I have found it is not as exciting to blog about the exercise video routine as it was running.  All three of us from our little running group are now in the routine of getting up and get going.  We use a warm-up from a different video and it is a good thing because we are finding we are not so cooridanted or oriented that early in the morning to do all those moves.  The cardio workout gets us ready for action with Jillian Michaels. 

I find for myself that I am getting a little bit better at some of the cardio exercises and starting to move up to the advance “girl”.  Behind Jillian are the two ladies who help her out.  One girl is for beginners they other for more advanced moves.  For the most part I am still at the beginner stage, but on some other areas of cardio and strength I am starting with the advanced girl.

We are getting use to what Jillian is going to say next, so we say it along with her.  We like to joke and ask why they don’t ever use heavier weights or change their clothes.  We are definately going to advance faster than they are!  No progress on their end at all!   

Now I am in the routine – even though I really didn’t want to crawl out of bed this morning!  Next move in the healthy lifestyle – eating habits.  It’s all about moderation.  I do have an issue with sweets…they love me and of course I love them back.  We are to love everything, including sweets!  Now you know my downfall. 

Moderation, here I come! 

The winter is just around the corner.  The snow is getting closer.  Very close in some places!  The chill is out there.  Our Couch to 5K is over.  We have decided on what to do next! 

But before I go there, let me tell you about my last jog … until the spring.  It was a beautiful morning.  Warm but with a few rain drops here and there.  By the end of the jog it started to get a little cooler and a little more rain drops.  Although, it was refreshing after jogging and sweating it up!  The jog was good.  I don’t really have much to say about it but that I have the satisfaction of completing the Couch to 5K.  We do plan on picking it up again in the Spring when the weather is a bit nicer and we can run outside again.  I am not one for running outside in the cold and snow. 

That brings me back to what we have decided to do.  I’m so thrilled that my jogging ladies have decided to continue to exercise with me.  It is much more motivating to get up at 6am!  My living room was transformed this morning into a exercise room!  There was only 2 of us and it was the perfect amount of space.  It is going to be a little tight with 3 of us, but it will do. 

We have chosen two exercise videos.  The first:  Burn Fat Fast Cardio Blast with Denise Austin.  The second: 30 Day Shred with Jillian Michaels.    The Burn Fat Cardio has 4 different cardio workouts that are 10 minutes each.  We chose one to do to get us warmed up (a more detailed review to come).  Then we put on 30 Day Shred.  This is a 20 minute workout that includes strength training, cardio, and abs.  If you are looking for a good Exercise DVD I highly recomend this one and I’ve only done it once! 

Here is the workout breakdown:
– One 2 min warm-up
– Three 6 min circuits of 3 min strength, 2 min cardio, 1 min abs
– One 2 min cool down. 

Some might not be a believer in Exercise video’s, but if you find the right one you can really sweat and feel it!  Jillian definately gets you feeling your muscles and sweating like crazy, but you really have to put the work into it or it’s not going to work.  She has great little motivating lines she tells you!  She has two people you can follow.  One lady is lower impact and the other is high impact.  There is also 3 levels of the work out.  We plan on sticking to Level 1 for now on the low impact, then move to the high impact.  Once we are good at the high impact we will move on to Level 2. 

I’m really looking forward to this.  I think it is time to put the gym membership on hold until I decide whether I really need or not.  I haven’t actually gone to the gym in a while because of jogging, so why am I paying for it.  I think that on the alternate days I will do the cardio video.  That’s the plan.  The other girls don’t know this yet, but if they want to join me they can.  I just want to step it up a little.  If they don’t join me, I know it is going to be a bit harder to get up in the morning to do it on my own.  That will be the test if I can do it by myself and be the deciding factor if I should cancel the gym totally! 

There is the exercise plan for the next little while.  Once that get’s into a good pattern it is time to look at the healthy eating.  I do all right but I do like my sweets!  It is totally about getting the portion size right.  One thing at a time!  Plus, Christmas is coming up!! 

Something to keep in mind:

Just because I am working out doesn’t mean that I can eat whatever I want!

By the way, Wii didn’t get chosen because with 3 of us working out it works better with a video.

I haven’t said anything about running for a while or it seems like it has been a while.  After our big goal of running the 5K race our motivation slipped slowly.  This week, our final week I was sick on Monday.  I still went on the jog but I walked fast most of the way.  I did what I could for not feeling that great.  Wed it was cold and rainy so we worked out inside on the Wii Fit.  We jogged on the spot and did some hoolahooping!  It just wasn’t the same and it kind of felt like I cheated myself.  This morning we got up and ran.  For me it was a good jog.  I wasn’t that out of breath at the end which was surprising since I haven’t really jogged at all this week. It was a good jog for me.

We only have one jog left.  On Monday we will wake up and go for our last run.  I’m sure we will be glad since the cold weather is coming.  I still think about getting up every morning and going for a walk, but it hasn’t happened on the off days of jogging so I wonder if I can do it when my brain tells me that we are finished our running program. 

What can we do know that the program is ending?  Any suggestions?  We still want to keep doing some kind of exercise, just not outside!  Anyone have a good exercise video they love that we can borrow?  Please, nothing too crazy at first.  I think we definately need to do something that involves the three of us so we can modivate each other and keep at it, especially if we plan on getting up at 6am in the morning to do it

By this time next week we will have something figured out!

Saturday was the big run day! We were very excited and happy that it was not at 6am. We got in the car and headed to Cambridge. We arrived shortly after 8:30am. We thought we were going to be there early, but there were already a few people there. We stood in line and got our running kit, timing chip, and handed in our pledges. Then we sat and sat and sat. Finally it was 9:45 and we took our stuff to the car and waited for the race to start.

It was interesting because we were in the middle and I heard someone say they thought they heard the national anthom. The front of the line started to get quiet and then the quietness worked its way back to the middle and then the end of the street wide group of runners. Silence. After the national anthom and a bit of cheering, the bag pipes played and at 10am we had 2 minutes of silence.

I don’t remember hearing a gun shot to start us off or really anything. All of the sudden everyone in front of us started moving. You could tell some of them really wanted to get going. We started at the Preston Legion and worked our way to King St. We were bunch together until we turned onto the road before King. By the time we hit King and Eagle people were more spread out and continued to be more thinned out as we went along. We were jogging with about 5 soldiers along the way. They were in their full gear. Boots, backpacks (including sleeping bags), and uniform. It was pretty cool to see them running. We would pass them and they would pass us until we hit the mark to split off for the 8K and 5K. They took a left to continue on the 8K trail and we veared to the right to take the 5K trail.

At 1K we cheered. We were happy. Although it seemed a lot harder then when we do it on our route that we are so familiar with. We know the ins and outs of the route and how much further we need to go to be finished our jog. Saturday was different. We didn’t know the route. We didn’t know where the street was that tells us we are half way done and the street that let’s us know we are almost finished. We also had breakfast before we ran. I know for the first 2K’s I could feel it in my side. I’m very thankful for the energy from the food. After I got in a routine of jogging I found it much better. I focused my breathing and concentrated on my setps.

Yeah, the 2K mark! Shortly after the 2K mark we did walk for a few minutes – probably about 5 minutes. Then we hit a dirt trail (we were in Riverside Park) so we decided to jog again on the nice cusiony surface. Although, at times we had to go over wooden bridges and there was still frost on them that made it slippery and a few pages of ice on the road in the park. But we pushed ourselves to keep going. I pushed myself and the girls. I had saw a spot before we entered that area and told the girls we could walk until that spot, but realizing that was much further then I thought I encouraged them to start jogging again. We came out of the trail and hit the 3K mark! We cheered!

Only two more K’s left! How exciting! We can’t walk now! Besides the one hill that we walked at a fast pace. I pictured where we were on our regular route and told the girls. I hope that was encouraging! Then the 4K mark. I am going to make it! We are going to make it!

We turned a corner and Julie says, “I better see the finish line!” There it was. But it still seemed far away! We turned onto the road that the finish line was on and Sue was already ahead of Julie and I and she was booking it! Then all of the sudden Julie starts going faster and faster! Oh no, I gotta get going! So I ran right beside her and we finished the run!! We finished out of breath, but we finished!

We completed the run at 40min. First Sue, then Julie and then myself. I must say that Julie and I did come in at the same time of 40 min and 23 sec.

We are so excited that we stuck with the Coach to 5K and that we accomplished our goal of completed the 5K Remember Run. Thank you to all who have been reading about my journey of running and to those who sponsored me financially. I was able to raise enough money to recieve a gift certificate from Socouney at Runner’s Choice. I hope to get a new pair of running shoes!

We still have two weeks left of the Couch to 5K to go and we will finish it. I’m not sure what is next. We do know that we won’t run outside during the winter months. Maybe we will do some kind of indoor exercise video or something. We do know that we want to start running again in the Spring and beat our time in the Remember Run next November. The lady who won 3rd place in our category ran it in 30min. I think that for us running it in 40 was awesome. Next year, maybe we can be at 30 minutes too!!

www.runwaterloo.com/remember.html

All funds raised go towards the Dominion Command Poppy Trust Fund which helps veterans and their dependants who are in need.  If you would like to sponsor me, send me a comment or email me. (Comments don’t show unless I approve them, so please specify in your comment if you want it to show or not  on the blog if you would like to donate to the run.)

Week 6 – Completed!
25 Minute Jog – Check!

How exciting!  We jogged for 25 minutes this morning.  We do tend to jog a little bit slower on these long jogs to help us keep up and actually finish the run rather than give it our all and only make it half way.  We did loose one of the girls almost at the half-way mark because she has an injured knee.  We pray that it will heal over the weekend and she will be fit to jog on Monday morning. 

So the two of us that finished the 25 minute jog were not as excited as the first 20 min we ran.  I’m not sure why.  Maybe because all three of us weren’t there or maybe because we were tired by the end of it.  By the time we got back to the apartment we were happy and excited!  I’m glad that we are continuing with this jogging.  My fellow jogger asked if I would keep this up after we are done.  That is a great question.

I was actually just talking about this with my Fiance, because I have a gym membership but I haven’t been going.  Do I cancel and work out on my own?  Do I put it on hold incase in the winter I slack because of the weather and need the gym?  I would like to say I am going to keep jogging, but it is hard when you are on your own.  It has been great jogging with the girls for the encouragement and forcing me to go because there is someone else there.  We did talk a little bit about doing something together after we are done running, but we will have to see what that could be.  Even if it is just exercising together. 

We have 3 more weeks to decide!  Jogging has been in place of soccer which runs from Sept to the Spring, so I need to find something.  I’m not one for jogging in the snow! 

Our 5k run is a week from Sat (Nov 6).  Yikes.  We are going to be two weeks away but I know we can do it!  If you would like to pledge me, just let me know!  The funds go to the Poppy Fund for the Veterans.  I’m sure that run will be something to blog about!

Ready to start week 7 on Monday!!  I would tell you what awaits us, but I don’t know!  It will be a nice surprise at 6am on Monday morning.