Interval Love

There was a time when I only ran on the treadmill and I was afraid to run on the road. Mostly because I was sure people would be coming out of their houses pointing and laughing at me. Most likely wearing clown suits because that's how my brain works.

Then I started running the road to prepare for my first 5K and I thought I'd never be able to run the treadmill again. But when you have wee ones at home and no jogging stroller and no babysitters, you do what you have to do.

I've struck a good balance of doing my long slow run on the road when Vader is home and the rest on the treadmill. I still dislike running an easy run on it, I can never quite get into a rhythm and it's too easy to think about the undone dishes and pee on the floor. But the once a week I do speed work--intervals--I LOVE my treadmill. Or rather, I LOVE intervals. It's all because of my brain. For some reason my brain refuses to let me believe I can run an easy consistent pace run on the treadmill for a decent length of time... but when I do intervals I'm running fast for a short time and then recovering with a walk or slow run. Knowing I have a walk coming up lets my brain relax and I am suddenly capable of running much faster speeds. Lately I've been doing this workout from The Happy Runner, only I'm not running at 5K and 10K speeds. Based on my last PR, my 5K speed would be at 6.7 (with a 1% incline), but because my brain shuts off during intervals I've been running the 10K intervals at 7.5 and the 5K at 8.0. I never ever thought I'd see 8.0 on my treadmill, let alone for an entire minute! (I realize this is barely moving for some of you out there, but it's FAST for me!). Doing intervals based on distance is a little bit harder for me, still better than an easy run, but doing this workout based on time is exactly what I need. I start my training plan in March and I think I might have to make some changes and add these workouts!