The Fabulous Five

Run/Workout: 5 miles (10 min warm-up/5 min cool-down)
Location: Treadmill, doors wide open
Run Time (if applicable): 44 minutes
Run Start: 6:30 pm
Temperature: ??
Weather: sunny outside

Notes:

Today was the first day of Spring Term. Today was sunny. Today I handed in my nursing application. Today I bought the kids' Easter basket goodies. Today was a good day.

However, when I got home I was tired. My house was a bit of a mess. I had a bit of a headache and all I wanted to do was sip coffee and read my new issue of RunnersWorld. But I had some running to do :) So I popped 2 Tylenol, drank a glass of water and headed downstairs. My workout consisted of:

10 min warm-up walk
10 stairs
25 mountain climbers
15 heel raises
30 high knees
30 butt kicks
40 X-Jacks
10 burpees(I hate those!)
{stretches in between}

4 miles at 9 minute mile, last mile at 8 minute mile

5 minute walk cool-down

40 classic crunches
10 push-ups
20 bicycles (each side)
25 tricep dips

This workout was hard for me...but hard in a good way. Treadmill running is extremely mental. I had a conversation with a runner friend of mine the other day regarding treadmill running:

Me: "Running on a treadmill always feels so much harder than 'on land'."
Him: "Really? I like the treadmill though because I can set it at 6:30 minute miles and it makes me run it. Otherwise I will fall off the back of the treadmill and hurt myself."

Heh. Good motivation at least! LOL

So today I took a lesson from my friend and toughened up. I set the treadmill at 9 minute miles from the start. It still felt harder than 9 minute miles "on land" but I pushed through it.  My headache went away around the first 1/2 mile, but was replaced by heartburn around 2 miles on. I just kept going anyway. Then the last minute I increased speed to 8 minute miles and pushed a faster last mile. It was really hard, I'm not gonna lie. I had to dig deep mentally. I kept saying, "Don't stop. You can do this." and I put Christina Aguilera's "Fighter" on repeat. And I kept thinking about my half marathon I have coming up and telling myself that working hard now means that running hard in the race will hurt less then.

After my workout my son came up to me to give me a hug, grimmaced then backed way off. "Ewwww. Mom you're sweaty!" he told me. "Yes son, yes I am. It's liquid awesome."