My New Best Friend

I wish I could say it was a person.

Or even a dog.

Or something, but no, welcome to my world.

My new BFF in the whole wide world is:

HIIT

That's right.

I wasn't going to go to the gym, but then I remembered, oh yeah, I wanted to.

I went to the library, picked up my books and headed to the gym.

My workout went like this:

10 mins of running (9:30 min mile which is a personal best, hey, I run slow).

Thought about using the Step Mill (did about 4 minutes).

Changed my mind and said, treadmill, we're friends (most of the time) let's see if I can do some pyramid intervals or rolling hill intervals.

So, what's a girl to do?

Both.

It went a little something like this:

2 min - 4.0 - 4 incline

1 min - 7.0 - 1 incline

2 min - 4.0 - 5 incline

1 min - 7.2 - 1 incline

2 min - 4.0 - 6 incline

1 min - 7.4 - 1 incline

2 min - 4.0 - 7 incline

1 min - 7.6 - 1 incline

2 min - 4.0 - 8 incline

1 min - 7.8 - 1 incline

2 min - 4.0 - 9 incline

1 min - 8.0 - 0 incline

2 min - 4.0 - 1o incline

1 min - 7.6 - 1 incline

2 min - 4.0 - 9 incline

1 min - 7.4 - 1 incline

2 min - 4.0 - 8 incline

1 min - 7.2 - 1 incline

2 min - 4.0 - 7 incline

1 min - 7.2 - 1 incline

5 min - COOL DOWN

That's right, I might not be as fast as some, but I think I rocked it out.

It also felt WAY different than my 5 mile runs, but I sweat my butt off maybe even more.

We'll see what crazy ideas I get for tomorrow's workout.

Happy Short Work Week!

Book Review and a Killer Workout

I will start with what is definitely most exciting. I just finished reading this:

I am going to tell you that I COULD NOT put it down. I put it on my document holder at work so I could read while I was doing other things (and should have been working). I was reading it at the beach, at lunch, on my break, and at night. I stayed up late to read it. It was just that good.

I would definitely recommend it. It flows really well, and like I said, you just can not put it down. It is historical fiction, written by someone with a talent and a knack for the genre and the era. Look up her biography and you know how well she could associate herself with the book.

There was more than one character, and I like the going back and forth between the different characters and their thoughts. It puts an interesting spin on the story. It is set in the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. In the heart of the Civil Rights movement. The whole story revolved around this, and it truly put a spin on it that only someone from the south, who grew up near the era could have ever done.

I am pretty excited to see the movie. In fact, I can't wait, and I might even shell out the big bucks to go see it in the theater. Maybe I'll take the day off and see it as a matinee. I'm kind of a cheapskate. Anyway, it is definitely worth reading.

I will give you this though: I was reading reviews and message boards about the movie and I can not even begin to fathom how people can say it is terrible. The author was not trying to make it look as though black women back then were bad or ignorant. In fact, if anything, I think she portrayed them with strength and dignity. She made the white women look terrible, as many were back then, and the black women shone against that. She told it like it was between black and whites and those who might have been somewhere in the middle. It is a part of our history, and we can not take any of it back. We can apologize and hope that this never happens again, but racism will forever be in this world and this country. We will all, always be different. If we weren't different there would be no interesting things in this world, but these differences are also what make us fearful of the others; yet at the end of the day, we all do want the same thing, to be happy and healthy. Anyway, GO READ IT!

WORKOUT:

I decided I'd spice things up and do an intense interval work out. It went something like this:

5 min - 4.0 mph

3 min - 5.5 mph

1 min - 6.5 mph

3 min - 5.5 mph

1 min - 7.5 mph

3 min - 5.5 mph

1 min - 6.5 mph

3 min - 5.5 mph

1 min - 7.5 mph

3 min - 5.5 mph

1 min - 6.5 mph

3 min - 5.5 mph

1 min - 7.5 mph

3 min - 5.5 mph

1 min - 6.5 mph

3 min - 5.5 mph

5 min - 4.0 mph

It killed me. But it was so worth it.