#treadmillroutine

ok so yesterday i once again did treadmill, outlined below:

3-3-5, warmup

12-3-30

3-3 to 2.2-5, cooldown

it was hard, and me being on zoloft left me literally DRENCHED after it which isn't particularly ego boosing but it is what it is. I was able to get through like 80% of the 12-3-30 without touching the handles of the treadmill which was pretty nice. when i first did it on 4/20 i was like holding the handles (but like just resting my arms if that makes sense?) so i don't think it was "cheating" but it did feel easier so i'm gonna try to not do that.

for today (4/22), i did a weigh in after waking up fully expecting like 145lb, but i ended up getting to 137.3, which was really surprising and fun to see. it looks like, at least while i'm on campus, i seem to be having sufficient eating habits which is fun. i'm like probably for sure/on the cusp of being formally overweight and not just obese which is gorgeous (i.e., i still weigh above 139 at times, but i'm like transitioning into <139 weights now).

short update

so i accidentally (?) went a month w/o gym, but i DIDDD manage to maintain my weight for the most part which was kinda cool and unexpected. ramadan has ended (since like a month ago lol), so i'm eating more now mashallah

anyways, i had spring break (so between 3/10 and like 3/20 i wasn't able to go to gym </3), and then after spring break i went to the gym and forgot to post abt it (maybe it was march 23?). anyways, on that day, i was able to do up to to maybeeee 12-3-25, maybe 12-3-27.5 but idk, all i know is that i got super close to getting to 12-3-30

so, yesterday, after going through a week of hell with my classes (literally everything was happening the same week i would have rather been stuffed into an iron maiden and burned alive inside of it), i went yesterday, here is what happened:

3-3-5, warmup

12-3-30

3-3 to 2.2-5, cooldown

as we can see, i reached 12-3-30, yayyy!!!!

i fear these posts r going to start getting duller because idk what to write. here is the overview for today:

3-3-5, warmup

8-3-10

12-3-20

3-3 to 2.2-5, cooldown

ok, today was honestly really really hard. the machine that i usually go on was available, so i went on that and did my usual routine of decreasing my 5 incline sets and alloting that time to the 12 incline set. today was the day that the remaining 5 incline would get absorbed into the 12 incline, so she has died. now, all i have is the 8 incline that needs to gradually get absorbed into ms 12.

ok, i got off topic. so 8 wasn't too hard. it was my first time immediately going from 3 to 8, but since i've already been doing 8 incline for so long, it was fairly easy. the 12 incline set was a doozy. because it was 20 minutes, it was really hard to feel motivated to complete it just cuz it was SO LONG. like, it was 10 minutes of 12, and then another 10 minutes of 12. alongside that, it was also just really hard </3 like, stamina-wise, my legs were exhausted trying to finish it, but i did.

tomorrow, i'm not sure if i'm going to go to the gym since i have an exam thursday that i like kinda need to lock in for, but thursday night i might go.

i wasn't really expecting to go to the gym today, but it was like 9:00PM, i finished most of my assignments (i have an exam to study for since prof assigned it RIGHT before break, so i wanted to get everything done for my classes before break so that i could just get over it and devote all of my studying for that exam). also, i ate like sooo much for iftar, so it only felt right to do a workout.

anyways, only had part of one hw assignment left, so i just decided to go to the gym. I chugged a bottle of water (ramadan has me sooo dehydrated--hyperbole), and went to the gym. I ended up having to go on this other treadmill type that i've never been on, but it was honestly kinda boujee (although, i'm not sure if there are differences in incline/speed settings, so it might've been easier than i'm used to?). anywayssss, enough of my rambling, here is my routine i did today:

3-3-5, warmup

5-3-2.5

8-3-10

12-3-17.5

3-3 to 2.2-5, cooldown

today was honestly surprisingly light? i didn't really feel exhausted until the latter half of my 12 incline set, but even then it wasn't tooooooo hard to just push through and get it done. i'm not really sure if it was the machine difference that caused it, but a win is a win--i got to 12 incline for 17.5 mins!!!! i'm a little nervy cuz break starts this week, which means that i might have to halt my treadmill stuff until after break, and i don't wanna pay for a planet fitness membership just to use it for a week </3. i'll have to look into it, cuz i really love just going to the gym.

ok, resuming my rambling, this semester has been so lovely. last semester, i was taking calc II and phys I (along other classes), and it was so dreadful cuz i had already taken them (phys I was just boring, and i'm p sure i had to retake cuz i took alg-based during my senior year, calc II i retook because i thought i hadn't really learned a lot online--i was wrong, and i passed with an A+). i.e., so much apathy last semester. this semester, everything is so new and i'm obsessed and i could explode with my love for everythingn i'm learning. we're starting to cover e&m in physics, and its like such a lovely puzzle in the best way possible and its also just so cool???? like yes let me derive that electric field by using a gaussian surface that matches the symmetry of that charge distribution, of course <3. in diff. eq, its just so many cool topics and reminds me so much of the joy i felt in pre-calc; i think the love i feel for it is akin to the love i felt for trig identities. overall, i'm so so so excited for this semester and the next (i take fluids next semester for my degree, and also p-chem, liek AHHFAHEOJFHAO i'm too excited i love learning)

also, to refer to the title of todays post, it was like 60degF today and sunset was at like 7, like WTFFF thats so amazing i'm so happy i love life.

so last post i mentioned that i would instead shave off time from my 5 incline sets, which is what i did today, and it was legitimately the hardest workout sesh i think i've had since i started. i almost though i would stop midway through the 12 incline part, but i ended up distracting myself for most of it and got through it!! here is the treadmill routine i did today:

3-3-5, warmup

5-3-5

8-3-10

12-3-15

3-3 to 2.2-5, cooldown

today was daylight savings, too, which was really exciting cuz now the sun will set earlier. however, it also means that iftar will be later which actually is the worst thing ever but oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ok, in a way i'm back at square one. now that i've reached 12 incline, i now have to work my way up from 10 mins to 30 mins. i wasn't really expecting to go to the gym today, but i ended up getting a lot of work done early that was due today so i thought that I might as well. here is the overview of today's routine/progress:

3-3-5, warmup

5-3-10

8-3-7.5

12-3-12.5

3-3 to 2.2-5, cooldown

today was a reminder of how much zoloft makes me sweat. the moment i went from 8 incline to 12, sweat was, in essence, dripping off of me. it was actually so surreal cuz i haven't sweat that much since maybe the summer (but not even). at the same time, it was also a little grounding, since it reminded me of spring and the fact that is approaching (its supposed to be like 60F next week i'm so excited i could vomit).

recalling last post, i've decided to increase the 12 incline times while encroaching on the 5 and 8 incline times as i increase. I think i've decided on intervals of 2.5 minutes, but today was honestly really exhausting so i will have to mull over that a bit more. reflecting on this routine, however, my incline times are ranked as following (high to low):

12 incline, for 12.5 mins

5 incline, for 10 mins

8 incline, for 7.5 mins

something about this doesn't seem right. why am i spending more time at 5 incline than 8 incline? this question is inspiring me to start self studying kinesiology, because i want to be able to learn more about how to best alter these routines for my goals (and maybe nutrition, i just want to know everything 😭--maybe i can make flashcards and study them while i do my routines... hmmm thats like hitting two birds with one stone iykyk).

ok, ending off, in my naivety about how working out actually works, i think i will instead shave time off the lowest incline of 5, and delegate the shaved time to my 12 incline instead.

ok. today started off rough when I walked into a thesis defense that I wasn't supposed to be in, and the PI of the lab that I've been going to the lab meetings for had to like stop talking to tell me that this was a thesis defense 😭. that, or it was a practice. luckily, it was the start of the lab meeting (like maybe 2-3 mins after it started since i have a class right before it), so i hopefully didn't intrude too much, but it was very awkward.

on the bright side, though, it meant that i had more time to do my hw, so i got started with one of my assignments, and then i eventually went to the gym, which is what this post is about! here is the overview of my treadmill routine for today <3

3-3-5, warmup

5-3-10

8-3-10

12-3-10

3-3 to 2.2-5, cooldown

as we can see, i made it to 12 incline!!!! after reaching 11.5 for five mins last time, i was curious to see if i could finally reach 12 for the full 10 mins, which i was! this is my first treadmill goal i've reached, since i initially started going to the gym w/ the goal of being able to do this routine (going from 5, to 8, to 12 in 10 minute intervals/sets, which was posted by @cheynamclaren on tiktok). this was truly such a fun goal to reach, cuz i remember approx. 2 or 3 weeks ago when i first tried to do 12 incline for 10 mins, i could only go for about 2.5 mins before getting dizzy from exhaustion.

i'm not sure how to proceed from here. my end goal is to eventually reach 12 incline for 30 mins. in reaching today's goal, i found it evident that staying at 5 and 8 incline for the first two sets made it a lot easier to reach 12, since my body has been able to adapt to the 5 and 8 incline (evident by the heartrate trending fairly low for those sets over the past few weeks). with this, i'm debating whether i should either (1) increase the difficulty of my 5 and 8 incline sets (e.g., starting with 7 incline instead of 5), or if I should increase the time spent on the 12 incline. i will prob decide this before next gym day, but i'm leaning towards increasing the time spent on 12 incline (maybe by 2.5 mins).

3/1/2026, reflection

ok so i went home this weekend which meant that I could weigh myself, and I ended up getting down to 240 which was lit af. on the flip side, ramadan fasting + soo much food readily available for iftar meant that i ate SOOO much when i was home. i don't think i ate anything too significant, though (in terms of calories), so I'm just going to look past it since i think, by the end of this week, I should be able to "balance" out the calories I eat.

in retrospect, i think i need to get better at having good eating habits, cuz the unrestricted ability to eat this weekend was so eye opening. regardless, 240 is soo tea and i'm about to reach my first goal yay. I think by the start of spring break (approx. 2 weeks), I should defo be at that goal <3

3/2/2026, workout

ok so i went to the gym today since the weekend left me feeling like the biggest chud in existence. here is my workout for the day:

3-3-5, warmup

5-3-10

8-3-10

11-3-5

11.5-3-5

3-3 to 2.2-5, cooldown

today was really interesting because i think me eating so much over the weekend was really good at giving me the energy needed to go up to 11.5. like, i wasn't really thinking i'd be able to get back up to 11.5 today, but it was surprisingly both easy and light. like, my heartrate wasn't even that high despite me never having gone up to 11.5 before. idk if this is a sign that i should do carb-loading or whatever ppl do for things like cardio, or if the cardio is actually working and my heart is starting to lock innnn. regardless, i'm so close to reaching 12 incline like omg i remember when i was just starting out and could barely do like 7 incline this is so fun.

also, today i also did flashcards while on the treadmill and it was honestly such a good distractor from the time i spent on each set. rn in diffeq we're covering laplace transforms, so i think ima make some flashcards for diffeq on the laplace transforms and their inverses to do while on the treadmill. alongside this, i think ima get back into language learning (which i haven't done since i had that cold/flu), and make a bunch of flashcards to do while on the treadmill so that i can also occupy myself that way too.