What I mean when I talk about speedwork

A couple of months ago I cut all of my (really long) hair off up to my shoulders. I thought I was ready to but I've been miserable about it. Such a girl move. However, today I re-perfected curling it with my straightening iron and all is well with my world.

Thank the Lord.

In other news, I cooked tonight and it worked! Which I'm ridiculously excited about, you have no idea. If you remember from a previous post I made it pretty clear that I couldn't cook even if I wanted to (which I do) because baking is my thing. However a few months ago I got a crock pot and haven't used it yet so I busted it out tonight and threw a bunch of stuff in it and it turned out pretty darn good! And no carbs! Unless you count the beans which I do not.

Here's a link to the recipe I used: Cream Cheese Chicken Chili. I'd put up a picture but 1) It looks exactly the same as hers and 2) The kitchen is two entire rooms away and 16 & Pregnant is on so I'm sure you can figure out the priority in this equation. Just trust me that it tastes delicious.

And know that I washed a bowl of it down with a pound of grapes. I'm trying to wean myself off but it's not working out so well.

This morning I was at my hotel down near where I was going to be moving in May so I knew that there was a really good trail to run nearby and I plans to get up early to run outside. I didn't make it though because I had a lot of work to do so I just did some speedwork on the treadmill.

When I say I do speedwork I use that term pretty loosely. I can't run straight through miles on the treadmill because I get way too bored and when I get bored my stride gets sloppy and I fall.

Off the treadmill.

Not joking.

Stop laughing.

The most I have ever run straight through on the treadmill is 4 miles and I still have no idea how I did it. Probably a lot of Britney Spears. What I do now is usually start at a walk, then push it to my normal comfortable running pace (it was 7, now it's 5.5....boo. But I'm almost up to 6!) and then I will usually push the speed up higher then lower then walk then high then middle etc etc. This not only keeps me from being bored, it also helps me get faster overall and it burns more calories (when you bring your heart rate up and back down over and over it makes your body work harder).

Most people do speedwork on a track or during their runs, timing themselves and then pushing themselves hard alternating with recovery periods. I run too consistently though so I have a hard time pushing myself to go faster unless I have a magic button that forces me to.

Doing speedwork is also when I noticed I was having heart issues over a year ago so be careful if you do this to not push yourself too hard. My heart issues and my speedwork were completely unrelated but it's easy to push yourself way to hard without realizing it on a treadmill and potentially injure yourself.

I had more to say but I'm totally falling asleep sitting up so that's all I've got. Happy tax day!