I never liked a treadmill, I never wanted a treadmill, I despised
treadmills. Running is suppose to happen outside, in the weather, in the
world.
I actually enjoy running in the rain--ideal conditions are about 60
degrees witha light drizzle. In the snow--a nice 2 inche of crunchy snow
is the perfect footing. Deeper snow provides great resistance work. Cold
weather, with added layers, slows you down but, if dressed right, you can
run for a long time. Summer heat also slows you down, but provides reat
conditioning for the fall. Any weather that makes running more difficult,
more "extreme" make it funner, if for no other reason, because you get to
ask yourself if you're nuts.
Running on the dreadmill, however, is mostly drudgerly. Unfortunately
because I'm a full-time employee and also a stay-at-home dad, I've been
running way too many days on the mill. When weather is a bit warmer--say
in the 30's, I still feel comfortable bringing my 2-year-old out in the
baby jogger but once it dips below freezing, I have a hard time doing
that.
So I run a lot on the mill. I hate it. I can not wait to get off. I've
tried movies, didn't really help, I've tried music, helps a bit, the only
thing that prevents me from going really bonkers is playing with the
speed.
I've invented a few different mill games to keep my interest. They are
all just variations of intervals, organized different ways.
1) 24-36. This game involves three speeds--a base speed, a faster pace
and a fastest pace. Often 7 mph, 8 mph, and 9 mph. The timer on my mill
counts downward-- 59, 58, .. 01, 00. Playing 24-36, I start running at my
base pace (7 mph), then every minutes, I alternate hard sessions. One
minute I'll do the final 36 seconds at the faster pace (8 mph) the next
minute I'll do the final 24 seconds at the fastest pace (9mph). Don't
know how I came up with 24 or 36 seconds, other than thats 0.20 and 0.30
minutes. The paces are arbitary, too. Maybe I should use paces that
correspond to specific thresholds, a la JAck Daniels, but I haven't gotten
that sophiticated yet.
2) Distance-seconds. In this I have two speeds-a base and a hard pace.
When the seconds and the two decimal places of my distance traveled are
the same, I switch to the harder pace for the remainder of the minute. So
when I start out with 30:00 minutes on my timer, I normally do my first
hard session around 29:10 when there are 10 seconds left and I've covered
0.10 miles, the hard portion only lasts 10 seconds. My second hard
session starts at abuot 28:21 when I have covered 0.21 miles and there are
21 seconds left in the minute. This hard sesson lasts 21 seconds. When
my distance exceeds x.60, i just subrate .60 from the distance. So, for
example, if I hit 23:14 at 0.74 (0.74 - 0.60 = 0.14), then I do a hard
session.
3) Distance-seconds x2. In this variation of #2, I have three paces, a
base, a hard pace, and a harder pace. When the seconds remaining equeals
twice the partial mile, I start the harder pace. When the seconds
remaining equals the partial mile, I do the hardest pace. So for my first
hard session, I increase the pace once at about 29:18 when the odometer
reads 0.09 (0.09 * 2 = 0.18). At about 29:10 when I've covered 0.10, I
increase the speed again to the hardest pace.
4) Pace Increasers. Just a variation of negative splitting. Each so
often--1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, or full mile--bump up the pace an amount.
Today, did my first quarter at 7.1 mph, next quarter in 7.2, then 7.3,
7.4, etc...
5) Two steps forward, one step back. Similar to #4 above, except instead
of constantly increasing the pace, I bump the pace up two notches then
bump it down one, then up two, down one. So maybe 7.1, 7.3, 7.2, 7.4,
7.3. Normally, I use a shorter (0.10) distance (or time--1:00) per
interval.
6) Kicks. One of my more frequent games. In this, I use three paces, a
base, a target, and a hard pace. So I might run my base at 7 mph and set
my target at 7.5 mph. At 7.5 mph, every minutes I should run 12.5,
rounded up to 0.13 miles. At the end up a minute, I bump the speed to my
hard pace (9 mph) until I finish the quarter mile and extend the hard
session for the same amount of time it too me to run the hard portion.
So, say at 29:00, I've run 0.11 miles. I bump the speed up and let's say
I hit 0.13 at 28:53, taking 7 seconds. I keep the mill at the faster
speed for another 7 seconds (until 28:46) and then go back to my base
pace.
Guess I show how nerdy I am, but let me rant (they don't call me rantala for nothing, do they?). WHY DO TREADMILLS REPORT SPEEDS IN MPH??!?!?!? Maybe all don't the few I've used all do. The runners I
know don't think in mph--I always hear 8-minute miles or 7 minute miles.
NowI know how do do the conversion in my had and I even know 7 mph = 8:34
miles, 7.5 mph = 8:00 miles 8mph = 7.30 miles, 8.7 is about 7:00 miles,
etc.. but for crying out load!!!
