Sneak in a Workout However You Can!

This week, my kids were in school a total of one day.  One day!  And that was way back on Monday.  Tuesday was a teacher workday, Wednesday school was closed because of the predicted snow storm (don't get me started) then yesterday and today school is out because of snow.  So what's a self described gym-run-aholic to do when she can't get to the gym?  Fortunately for me, I have a treadmill in the basement.  While I'm very thankful that I have one, it isn't always easy to get a decent run in because Quinn, my 7-year-old, is quite the little chatty Cathy and always has to know how much longer, etc, etc.  Typically I wait until they are in bed but I'm sure you can imagine how many times I've actually gotten on the treadmill at 8:30/9:00 at night.  I got a short 6-miler in on Tuesday but not without some complaining from Quinn.

Stuffed animal and a stack of clothes hold iPad perfectly

Wednesday I didn't run at all.  But I do have Netflix and they have a bunch of exercise videos that you can 'view instantly'.  As I mentioned, I'm on a kickboxing roll lately so I searched and found '10-Minute Solution: Kickboxing Bootcamp'.  That sounded perfect because I figured I could get a couple 10 minute segments in and if I had to stop, it wouldn't be in the middle of a long workout.  I brought my iPad in my room, propped it up and got started.  Lucky for me, I happened to start it just when an episode of Suite Life was starting that my boys hadn't seen (didn't think that was possible) so I was able to get the entire workout done.  It's a fun one, by the way.  Not crazy intense or anything but enough to get the blood flowing and help get rid of the "Ugh, I didn't workout today and now I feel like a massive slug" feeling.

I was itching for a run by Wednesday.  I waited until about 2:00 then I hinted to my boys that I was going to give the treadmill a go.  My 10-year-old could really care less.  In fact, I could probably be in that basement running for 2 hours and he wouldn't even notice as long as he has his Legos and a computer.  Quinn kind of shrugged and said, "Ok, but I might come down and ask you some questions or something."  Of course you will.

The schedule called for 8 miles with a steady increase in speed after the first mile.  I hopped on and within a half mile, Quinn was down there with me. 

Practicing his putting while I run!

View from the 'mill - Helloooo Nate!

This run was different though, he started pulling stuff out of the closet and hung out down there playing and yes, although he kept asking how much longer, he wasn't annoying (I can say that, I'm his mother, don't be hatin').  I go the 8 in and it was a really fantastic, in the moment, runners high, I could go on for miles kind of run.  Yay!  Oh, and did I mention that I timed this hour run perfectly for the Nate show?  I love me some Nate.  Today's schedule calls for an "easy" 75 minute run with a 2 minute speed burst every 10 minutes.  I'm not sure how lucky I'll get 2 days in a row, but I'm sure gonna try!