treadmill Archives - Just J.Faye

45-Minute Variety Speed Treadmill Workout

May 12, 2015 by Jenna

It’s spring. As much as that means skirts and patios and sunshine it also means sweatpants and umbrellas and lightning. The fluctuation in weather just comes with the season so we have to be prepared.

Therefore, a sweater in your purse for when it gets chilly. An umbrella in your car for when it suddenly starts to downpour. A treadmill workout in your pocket for when there is lightning outside, because FYI, it’s not safe to run outside when there is lightning.

And of course by “pocket” I am referring to however you file away potential workouts these days – write it down in a notebook, take a screen shot of the image below to save to your smart phone, pin it on Pinterest (PS- lots of good workouts on this board), print it out and put it in a binder, etc. These are all valid methods.

With whatever method you prefer, make sure to save this 45-minute variety speed treadmill workout for days when it’s lightning or too hot or, gosh darnit, for days when you just prefer the treadmill to the outdoors.

This workout features 6 rounds of interval running in a pyramid fashion. The interval duration fluctuates between 3-5 minutes and the speed varies between 6.7-7.1 mph (9:00-8:30 min/mile). In between each interval is a recovery period for half the amount of time of the interval (e.g.: interval = 3 minutes, recovery = 1.5 minutes) at a brisk walk.

Here’s the plan, Stan:

I plugged in the speeds for an advanced beginner, but feel free to adjust these up or down according to your abilities. The running intervals should be hard, but not an all-out sprint. If someone was talking to you during the run, you should be able to carry on a very choppy conversation with them. Take the recovery periods at a brisk walk or an easy jog. I usually start out with a walk for about 30 seconds to drop my heart rate quicker, then jog for the remaining time.

Do what works for you and your body.

This is meant to be a challenging workout, but there is beauty in the variety of speeds and intervals – you won’t get bored and time will fly by. Plus, it’s way better than getting struck by lightning outside. I hope you enjoy it!

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Run + Strength 30-Minute Workout

February 16, 2015 by Jenna

A full body 30-minute workout that alternates between treadmill running and strength training circuits.

On Saturday it was -3 degrees outside with a -20 degree wind chill. That’s not ok. I was volunteering at the photo stop for the Valentine’s Day TC 5K and it was so, so, so very cold. I bundled up in lots of layers, but my poor feet were frozen. Despite putting hand warmer packets between my layers of socks I still lost all feeling. It felt like I was walking on nubs.

BUT despite the cold, it was such a great event! There were hundreds of volunteers and runners out there making the most of the day. Evidence here. The running community in Minnesota never ceases to amaze me.

After my body fully thawed I hit the treadmill for 10 miles. That is the most I have ever run on a treadmill and the longest I’ve run since the Philadelphia Marathon. I’m not going to lie, it was hard. I went slow and took a few short breaks (for mental not physical purposes), but I’m glad I did it. Even though my hips are still a little mad at me right now.

Anyways, I put together a workout involving the treadmill; however, instead of running 10 miles we are only going to be doing three 5-minute sets. Between those sets we are going to do a strength circuit. It’ll be fun.

With this routine you will get a full body workout, plus some cardio, in under 30 minutes.

Pretty cool, huh?

I think so. Not as cool at -20 degrees though, which is a good thing.

PS – Did you watch last night’s 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Live?! Oh.My.Goodness. I was dying.

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20-Minute Running Intervals

June 23, 2014 by Jenna

Summer is finally officially here and with it comes a flurry of activities. The days are longer. The weather is nicer. It is important to spend this time outside and/or with friends.

Sometimes between the dinners, happy hours, picnics, fests, and other social activities it gets difficult to squeeze in a proper workout. It’s hard to fit everything in. But we need to try. Dinners, happy hours, picnics, fests, and other social activities are not calorie-free and usually involve some extra indulgences. Plus, I don’t know about you, but working out always makes me feel healthier, happier, and more energized.

Let’s make sure we find a little bit of time for exercise, so that we can have a lot of time for fun, so that we keep our lives exciting and in balance.

20 minutes. That’s all we need.

A warm up, a couple sets of jog+run+sprint, and a cool down. Quick and effective – that is the magic of intervals. It is a difficult workout, but it is so efficient.

I really appreciate efficiency.

For my warm up I usually start at 3.5 mph and increase it by .5 mph every minute. This helps to wake my legs up a bit and slowly bring up my heart rate.

Play around with the jog, run, and sprint speeds a little bit if you are unsure of what your paces are. The jog should be a slow run to help your body and heart rate recover a little bit after the sprint. The run should be slightly on the higher end of your typical running pace. The sprint should be an all-out effort. I typically do 5.5 mph for the jog, 7.0 mph for the run, and 9.0 for the sprint.

Try to push yourself a little bit with the paces. The last sprint should be the same pace (if not faster) as the first. This will be a difficult workout, but it only lasts 20 minutes. You can do it.

I prefer doing intervals and speed work on the treadmill because I am terrible at gauging my pace and don’t want to be staring at my GPS watch to keep track of timing. Plus, sometimes it’s good to have some treadmill workouts on hand for when there are lightning storms or when it is way too hot to run outside (especially sprinting). Safety first, people. However, this workout could definitely be done outside if you are in the mood for some fresh air and extra Vitamin D.

So 20 minutes. That’s all and your workout is done. You could wake up 20 minutes earlier to do it before work, squeeze it in during your lunch hour, or fit it in between work and whatever fun evening activity you have planned.

Sometimes it is possible to do it all.

Happy, happy summer!

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a workout for you

April 15, 2014 by Jenna

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.

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