Christmas Came Early + Tricks To Survive The Treadmill

Happy Hump Day!

Guess What! Christmas came early in the George household! My wonderful husband knew just what a blogger needs for Christmas....... a new computer of course! I got my old computer for high school graduation (thanks mom & dad), but it was nearing the end of its life. It still works pretty well, but it is pretty slow and likes to freeze mid-blog post! Argh!

I was supposed to wait until Christmas to receive my shiny new laptop, but Eric wanted to make sure I got the one I wanted so he let me come with him to pick it out (he's such a smarty pants). We went to Best Buy on Sunday, and I scoped out all of the laptops. I really wanted one of those tiny ones so I could carry it with me, but apparently they don't have very much memory and can get really slow if you have too much stuff on them. Since I like to save everything, I didn't think that would be a good idea! Meet my new little beauty. Yep, that's right it's pink!

He even got me a super cute case to carry it in. (Side note: I tried like 10 times to flip this picture, but it kept inserting vertically. I have no idea why, but I'm just going to roll with it)

Needless to say, I am overly excited to be typing this post on my brand new computer! Now, on to the fitness topic of the day. I'm not sure how the weather is where you live, but it was a very brisk 35 degrees when I woke up this morning. I usually like to get a run in as soon as I wake up, but there is no way I'm heading out to pound the pavement with a windchill below 30. I am simply not that tough! With that being said, I have had to move my workouts inside to the dreaded treadmill!

I already told you how I think the treadmill can somehow magically turn 5 miles into 20, but sometimes you just have no choice but to head inside. So what can you do to make your treadmill workouts more bearable? Here are a few tricks that people have shared with me or that I use personally to fight boredom on the treadmill.

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Treadmill Tricks:

1. Spice up your playlist. A new playlist can make any workout feel easier and more interesting.
2. People watch while your run. I always try and pick the treadmill with the best view of the gym. I am a big people watcher (not in a creepy way, geeze), so this can entertain me for quite a while. People can come up with some crazy exercises.
3. If you are lucky enough to have access to a treadmill with one of those little personal TV screens on them, take advantage of it. My apartment complex has 3 treadmills with TV's on them, and I always go in there and watch the morning news while I run. It definitely makes the time past faster.
4. Save your speed workouts for the treadmill. If you save your sprint workouts for days you know you will need to take your run inside, you can minimize the amount of time spent on the treadmill while still maximizing results.
5. Do an interval workout. Alternating between running at a fairly speedy pace and jogging will keep you focused on your workout and help prevent boredom. Warm up for about 5 minutes, then alternate between 1-2 minutes at a slightly slower than sprint pace, and 2-3 minutes at a comfortable jog. When you are constantly switching speeds, you don't have time to get bored.
6. Try a hill repeat. The fact that you can control the incline on a treadmill is an awesome tool. Try warming up for 5 minutes, then performing hill repeats. Increase your incline to 8-10% and climb for 2 minutes, then drop you incline back to to 0 and recover for 2 minutes (still jogging). You can increase your incline and climb duration over time. This is a killer workout! Trust me your legs will be talking to you so loudly, you won't be able to think about anything else!  
7. For more treadmill workouts check out: Fitnessmagazine.comhttp://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/cardio/treadmill/, www.runnersworld.comhttp://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-263--608-0,00.html

Well, I'm off to work! I hope everyone has a great day! Don't forget to check out the great discounts going on at the Shop FF&F page!

Food for thought:
Do you prefer working out indoors or outdoors?
Do you have any tricks to spice up your treadmill workouts?

In health,