Anatomy of a work out

The last two/ three months has seen me in the remarkable endeavour of actually building up a work out routine. While I love yoga, and other work outs, I found out that they just don't fit in our day to day routine. Not even the dvd version at home. My husband works out as well, and since he works out after the children go to bed, it would be nearly 11 pm before I could start. And that is not going to happen. Or I should get up earlier. Which is also not going to happen.All of a sudden I remembered that we have a treadmill upstairs that I used quite a bit before I got pregnant with Michael, and we found that while the children watched television in the evening, it was a perfect time for me to go upstairs and let dada watch the boys.

When I decided to start using the treadmill, I am not sure who thought I would hang in there. I am better at starting up routines than in sticking to them. I didn't have much faith in myself to be honest, so I decided not to buy anything for the work out (like those fancy new work out clothes that you always buy to motivate you and that then hang in your closet mocking you when you don't keep up three weeks later.). My only pair of running shoes/ sneakers however was so small it pinched my toes whenever I tried to wear them. So I spend the first three weeks running on the treadmill in a pair of target bedroom slippers. Like ballet slippers, but just with cloth instead of that leather sole. Not ideal, but after I had literally ran a hole in those slippers and could not run anymore due to treadmill burn on the bottom of my feet, I actually bought a pair of running shoes.
With a few breaks due to illnes or injury, I have kept it up, first adding to the incline until that was at maximum level, and now adding to speed. While I would definitely not think of myself as a runner, I love the way I can compete with the numbers on the treadmill, plus it is a chance to catch up on some television. I bribe myself: you can either sit here and watch the same episode of Barney with the children for the 300th time, or you can go upstairs and watch Inspctor Lewis. Or the Mentalist. So I go upstairs, put the television on. Put the treadmill on and start. And then my Inner Voice (IV) takes over.

IV: I don't feel that great, so I will just do 15 minutes.
IV after 7 minutes: I hate this. Seriously, I did 500 calories yesterday, I could take an evening off.
IV after 15 minutes: Oh, look, I am almost at the one mile mark, just add a few more minutes then I did one mile.
IV at 17 minutes: hey, I am at 223 calories, let's see if I can make it to 250.
IV at 20 minutes: hmm... I think the base speed is working pretty well. Lets's see if I can do some running, just for a bit, then I will stop after that.
IV after running: Hey, that brought me close to a mile and a half.. let's go for it.
IV at 25 minutes: oh, it would be silly to stop now. I'm at 370 calories. A little bit further and I can get to close to 450. 450 is a decent work out.
IV at 29 minutes: Oh.. *pant, pant* I am not sure I can do this. But loo... look... I am over 460. Seriously.. you know what would be really cool? If I can make it to 500 calories.
IV at 33 minutes: *pant.. pant* come on. You can do this. You can get past your previous numbers. Just a bit more.
IV at 35: Oh help.. it's past 9 pm. Time to help Bill take the children to bed. Cool down.
IV at 37 minutes: wow, I did 517 calories in 37 minutes. This is great. Can't wait to try again tomorrow.