Treadmill Intervals are Scary

Whew – I’m on the other side of some craziness here. My youngest son turned 4 this weekend and it’s school vacation week, so we’re in Maine. There was a lot of packing and birthday brunch planning, and now I’m realizing I haven’t had much time to run, let alone write about running.

Track Repeat Tuesday: It’s track repeat Tuesday… except our track group doesn’t meet during school vacation week (which is lovely since I’m away) so this week was treadmill Tuesday.

A good placeholder interval workout: Our track clinic coach recommended that everyone still run intervals this Tuesday. She said that missing a week can actually put you behind two weeks instead of one, because of the way that interval workouts really build on each other. She said to do a warmup, 4 x 400 meter repeats (with rest, walk or jog intervals in between) and then a cool down. She recommends this interval workout because it’s easy and fast enough to do on your own, but is enough to keep you from back-sliding.

I was determined to do it this week because I’m loss averse; I don’t want to lose any speed I’ve gained pushing so hard at track clinic!

So… I hit the treadmill up here.

Treadmill Intervals are Scary: I have never run 400 meter repeats at 8.1 miles per hour on the treadmill before. It was, quite frankly, terrifying. Normally when I’m on the treadmill I do tempo pace at fastest. Running as fast as I can run for 400 meters if I had people chasing me (a speed I’ve only just discovered at track clinic where there are, literally, people chasing me) feels OUT OF CONTROL on the treadmill. I feel like if I lapsed for a second I’d be catapulted off the treadmill into the wall.

For the first time in my life, I actually feared a treadmill injury, because I was running at max exertion which makes it a lot harder to press the stop button if you get into trouble. The margin of error for how long you can hold on and reach for that pause button once you realize you’re not going to make it the whole interval is a lot smaller when you’re running at maximum speed.

But… I made it. I did my 4 x 400 meter repeats. My legs feel so much happier and looser after too many days of being busy and not running.

I’m now incredibly impressed by Greg’s treadmill runs and have a more personal understanding of why it sounds like the house is going to fall apart when he’s running upstairs. (My interval pace is still slower than his half marathon pace. I seriously hope he doesn’t run his 400 meter pace on the treadmill.)

Maine

I’m up in Maine where most of our family is, and one of my best friends from high school. Today I had an amazing day; I got up and had breakfast with the kids, made muffins, visited my best friend from high school and watched our kids play together, had lunch with my parents, then sent the kids off with my in-laws for the afternoon to visit cousins while I walked down to the ocean and took pictures of the stormy waters and then went for my treadmill run. Had dinner with the in-laws, #tacotuesday, can’t go wrong there, and after pajamas and stories I listened to the kids tell me how much fun they had today. (My four year old always asks to “talk about our day” as the last thing he does before sleeping.)

I miss Greg, but am trying to be in love with two worlds and not torn between them. He was here this weekend and Monday, and I’ll see him soon 🙂

I hope you had some wonderful moments and wonderful people in your day, too. If you didn’t, maybe tomorrow’s a good day to call an old friend or carve out half an hour to do something that you really love.