Treadmill Tempo in Portland

The boys and I were gone for 5 days over the July 4th weekend because Henry had qualified for Fencing Nationals in Portland!

On our 2nd morning there (where Henry had to fence at 8 a.m.), I got up early and hit the treadmill in our hotel's gym for a tempo run. The goal was 3.1 miles (a 5K) as fast as I could. I wasn't sure of my speed, so I didn't crank up the speed too fast. After a warm-up, I held it at 10.2 mph for the first mile of the tempo effort. Then I bumped it up 0.1 mph every half mile after that. But coming up on 2.5 miles, I was SURE I wasn't going to make it to 3.1 miles. I held out as long as I could at 10.6 mph, but I only lasted 0.3 miles there, so I stopped running hard at 2.8 miles, not 3.1. Here were my half-mile splits:

Tempo effort at 10.2 mph (held that for a mile, then upped it 0.1 mph every half mile):

2:55, 2:56, 2:54, 2:53, 2:50, 1:41 (0.3 miles)

= 16:12 for 2.8 miles (5:47.14 pace)

I had warmed up for 1.5 miles, so here's the treadmill saying 4.35 miles (1.5 mile warm-up + 2.8 miles fast + 0.05 miles at a cooldown pace) covered in my tempo run sweat:

A little worse and a little more dryed-on after cooling down for another mile.

Don't worry... I wiped everything down well. Including the base of the treadmill behind me on either side where my pumping arms had flung lots of sweat.

Garmin pace and HR climbing through the hard part.


Back in the room pointing to the only dry part of my shirt.

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Shorter Week: Injury and Easter

Last week started decent, but then went down the crapper:

That PURPLE on Wednesday and Friday was noting some left calf pain. That's my oldest injury (been dealing with it since high school), and it flared up a bit on Wednesday's easy run. Then it was OK on Friday's run, but was achy all day after, so I haven't ran at all since. I'm taking off this entire week, and we'll see what Monday brings.

For last week, just shy of 20 hours of training isn't HORRIBLE, but it's the lowest since mid-Feb. I got in some decent bike workouts on Tues and Thurs before skipping the weekend because of family events. (And actually, it could have been that 19 mile ride on my MTB followed by an hour on the trainer on Tues that "weakened" my calf and led to the pain the next day - that's the ONLY thing I can think of that would have caused that.

• MON: normal long run and PT legs. The middle "pace miles" of my long run were at 6:17 pace, which is very average.

• TUES: 8x upper body and back-to-back rides. This was more of my "start outside on my MTB and then end inside on the trainer to get in a longer workout" idea that I wrote about at the end of my "March in review" post.

• WED: easy run, good PT legs and core. Random calf pain near the end of the run.

• THURS: 8x upper body and longer trainer ride. Got in some good stretching after that ride too.

• FRI: failed tempo workout. It was cold on Friday, and I was afraid of ice for my early morning run. AND I was afraid of being a few miles from home if some calf pain came back, so I kept my run on the treadmill. BUT THE FUNNY THING IS THAT OUR TREADMILL SPEED SETTING HAS BEEN ACTING UP. There are "preset" speeds of 1, 3, 6, 9, 10, and 12 mph where you can just hit a button, and then there are the UP and DOWN arrows so you can dial in a specific mph (to the tenth-of-a-mph). The arrow buttons have just stopped working. So I started by warming up at 9.0 mph before it let me hit the down button a few times after a few minutes so I could warm-up at 8.2 mph. When I was planning to run hard for 3.1 miles, I cranked it up to 10.0 mph, but I couldn't get the arrows to take me any higher, and I kept trying a few times EVERY MINUTE. It never budged. Finally, after 2.4 miles at 10.0 mph, I hit the preset to take me to 12.0 mph, or 5:00/mile pace. I held on to that for a final half mile, but couldn't muster out the extra 0.1 miles to make it a 5K. So I ran 3 miles in 17:30 (3:00 half mile splits for the first 5 splits, then a final splits of 2:30).

Graph: fast warm-up, 2.5 miles at 10.0 mph, 0.5 miles at 12.0 mph, cool down after that.

The buttons worked ONE LAST TIME so I could bump up my cooldown pace from 6.0 mph to 7.0 mph.

• SAT: quick upper body early. Then family time.

• SUN: nothing. Just family time and eating lots of sweets.

Last week will put an end to my weekly streak of 1500+ intensity minutes that lasted 8 weeks:

Nice last 8 weeks. Actually 10 weeks of decent "intensity time" back to a mid-Jan trip.

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3x1 Mile Treadmill Intervals

After 2 weeks of all outside runs, we got a small dump of snow and some cold temps later last week:

Screw this. I'm ready for spring.

So I hit the treadmill to close out last week. I settled on some 3x1 mile intervals in the basement.

I failed at this workout about 6 weeks ago and I ran it fast in early Decemeber. I didn't look back to any old times as I was just trying to get in some hard running without trying to beat some sort of PR.

I decided to take off at 10.5 mph and speed up a few times in the first interval. I ended up speeding up to 10.6 mph at 0.3 miles in, and up to 10.7 mph 0.6 miles in. I started the 2nd interval faster yet at 10.8 mph and sped up similarly. And then in the 3rd interval, I started at 11.1 mph and sped up at 0.3 and 0.6 miles in like in the first 2, but also sped up at 0.8 as well, so I ended at 11.4 mph. Here's what I ran (in half-mile splits):

[Our treadmill gets up to speed slowly, so I started speeding up aroung 1:45 into my walking rest so that I'd be running at my "interval pace" (or very close to it) when 2/10s of a mile clicked past.]

1.5 warm-up (7.7-8.2 mph): 3:54, 3:48, 3:42
0.2 walking: 2:24

10.5 mph for 0.3, 10.6 for 0.3, 10.7 for final 0.4: 2:51 + 2:48 = 5:39.6
0.2 walking: 2:19 (speeding up around 1:45)

10.8 mph for 0.3, 10.9 for 0.3, 11.0 for final 0.4: 2:47 + 2:42 = 5:29.8
0.2 walking: 2:18

11.1 mph for 0.3, 11.2 for 0.3, 11.3 for 0.2, 11.4 for 0.2: 2:41 + 2:38 = 5:20.5

It wasn't until after the workout that I looked back to when I did it in December and saw that I started at 10.8, 11.0, and 11.3 mph that time, so this was decently slower (the 3 intervals being 8, 4, and 4 seconds slower this time, which I guess isn't a CRAZY difference - it's funny how those changes in mph SEEM like they'd do more to my splits, but it's only a few seconds when starting a few tenths of a mph faster).

Pace...


... and heart rate.


Sweaty treadmill part-way through my cooldown.
Intervals labeled in Photoshop in red.

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Two "Normal" Hard Runs!

I've been testing my sore butt. It's been over a month, and I'm at the point of either taking time completely off to let it rest, or pushing it to see how it reacts. It hasn't seemed to be reacting poorly with speed or effort, so I thought I'd try pushing my workouts to be more "normal." And my butt has been handling it well!!

On Monday, I went for a relatively normal long run. It has been a snowy/icy winter so far, so my last "normal" long run was BEFORE THANKSGIVING about 12 weeks ago! (My long runs have been treadmill-bound since then, except for a weird, shorter, loopy long run last week trying to say on "good" sidewalks.) But after some decent temps where the trails melted a bit over the weekend, I headed out on my normal route.

There were icy spots, but nothing too bad. One different thing I did was that I headed down the Greenway for nearly a mile - I was able to mostly find clear spots to stick to there. I hit some bad icy spots near a hill at the turn-around back on River Road, so those were 2 slower splits. But my butt held up and it was a very "normal" long run:

2.5 miles easy, 6 miles harder (including down the
Greenway to the west), and 2.5 miles as a cool-down.

My "harder" miles had a decent descend, with half-mile splits of:

3:19, 3:15, 3:15, 3:08, 3:07, 3:03, 3:11, 3:12, 3:05, 3:08, 3:00, 3:03

= 37:53 (6:18.83/mile pace)

* the back-to-back 3:11 and 3:12 splits were the worst icy spot

In the end, it was 11.11 miles in 1:16:50 (6:54 pace), which was my first run over 10 miles in 5 weeks.

And my hard run on Friday before that was a decent treadmill 5K. I purposely didn't look back to the last time I did this workout because I didn't want to push so hard that I'd crash and burn - this was a TEST workout, and I didn't care if it was close to my best time ever. (And the the last time I did this workout, it WAS my best time ever.)

I knew I'd like to break 18:00, so I wanted to start faster than 6:00/mile and try to speed up. So after warming-up for 1 mile, I went straight into 10.3 mph for about a half-mile, 10.5 mph for about another half-mile, 10.6 mph for about a mile, 10.7 mph around 2 miles in, and then I sped up 2 more times to end at 10.9 mph. My half-mile splits for those treadmill 5K looked like this:

2:54, 2:51, 2:49, 2:49, 2:48, 2:45, 0:33 = 17:32

I felt decent at that pace, and my butt was fine. (I mean, a bit tight as usual for the last 5 weeks, but not sore or painful.)

Garmin pace graph for the run.

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Semi-Wordless Wednesday: My Cats While I Workout

My cats tend to hang around me while I work out. I came across an old photo from about 2 years ago with our cat Clark (who would end up dying shortly after this) watching me on the trainer:

Clark and Bruce just chillin'.

And then a treadmill run shortly after that started like this:

Clark, if you fall out of there, I'll end up trampling you!

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Failed 3x1 Mile Intervals on the Treadmill

I went to the small gym (for anyone not on a sports team) at the university where I teach. I got there REALLY early hoping I could use it... not fully sure of the rules. I was the first one in for the day:

Claiming the right treadmill.


Wide angle shot of the entire gym. It's small!


Right next to a radiator - it was WARM!

I went there to try a 3x1 mile interval workout on a more "responsive" treadmill (ours at home is SLOW to get to speed, and it only shows tenths instead of hundredths of a mile), and because I always feel like running super fast on our treadmill at home is abusive to it. The plan was to do what I did 5 weeks ago, only speed everything up by 0.1 mph: so that meant starting the 3 intervals at 10.9 mph, 11.1 mph, and 11.4 mph (and speeding up twice within each interval).

I took off and immediately liked being able to see the hundredths of a mile. It's not a big deal in easy runs or even in long runs where I run a bit harder. But in more of an "all out" interval, it's nice to have more info than just "Wait... it's reading 0.9 miles, but is it about to click over to 1.0 miles? Or did it just hit 0.9 miles and I have another 30 seconds before 1.0 miles yet?"

First one went well. The second one felt a little harder. And as I got up to speed for the 3rd one, I wasn't sure I'd be able to hold it. Sure enough, I found myself jumping off the treadmill a 1/2 mile into that final mile interval. Dang. But also, I like finding my limit. I've been successfully pushing harder on the treadmill recently, and I knew it wasn't going to last. Bummed I couldn't finish this workout like I had hoped, but also realistic about knowing that would happen one of these days.

Here were my splits:

#1: 2:44 + 2:42 = 5:26.9
0.18 walking: 2:38 (started to speed up at 2:15)

#2: 2:42 + 2:39 = 5:21.5
0.20 walking: 2:40

#3: 2:36 - DEAD after a half mile

Those first 2 intervals were each about 5 seconds faster than this same workout last month, and if I were able to hold on for that 3rd interval, I'd have ran my fastest treadmill mile ever: probably around 5:10-5:12. But it didn't happen.

After a 2 mile cool-down, all of my sweat drips from the workout had dried.
(Yes, I wiped it down well afterwards!)


I stupidly wore a cotton shirt. Here it is in a wet pile post-workout.


2.5 intervals.

This isn't an excuse, but I felt a bit better about "failing" this workout a little later when I remembered that I had a 2 hour trainer ride the day before with 5x10 min intervals in the middle:

Maybe SOME reason for the failed interval workout 16 hours later.

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PR Long Run Treadmill Workout!!

After Friday's treadmill 5K PR workout where I ran 17:04, I started a long run on the treadmill on Monday with high hopes. I posted about some faster treadmill workouts throughout December last week, with the best one having my 6 faster miles in the middle done in 35:43 (5:57.17 pace).

I had the same plan for those "pace miles" for this week's run, but I was planning on speeding up a bit sooner. I speed up 0.1 mph every half mile, but I want to be able to take my splits every half mile... so I usually speed up on the 0.4s and 0.9s instead of the 0.5s and the 1.0s so that I'm not trying to speed up and take a split on my Garmin at the same time. But this time I was going to speed up on the 0.3s and 0.8s. So that ends up being 1.2 miles done 0.1 mph faster than last week. That sounds like it could be a lot, but it's really only the difference of a few seconds over those 6 miles. I was going for a PR on this long run.

I warmed up for 2.5 miles, then started the "pace miles" at 9.4 mph, speeding up 0.1 mph every half mile (at mile 2.8, mile 3.3, mile 3.8, etc.). I also sped up an EXTRA 0.1 mph within the pace miles at 4 different spots: at miles 1, 3, 5, and 5.5 miles to end at 10.9 mph. Here were my splits:

3:11, 3:09, 3:04, 3:02, 3:01, 2:59, 2:55, 2:54, 2:52, 2:51, 2:47, 2:45

= 35:34.9 (5:55.82/mile!)

That was about 8 seconds faster than the week before (that's the tiny difference that going 0.1 mph faster for 1.2 miles creates, along with speeding up 1 extra time near the end), and about 3 seconds faster that my PR for this workout which came about 11 months ago!

Hopped off for 90 secs in my cooldown to make sure the boys were getting ready for school. :)

The slight bad news is that my left glute felt a little "hung up" early on in that run. I thought it'd loosen up and feel better, and it DID during the fast miles... I didn't think about it at all. But then it felt SORE and ACHY since then. I skipped a ride on Tuesday to help it rest. I've been stretching it how I can, and using our massage gun with the "bullet" attachment to get in deep. Yesterday's easy run felt TOTALLY NORMAL, but then I still feel it while walking around. I saw Dr. Backus (my local chiro) who dug in it a lot and figures it's a piriformis issue. Might be turning my normal speed workout tomorrow into just another easy run... Trying to get this nipped before it turns into something worse!

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A PR Treadmill 5K! (Between Decent Bike Workouts)

New Year's day (Thursday) was spent with the boys at the ski slope. We got home that evening and I had time for a bike workout, which was about 12 hours later than my "preferred" time to workout (especially considering that I was doing this right before bed... and then planning to get up early to run hard, so that was NO recovery except for laying in bed).

I cranked out an hour and 40 minute workout with 4x10 minute efforts in the middle:

Early the next morning (Friday), I hit the treadmill for a 5K. I had done the same workout 3 weeks earlier, and my plan was to try to do the same workout, only have the treadmill 0.1 mph faster throughout. I mentioned doing that in my post last month, noting that should take me from 17:15 to about 17:05. So after a bit of a warm-up, I ran my 3.1 miles like this: 10.7 mph for 0.5, 10.8 mph for 0.5, 10.9 mph from mile 1 through 2.3, 11.0 for 0.4, 11.1 for about 0.25 before knocking it up to 11.2 for about final 0.15. I didn't think I'd last after about 0.75 miles, but then sped up more near the end than I did a few weeks back!

My half-mile splits were:

2:48, 2:46, 2:45, 2:44, 2:45, 2:41, 0:31 = 17:04.2

That's the fastest I've ever done that workout, and technically 1 second faster than my 5K PR! (But it's easier to do on a treadmill, I know! This is not a *real* PR!) I think my treadmill 5K PR was about 3 years ago in 17:07 where I started slower, but sped up a bit sooner.

Neither of these were reading correctly. I bet the pace at the start and finish
of the 5K effort was about right, but that's NOT right in the middle.


Sweaty treadmill, watching "Tomorrow War" on Prime. Red arrows
showing the start and finish of the 5K from mile 1.5 through 4.6.

The final "peak" at the end of the 5K effort was when I was at 11.1 or 11.2 mph.

Then the day after that (Saturday) I hit the trainer for another decent workout. I knew I wanted to go a big longer, but I didn't know how much effort I wanted to put in (although I'm making it a point to get in more QUALITY bike workouts this year). I found myself thinking that I should do a 30 or 40 minute tempo effort, and I ended up holding on for 40 minutes. Every 10 minutes I did a different thing: 10 mins just "hard," 10 mins standing, 10 mins starting in an easier gear and shifting to a harder gear every 2 mins, and then the final 10 mins alternating standing and seated every 2 mins.

40 min effort, and then "moderate" for the next 25 mins or so.
An hour and 50 mins total.

You can see the final 10 mins of that 40 min effort got my heart rate a bit higher, and that happened for 2 reasons. First, I think the alternating standing and seated was harder for me. And second, I WAS pushing a bit harder because I knew the end was near.

This capped off a decent week! I might see if I can beat that treadmill 5K again in 4-6 weeks... maybe I can hit sub-17!

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Fast Treadmill Long Runs!

Every long run of December has been on the treadmill.

• Dec 1st and 8th: I posted about my first two noting that my first one was rough and the 2nd one was better. The 2nd one had "pace miles" in the middle that started at 9.1 mph and sped up every half mile (speeding up at 3 other random times as well) for the middle 6 miles in 36:55 (6:09.17 pace).

• Dec 15th: My 3rd long run had "pace miles" that didn't quite last for all 6 miles: I started faster at 9.3 mph but only lasted for 5.6 miles. It was 33:53 (6:03.04 pace).

That brings us to these last 2 long runs that ROCKED...

• Dec 22nd: Last week, I was feeling risky and thought I'd start faster again. I started the "pace miles" at 9.3 mph, and I upped the speed at 4 other times as well (mile 1, mile 3, mile 5, and another one near the end), so I ended at 10.8 mph. My half mile splits looked like this:

3:12, 3:11, 3:07, 3:04, 3:04, 3:00, 2:58, 2:56, 2:54, 2:52, 2:50, 2:46

= 35:59.8 (5:59.97/mile!)

I knew as I was speeding up that I could be close to averaging 6:00 for those miles, as I was at 10.0 mph right near the middle of those faster miles (meaning half would be slower than 6:00 pace and half would be faster). I was thrilled with that!

• Dec 29th: I was hoping this week's long run would be outside, but as the weekend approached, they were calling for 5+ inches of snow on Sunday night. So it looked like this hours before my long run:

Welp, back to the treadmill. (I love running outside when it's cold,
but if I try to run FAST on slick footing, I hurt my knee or heel.)

Because my previous speed workout was kind of a FAIL, I went even harder on this run. I started these last few long runs with "pace miles" starting at 9.3 mph, but this time I started at 9.4 mph. I thought I'd try to be just as fast as last week, because maybe I wouldn't speed up an "extra" time after a mile. But I still sped up those extra times! (At mile 1, mile 3, and mile 5.) So this one ended up being WELL under 6:00 pace!

3:11, 3:10, 3:04, 3:03, 3:01, 2:59, 2:57, 2:54, 2:52, 2:51, 2:49, 2:46

= 35:43 (5:57.17/mile!)

Because I started faster and kept it that way throughout, those splits are all 1-2 seconds faster than the corresponding splits from last week's workout (except for the last split because both workouts ended at 10.8 mph - I didn't speed up one last time with a few tenths left on this last run like I did last week).

So this recent workout was faster than my "new best treadmill long run ever" post from 10 months ago, and just a LITTLE slower than one that came a few weeks after that that I only mention at the top of this post where I ran 35:37 (5:56.17/mile) for my "pace miles." (In that workout, I did 9.4 mph up to 10.9 mph, and the 4 "extra" speed ups were all a bit sooner: 0.7 miles, 2.7 miles, 4.7 miles, and within the last half mile.)

I had the time on Monday (as neither the boys nor I had school), so I got in a bit longer of a run... I kept running on my cool down:

12.2 miles on the treadmill in 1:22:02 (6:43/mile). Lots of sweat drips.

Yes, treadmill runs are "easier" than outdoor runs, but again, I'm just happy to get in some hard running!

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Treadmill 5K

I posted earlier this week that I did an all-out V02 max treadmill workout last week, but I had a solid treadmill workout the week before that as well. About 2 weeks ago, I did a treadmill tempo 5K workout.

I warmed up for 1.75 miles (approximately, as my treadmill only shows TENTHS of a mile and not HUNDREDTHS of a mile), and then walked for about 0.25 miles.

Then I started the 5K effort as I cranked it up to 10.6 mph. I upped it again to 10.7 mph after a half mile, and 10.8 mph at the 1 mile mark. I wasn't sure I could keep speeding up (that wasn't really the goal... I just wanted to be fast), so I held 10.8 mph from mile 1 to about mile 2.4. Then up to 10.9 mph for about 0.3 miles, and then 11.0 mph for the final 0.4 miles.

My half-mile splits for the 3.1 miles looked like this:

2:50, 2:48, 2:46, 2:46, 2:46, 2:44, 0:32 = 17:15 (5:33.87/mile pace)

I had no goals, but I was happy with that!! I think I've been in the very low 17s for a treadmill 5K before, so now I have something to try to beat (much like my V02 max treadmill workout from last week). Maybe I'll try a similar "speed up strategy" next time I try a treadmill 5K, but maybe I'll try to keep everyone 0.1 mph faster - I think that'd put me around 17:05. With some decent training, I might shoot for sub-17 before the winter is over.

Pace looks right. HR is NOT correct!

It was later that day that my car didn't start (here's the post where I biked 15 miles in 15 degree temps to get it back), but we had a family Christmas the next day. And we were in charge of bringing veggies. So I grabbed my backpack and started jumping snow berms on the way to Aldi:

My trusty 22-year-old steed after 8 miles in the snow.


Lots of gunky build-up.


I got a pitcher of water and washed it off before it corroded too much.


All of the veggies (and tortilla shells and shredded cheese) made it home safely!

That ride was a nice cool-down after the treadmill 5K!

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Treadmill Training: 3 out of 4 Runs and Getting Faster

We've had some snow here in MN. I LOVE running in the cold, but I can't run "fast" on slippery snow because the "spin out" flares up my calf problems. So I've done some of my recent hard running on the treadmill.

Last Monday (Dec 1st), I did my first treadmill run of the season. It was a long run, and it didn't go that well. I started my "6 pace miles" in the middle of my 11+ mile run at 9.1 mph - by the middle of last winter, I was starting them at 9.3 or 9.4 mph. And then I sped up normally by 0.1 mph every half mile. But after a few miles, I knew I wasn't going to be able to hold on for 6 harder miles, so I stopped after 5.5 miles, which had the final half mile at 10.1 mph.

Last Wednesday was snowy, but I just went out for an easy run, so I ran in the snow. It was lovely.

Last Friday (Dec 5th) was a speed day, so I did 3x1 mile repeats on the treadmill. I posted about this workout on Monday. They went as well as I could have hoped! I recreated the same treadmill workout I did at the end of last winter while the boys and I were in Charlotte. And I nailed it! That means when I re-do this workout in 4-6 weeks, I'll have to start off faster and see if I can hold on. That was a bit of a confidence boosting workout. (Much like how the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot 5K was a confidence booster as well... I'm feeling good about my fitness level right now after a summer / fall of it not being as great.)

Then on Monday (Dec 8th), I hit the treadmill for another long run. This started similar to last weeks, but went a LOT better! First of all, I started at 9.1 mph again, but I held on for all 6 "harder" miles. And on top of that, I sped up TWO EXTRA TIMES over those 6 miles: once just after mile 1, and once before mile 5. And then I sped up again in my last half mile. So I ended with the last mile being between 10.3 and 10.5 mph! (I was at 10.3 mph at mile 5, 10.4 at mile 5.5, and 10.5 at mile 5.7.) So my half-mile splits for those faster 6 miles (9.1 mph up to 10.5 mph) looked like this:

6 miles at pace (starting at 9.1 mph and speeding up 0.1 mph every half mile):

3:17, 3:15, 3:11*, 3:09, 3:07, 3:04, 3:03, 3:01, 2:59, 2:58*, 2:54, 2:51*

= 36:55 (6:09.17 pace)

* asterisks denote splits where I sped up an extra 0.1 mph

Here's a post from April where I was under 6:00 / mile for my "pace miles" (5:59) and the opening paragraph of that post talks about 2 other times I was faster yet in February (5:57 and 5:56 / mile). So 6:09 pace in December isn't bad... but I know I have room to grow.

I hope to be back outside shortly, but I have plans for some fast / hard treadmill workouts if I can't be!

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Treadmill Mile Repeats

I did some mile repeats on the treadmill on Friday morning, because it looked like this outside:

View down our alley.

My last *treadmill* workout like that was in Charlotte in February, so I looked back to that workout for treadmill settings. (And I settled on mile repeats because my previous speed day before this was the Turkey Day 5K, so I didn't want to run another 5K tempo again... and before that was a short interval workout at the track.)

In this same workout from February, I started the 3 intervals at 10.8 mph, 11.0 mph, and 11.3 mph, and that was my plan for starting this workout. I wanted to see if I could re-create that workout. And I ended up doing that exactly. My first 2 intervals were similar: ran for 0.4 miles, sped up by 0.1 mph, ran another 0.4 miles, sped up another 0.1 mph, and then held that until the end of the mile. In my 3rd interval, I sped up a few more times: instead of just twice, I think I sped up 3 times (at 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 miles, finishing the last 0.2 miles at 11.6 mph. Here's what I ran:

[taking half-mile splits]

1.3 warm-up (7.8 mph and faster): 3:52, 3:46, 2:14
0.2 miles walking: 2:35

2:46 + 2:45 = 5:31.6
0.2 mile walking: 2:15

2:43 + 2:41 = 5:25.5
0.2 mile walking: 2:05 (speeding up at 1:30, which was right on)

2:40 + 2:35 = 5:16.1

0.3 mile walking: 3:51 (including waking up boys)
1.0 mile cool-down: 3:52, 3:49

Note: our treadmill is SLOW to change speed, so as I noted before the final interval, I have to speed it up after 1:30 rest and it's just barely getting up to speed at 2:05, which is 35 seconds later.

The sweaty treadmill after.


HR was MUCH higher than that!


My Garmin splits.

I've noted this before: my Garmin says my slower treadmill miles are always longer, and my faster treadmill miles are always shorter. It just goes off "arm swing," so I don't know what that says about my form. So I make sure to take splits on my Garmin when the treadmill crosses the correct distance - I don't go by my Garmin for distance while on the treadmill. On a "normal" longer run (not intervals) it averages out to be pretty correct in the end, with my slower miles being "longer" and my faster miles being "shorter."

Well, a decent start to a winter of treadmill speed sessions. I'll try to better that by spring!

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Good Treadmill Long Run

I thought this might have been my best treadmill long run ever, but I forgot about two that I had in early February: I posted about the first one where I had 6 descending "pace miles" in the middle with a 5:57 average, but I never even posted about the 2nd where I was a bit faster with a 5:56 average.

Sunday afternoon, we got some heavy snow that froze overnight. It was great by Monday evening because the spring sun has power to get rid of that quickly, but overnight it was icy and horrible. So I ended March with a dang long run on the treadmill. Booooo.

I didn't feel great (maybe because it's beeen 3 BIG weeks), but I still wanted to push the effort. After 2.5 easier miles, I started my faster "pace miles" at 9.3 mph only to speed up by 0.1 mph every half mile. But I also sped up randomly 4 other times throughout those miles (before 1 mile, around 2.5 miles, 4.5 miles, and 5.6 miles) so I ended at 10.8 mph. My half mile splits looked like this:

3:13, 3:09, 3:07, 3:05, 3:03, 3:01, 2:57, 2:56, 2:53, 2:51, 2:49, 2:46

= 35:57 (5:59.50 average pace)

Can you spot in my pace or HR where I ran off the treadmill
for 90 secs to wake up my boys for school?!? Ha!

I thought that was maybe my first time under 6:00/mile for my "pace miles" of a treadmill long run, but I had completely forgotten about those 2 runs about 2 months ago with paces of 5:57 and 5:56 for those middle miles. Still, not a bad start to the week after a few really big weeks!

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Two Treadmill Workouts: a GOOD One and a BAD One!

About 10 days ago, the boys and I left for a 2500 mile road trip because Henry qualified for the JUNIOR OLYMPICS IN CHARLOTTE in fencing! It was over President's Day weekend, and it worked out so they didn't have to miss any school! I'll have more on that shortly once I download a few photos (but you can find about 5 posts on Instagram recently about the trip), and I also need to be downloading photos from our Mexico trip last month as well. And I'm doing a lot of photography at my sons' school for an upcoming musical, so I've been editing about 900 photos over the last few days as well. Sheesh.

I'll have more about the trip soon. But here are the 2 treadmill workouts I did while away from home.

Friday was out biggest day on the road: from 4:15 a.m. until about 9:00 p.m. we were in the car for 13+ hours. That morning we left a hotel in northern Indiana, and they didn't have a working treadmill (one was "out of order," and one was literally stuck on 1 mph). So I didn't get my normal morning workout done. We pulled into Charlotte after a day on the road, and we ALL NEEDED TO MOVE OUR BODIES even though it was late:

Pulling into downtown!

We quickly got our room set and our things unpacked for the next 2 nights. Then the boys played in the pool as I hit the treadmill that looked through a window directly into the pool:

Selfie after a quick warm-up on the treadmill.

I had hoped to get in a treadmill speed workout on this trip because I REALLY like doing those on treadmills that AREN'T MINE. And I say that for 2 reasons: ours changes speed very slowly, and ours only has TENTHs of miles, not HUNDREDTHs of miles in the read-out. Our treadmill is great for "just running," but not great for speed workouts.

I didn't have time to look back to older workouts, so I just prepped to run 3x1 mile intervals on the treadmill. I warmed up for a mile, walked for 0.2 miles (and snapped that photo above), and then sped up. Here's what I ran, with about 2:20-2:50 walking between (for about 0.2 miles):

10.8 and 10.9 mph for 0.4 each, then 11.0 for the final 0.2 miles:

2:46 + 2:44 = 5:31.0


11.0 and 11.1 mph for 0.4 each, then 11.2 for the final 0.2 miles:

2:43 + 2:41 = 5:24.9


11.3 mph for 0.4, 11.4 for 0.3, 11.5 for 0.15, 11.6 for final 0.15:

2:38 + 2:36 = 5:15.6

Those felt good! I was slower on the treadmill back in November, and a bit slower on the track in December.

In the pool post-run around 9:45 p.m.


Sweaty post-run.


Soaked.


Nothing surprising here.


Garmin splits.

When I'm running HARD on the treadmill (both in this workout and in every workout at home), the "arm pump distance" registers a little short as seen above. But note my 2 warm-up half-miles: running easier always registers as a bit long.

We slept in on Saturday (our "lazy day" in Charlotte), then Henry fenced on Sunday before we drove a good chunk back home towards MN. We made it to central Illinois for that night. I got up early on Monday morning (President's Day) for a long treadmill run. There was 1 treadmill, and the TV attached to it only played TNT or ESPN 2. No joke.

Post-run with sweaty drip marks.

This was my failed run. After a weekend of sleeping in odd beds and eating crap, I don't know what I was expecting. It was to be a "normal" long run of 2.5 miles easier, 6 miles harder, and then 2.5 miles easier again. But part way through the harder miles, I knew I wouldn't make it the entire way. I got through 5 harder miles and was OK with that - I started those faster miles at 9.4 mph and sped up every 1/2 mile to 10.3 mph. Half mile splits for those harder miles looked like this:

3:11, 3:09, 3:06, 3:05, 3:03, 3:01, 2:59, 2:57, 2:56, 2:55

= 30:25 (6:05.00 / mile pace)

Overall, the run was only 10.1 miles in 1:09:03 (6:50/mile). I just could NOT keep going - I was fried.

Sweaty butt marks post-run.


Passed out boys in the room.


A big hotel breakfast an hour later.

We only had 6+ hours to drive back on Monday, so that felt GOOD after 10 hours in the car the day before! We were happy to be home!

More on Henry's Junior Olympics in the next couple of posts or so...

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