Try It Tuesday: fun treadmill workout

Hi guys! Happy Tuesday!  I hope your week is off to a great start!!!

I want to cover two little pieces of housekeeping before I get into the try it part of this post:

1) I am not a doctor or a coach/trainer/etc.  I work retail and I have a degree in Politics.  I am not qualified in any way shape or form to give you real workout advice.  I am telling you what I did and if you want to try it too, that's on you.

2) I'm turning Try It Tuesday into a blog link up starting on September 1st! More information will be coming soon, but I hope you will join me and share stories about new things you try!

Now to the good part!

This week I tried a couple new things in one go. The first new thing was the fitness center at our apartment complex.  It's small but there are two treadmills and I had it all to myself last night when I tried it out.

 Plus you can't beat the view of the parking lot.  Very great people watching!  I also like being able to see my reflection a little bit in the glass. I tend to pull my shoulders up while I run and it is a nice visual reminder to relax my arms.

For the second new thing I'm sharing a fun workout that I made up and actually made the treadmill not suck.  When I say fun I am not even being sarcastic. And I am not a treadmill lover.

I am, however, a lazy runner. I don't tend to push myself and when I get tired I take a walk break.  So the purpose of this was to make me run a little faster than my "comfortable" ploddy pace and to keep it interesting enough that I didn't just give up and go home!

I started out walking .1 mile to warm up a bit (at about 3.5 mph).  I also set the treadmill for a 1% incline to spice things up a bit.
After the walking warm up, I set the treadmill to 5.2 mph which, for me, is an easy jog pace.  If you are using this plan, set it to a happy easy warm-up jog pace whatever that might be for you.

From there, I upped the pace by .1 mph every .1 miles and kept going until I couldn't. Then, because I know myself and know that I quit before I really can't anymore, I went one more. 

I discovered that I am slow and out of shape yall! I made it to 6.5 mph and went back to .1 miles of walking.

For the second set I started back at a 5.3 and upped the pace .1 mph every .05 miles. I really liked this part because the walk break had allowed my heart rate to regulate and these quicker increases made it pick up faster.  My goal for the second set was to go .1 mph further than I had the time before.  I was worn out by the time I got to that part, so naturally I kicked it up to 7 mph and did a final .1 mile to finish out.

Then I walked until my heart wasn't trying to pop out of my throat.

To be completely honest, I ate like crap yesterday and drank almost no water.  I am planning to make this type of workout something I do every Monday because I think it will be nice to be able to see if I am making progress!

If you have a fun treadmill workout suggestion, share it with me! I love variety!
Did you try anything new this week? I would love to hear about it!

Hope you have a great Tuesday!
Jessica