Treadmill Thursday

I had such grand plans for Thursday. I packed my gym bag figuring that I would either run at lunch or, if no run materialized, I would do a strength training workout in the little scary basement gym at work. Brilliant, right?

What was not so brilliant was forgetting my running shoes at home.

Sigh.

I still really wanted to get in a run. But that meant the treadmill. Since the treadmill in our basement has been rather suspect since the flood I opted for the treadmill at the gym. Plus, those treadmills are nicer and actually tell me what the incline is.

My treadmill goal? Speedwork! I went back to my first track workout from this summer and based my plan on that. I decided to do a one mile warm up, 4x800, 4x400, and a one mile cool down.

It's been awhile since I've done speedwork so I decided not to push the pace too much. I set the treadmill to a 1% incline and did my one mile warm up at 6.0 MPH (10:00 minute mile). After my warm up I hit the Pause button. The treadmill has a 60 second pause function so I waited until it counted down to 15 seconds and then started it back up.

I did my first two and a half 800s at 7.4 MPH (8:05 pace) with 45 second pause breaks in between each full 800. Strangely, they didn't feel all that hard. Sure, I was huffing and puffing, but I didn't feel like I was going to die. I didn't feel like I wanted to quit. I didn't feel like I wanted to walk.

The last one and a half 800s I did at 7.5 MPH (8:00 pace). And I did three of my 400s at 7.5 and the last one I slowly upped the speed until I was doing 8.0 MPH (7:30 pace). I could tell I was definitely working but I think I could have gone a little bit faster on each of those intervals. Which means I may have some new things to try out on the treadmill this winter.

The only downside to running on the treadmill is that when you change the speed it takes it a bit to get up to that speed. I didn't want to count those seconds spent accelerating towards my actual intervals so by the time I finished my cool down (also done at 6.0 MPH) I had actually run 5.25 miles. Although, I guess that's not really a downside.

But let me tell you: running a cool down on a treadmill is HARD. Not physically. Just mentally. My mind kept wanting to be done but I pushed on and finished the full mile.

And afterward I did 100 various crunches, some leg lifts, and some foam rolling. And then lay panting on the mat.

While I was recovering my running group was out singing Christmas carols at a nursing home. As much as I love my running group I wasn't too sad to have missed it. First, I got home from work later than originally planned so I wouldn't have been able to attend the pre-singing prep meeting. Second (and here's a little known fact), even after six and a half years of choir and performing in several junior high and high school musical productions, I am TERRIFIED of singing in front of other people. Dancing? Sure. Public speaking? Sure. Singing? Count me out.

But running like a fool on the treadmill while mouthing the words to Lady Gaga and Ke$ha? Sure.