Motivation Monday & Gym Update

 

I am linking up with Wendy's Motivation Monday Team once again! I love this linkup. I really enjoy reading the tips and advice on their blogs as well as checking out other bloggers who participate in the link up! Be sure to check out Wendy, Katie, Veronica, Morgan, Alisha, and Tiff as well as the other bloggers at the bottom of the page!

 

On to my Motivation Monday advice this week: Join a challenge! Whether you join an online challenge, one at work, one with friends, or your own personal challenge: DO IT! I think that challenges bring out our natural competitive nature. I challenge myself to up my mileage weekly. I challenge myself to run 4-5 days a week. I joined Jess's 10 Week Challenge in May. Unfortunately, I didn't really start to participate until June. I did start tracking my food again and walking, but I didn't really hit it hard until June. So unfortunately, I didn't complete my challenge goals during that challenge. I'm now doing her second challenge, Operation Skinny Jeans Fit Camp, which starts today! I submitted my before pictures, measurements, and a picture of the scale for my starting weight. It's an online challenge with 50 other members. She limited the group this time because the first group had almost 200 members and that's a bit much! I plan to continue my current exercise regime and also implement whatever challenges Jess posts! I am excited.

 

I posted recently about how I suck at indoor running and then how I thought my foot pod needed to be recalibrated. I went to the gym last night with Paige. Since the track is 15 laps for a mile, I decided to calibrate my foot pod based on running 8 laps (or approximately 800m). So I set my Garmin to calibrate the 800m distance and I started a warm-up walk at a brisk pace. When I stopped the calibration, it said..."CALIBRATION FAILED!" WTF! Luckily, my Garmin tracked the time it took me to do the 0.50 miles, but it said I did 1.81 miles! I was keeping track of my laps and knew I did 8 laps. I went ahead and did another 7 laps to equal 15 laps (1 mile) then took a short water break then did another 15 laps. I was checking the laps off on my phone after I completed them so I knew I did 30 laps. Check this out...

Yeeeah, I ran 3.47 miles in 28:41...LOL. I wish! But this does prove the fact that I KNEW I was running faster indoors than outdoors. On Saturday, I did 2 miles in 31 minutes outside. So I am happy that I don't suck at running indoors and I am happy to see I did 2 miles under 30 minutes! I do need to recalibrate the foot pod though. I have a job interview today *crosses fingers* and Paige is working from home to watch Brynlee for me. When Brynlee naps, I am going to go over to the school track down the road and calibrate it. You're supposed to calibrate it by running or walking 2 laps (800m) around the inside lane of a regulation track for the most accuracy. So I plan to do that this afternoon. It's pretty hot here in Texas so hopefully I don't die.

 

I talked to Paige about my goals of upping my mileage each week. She said that she does not mind if I want to get in 2.75+ miles each time I work out. She doesn't want to hold me back. She said it's the perfect opportunity for her to hit the weight room anyway. So I feel much better now that I know she won't just be dreading me going to workout with her, lol. We do have to make sure we get to the gym in plenty of time to get our workout in though. We've shut the gym down a few times! We always seem to go like an hour before the gym closes so we need to get better about that. I am really hoping that I get the job I am interviewing for today. I will definitely be joining a gym. I am hoping the insurance offers some sort of a gym membership deal. That'd be nice. Unfortunately, I only have a few more days to be a guest on her membership. So I am going to have to go back to evening runs during the week and early morning runs on the weekend in order to get my runs in.

How are you challenging yourself this week?