Monday afternoon, feeling more sluggish than ever after a fun-filled weekend, Mariah and I decided that this week we had to get serious about our workouts. As much as we both enjoy exercising, we felt like we have been slacking off recently and needed some motivation. What’s better than a friend to motivate you?
This afternoon was absolutely gorgeous – 85* and sunny in Mt. Pleasant. We both agreed that being stuck in the gym sounded miserable. It was a must that we exercise outside to not only switch up our routine but get some fresh air! The best place to exercise outside, in my opinion, is the Arthur Ravenel bridge.
Here are my requirements for running the bridge:
- my cell phone/ipod for Pandora
- water
- a good friend
- good weather
Another option for running is something to track your activity. I have run with Amanda, who uses a Garmin to track her runs and loved being able to see the mileage, average pace, etc. Mariah told me about IMapMyFitness+, a cell phone app that is very similar to using a Garmin. I totally forgot that I had downloaded this app a couple weeks ago, and today I got to use it for the first time.
The The bicycle and pedestrian lane on the bridge is 2.7 miles long with a maximum slope of 4.1%. In the past, I have walked the inclines and run the declines. Today, for a more challenging workout, we decided to do 2-minute intervals of running and walking to ensure that we could run and walk both the incline and decline.
While Mariah ran with the Camelbak, I kept track of our time. I warned her every minute that went by so we knew how much more we had to push ourselves while running. We continued these intervals until about 75% over each side and then continued running the rest of the decline.
After we completed both sides of the bridge, we reviewed our workout results.
We were pretty happy, given the incline, the heat, and that we walked a good bit of it. The winds were strong at the top, too, but it felt really nice. Once we stopped running, we realized how darn hot it was and sweat was suddenly pouring into my eyes!
To cool down, we continued down the bridge into Mt. Pleasant Memorial Waterfront Park and down the pier. It was so pretty out!
There are several of these signs around the park. 
I have never seen a coyote, but I surely wouldn’t want to walk a dog around there!
If you have a smart phone, I highly recommend using the (free!) app, IMapMyFitness+. It tracks:
- total distance
- total time
- average page
- current pace
- average speed
- current speed
Using the “voice feedback,” you can be updated any of the previous information in intervals from every minute to every 20 minutes. You can email yourself the results or post to Facebook or Twitter. You can also save your workouts, create routes, add friends who are also using the app, and enter nutritional information! It’s definitely worth checking out.
Do you use a Garmin or other GPS-enabled device to track your fitness activities?
Do you prefer tracking your runs or just running to run?
Ipod, Pandora, or no music at all?
