It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

When it's 10 degrees and snowing, running is LAST thing I want to do. Winter weather may be my favorite kind to run in, but I'm more of a 20-35 degree kind of girl. However, I absolutely HATE treadmills, so even if it's negative 2 degrees outside, I'll probably still opt for the outdoor run...or no run at all. ;) Being from Wisconsin pretty much has me conditioned to love winter and cold things, so typically a nice chilly run in the snow is a breeze, or at the very least something fun to do. Yesterday, however, wasn't exactly the easiest run I've ever had. It was snowing pretty hard, it was windy and SO COLD! Now, I can handle the cold, but we're talking borderline single digits here.

I had checked the weather before I left, so I was mentally prepared to face the frigid Wisconsin winter, but that didn't mean I was looking forward to it. In fact, I'd been debating with myself over whether or not to run for about a half an hour. But, I'd told myself the night before that no matter the conditions, I had to run the next day, so I suited up and braved the cold for a short, twenty minute run. I felt so good afterwards. Even though it was a shorter run than usual and was, in truth, a lot more difficult than I thought, I felt refreshed and remembered why I love running in the winter.

For those of you who don't like to run at all, let alone in the winter, and for the others that do like running but resort to treadmills and ellipticals after October, here are some reasons why I like winter running and feel that you should give it a try ;) :

1. Your legs go numb after about 5 minutes of being outside (i.e. they don't hurt as much in the cold)
2. Running in snow makes your legs work harder giving you more bang for your buck (a better workout).
3. Yeah the cold air might hurt a little at first, but personally, my lungs feel better after a cold weather run than a warm weather one. 
4. Target has really cute cold weather running gear. ;)
5. Running on ice gives you more excuses to walk and/or stop when want need to. ;)
6. You don't feel as sweaty and gross at the end
7. Any workout after a challenging winter run feels a thousand times more conquerable! 

I know that the cold isn't everyone's cup of tea, but maybe these  reasons will make getting out there and running in the snow and cool temps a little more appealing. Give it a try and let me know what you think! :)

Moving on, I recently purchased one of those ab roller wheel thingies. Oh my gosh does it work! I've used it several times now and each time, my abs have felt insanely sore (in a good way) the next day! My ab wheel is just a simple one, a peg through two wheels, so I can really only use it for one exercise. But there are others that have straps on the handles so that you can fasten them to your feet and do other exercises with your wheel as well. No matter which wheel you use, you're still getting an excellent workout. Just be careful that you only go as far as your body feels comfortable, otherwise you run the risk of pulling a muscle.

My post run workout yesterday consisted of as many ab rollouts as I could stand, a lunge set, squat jumps, hip strengthening exercises and about twenty minutes of stretching. I'll post the exact workout next time (maybe with pictures?). Until then, just keep swimming (or winter running ;) ).

Back to December

Hello All!

It's that time of year again! Yep, it's December and that means that finals are upon us. Cue the panic. For most, finals entail long nights of studying, writing papers, crying, stress-eating, coffee, and frantically trying to cram in those last assignments you forgot to do or the extra credit you need to bump your grade from a B to an A. There's no question about it, finals are stressful.

For me, this semester's finals means six new papers to write (one of which is 7 pages and another is 8-10 pages), two old papers to revise, lots of forum questions to answer, three actual exams to study for, two movies to watch, and a ton of research to do. Bleh. Needless to say, I've got a busy schedule and a hectic week ahead of me. I've already pulled more all-nighters in the last week than I have in my entire college career. Friday night I worked until 7 am on Saturday, slept for three hours then woke up and did more work until 5:30 this morning. My Sunday wasn't exactly as productive as my last two days (i.e. I veg'd out on the couch and watched football until 3:00 this afternoon before grabbing some Starbucks and working on yet another paper), but all in all I'd say I had a pretty successful weekend, homework wise. It's all about crossing things off the list and making sure everything gets done.

Of course, that doesn't mean we can neglect our health. Like I said in my last post, I tend to eat very little when I'm busy and stressed out, but what I do eat, is never good for me. Because I've been running on hardly any sleep for the last two days, my body has been craving sugary and fatty foods, like muffins and ice-cream, which admittedly I've been giving in to. Although, I did manage to fit in a workout today. This stationary bike routine from Self magazine is so great! I really worked up a sweat and felt so good afterwards. The best part? It only takes a half an hour. That's time anyone can fit in to a busy schedule! ;)

I'm not going to go on a long rant about how to snack healthily when studying or how to fit in a workout or eat well with a super stressful, crazy-busy schedule, but I will say this: for the sake of your own sanity, PLEASE TAKE BRAIN BREAKS! Sitting around for hours and hours doing nothing but homework and studying is just asking for a mental breakdown. So do yourself a favor, and give your brain the occasional break. For every hour that you study, give yourself 5-10 minutes of time to relax. Make yourself a cup o' joe; take a power nap; walk around for a bit; do some burpees. No matter what you do in those 5-10 minutes, DON'T think about finals. Just relax your mind. Anywho, you'll all have to bear with me as posts will be, if existent, sparse and very short until finals are over. Hopefully you guys have better finals schedules than I do!

Good luck to all and remember to just keep swimming! :)