A story of going from being a non-runner to planning for a marathon in three years...

Monday, January 5, 2009

Treadmill Training Blahs

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Hello. Come on in. Welcome to my training dungeon. Okay, it's not really a dungeon. It's just my treadmill set-up in what I like to call "the scary basement." Sure, sure, I've got a tv and a DVD player and large booming speakers but what you can't see in the picture is the tub of recycling and the pile of empty boxes and the paint that's flaking off the floor.

Training utopia it ain't. But it's what I've got since it's winter.

The problem with winter, you see, is that it's dark outside when I have time to run. And it's cold all the time. I don't like to run in either condition. However, half-marathon training started tonight with an easy two-mile run so running on the treadmill is where it's at.

(And in case you're wondering what training plan I decided to go with, well, I'm sort of using a Runner's World Smart Coach plan. Except that some of the speedwork will most likely just get converted into straight running.)

So, tonight after work I changed into my running stuff, started dinner, grabbed my iPod, and jumped on the treadmill. Two miles at an 11:02 min/mile pace? I should be done in less than half an hour if you count warm-ups and cool-downs. Sadly, due to my horrible math skills I set the treadmill speed too slow and ended up running a 12:00 min/mile pace instead. Regardless, I got my two miles in and I found a Treadmill Pace Conversion Chart for next time.

I'm sure by the time April rolls around the treadmill and I will be best buds!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am contemplating the treadmill tomorrow night, cuz if I follow my schedule, it's 25 minutes easy. So if I go to the Empire Runners workout, that will be one hour of NOT easy. And I don't want to run outside in the dark alone. Hmm. 25 minutes on a treadmill won't be that bad...

Anonymous said...

P.S. Yay, I'm glad you liked my SmartCoach Idea!

Rob said...

Hey, Erin! Thanks for giving me the heads up on your blog. Good to hear you started your training. I'm in my 5th week now and it's going pretty good. Anyway, keep up the running; I'm sure you'll do awesome in April!

Unknown said...

I followed Smart Coach for my half marathon training. And I followed it to a tee, tempo runs and everything. I'm very glad I did. I'm following it again for this marathon race and I'm gonna keep in the Tempo runs, see what they will do for a marathon, seeing how well it did for my half.

BTW, at least you don't have to wait to use your "dungeon" like I do at the Y. If I didn't live on a second floor apartment, I would probably look into getting one of those!

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