Treadmills

I despise treadmills... I really do.  They are dangerous, they make me want to go faster than I should, push intervals harder than I need to be doing, and overall...  I think I just want to get off the damn thing as fast as I can so I book it!  I ran on a treadmill on Friday and now again today and I am resolving not to do it again unless safety requires that I not run outside.  Friday was hideous, I got onto a treadmill that unbeknownst to me had an upper time limit of 30 minutes when I realized this, the reasonable pace I had been keeping was not going to allow me to finish my full 3.12 miles within the time limit.  I didn't realize this until minute 25 of my workout, so what did I do?  You guessed it, picked up the pace far too much and tried (and of course) failed to finish the full 5k in the 30 minutes despite an average speed of 7.5 miles per hour for the last five minute.  Stupid me, there is a 5 minute cool down built in to the clock, and I could have easily finished and cooled down within this allotted time.

Today, not as bad, but still, not good.  No time limit problems, instead my brain kept watching the pace, and instead of thinking, "Jeeze, my heels and achilles feel really good at this pace, this is right in the zone I should stay."  No no no, I thought, "I should really be going faster than this, I used to be able to run faster than this."  I finished it, hard and fast and a 5k in 31 minutes, but my heels have been screaming ever since... two steps forward, one step back (maybe one and a half steps back today).

The swims however, have been going well, technique is getting stronger and I can feel myself actually pulling myself beyond my hand and not just pulling the water alongside my body.  This is a very vague sounding differentiation, however, it matters significantly.  If you are just pulling the water alongside you, chances are you are taking many more strokes per length than you need to be.  The next step is the wetsuit, and I need to wait for it to get a little warmer before I embark on that journey... :)

I have been working far more hours than what is conducive to this idea of training, but somehow it is seeming to work.  What I need to figure out is how to get myself to train before work.  It is really difficult somehow to drag myself out when I am facing a 12-14 hour shift ahead of me, adding a 2.5 hour workout/shower/change is not exactly appealing.  But I am getting it figured out, little by little.

The next step is the heart rate and zones.  This might actually help me on the treadmill, if I know where my heart rate is supposed to be, I can back it off.  So much of these triathlons have to do with aerobic and anaerobic training, which is all dependent on zones.  Figuring my way out on this day by day and having a blast along the way.