My Journey With Weight Loss – Upping My Cardio

I was out walking my dog, Scottie, yesterday morning and apparently it was ‘Scottie Gets to Meet New Friends’ day. Now Scottie loves all people and for her it was a thrill that we were stopped a couple times for people to give her a quick pat. One woman laughed because she always sees Scottie looking at me adoringly and had just realized that it was really because I had treats in my hand. Then a teenaged boy asked if he could pet Scottie who of course got very excited. Well today we saw that teenaged boy again and Scottie literally started dancing as she recognized her new friend. Again, my dog just loves everybody.

So I have noticed in the past few weeks that even though I am running/walking the same amount I am not getting up to my cardio zone as much as I should. I am moving at the same pace but I think my body has gotten so used to this that my heart doesn’t need to pump as hard. Time to up my game.

Today was my hill training and it is the day I like best. The training is only about an hour with a start off jog, 10 intervals running up hill and then gently walking back down all finished off with a jog home. Last week I decided I was going to push myself way out of my comfort zone and get in a good workout. So, I opted for alternating a brisk jog up the hill and then a sprint up the hill. Wow, those 5 intervals sprinting were tough and by time I hit the 2/3 mark on the hill my heart was pounding and I was breathing pretty heavy but I kept going. The last interval I admit my legs were really starting to feel this workout but I was pretty proud of my accomplishment.

As always when I got home I used my Fitbit app to analyze my workout and boy did it show a difference. I spent most of the training today in my cardio zone! It was an awesome workout and made me realize I just have to push things a bit to get even more fit. Seriously, being able to run 16k (tomorrow’s long run) isn’t enough?

Find your motivation to challenge yourself and remember it can all happen just one step at a time.