Tuesday, August 14, 2012

45 minutes!

I went 45 minutes on the treadmill this morning and even jogged twice! That's my longest and fastest so far. I felt really great today. I wore my heart monitor to see how my heart is doing and my max heart rate is lower than it was before, even at a faster pace, and it recovered quicker when I quit. That means my heart is getting healthier along with the rest of me.

I took a break from my bike last week because I was getting a bit burned out and discouraged and I think it really helped to switch to the treadmill for a little bit. I felt like I wasn't improving fast enough on the bike but I'm seeing big improvement on the treadmill which I think will help when I get back on my bike. I actually planned to start biking again today but the air quality here is awful and they're telling people with asthma to stay in the house.

Boise is in a valley which is like a big punch bowl with mountains all around. When there are fires, even far away, the wind brings the smoke in and it all settles in the valley and won't leave. There are fires all over the place right now and it's really hazy and smokey outside. You can smell it in the air. A bike ride in that would trigger an asthma attack of epic proportions, so I'm sticking with the treadmill until the smoke clears. I'm actually not hating the treadmill so much these days (ok, I admit it, I kind of like it!), so I'm fine sticking with that for now.

My plan is to eventually buy a bike trainer, which is a stand that you put your bike on so that you can ride it in the house. It allows you to keep training on your regular bike all winter, which will be great, because I don't want to put my bike away when the weather gets cold. I have an exercise bike but it feels completely different than my real bike. I want to keep training on my real bike as much as I can. It won't be nearly as fun in the house, but it's better than nothing. I've been researching bike trainers and I think I'm going to buy one in the next month or two. I'm still searching for the best deal.

Tomorrow is Matthews birthday so today we're wrapping presents, getting the cake and getting ready to celebrate our sweet 9 year old tomorrow. I can't believe he's going to be 9! He's really excited for his birthday and has been trying to get me to tell him what his presents are all week. For his birthday activity I'm taking him and Josh to see the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie. We've all been waiting impatiently for it to come out. I have to admit that I enjoy those movies as much as they do! We may not go tomorrow though, I'm thinking we might wait and go on Saturday. Since it's a school night tomorrow we'll probably take Matthew out to eat and have cake. I'm going to have to do some serious work on the treadmill tomorrow to earn enough calories for birthday cake!! :)

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