Story, Ramblings, Trots

The Next Four Minutes

At what point does a comeback just evolve back into life?

I was running on the treadmill yesterday- doing my four minute run interval absolutely overwhelmed with excitement at the idea of my four minute run interval- wondering to myself at what point my comeback morphs into the daily grind of a gym goer.

Every day of work that I put in feels like another brick and mortar of recovery and it motivates me to keep pushing further from the day I caught my leg in my pants, fell down, and couldn’t get up. Maybe I am back to regular workout status once people stop interrupting my workouts to ask me, “How is your (enter any mixture of injured body parts here)?”

Now that I am running again (on a treadmill, for four minutes at a time) I am in a permanent state of runner’s high. My body was in withdrawal for almost two years, and now that I have had a reminder of how it feels, I’m in a constant state of awaiting my next four minutes.

Maybe we would all benefit from the comeback mindset. The mental setting that we have much progress ahead of us, and each step forward is a milestone worth telling the world about. Every time we finish a workout there is a crowded arena screaming our name. Every time we lift heavier, our name is in the paper for setting new records. And every single rep we complete, we can remind ourselves, “I couldn’t do this before”.

With the mental, physical, real, and imagined highs of the comeback journey, there must be the moments that bring our feet and faces back down to the ground; the universe giving us a friendly reminder that we aren’t as invincible as we briefly consider ourselves to be. Considering yourself to be in a “safe” place usually means that your face is about to hit the ground, so maybe embracing the comeback status is protective.

As long as progress continues, combined with the awareness there is much ground to cover, I suppose it doesn’t need any label other than that.

 

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Feb 21 2014
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In The Gym

Olympic State of Mind

I just read an article about how us average folk are hitting the gym with an extra oomph to our workouts as we watch the Olympics and decide to train like Olympians ourselves. Although it was well written and it justified the author’s opinion, I disagree.

I am not even joking that I was going to blog about my surprise at the lack of energy in the gym during the Olympics. Athletes are displaying phenomenal strengths and skills on screens throughout the gym as members intently watch their own reflections doing bodyweight calf raises.

This article is concerned that people can’t train like Olympians and will get hurt. First of all, where are these people? Secondly, without intending to be rude, let me just say that the average person does not know how Olympians train and Google can only help them so much. Unless you don’t work and have access to an extremely talented (enter sport here) coach then you are out of luck. Unless someone brings their hockey stick to practise their wrist shot, or sings the national anthem before they start, I don’t think we should panic. Safety in the gym is always a concern but enthusiasm translating into intensity sounds good to me.

Let’s talk about something that is much more dangerous: watching the Olympics while doing cardio. I felt good, had new music on my iPod, and after 45 minutes of weights, I headed to the treadmill for a 20 minute run.

Some things you I would like to share about myself: I have a background in dance, a little bit in figure skating, and I’m a spaz when I’m excited.

And I turned on the Olympics just in time to watch the ice dance finals. You know how when you’re talking to someone who is shocked and your face makes a shocked face too? I did the body language version of this. In public. While trying to run. My limbs were completely out of control and I was careening around as much as the treadmill would let me. By the time I was ready to get off, I wasn’t sure if my increased heart rate was from the run or from the nerves of competing in the ice dance against the TV.

If anything, we should be concerned for the people who are training while watching and not those channeling their Olympic state of mind into their workouts. Treadmills should be off limits for the gold medal hockey game …

hurdle

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