The Treadmill of Dread

Due to the going underfoot, today I decided to do my run on the dreaded treadmill (or dreadmill for short).  I am fortunate that I have access to a free gym at work, it's no David Lloyd Leisure Centre but it does have a pretty good selection of cardio machines, weight machines and free weights.  So, six o'clock this morning found me scraping fresh snow off the car and heading off to work smug in the knowledge that I had raised two fingers to the elements.  The plan was to run 10k; after the first 2k I remembered why I hated treadmill running.  I know treadmills are all some people train on, never going out and dirtying their trainers on the public paths but honestly, is there anything more soul destroying than running on the spot for hours minutes on end?  The gym is pretty basic, there is no bank of television screens to take your mind off the unrelenting boredom and I had forgotten to charge my ipod so basically I ran on my own, in silence, for 58 minutes.  The only distraction was the cleaner coming in to the hoover the carpet.  My plan was to run at a speed of between 10.5 and 11.5 kph so I cranked it up to 10.5 kph to begin with and soon had to notch it down to 10.2 as it just seemed too fast.  I did put a 1% incline on as I have read that this helps to better replicate running outside and it also minimises stress on the knees.  After about 3k I started to get into the swing of it and around 5k I started adding a bit of speed getting it back up to 10.5 kph.  Thinking back I was actually running quite easily by this point so I wish I had pushed myself a bit harder.  Around 8k I increased it to 11 kph and then, throwing all caution to the wind, for the last half kilometre I cranked it up to 12 kph.  Again, looking back, from about 7k onwards (hard to tell when precisely as I had the screen covered up) I started to feel really strong and I should have pushed myself a bit more.  Anyway, I ended up doing 10k in 58:08 so not dreadful but could definitely have done better.

I shall probably do another gym session tomorrow as the snow doesn't look to be clearing up any time soon and I resolve to work a bit harder and finish in around 55 minutes or less.