How to love your treadmill by Deni Troxclair

Ha!  I'm pretty sure that Lacey will agree with me on this post.  Neither of us are treadmill lovers.  Julie prefers to run on a treadmill, she watches movies and just enjoys herself (I'm making the last part up, she still claims to hate running).  Myself, I'd prefer some scenery, something to look at, or not look at, but certainly for what I'm passing to change, not continue to be the window out my game room that looks directly at my garage.  Watching tv does help and I was grateful for my DVR'd episode of Army Wives on Tuesday--kept me on the hamster wheel for an hour!

There are however, some benefits to the machine.  The main two being that you can beat this miserable heat right now without totally passing out (if you were to run outside), or just losing your mojo (if you just took a heat break), and the other being that it really really helps with speed.  I've started doing some intervals that I got off of pinterest, where I also find my nightly laugh on the "humor" board!  Sometimes I make up my own intervals.  Here are a couple I've done...

Off of Pinterest:
2 @ 4mph
1 @ 5mph
1 @ 5.5mph
1 @ 6mph
1 @ 6.5mph
1 @ 7mph
1 @ 7.5mph
1 @ 8mph

Repeat X 5

I liked this one because it changed so frequently, which keeps you from getting bored or annoyed.

Then the next time I did this one on my own

2.5 @ 4.5mph
2.5 @ 6mph
5 @ 7mph
2.5 @4.5mph
2.5 @ 6pmh
2 @ 7mph
1 @ 8mph
2 @ 7mph
2.5 @ 4.5mph
2.5 @ 6mph
2 @ 7mph
1 @ 8mph
2 @ 7mph
5 @ 6 mph
2 @ 5.5
2 @ 5
2 @ 4.5
2 @ 4
2 @ 3.5

That was fun too!

Tuesday I ran a mile in 8:32 (min/mile), which was awesome because I was outside and it was like 95 degrees.  That was pretty much all I ran and had to walk most of the way home.  Once I got home I did another mile at 6mph on the wheel and enjoyed the a/c, fans, and water bottle next to me!!!

Today I did my first mile in 8:01, then my next in about 8:32, my third in about 8:55.  I ran warm-up at 6mph (10 mins/mile), and a 20 min/2 miles.

Part of the reason I say this is to tell you that I started running at about a 12:30min/mile.  My first half I ran in 2:37:09, (which was my fastest until the one this March) that being an 11:59:10 mile/min pace.  Not fast at all.  I was still a runner, and I didn't get faster after that.  ran 3 more that year and two the next year and my times were always slower, so there wasn't improvement initially.  I just stuck to it and honestly a lot of it sucked.

You're probably wondering why I stuck with it?  Because failure in this was all on me, quitting was me giving up and I wasn't going down without a fight.  Truly I didn't think that it was any concern how fast I went, just that I went, and I STILL believe that.  I work on speed now because I can and I need new goals.  I kept running because finishing a race is the biggest high I've ever had in my life short of marrying my husband and having my daughter!  And I'll continue doing it because it really never gets old.

I think I strayed off of the topic a little, but the answer to loving your treadmill is for appreciating what it can do for you that outside running can't.  When you run outside you cannot maintain the exact same pace for a long amount of time (unless you're Susie, who I think is the best pacer I've ever seen!).  It helps train your body for stamina and allows you to try new things.  So, you're wondering if you can run at 8mph?  You can crank that up for just 30 seconds, or 10 seconds, or 5 mins!!! And just for reference 8mph is a 7.5min/mile!  Cool!

Lacey and I both try to run outside as much a possible, but with kids and husbands who work crazy hours, we have to find what works and when we have to hit the hamster wheel we usually complain to one another.  Then the other encourages the complainer!!!  Lacey challenged me to my first 9min/mile a while back, I'm pretty sure I blogged it, and I was on top of the world (and completely out of breath and had to walk afterwards!).  You really never know what your body can do until you try and you push it. The treadmill allows you to do that with visual tracking right in front of you.  And if at first you don't succeed, try, try again!!!

Now, get on that wheel and run like you stole something!!!