Treadmill workouts – 1

I’m a wimp when the weather dips below 40 degrees.  Possibly 50 degrees.  So I head inside to the treadmill for my runs.

During this half-marathon training, I did the first few weeks of runs inside, on the treadmill.  We have had some nicer days during the weekends, so I’ve been trying to get outside for a few reasons.  One, it usually takes me a few runs outside to get used to running outside again.  Same with when I go back inside to the treadmill.  Second, there are hills outside!!!  Yeah, who really likes running the hills, right?  But they WILL show up in the race.  Third, I don’t think I want to run more than an hour on a treadmill.  And my mileage for my long runs has increased to more than 6 miles, which means I don’t want to be on the treadmill.  Fourth, there’s a possibility that it will be cool (cold?) the morning of the race, so I should try to suck it up at least once a week outside, regardless of weather, right?  (there are a few exceptions…)

So I wanted to document some of my favorite treadmill workouts.  (These will be multiple posts…)  They really help the time go by when I need to run more than 30 minutes.  Yes, I am still watching the clock, but it is so I can change speeds.  And for some reason, it makes the time pass.  And I eventually got over my mental block of being able to run more than 30 minutes/3 miles.

The first treadmill workout I did, I found on Bree Wee’s site.  I can’t find a link to her write-up, so here’s mine version of it…

5 minute warm up

2 minute recovery (recoveries are slower speeds)

6 minutes at your starting speed

2 minutes recovery

5 minutes, a little faster

2 minutes recovery

4 minutes, faster

2 minutes recovery

3 minutes faster

2 minutes recovery

2 minutes, even faster

2 minutes recovery

1 minute fastest

5 minutes cool down

Total of 41 minutes.  I’m not a fast runner.  When I started this, I would set my starting speed at 6.0 (mph), and increase each fast section by .2.  So it was 6.0, 6.2, 6.4, 6.6, 6.8, and 7.0, with the recovery sections being run at 5.7 or 5.8.  I just love this workout.  I don’t know if these are the best times for me to run, but it sounded like a good idea when I started.  I’m just doing this on my own.  When I started, that last minute at 7.0 would just get to me.  Now, at these speeds, it really isn’t a big deal.  I’ve even increased the last minute at 7.0 to be 2 minutes!!!  Which tells me…I think I need to increase the speed on this workout because it might be too easy!!!  (The other day, I increased each of the main sets by a minute.  I need to run 4.5 miles, and wanted to do something to make it interesting…so the main sets were 7-6-5-4-3-2 minutes, instead…it worked!)

Have fun with this and make it work for you!!!