5 Mile Morning

This week I upped my morning exercise routine. I was doing 30 minutes 3-4 days per week on the elliptical with a 5 minute cool-down. Most of those days, I did programs - either the weight loss, interval, or glutes. It dawned on me that since I was refusing to move over to the treadmill, that I would be better suited to to a more flat workout on the elliptical than one of the programs that have me doing crazy elevations. Truth be told, the higher up the elliptical goes, the easier it is to do (at least for me anyway).

I focused this week on doing 40 minutes on the elliptical with a 5 minute cool-down, running it on the "choose your own adventure program". This mean I put it at an elevation of 6 which was relatively flat. I then started off doing an 8 resistance for 3 sections of time (each section is 2 minutes and 40 seconds), then I moved to 9 for 3 sections of time, then to 10, then back to 9, then to 8.

I found myself running out of steam about midway through. It wasn't that I was incapable of the workout and it wasn't that I didn't finish it, but I think it had a lot to do with the fact that I wasn't eating before my workouts and I was burning somewhere between 680 and 700 calories per workout.

In November, my doctor put me on a thyroid medication. This was after my thryoid had been monitored for 6 months to see if it would self-correct, but alas...it did not. The medication must be taken in the morning and it must be taken 30 minutes before you eat any food. This sucks considering I was already getting up at 4:45am to go do my morning workouts. Obviously, I knew something had to give, so I experimented. On Thursday night, I went to bed at 9:15pm (like I was a 12 year old). I set my alarm for 4:15am, got up and took my pill. I got ready for the gym, played my Facebook games until 4:45am, and then I ate some breakfast and headed to the gym. I felt infinitely better and had a great workout!

This leads me today! Before this morning's run, my longest run (non-stop) was last weekend's 5K which was 3.1 miles. I decided to go to Meyer Park and do my run on their trail which is 1.27 miles. My plan was to do 3 laps. I woke up naturally (nice to have some sleep for once), made myself a bowl of oatmeal (from the cannister, not from a packet and substituting one shot glass worth of water for a shot glass full of Torani Sugar Free Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Syrup). I had hoped to do a 3 minute run / 1 minute walk program - the first time I was going to attempt to incorporate structure to my run.

The first mile is always the hardest for me. This time was no different - only the first mile lasted 1.27 miles - the length of the trail. I guess it is just hard for me to get in the zone, not to mention I had difficulty figuring out where to catch the trail since there were other trails thrown in the mix. After a couple of wrong turns, I figured it out. The second time I did the trail, I incorporated the 3/1 program and it worked out beautifully and I felt great. It was time for the 3rd lap. Once I was about half way through, it dawned on me that I still had more to give! I honestly felt I could do another 1.27 miles, so I continued on to do a 4th time around the trail. I completed 5.08 miles in 1 hour and 20 minutes. I don't think that was too bad considering it's the furthest I've ever gone (by almost 2 miles) and that I had implemented a strategy (the 3/1) into the mix and that it took me two or three wrong turns to get the trail down right during the first time around.

Looks like I don't have to be so fearful of that 10K coming up on March 13th! I'm only 1.12 miles away from that puppy! On a side note...I'm really glad I'm getting a massage tomorrow. =)