I’m two weeks into my half-marathon training, following Hal Higdon’s 12-week novice training program. His training programs have gotten me through two marathons and sixteen half-marathons since 2004.
Why novice as I approach my seventeenth half-marathon? I alternate between the novice and intermediate programs, based on where I am at that moment in my training. I took a good deal of time off from running in the fall to nurse an IT band issue so my base is only about 9 – 12 miles a week; novice feels right for winter training.
Winter training. Sigh. We have had so much snow on the ground since the day after Christmas and just recently got slammed with a new layer of ice. The weather has relegated me to cross-training on my road bike at home
and running on the treadmill at the gym.
I hate the treadmill.
I’ve noticed many (many) posts from bloggers on how to beat the treadmill doldrums so I thought I’d toss out my two cents. A few years ago I found this great website, Treadmill Pace Conversions:
Because of lack of wind resistance while running on a treadmill, the effort of running on a treadmill at 0% incline is less than that of running on a level road at the same pace. Below is a chart that you can use to get approximate equivalent efforts between running on a treadmill at different paces and inclines and running outdoors on a level surface.
This may or may not be true. You know why I use the chart? To play treadmill games.
I decide what “pace” I’d like to run for the workout and then I use the chart to find varied speeds and elevation to emulate that pace. On Wednesday I wanted a nice and easy run so I opted for a 10:30 minute mile pace. Throughout the run I adjusted the elevation and speed every 5 minutes (toward the end of the run, every 2.5 minutes).
Treadmill games help break up the monotony of the run and force me to speed up and slow down and to take on slight hills. How do you get through treadmill runs?
