Tread lightly

Move that body: 40-minute run (3 walk breaks totaling 3 minutes)

It wasn’t the rain that had me second-guessing my plan to run this morning. Oh no, I swear it wasn’t the rain.

It was something else, a little more internal. Like somewhere between my waist and my thighs. At least that’s how I described it to Mark when he asked for my “agenda” at 6:45 a.m.

“You know … there is another option,” he said.

“I know, I know. I can walk the dog. Less jiggling of organs,” I replied.

“Nope. That’s not the option.”

“I don’t want to go to the Groupon gym – it’s too far from the new house.”

“Wrong again,” he said.

He had the nerve to tell me I was wrong … TWICE. Apparently, he wanted spaghetti squash all next week for dinner.

And then he clued me in …

There’s a treadmill in our basement!

Mark’s parents were kind enough to give us the beauty. Now, before you go asking why they were willing to give me us a treadmill and not sponsor me for Madrid, let me tell you two things:

1. This treadmill was not new when I met Mark 5 years ago.

2. Moving the treadmill from their house frees them up to set up a “baby-sitting station.”

Nonetheless, it was free and it allowed me to run this morning without fear of messing myself. I could merely stop, run up the stairs (keeping up the cardio), go to the bathroom and return to the basement to resume my run.

Don’t I look excited? I was. I swear.

I started with a 1-minute walk, turned up the speed and ran for 10 minutes. I walked another minute, ran 5 and walked another minute. That put me at 18 minutes total. After that, I just ran. I got to the point where I thought if I took a walk break that I wouldn’t want to run again.

To keep myself entertained and sane, I brought down my laptop and listened to the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears.

Oh, that on my laptop? It’s my tank. What can I say - it got hot in the basement! And the perk of running by yourself in the basement means that you can take off your shirt if your hot. Taking your shirt off on the street, 30 weeks pregnant or not, is never an option on the street.

Yay for sweating in the basement! Yay for the treadmill!

Note: I didn’t really pay attention to distance as I’m not convinced the treadmill is calibrated correctly. For goodness sake, it said I burned 505 calories in 40 minutes. I just care that I ran 37 minutes out of 40.

How do you manage workouts when things get in your way, like illness or life?