Treadmill, Dreadmill...

This is MY baby....

A couple of months ago I had an email exchange with one of the guys at work regarding riding on a cycle trainer and how it is the devil in disguise. Out of curiosity I asked him how treadmills are classified...he said they were "cake" compared to the cycle trainer. At the time I had no argument for him as I had not had much experience on treadmill. However, now that I have had ample opportunity to "log" miles on the treadmill, I'm starting to think of that contraption as the dreadmill. The first week or two was fine, easy...almost fun. Now it's becoming a chore and something to force myself to do. I still won't ride on my trainer, but I have to continue using the DM if I want to continue my quest to run at least 6 miles.

On Sunday I had a really awesome road run (3 miles). After about 1.5 miles it started feeling really comfortable and about a 1/2 mile within finishing almost effortless. Tom said I had found my groove. That was exciting! It was so good that my recovery was very quick and I was breathing normal within a short period of time which in the past has been unusual for such an effort.

It's been at least a week since I have felt any real pain in my foot...so I must be all healed now. In fact, my foot even feels good! The bunion is a little bothersome, but not so much that I slow down. This is a very good progression and it's only February. Still a few months away from the Du and I'm feeling pretty good about everything.

My long run which would be this Sunday - but is being switched to possibly Monday - is to be 4 miles. I'm a little nervous about this because I have only been able to do 3.1 miles (a 5K). As before this is my mental block, but then this whole running thing is a mental thing. I can't allow the pain that I feel early on in my runs to cause me to second guess my abilities...I know what I can do, there are just times I want to give in because my legs are aching a little or my foot is cramping or whatever and those times are very hard to run thru sometimes.

Today was that sort of run and to make it even better it was on the treadmill. I finished 1 mile and just had to do one more. Last week I quit early because I thought I was too tired. I guess I was just tired of trying - what a whimpy-ass attitude! As I ran today I kept last Monday's ride in my mind and decided that I would not give in so easily so I upped the speed and elevation and kept at it and even really kicked it out for the last quarter mile. It felt good to have worked it thru and now I know that when I go in early on Thursday I have the ability to do a good run and not be a wimp.

It's so hard to believe that one year ago I could not even run 1/4 of a mile. Now I'm doing 3 miles pretty easily and will be moving on to running 4 miles by early next week. I should find a good route for that particular run - I don't want to try it out on the running machine.

In looking at the training plan it looks as though I'll be upping the mileage, changing the type of workout AND adding a day of running so I may have to re-think how I will be doing them. Next week I will start doing Tempo runs and I believe that distance is to be 4 miles at Tempo....YIKES!! No more easy two miles here and three miles there...I already miss those days ;)

I smell a duathlon in my future...