I have stepped it up a notch…

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Malin

At the warehouse yesterday Mrs. Brown sort of mentioned to John that she wanted a harder workout for Friday’s leg day and John is not the kind of person who’s not up for a challenge. John is very well aware that I don’t really eat any carbs and the same afternoon he sends me a message saying that I should add a sweet potatoes to my dinner tonight and carb-up on ¼ oats in the morning because Friday will be intense and I’ll need it…Help me God!

With this in mind I walked over to the gym thinking I should start with doing a low-intensity workout on the Stairmaster. I ended up behind my next-door neighbor who is training for a Marathon. She was running on one of the treadmills and wow was she running. When she was done she turned around to me and I told her it was and impressive run that she just finished. That is when she goes “This is my recovery day and before this cheeky run for 4 miles I rode the bike for an hour”.

I finished my “low-intensity” workout with some sour thought in my head and got on the treadmill and stepped it up a notch. I ran my personal best and now I know I can do it and I am not going back!!!

Commitment and no excuses!

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Malin

I will admit, I am a time optimist and I am also late to a lot of things. So coming into this day I knew yesterday I would have a lot on my plate today so I decided I would get in to Lifetime early to have my Cardio over and done with. I also love my bed in the morning, so when the alarm went off the desire to stay in bed was beyond tempting and maybe, just maybe I could get my workout in later on today. Then the better sense of me took over and I dragged myself to the gym and I was there by 6.30.

When I get into the locker room still half a sleep and I meet this woman who is coming down from the workout floor and I tell her “Lucky! I wish I was you, already done”. She smiles at me and goes “I got woke up at 4.45 just so I could come before my I day gets busy”.

I look at those people who have the commitment no matter what. They truly inspire me because if it means they have to wake up 2 hours early to workout, they do it and there are no excuses!

Still sleepy I went upstairs I thought I would kick it off on the Stairmaster, taking it slow in the beginning. Yeah right, whom am I kidding, there is nothing easy with the Stairmaster after 20 minutes I was drenched in sweat. The last 30 minutes I spent on an Elliptical I never tried before and I don’t know if it was all the arm workout we put in this week but it was crazy hard and it really got my heart pumping. Now I have sent the kids to school and I am shooting out the door to start my busy day!

Five minutes here or there…Yes, it makes a difference!

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Malin

Before the holidays Laura and me found this awesome “spinning lady” at Lifetime Fitness, she had a class on Tuesdays at 9.30, just perfect! But last week I was told she had moved to a different day, what a bummer. When you find good people who can motivate you should hold on to them real tight. So I was dragging my feet a bit this morning ending up being late for class but good for me Laura rang and she was going for a run instead. I got dressed real fast and ran over to the gym, yes I ran. I am fortunate that I don’t live far from Lifetime Fitness and can use that opportunity to get in some extra exercise. And what a beautiful day, if I had not agreed on meeting up with Laura I would have kept on running outside.

I like running with Laura because she inspires me but the treadmill next to her was broken and now the hour run I was anticipating to put in felt awfully boring! Instead I decided to run for 20 loooong minutes followed by 20 minutes on the Stairmaster to be finished off with another 20 minutes on the elliptical.

I find it easier to break up my workout this way and I also realized I get more out of it. The first 20 I focused on getting my heartbeat up and really working on my endurance. Then right on the Stairmaster. I used one of the pre-set program to focus on lower intensity (fat burning) but still keeping my heart pumping. One of my friends rang me and I guess I could have talked to her but it would not have been to pleasant for her listening to my heavy breathing. Finally the elliptical gets me going again. I like the elliptical because you can use fun intervals that keep you concentrated on what you are doing instead on how hard it is it. It will also work not only your legs and ass but your upper body so you get more of a total body workout . When I was done, me and the “blue danger” ran back home and it actually turns out those extra minutes I put in gave me an extra mile to add on to my workout.