Friday, June 24, 2011

Interval Training Kicks Butt...and Legs...and Everything Else

I was planning to run outside on Wednesday; however, I found out that I was wrong. I would have to walk to the running trail that is next to the Courtyard Marriot. What I thought was the running trail at the Double Tree like they said they had in the brochure is actually the golf walkway. My bad.

Since I didn't feel like walking over there to run, I hopped on the treadmill again. This time, I decided to do interval training set up by the machine. Normally, I do not like to have machines control what I'm doing since you saw how well that worked out for the world in movies like the Terminator or Maximum Overdrive or the TV show, Battlestar Gallactica. However, I wanted to try something different than just to run for 3 miles and I didn't know what I was doing, needed guidance. So, I let the machine do it for me and will take my chances to fight the good fight in the end.

I selected the button and put in my weight (eeek) and age; the program automatically set it up for an hour again and I stuck with it. Interval training started out walking at 2.0 mph with an incline of 0 and then moves to an incline of 3 (still at 2.0 mph). After 2 times, I realized that I needed to customize it. So, my walks became 3.0 mph with an incline of 1 and my runs became 5.0 mph with an incline of 3. At the end, when I started to get tired, I decreased the incline of my walks to 1 and then even later, the speed became 2.5 mph. I kept this up for the full hour and had a 5 minute cool down walk at 2.0 mph.

Throughout the workout, I had That 70s Show, Scrubs, and Seinfeld to keep my mind occupied. Unfortunately, I believe I snorted when I started laughing out loud. Don't judge me. It was funny.

I was sweaty, tired, and sore when I got off the treadmill; I could feel that my legs were jelly. I burned a total of 410 calories (give or take 10 calories) and ran/walked 4.30 miles (give or take 10 miles) within the 1 hour, 5 minutes. This is not bad for me. I looked over at the lady riding the stationary bike (which I was thinking of trying) and she only burned a little under 200 calories for 5 miles. I have no idea how much I actually ran since it was on intervals. I think I was switching every 2 or 3 minutes, but not sure. Although, I could feel myself getting faster with my run.

After the treadmill, I stretched out my legs and then lifted some weights. I did 3 reps of 20 using the 15 lb dumbbell of the arms behind my head arm curl thingy (don't know the technical term) standing on the bogo ball for an extra core workout, 3 reps of 20 shoulder curls using the 5 lb dumbbell in between the arm curl thingy (the last rep was 10 front and 10 back), 3 reps of 10 arm raises using the 5 lb dumbbell, and 3 reps of 20 butterfly raises using the 10 lb weight. I stretched out my arms and headed upstairs to get ready to go out.

My reward included my coworkers taking me to the brewery and the distillery. Needless to say, I didn't work out on Thursday due to the massive hangover that invaded my head, body, and soul. I'm going to try to workout this evening when I get done with work. Wish me luck!

These are some pictures of me at the brewery. And who would want to actually live here with a view like that? I mean, for real!


1 comment:

  1. Yeah - I'm thinkin...see ? You do sooo well up there !!!! And what a view !!! And oh yeah ! AWESOME workout !!! Treadmills can actually kick your ass !! And kick ya right off of them with a hangover !!!!

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