a workout for you

Sometimes it’s hard to work out on Mondays, especially when the weather drops from 70 degrees to 30 degrees in a matters of days… or hours. Apparently I already wiped the terribly cold outside winter runs from my memory. Three weeks ago running in 30 degrees weather would have been a delight. A beautiful treat from the multiple runs in below zero temps. However, now that I’ve tasted running in 60-70 degrees I cannot go back. The thought of running in 30 degrees sends chills straight to my bones… and anger straight to my brain. Because seriously, why is it cold again?!

Enough hating on Mother Nature. I’m sure she means well. But even if she doesn’t, Karma is a be-yatch. So I’ll be nice and we’ll all live happily ever after.

Now back to my initial thought: sometimes exercise is hard on Mondays and I skipped out on run club because it was “cold”.

When I have these thoughts I have to remind myself of how good working out makes me feel and that even a quick 20 minutes of exercise is better than 0 minutes of exercise.

One day a few years ago I was talking to a friend at work about how I wasn’t in the mood for going to the gym. She said, “Jenna, just go. You’re going to feel better afterwards.” So I went and I did feel great afterwards. She was right.

Now on days like today I have flashbacks of her saying, “just go”. Then I do go. And then my endorphins kick in. And then all of a sudden 60 minutes have flown by and I am just getting to my cool down. And then I feel wonderful. (Thanks, Sarah for being the voice in my head.)

As a side note in my defense, that specific situation was when I was working third shift. I was leaving work at 8:00am after walking around the land of Toaster Strudels since 10:00pm the previous evening. Soooo… there’s that. But again, she was right.

Rest days are important, but you don’t need 7 rest days a week. Constant excuses just turn into bad habits.

I just went off into another tangent/side story, but I feel that it was important for you to hear read, so I’m not going to erase it.

To sum it up (again): I didn’t feel like working out. It was cold. I heard my friend’s voice in my head. I went to workout. I got really sweaty. It was great. I felt fantastic.

Here is what I did in case you would like to replicate it at some point:

A pictorial reference:

Some notes about the work out:

• Warm-up – Please do not ever skip your warm up! Even if you are short on time, warming up your muscles helps your body work more efficiently so that you can burn more fat than sugar. For my warm up I typically start walking on the treadmill at 3.5 mph and then increase it .5 mph every minute until I reach 8 minutes.
• Treadmill workout – I find treadmill running to be more of a mental than physical challenge, so I tend to use it as an opportunity to work on my speed. This is workout is meant to be challenging, but it goes fast (literally). Choose the paces that work best for you. I used the following settings at a 1.0 incline:
  • Jog: 6.0 mph
  • Run: 7.0 mph
  • Sprint: 9.0 mph
  • Walk: 3.5 mph
• Strength training circuit – Perform each exercise back-to-back with minimal rest (30 seconds) in between. Use the weights that work best for you, even if that means just body weight.
• Cool down – Please also do no ever skip your cool down. Take an extra few minutes to jog/walk on the treadmill. Follow with static stretching and foam rolling.

Welp. That’s it. I hope you workout and get sweaty and feel great. When you are in need of motivation just remember my friend saying, “Just go. You’re going to feel better afterwards.” Of course, you probably have never heard her say it, so maybe I’ll see if I can get a sound bite.