Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Wednesday

Today's four mile run turned into three, partially because I forgot and partially because of time restraints. I didn't bring my goals to the gym with me so I wasn't sure. I'll just have to add a mile tomorrow.
I opted for the treadmill over road running for both today and yesterdays runs. The gym is so close to my classes that it's more convenient to fit my workout before or in between class duties. Plus, it was cold out and the gym was available. Yesterday's run felt great despite the apparent knee pain I experienced while walking from my car to the gym. After a 10 minute walking warm-up and minimal stretching (shame on me) I ran two miles in roughly 18 minutes while fluctuating between an 8 and ten minute mile. With warm-up and cool-down, my total distance was 2.9 miles. Not bad.
Today's run was a little harder. My iPod was low on batteries so I had no music. I plugged in to the treadmill's TV but the picture kept freezing so I gave up on that soon, and the guy next to me was S-T-I-N-K-Y! It wasn't just sweaty stinky either. It was the world's worst cologne plus sweat, Eeeewww, Gross. I had eaten just over half a bagel about 40 minutes before my workout so as soon as I hit mile two, I felt like I was going to puke. Despite these setbacks, I was able to keep up a consistent 9min/mile pace for all 3 miles. All in all, I think I did pretty well. I did have to do a considerable amount of self talk during that last mile. I was repeating phrases such as, "You're a big girl, You're not a quitter, I'm a little powerhouse and this is something I can do, and I'm more than capable of owning this run!" over and over in my head. At the very end, I broke into a sprint for the last .2 miles. I was proud. Showered and made it to class one minute early. YESS!! Go me!

I have a love/hate relationship with the treadmill. On one hand, the treadmill can be quite useful. The time and the distance read out right on the screen and it's very easy to keep a regular pace on a treadmill because you can just set it and go. Plus, it's always cool to know how many calories you burned an any given distance/intensity. On the other hand, the treadmill can be very boring, you have to deal with stinky people on the machine next to you and (I don't know if anyone else has this problem) it is so much easier to quit early. I find that since I'm not really traveling anywhere I don't have a destination. So if I stop, no matter where I'm at in my workout, I'll still be in the same place as where I started. Now if I plan a five mile out-and-back and I feel like quitting halfway through, I still have 2.5 miles to go before I can make it back home. Makes it a lot less easy to puss out and give up before it's over.
Maybe it'll get easier. I hope so.

No comments:

Post a Comment