Clearly I jinxed us after last week’s Workout Wednesday post…so I sincerely apologize to everyone for that. What was beautiful weather turned into 6″ of snow overnight Friday and has caused me to be 3/3 running inside on the treadmill since. I’ll be back outside tomorrow, don’t y’all worry. I start to get itchy & twitchy if I spend too many days in my basement. Super grateful for the option, but I prefer it to stay an option and not a necessity. Speaking of the treadmill…that leads us right to my most asked of this week’s Workout Wednesday questions!

Top 3 Questions of the Week

When do you decide to run on the treadmill vs. outside? What speeds do you run at? Do you trust your watch/treadmill more?

For me personally, the treadmill is my LAST resort. If it’s pouring rain, I’ll stay inside. If the road or my trail {like it was yesterday morning} is snow/iced covered, I’ll be on the treadmill. Other than that, the wind chill has to be single-digits for me to ‘voluntarily’ send myself to the basement. Heat, humidity, wind, a light rain, relatively cold…those are all conditions I will be outside in. It makes me tougher. Plus the muscles, both actual & mental, you put work on the pavement can’t be replicated on a machine that automatically assists with your leg turnover. My speeds on a treadmill are dependent on the type of run I’m doing: easy/party paces range from ~ 6.5-7.2mph, threshold/tempo paces 7.7-8.5mph and ‘all out’ efforts are capped at 9mph because my trusty old tread maxes out at 9. Believe me, I’ve said more than a few unkind words to the brand because of that. In regards to ‘trusting’ my watch vs. treadmill, I’d say more so I trust my treadmill. I’ve calibrated the two together enough times so now they’re within ~.10 miles of each other every single time.

Headband / Pullover / Leggings / Shoes

How much sleep do you get? Bedtime? Alarm time? Ever too tired for your early morning workout?

I aim for 7-8 hours of sleep each night. A typical night during the week ranges from about 6:45-7:30 hours according to my Ava bracelet, with right around 30% coming from Deep + REM. A weekend night I will usually get between 8-9 hours. Honestly though, I notice for fatigue from my REM % dropping below about 20% than I do from less overall hours. I usually hit play on my sleep meditation just after 9:30pm and my alarm goes off at 5:53am every day but Tuesdays–that alarm is 6:13am. Weekends we ‘sleep in’ until the dogs bother us, so typically at least I am up by 7:15-7:30am. I’m an early riser and an early-to-bed type of person. Personally, the only thing I see people doing past 9pm is watching mindless tv or scrolling social media. I’d prefer to get into bed instead. And no, I’ve never been too tired to workout that early in the morning. Feel free to ask me that again when we have kids, though! 😉

Off Days…how many do you take? When? What do they look like?

I take one ‘off’ day per week and that is Sunday. But I don’t just do nothing. My off day is an active rest day. Sundays I do a 30-45 minute yoga flow first thing in morning. Usually we’ll end up taking the dogs for a walk and/or I’ll do a 15-20 low impact bike ride to flush my legs. On Sundays, I don’t set an alarm unless we have something going on that needs me to. It’s my day to allow my body {or the dogs LOL} to wake when it’s ready. My active rest day also falls on the same day I deep clean the house, so I’m getting some movement in from that. I also like to either take an Epsom salt bath or super long, steam shower and since #SelfCareSunday is a real thing, I do a face mask before bed. Also: tons of water, good nutrition, no preworkout, extra stretching and dessert. Because dessert is the only way to end/start a week.

Workout Wednesday Workout of the Week

LEG FOCUSED

What you’ll *ideally* need – band, heavy kettlebell or dumbbell, set of medium weight dumbbells, yoga ball. To make this harder, grab even heavier weights. To lighten this up a bit, drop down to 3 rounds of each circuit and lower your weight choices. I did this Monday and my hamstrings are STILL sore more than 48 hours later…