NEW TOY!!!

NORDICTRACK

C2200 TREADMILL

SAAAAWEEEEET!!!!

Here are the specs:

• Solaris™ Illumination Console
• 2.25 CHP Commercial DurX™ Drive System
• DuraSoft III™ Impact Cushioning
• 0-10 MPH 1-Touch™ Speed Control
• 0-12% 1-Touch™ Power Incline
• 20" x 55" Quiet Treadbelt
• 10 Workout Programs
• 1-Step™ Pulse Monitor
• CoolAire™ Fan
• Carb Counter™
• Odometer with MyMiles™ Tracker and 2 Profile Memory
• iFit.com® Compatible
• 300-lb. Weight Capacity
• Dimensions: 37.6" X 64" X 71.4"
• Lifetime Motor Warranty
• One Year Parts/One Year In Home Labor Warranty

I got it at Sears on sale for $799. I still have to pick it up, which my Dad will help me with tomorrow since I need a bigger car. When I got home, I saw it on sale at nordictrack.com for $699 + free shipping. Plus I realized that I still have a $10 coupon for opening a Sears account. So tomorrow, I can hopefully get a price adjustment - Sears matches with an additional 10% off, then my $10 coupon. I have the printout from nordictrack.com all ready in my purse. Yay! This treadmill is pretty cool! It's not anything fancy, but more than enough for me. The weight limit is 300 lbs has very good cushioning for the knees (I tried it out :-D). I can't wait to get it home tomorrow!

I also bought a really nice dress for the wedding I'm going to in May. I got it at Lord & Taylor on sale for $75!!!! It cost a lot more than that regularly! It's a size 2 and fit perfectly.

Overall a great day of shopping!

Once I get the treadmill set up, I want to put a small and cheap LCD TV against the wall in front of it. I've seen some with a DVD player already built in. Should be good for distraction during long runs.

For workout today, I did LBWO this morning then yoga at night.

Eating is not so good. I had a small cup of Coldstone Creamery ice cream. I had one they call "Founders Favorite" which is a sweet ice cream with nuts, brownies, & caramel. Eek!!!! Not good, but oh so yummy!

Hope everybody's having a great weekend!

Exam Day

I just got done with my exam. I think I did at least okay. It's kind of hard to tell because the questions were subjective. I hope at I got at least a C so I don't have to reimburse my company for the tuition. My company covers continuing education 100%, as long as you get a pass or at least a C. Keeping my fingers crossed!

This weekend, I'll be working on my paper & presentation. Once that's done, that's it until the next class which will be in the Fall. I can't wait for this semester to be over.

On to fitness...

5.5 miles run today!!!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!! I was so excited! I had to make 2 quick stops though to stretch because my right hip started bothering me, which is something new. Once I got done my run, my hip felt fine. I made sure to stretch thoroughly just in case.

After my run, I rested for 30 minutes, ate dinner, rested for an hour, did UBWO, then finally a much needed shower (LOL!).

I kind of switched my workout around around. I was supposed to do LBWO yesterday but was not able to. Today, I was supposed to do HIIT and then tomorrow is supposed to be UBWO. However, because I missed yesterday, I decided to just run today because it was so beautiful outside. LBWO will be tomorrow morning (hopefully), then shopping, then maybe a shorter run in the afternoon.

I have to admit though that I'm a very slow runner, but I'm okay with it. Coming from not being able to run for more than 2 minutes a year ago, this is indeed a tremendous progress. Since I'm fairly new with this, I decided to focus on distance/endurance rather than speed for now. Between the HIIT work on the treadmill and once I get more comfortable/stronger with running outside, I think speed work will come easier in the future. Is this a good idea?

That's it for today! Have a great weekend!

Workout, eating, & AI

Today's workout was spectacular! I didn't wake up early enough to go to the gym, but made it up by going just before lunch. Workout was as follows:

Cardio (Treadmill): 3 min. walking, 20 min. HIIT [2 miles in 19:08 - NEW PERSONAL BEST!!! 2.09 miles in 20 minutes] 3 min. running moderate pace, 7 minutes walking
Abs: 3 sets Ab Bootcamp

After work, I went out for my run - 4.5 miles.

Eating has been so so. We had a baby shower at work and I ate A LOT of junk! Oh well, it's over and time to move on.

****************************************************

American Idol - interesting today.

Katherine - I thought she did great and looked beautiful! Don't know about the dress though. Is it just me or did she needed a body shaper? The judges' comments kind of annoyed me. If Katherine is as good as Whitney Houston, do you think she would actually need American Idol?

Elliott - He did awesome!!! If he would only fix his teeth! What was up with Paula's crying though? I thought she was going to have a nervous breakdown!

Kelly - If America's smart, she would be out this week. Have you noticed that she hasn't been in the bottom 3 yet?

Paris - Great voice. I don't know what's with her though, but she just doesn't do it for me.

Taylor - Not so good this week.

Chris - I LOVE HIM!!!

Laziness over

My one day break last Wednesday turned into a 4-days break. No excuse for it, except that I was LAZY!!! However, the constant rain that started Friday night and lasted to this morning didn't help either. But that's over. The sun is up and I just came back from a 4.5-miles run.

The good news is that eating has been clean. So even with no work out, I don't feel fat or bloated. :=D

Still too much to do tonight. I still have to cook my protein pancake as I am out, then clean my refrigerator since I'm getting my new one tomorrow morning. I also have to study for my exam on Friday.

That's about it! Hope everybody had a great weekend!

Taking a break

I am not feeling well today. Not necessarily sick, but I have absolutely no energy to do any strenuous activities. I was fine last night, but woke up this morning feeling crappy! I think it's a combination of too much workout and not getting enough sleep. So today, I'm taking a break from working out, except maybe do a little bit of yoga, and to try to get to bed early. I really have no trouble falling asleep. In fact, I can fall asleep at the drop of a hat. However, after getting ready for bed, I end up doing other stuff and before you know it, it's late. So tonight, I'm going to force myself to go to sleep early. I took some Tylenol which I hope will help also.

On the workout front, yesterday's was awesome. I did my UBWO supersets in the morning, then ran outside for approximately 4.5 miles after work. UBWO was great and my arms are still sore today. The running though was a bit of a struggle. My legs just felt off throughout my run. Today, my shins are a little bit sore. Hopefully, I'll be back to form tomorrow and back to working out.

One definite change I'm doing with my routine is to do 2 UBWO and only 1 LBWO a week. Originally I was just going to follow the the BFL UBWO/LBWO schedule. However, I figured that with all the extra running, my legs are getting enough workout. I have to figure out how to better schedule my running though. Since I'm technically just beginning to seriously run outside, it might be a good idea to alternate my running days instead of doing it on consecutive days. I love running though so I'll have to play it by ear.

Anybody watch American Idol? I thought Chris, Paris, Taylor, & Katherine did very well. Kelly was doing okay, then screwed up totally for the last half of the song. Ace still has to go! Doesn't matter that he pulled his hair back! I was more impressed with Rod Stewart. He's ancient and yet he's getting married to a young good looking wife. His baby is adorable!

Gas price increased again. Monday, regular was $2.75. Yesterday, it went up to $2.81. It's holding at $2.81 today but who knows how long that will last.

Good Friday

Hey all! I'm at my parents house right now. I got here last night (they're only an hour away from me) and today I'm working from home - one of my job's lovely perks :)

My mom's not too happy with me...it's Good Friday and I didn't go to church. How was I supposed to know it's required? Our company doesn't have it as a holiday, so I'm usually at work on Good Fridays. Oh well. It's not like a don't go to church every Sunday like a good Catholic.

Picture - I am working on getting an actual picture of me posted here. I don't take good pictures so I'll have to dig really deep to find a halfway decent picture. The picture I have on the profile is Jessica Simpson from a scene in "Dukes of Hazzard". I don't know why I put her up. I don't even like her songs. I do admire how she got into shape for her movie.

I got my workout done today though! I went to the gym near here, an all women's gym, and did my cardio HIIT & abs. But boy, what a hassle it was! I had it all planned out, I was going there to do my HIIT on the eliptical, then 10 minutes of the stair stepper, then abs. When I got there, one of the eliptical was taken by this middle-aged lady with a mullet & the other one was out of service. There were only 2 elipticals in that gym! I hopped on this Body Trec & I just couldn't get a handle on the pedals. I was on the lowest setting and I can barely move them! My legs were getting a great workout but my heart rate wasn't going up. So after 2 minutes of putzing around with it, I decided to do the bikes instead. I went through all their bikes but couldn't figure out how to turn them on. Besides that, the control panels were all torn up. I must have looked like an idiot going around the different cardio machines! Finally, I just had it and went on the treadmill to do my 20 minutes HIIT then 10 minutes walking on an incline. Ab workout was on the incline bench & captain's chair.

The entire time I was there, mullet-hair lady was just annoying me! While I was on the Body Trec, I saw her from the corner of my eye get off the eliptical and just stood next to it and watched tv. I was waiting for her to move off so I can use it, but she just stood there, then hopped back on. Then, when she got off, her daughter got on it. So basically, they monopolized the only functioning eliptical to themselves. When I left the gym, the daughter was still on it.

The gym today was just full of oddballs. There was a girl that was walking on the treadmill at like 2 mph while reading a magazine. She looks like she exerted more energy reading than working out! Then there was a fairly young lady that would walk on the treadmill SLOW, then would get off every 5 minutes to stretch. Then there was the mullet-hair lady. She was on the eliptical pedaling lightly while watching television, then left the eliptical so her daughter can hop on, weight-lifted using using 3-lbs dumbells, then went on the treadmill & walked SLOW. Then there I was, all sweaty, red-faced, and just about ready to pass out! It was very entertaining, actually.

No outside running today, unfortunately. It has been overcast and drizzling on and off all day. I was looking forward to it too since there's a nice park close by with about .5 mile trail around it. It would have been a nice leasurely run. But since I ran on the treadmill this morning, I'm not too upset about it.

Eating has been crap. Yesterday at work, we went to this talk and they had food there. I had pepperoni pizza, ceasar salad, & brownies. Yummm. Since I've been with my parents, I've been eating more crap. They just don't have anything BFL-friendly. To top it all off, my mom bought some egg custards. You get these in Chinese bakeries and they are so yummy but not good for you. I'm trying my best to limit my portions, at least. I'm afraid that if I don't control my eating, I won't be able to fit into my Easter outfit. LOL! On one hand I'm happy to be here for the Easter weekend, but on the other hand I just want to get through this weekend and get back to my routine!

Damn Blister!!!!

Did LBWO - superset this morning. I upped the weights this time to feel the burn. I'm really happy with this new weight-lifting routine. I'm definitely getting the hang of this supersetting thing.

The weather is beautiful today. Around 70F with a nice breeze. Perfect to be outside. Definitely not to pass up for running. So off I went this afternoon afternoon. It started out rough. My legs just felt like lead, probably due this morning's LBWO. However, once I got going it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, the damn blister from yesterday started acting up again! I already have band-aid on and I made sure I wore socks specifically for running today. Towards the end, it hurt like a (beep beep beep)!!!!! I logged in about 3.7 miles so not too bad. I think I'll have to go to CVS or something and see if Dr. Scholl's have some heavy duty blister guards. I hope it's not the shoes. I've only had these shoes for 2 weeks and it hasn't given me any problems until yesterday. I really don't want to stop running because of a damn blister!

************************************************

I'm currently watching American Idol. I think Chris Daughtry rocked! I do agree with Simon, I wish he chose a song that's more popular.

I have to admit, Bucky wasn't too bad today. I just can't stand to look at him!

Ace sucked!

Taylor drunk? I think Paula is, but not Taylor. I thought he was pretty good!

That's all folks!

Workout log & "24"

I am going to TRY to keep this short since I am exhausted!!!!

Yesterday was super BUSY! Went to church in the morning for Palm Sunday, then food shopping. After that, cooking & preparing my meals for this week. I also got some cleaning done. I wanted to run since it was BEAUTIFUL, but housework took precedence. I did get some yoga done last night though, so it wasn't all a wash.

This morning was cardio HIIT & abs. Cardio today was on the treadmill. Did 5 minutes walking warm-up, followed by 20 minutes HIIT + 3 minutes MISS running, then 2 minutes walking cool-down. I tied my personal best of 2 miles in 19:45 for the 20 minutes HIIT!!!! I maxed out at 7.0 mph but felt I could have gone faster. Ab exercise today was 3 sets of Ab Bootcamp.

After work, I went out for a run. I planned to do 5 miles, but I ended up running total of ~4.2 miles, then had to walk home for ~0.2 miles because the inside arch of my right foot started getting blisters from rubbing against my socks. Bummer! I could have gone longer, but I was taken down by a blister...LOL! However, I was so happy with it overall. This time, I roughly timed myself and came up with 45 minutes for the total ~4.4 miles, including the walking break! So I must have been doing ~10-minutes mile, which was what I was targetting for. WOOHOOO!!!!

****************************************************

"24". Holy cow! They're about to take down the president! I was kind of disappointed though. I thought Jack Bauer was going to dig out the bullet from Evelyn, cure her, before going on his way :). I can't wait to see next week's episode. Maybe next week, he'll walk on water...

Saturday Shower & Shopping Spree

It's around 11 pm and while waiting for the laundry to finish, I decided to blog.

First of all, Melissa & Donna, you guys motivated me to get my workout done today! I woke up this morning late, had some issues with the refrigerator, & just didn't get my workout done. Plus, it was chilly & pouring rain all day! However, I did go to the mall around lunch time spent the entire afternoon there (more about that later). Does mall walking count as a workout? Anyways, got home, ate dinner, talked to my mom on the phone, did some stuff around the house, & surfed the blogs. Reading your blogs & your runs today just pumped me up. So there I was in my basement at 9:30 pm doing my UBWO while doing laundry & watching "Trading Spaces"...LOL! Anyways, just wanted to say THANK YOU!

Tomorrow is supposed to be nicer. If I wake up early enough, I might go for an easy run. I have to go to church though since it's Palm Sunday.

*************************************************

My bank account definitely got a good workout today...LOL! As I mentioned before, I went shopping. Majorly! I went to Sephora's and bought the Bare Escentual's starter kit & an eye shadow set. I've always wanted to try out Bare Escentual's since people I know rave about it. I had one of the girls working there try it out on me and OMG! It is awesome! It's very light & looks very natural. I also had her teach me how to get fancy with eye makeup so I ended up buying an eyeshadow set. Total spent - $90.

I then went to Ann Taylor and bought a cute top & beige sandals - $100. Both of them were on sale so I was fairly pleased with the purchase.

Then off to Victoria's Secret - $25.

Finally, I went to Sears and bought a new refrigerator - $950. It's one of those 2 doors side-by-side with the water/ice machine. My current one is basic one (freezer on top, refrigerator on the bottom) with no ice maker. The refrigerator came with the house and unfortunately for me, the 2 previous owners of my house never bothered to put in a water line to the refrigerator, so I have to get this done separately. Since I want to replace my kitchen faucet & install a garbage disposal anyways, I figured I should just hire a plumber separately & get a better deal.

All I can say is, thank God for bonuses & tax refund!

Oh, and I almost bought another pair of jeans! I went to Nordstrom and for fun, decided to try one of their jeans. You know, the ones that cost $150-$200! OMG! I think I'm in love! These jeans are so awesome!!!! The brands I tried on are Citizens for Humanity, AG, & something else I forgot. All I know is that they're super expensive by my standards of jeans. Keep in mind, I usually get my jeans from Gap & Limited. Anyways, these expensive jeans make your legs look long & lean, & they somehow lift your butt. The butt part is really important to me since I don't have one...LOL! Ever since BFL, not only did my boobs disappear, but my butt as well! Anyways, these jeans give you a butt! Also, they are soooo comfortable! I contemplated getting them for a long time in the dressing room, but finally decided to hold off on it. Maybe next paycheck. The jeans are all regular length so they're pretty long for me, but Nordstrom apparently hems them for you for free. I figured for that price, they better!!!

*********************************************

This morning, I looked outside and saw a bunch of people running in the pouring rain. I then remembered that there's a 5K run/walk event occuring by the high school near me. I said to myself, "Next year, I want to be one of them." So that's my next goal - run a 5K event! I'll have to find 5K run/walk around here & convince my friend to go with me.

April showers & TGIF

Wasn't able to blog yesterday since I was out last night. I was so tired when I got home that I only had the energy to read & comment on other blogs. Anyways, yesterday's LBWO superset workout was fairly successful. I hit my 10's in some of the supersets, but not all. So next time I do it, I'm going to increase the weights on some of the exercises. I'm still sore today from yesterday because I did enough new exercises to shake up my body a little bit, so I'm still very happy with the outcome.

Last night, I went out with a friend to Max & Erma's. Does anybody have this restaurant in their area? The food was pretty good! My friend ordered hot soft pretzel for appetizer. Of course I ate some! The meal part wasn't bad - Carribean Grilled Chicken with Mango Salsa, rice, & steamed vegetable. It came with 2 chicken breasts, so I took one home for tomorrow (can't eat meat today coz of Lent). Then I had their signature chocolate chip cookies, which are are to die for! You have to order it in the beginning so that they bake it right then & there, then they give it to you after your meal fresh out of the oven. Yummm! I had one piece at the restaurant, then another piece at the movie theatre where we saw Ice Age 2. Definitely a kids movie, but there wasn't anything out that we wanted to see! I would have seen Phat Girls or the movie with Antonio Banderas about ballroom dancing, but they didn't open until today.

Surprisingly, I woke up early enough this morning and made it to Spinning class. The Friday morning instructor is a riot! She must have had a massive dose of caffein intravenously injected into her before she left for the gym, because she was just bouncing off the walls! Really super peppy! She was pedalling really fast, even during the climbs! At one point, we had to do jumps where we had to stand then sit down, but she did it one second up then one second down - and while pedalling like 100 mph! I tried to keep up with her but I was afraid I was going to fly off my bike! I looked around and I felt better when I noticed that I wasn't the only one not able to follow her pace. Needless to say, I had a great cardio HIIT workout this morning. I don't know if it's her or the cookies from last night, but I had so much much energy during the workout! Afterwards, I did my ab workout using the physio ball & weights.

I was doing so well all morning and into mid afternoon with the eating until I went to the kitchen at work to refill my water bottle. Sitting on the coutertop was a big plate filled with brownies & cream puffs! I just about drooled! So what did I do? I took a small piece of brownie & one piece of cream puff & ate them. And the remainder of my day at work, I felt so guilty! It was raining all day, but when I went home, the rain stopped, the sun came out, and it was warm! So as soon as I got home, I went out for a run. Pretty insane, huh? After yesterday's LBWO and this morning's Spinning, you would think I've had enough! I took it easy and did a light jog to start with. Next thing you know, I just kept running without any walking breaks! When I got home I immediately mapped out my route. Get this - I ran 4 miles straight! I had to walk .1 miles each for warm-up & cool-down, but that's still frickin unbelievable! Shoot, I've never even ran 3 miles straight outside before, let alone 4 miles! WOOHOOO!!!

The funny part is, after now getting the hang of running outside, I don't think I can go back to the treadmill except for HIIT. It's just so boring! I still need the treadmill for HIIT though since I don't know how & when to change the speed on my own. Plus, I get a kick out of bettering my 20 minutes HIIT personal best. ;)

That's it for now folks! Thanks for hanging with me! Sorry for the long, boring post. Have a great weekend!

What happened to spring?

I think I may have overdid the running yesterday. This morning, I woke up early enough to go to spinning, but I felt like crap. Not necessarily sick, but just achy. I really thought I was coming down with something. So I decided to sleep for a couple more hours before heading to work. Needless to say, no workout at a fasted state today.

However, at work at least a couple hours after breakfast & after downing some coffee & Airborne, I decided to chance it and headed to the gym. My theory is that as long as it's not in the chest, you don't have a fever, & you're not hacking away or in pain, you can still work out. So off to the gym I went with the intention of just doing moderate activity. I hopped on the eliptical and it must have been automatic, but I proceeded to do HIIT. I did my usual 20 minutes HIIT (burned ~310 calories!), then 10 minutes MISS going backwards (total ~450 calories burned!). I then did some ab works (medicine ball & pilates) and called it a day. At the end of it all, I felt so much better!

I decided to take it easy today, therefore no running. Even it I was feeling good, I wouldn't run in this weather anyway. The temperature is back to the upper 30s with the wind chill, and it actually snowed this morning! I just don't know how other people could run outside year round. I was going to do some gentle yoga after work, but after doing a thorough cleaning of the kitchen, I figured I've had enough. I'm just going to chill tonight, watch some tv, surf the internet, and hopefully get some sleep. I'm back to feeling achy, so I took some Tylenol & some more Airborne. Hopefully, this will all pass.

Tomorrow is LBWO supersets. I'm pretty excited about it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get a great workout from this new routine. My arms are still sore, so the UBWO from yesterday was a success!

Speaking of supersets, I found this site that explains the different weight-lifting techniques: Intensity Techniques. So Donna is right, there are different kind of supersets. The one I'm doing is called "Same Part Supersetting". The one Jess referred to is called "Antagonistic Supersetting". Drop sets sounds intriguing. According to Tom Venuto (Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle author) in this article, it's an ideal technique to build mass and is therefore preferred by a lot of bodybuilders. I'll have to read about it some more to see if it's something I want to do for the future.

UBWO Supersets

Jennifer a.k.a. DreamCatcher asked what supersets are. Keep in mind I'm no expert. I heard my friend talk about this before, but never really read about it until recently. Basically, you choose 2 different exercises per muscle group. You do each exercise 12-16 reps (or whatever you decide) then move on to the next exercise without resting for the same # of reps; hence, making a "superset" ("tri-set" if you do 3 different exercises per muscle group). Once you complete your superset, you rest for about a minute, then you repeat. Here's mine, which I got from about.com (click on the links from previous post):

Chest: Pushups, Chest Press, Chest Flies
Back: Dumbell Row, Dumbell Pullover, Bent over Reverse Flies
Shoulder: Overhead Press, Upright Row, Bent Arm Lateral Raise
Bicep: Bicep Curs, Hammer Curls
Tricep: Dips, Kickbacks

So this was what I did for morning workout. I first ran on the treadmill for a 5-minutes warm-up before doing the UBWO. The verdict? It totally kicked my ass!!! Donna's right - this is a great way to fatigue your muscles. At first, I was apprehensive. But once I started feeling the burn, I was almost in tears! I only did 2 sets of each exercise & only used moderate weights and it was more than enough! This is truly a great option from the pyramid BFL routine, if you're hankering for a change. Definitely a great workout! I made sure to stretch, but I know I'll be paying for it tomorrow! Afterwards in the shower, I can barely lift my arm to soap my armpits (LOL!). My arms felt like noodles!

I hope to improve eventually, maybe advancing to 3 sets for each exercise. Also, next time I want to start at lower weights then increase as I go along.

I also ran outside when I got home from work. It was about 52 F & very windy, but sunny. I ended up running 4 miles!!! Okay, it wasn't totally running. There were some walking breaks, but I was working against 30 mph wind gusts! I felt like I was climbing, even when I'm going downhill! Overall, not too shabby, if I say so myself. I made sure to eat some protein bars an hour before running and there was no ammonia smell afterwards. However, my nose was running so much that I thought I caught a cold! I'm fine now so I think it's from the running. Does anybody experience after an intense running session?

****************************************

Television:

24 was great last night! Who would have thought the president was involved? Jack is still da bomb!

American Idol - eh!!! I think Chris & Katherine did the best. Simon just doesn't understand country! Bucky still needs to go, I don't care if he's "in his element" tonight. He still sucks and if I have to look at that face for another week - uuuggghh!!! Did anybody notice Ace's family? Him and whoever those guys are (brothers?) all look alike. All good looking though, with lovely hair!

Austin, Texas - Teresa, I don't know if you're going to read this post, but I was just watching Rachel Ray on the Food Network and she was doing a show on Austin. I would love to go there! There were so many cool restaurants and interesting artsy places to go to. I think I would enjoy going to that bridge (can't remember the name) at sunset to see the 1.5 million bats. I'm squeamish, but I would do it just for the experience.

Well, I'm beat and I want to catch the spinning class tomorrow morning at 6:15 am. Of course, I'll probably end up surfing blogland some more before I go to bed. Anyways, hope everybody have a good night!

4-Weeks Mini Challenge #1

So I decided to shake up my workout a bit. It's not going to be too different from BFL. I'm still going to continue 3 days of HIIT & the UBWO-LBWO schedule. However, I am doing supersets for UBWO & LBWO per the routines I found in about.com.

UBWO Supersets


LBWO Supersets

I'm still going to make sure I hit my 10s on all the body parts. I'm going to try this routine for 4 weeks and see how it goes.

So far, today started out great! Woke up early & headed to the gym for cardio: 5 minutes walking warm-up + 20 minutes HIIT on the treadmill (2 miles in 19:57 minutes) + 5 minutes walking cool-down. Cardio was then followed by 3 sets of the Ab Bootcamp.

I so wished I could run outside after work. Unfortunately, it's been raining on & off all day. I'm hoping tomorrow is going to be better. The time change has really helped since it's still light out at a later time.

****************************************

I'm watching "24" right now. So far it's been good! The plot thickens!!! You never know what's going to happen from one minute to the next.

While waiting for "24" to come on, I discovered this new show on the Travel Channel called 5takes. It's about 5 young people travelling together (this season it's in the Pacific Rim) and they only have $50 a day to spend. This week they're at Sidney. I actually like this show. It's like Road Rules without the drama, so you actually appreciate the sights & the culture more. Their next destinations and also their activities are determined by viewers suggestions/votes on the internet. The show comes on every Monday at 8pm on the Discovery Channel. So while waiting for "24", this is a good show to watch to pass the time.

****************************************

Here's a new toy I just got :)