Minute On, Minute Off Intervals

I have been all about the treadmill lately.

From daily rain showers to summer heat and humidity in Orlando, this has become my view looking down for the past few weeks.

It is also the position I take when I rest for my “minute off” minutes in the workout below.  I like to call it the treadmill split.

Used often by me, I am starting to wonder if anyone at the gym wonders what the heck I’m doing.

A few years ago I didn’t understand why runners would go from sprinting to resting on a treadmill, over and over.  “Why don’t they just suck it up and run the whole time?” I used to think to myself.  The answer is simple: it’s called intervals.

While the treadmill became part of my weekly professional dance team training, I have been an advocate of interval workouts for the past four years.  They kick your booty and push you to run and harder and faster than you think you can.  They aren’t easy… but what about running is really?  Today I am going to share my all-time favorite interval workout: the minute on, minute off routine.

All you need for this is a good playlist, a water bottle and a treadmill with an incline.

Since I don’t have an official gym membership these days, the dinky old treadmill in the clubhouse of our condo has sufficed just fine.

Every treadmill is different, as are the levels of incline and sometimes what a level of m.p.h. feels like.  When following this workout, be aware of what feels good for you.  My level 10 incline is about 3/4 of the way to the top level of 15 offered.

Minute On, Minute Off Intervals

I tackled this workout after teaching two barre classes yesterday.  Lets just say I took the elevator back up to the top floor home.  My legs were straight up jello.

Black Bean Burger Salad

While prepping dinner early, I made a salad for a late lunch and used the standards: lots of vegetables and a MorningStar Farms Black Bean Veggie Burger drizzled in a light ranch dressing.

If I haven’t convinced you to try their products yet, this one might do the trick.  The black bean burger ties for first place as my favorite, alongside their breakfast sausage patties.

YUM.

While eating my salad, I got creative in the kitchen by trying to use up my leftover whole wheat macaroni I originally cooked for my Skinny Tex-Mex Macaroni and Cheese.

I ended up cooking a double serving of pasta, only to realize it was way too much to use.  Enter, my need to use it up!

After walking grocery store aisles thinking of what to make, I got the idea to finally face my fear and make a tuna salad.  Most of you probably don’t know this, but I am not a tuna or even a fish fan.  It’s a shame because it is so good for you.  I don’t know why, but something about it just doesn’t sit well with me.

The only way I have been able to eat it is in tuna salad, and that’s if the fish is white and the flavor is minimal.  I know, weird.

“Chickening” out at the last minute, I decided to try to concoct some kind of mayo-less chicken salad instead.  It took a few rounds of adding ingredients, but I finally came up with the perfect variety and a tasty dinner.

I’ll be sure to post the dish and recipe on the blog this week!

Have a wonderful Tuesday! 🙂

Questions of the Day

Do you like to do interval workouts?

Are you a tuna fish fan?

I love sea food.  I’m all about shrimp, crab, lobster, squid and even scallops, but put a slab of fish or tuna in front of me and I get squirmy.  I can’t explain it!

I’m hoping to conquer my fear of fish in the near future.  Baby steps…