Janae Says...

For today’s Workout Wednesday post, I thought I’d write about rest days. I generally think this is something you have to figure out for yourself. I’ll tell you what I’ve found and what my general rules are for rest days. This is what works for me and may not work for you. Typically, I reserve rest days for especially busy days. For example, on Tuesdays, I will often to go “donate” plasma (for monies, of course). After that I head home and either cook or wait for Patrick so we can go out. We eat, and we head to institute at 7. We’re there till 8:30. Tuesdays are just busy. So sometimes I skip Tuesdays for working out. I may do the same on Thursdays if I donate a second day. I may also skip a workout when I get invited to do other plans that won’t enable me to exercise and shower and get ready before the activity starts—Friday nights, for example. I might take rest days on the days I know I just need a break from everything. Some evenings I just want to eat and sit on ...

I've never understood the girls who show up at the gym with makeup and hair done. When I go to the gym, it is not to impress anyone or to look attractive. In fact, I think my goal is to make myself look like an absolute train wreck. I want some physical indication that I worked hard. So it used to be that when I went to work out, I just worked out in my grubby lounge clothes. Anything extra I had that was comfortable, and that I didn't mind getting soaked in sweat. Because, why look cute, right? Why spend money on clothes that I was going to get all sweaty? I've had a change in heart in the past year or so of exercising. I have realized that what I wear when I exercise makes a huge difference in how I feel and how I perform. With this, I'm talking both about function and aesthetics. First, function. Before I exercise, I decide what I'm going to do, and choose my clothes based on those activities. Let me give you an example. If I decide that I'm doing yoga,...

It's funny how much pride I used to take in my annual number of gym check-ins. I now take pride more in how hard I can work without having to go to the gym to do it. Don't get me wrong. I still love the place. I just would like to be able to get a good workout in at either my apartment complex gym or in my actual apartment. Remember, it needs to be easy (in a sense) if I'm going to make myself do it. I've mentioned before that I often use a blog for my workouts, and I modify according to what is available to me. Sometimes I even make it harder. But I thought I'd share just a few of my favorite "at-home" workouts that require minimal or no equipment. I've even done these at hotels and things when gym equipment was either taken or nonexistent. 1. The 15 Minute Workout I love this one because of its flexibility. If I felt like running 2 miles, I could come back and do a single 15-minute round of this afterward and call it good for the day. I l...

So I wrote this last week and ended up forgetting to post it. It's a questionnaire I decided to create, using a couple of other ones for ideas. I'll put a blank copy at the end in case you want to fill in your own. 1. How long have you been running? I probably started running consistently at the beginning of 2012, maybe earlier. 2. What’s your favorite distance to run at a time? For some reason, I like 2 miles at a time. But when I get in better shape, I think 4 miles is a great distance. 3. How many times per week do you run? It hasn’t been very consistent lately. I try to include running in every workout, so 3-5 days per week. I did 4 days last week. 4. How far do you run in one week? That also depends. I ran 8 miles last week. I’d say 4-8 miles on average, when not training for a race. 5. What is the longest distance you’ve ever run? 13.1 baby! 6. What’s your average pace per mile? About 10:40. Sometimes slower, depending on hills, wind, energy, etc. But 10:40...