Today I am 25 years old. A quarter of a century old… sounds older when you say it that way.

So what’s good about turning the big 2-5? Well my car insurance rate goes down, for one. I also move into a new age group for races. That could be a good thing or a bad one. It’s also easier to rent a car now. Did you know some companies actually won’t rent a car to someone under 25? Others will, but it’s expensive for the renter.

Some mornings I just cannot drag myself out of bed when my alarm sounds. I have mastered the art form of rolling over and hitting the snooze button in one fell swoop, within seconds of my alarm going off. Unfortunately, it appears that using the snooze button actually results in being more tired throughout the rest of your day.

According to a YouTube video by AsapSCIENCE, hitting the snooze button can actually be pretty detrimental.

Your body produces chemicals that naturally put you to sleep as well as wake you up. In the hour before you naturally wake up your body temperature rises, your sleep becomes lighter, and your body releases chemicals to wake you.

A lot of times your alarm clock cuts this last hour short, often due to an irregular sleep schedule. So you wake up feeling groggy. The problem is, when you hit that snooze button and go back to sleep you body starts the above sleep cycle again. So the next time the alarm goes off you’re probably somewhere in the deep sleep part. That means you’ll probably feel even more tired than you did the first time your alarm went off. Fragmenting the last 20-30 minutes of your sleep actually leads to sleepiness and less productivity during the daytime.

To combat this, you could set your original alarm later or you could go to bed earlier. I have a bad habit of setting 3 alarms on my phone, with the first two being earlier than I actually need to get up. This is pointless because I know when the first two go off that I really don’t have to be up, yet. So I hit the snooze. I set them so that I get to hit the snooze. But it would be better to just set one alarm at the time that I actually need to get up.

The best thing to do is to develop a regular sleep schedule. Go to bed and get up close to the same time each day, even on the weekends. After a few weeks your body will adhere to this cycle on it’s own and you won’t even have a need for an alarm (not that I’m going to stop using mine- that would be dangerous!).

If you wake up sleepy, try and avoid hitting the snooze at all costs. I have been working on this over the past few weeks, since I first saw this video, and three out of five days I am managing to get up with my first alarm. It does seem like I feel better during the day when I get up the first time it goes off. I especially notice a difference in the afternoon, when I usually hit my “2 PM slump.”

 **all pictures are screen shots from the AsapScience YouTube video “Should You Use The SNOOZE Button?“

Are you a snoozer? If so, are you going to try and break the habit?

Are you a morning person?

Halfway through the week!

This evening I went for a three mile run in the rain, which was quite refreshing. I took it easy because my hamstrings are sooo sore! I hadn’t done the level 2 workout from 30 day shred for a little while, and one of those moves must have gotten me. Lots of extra stretching happened after my run this evening.

When I got home from work today a big thunderstorm rolled in and it absolutely poured the rain. Once again we have a river running through our side yard and into our backyard. Happy joy. Every time it rains like this I call it duck weather.

And it definitely was that today. I’m surprised there weren’t any ducks swimming in our new acre-sized pond.

Luckily none of the water got down to the chicken coop and their run and coop areas actually remain un-flooded.

Hank and Scout had a big time running around and splashing through the water. I am not looking forward to the days to come when the water dries up and our yard becomes mud.

Barry threw the ball for Hank a bunch and I think the water added extra fun.

But enough about my yard and the puppy dogs. I need your input on something! My birthday is coming up in a couple of days and tonight Barry informed me that a treadmill is going to be my birthday gift. I. Am. So. Excited!! I have been treadmill shopping for close to a year and I have it narrowed down to two.

The ProForm Power 995

The NordicTrack C900

I am torn. I have read countless reviews on both and I just cannot decide.

Which treadmill should I choose??

If you have a treadmill, what kind is it? Do you like it?

Does your yard flood like ours when it rains heavily?

Today my schedule says it’s a rest day from running, which feels weird since I usually run on Tuesdays through Thursdays during the week. So I spent some time with Jillian Michaels and let her kick my butt through a level 2 30 day shred workout. I did have a nice view during each of the abs segments, though.

Scout likes to stand over top of me while I do my sit ups. Sometimes she attempts to lick my face, but today she ended up just laying down next to me on the floor. When it’s hot outside all she wants to do is sleep.

During my cross training I learned a valuable lesson that you all need to know. Never, under any circumstances, try and wipe sweat off of your forehead when you have a dumbbell in your hand. You will bonk yourself in the head and it will hurt.

So now that I have shared that information with you, I need you to answer a very important question for me. Do you plank on your hands or your forearms? You better not be laughing right now, because that is a serious question. I see people doing both and I want to know what the “official” planking position is. Thanks!

Either way, the above picture pretty much illustrates what happens when I plank. I need to work on that.

What’s your favorite type of cross training?

I waited all the way until Sunday evening to do my long run. Barry joined me for 6 miles on the roads around our house. That means automatic hill training.

Week number two of training kicked off today with a 3 mile run. Shocker! My training plan is a big fan of 3 mile runs during the week for the first 4 weeks. I don’t mind so much, as long as I can go longer on the weekend.

Do you ever do your long runs at a different time than normal?

When it comes to exercise, do you have a stomach of steel? Or are you like me and have to be careful about what you eat?

When you follow a training plan, how closely do you follow it?