Birdhouse Fitness

A Little About Me

First things first let me introduce myself. My name is Benjamin Morgan. I am 18 years old (currently in high school) and I wasn't really into running or any kind of fitness before 8 months ago. I  slacked off, but here I am at it again, hence the blog.

Busy Life

I have a busy life with school and things around the house. I have to get up for school at 6 and I don't feel like getting up an hour and a half early (or earlier) to get ready to go running. Whenever I get home from school, after I finish chores and homework, it is dark outside. I don't like running when it is dark outside, simply for the fact where I run there are lots of drunk and non drunk crazy drivers.

Getting a Treadmill

That and it being cold outside (it being January and all), I decided to get a treadmill. After posting a wanted ad on Craigslist, I ended up getting a treadmill for $55 (plus gas to get it). I think that it is better that I got a used one because it is a little bit of an older model, but it was $257 new. The owner said it was only used 12 times (who knows). After testing it out I was definitely happy with it. One con is that it doesn't tell you the speed, it just has zones such as warm-up, fat burning, aerobic, and performance. The screen does tell you the speed after like 15 seconds as it has to flash through 5 different options (speed, time, distance, fat calories, and calories).

The treadmill will make it easier for me to get faster and do intervals. Mixing the treadmill and running outside (on warm days) will make me faster which is my ultimate goal.

Why I Started Running

I didn't start running because I wanted to get in better shape! I thought I was in shape, but on my first run I could only run 30 seconds. For a while I had wanted to join the military. I always thought that "army people" were so cool when I was a kid. I decided after high school I wanted to join the Army National Guard. When I talked to a recruiter, I found out that I had to pass a small version of the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT). That is when I knew I had to start running. That was the only problem I had on passing the small version of the APFT. The APFT requires you to do 78 sit-ups in 2 minutes, 71 push-ups in 2 minutes., and a 2 mile run in 13 minutes. The version of the APFT to join is basically half of the APFT, doing sit-ups and push-ups in one minute each, and a 1 mile run in 6:30. I decided to start with the Couch to 5k (C25K) program.

After following the C25K program I built up to running 30 minutes (around 2 miles at the time). Eventually I got my 2 mile time to 20 minutes (Trying to drop that immensely). I got busy with school and real life and didn't run for almost 2 months. Since it has turned cold, I told myself I WILL find a way to run and build cardio. I bought a treadmill and I started this blog,  and I hope it brings me great results and motivation.

Below are pictures of the treadmill.

Now I can run in the mornings without having to waste a lot of time!