Treadmill Training

Today's assignment was a 3-mile run. Because Hal Higdon suggests that these short-run days be combined with stretching or strength-training, I took the opportunity to do some much-needed upper body lifting. I've read in Runner's World that upper body training is largely useless, particularly because it adds unnecessary weight, but I find that working out my chest and back in opposing sets helps my posture, strengthening my core for running.

I alternated a set of push-ups with assisted chin-ups, a set of incline dumbbell press with lat pull-downs, a set of pec decks with flies, a set of flat bench dumbbell press with seated rows, a set of curls with tricep extensions, and finally a set of front shoulder raises with lateral shoulder raises. It got the heart pumping, and I broke out into a sweat, which warmed me up for my run.

I jumped on the treadmill and set the speed at an easy rate of 6.0 mph. This 10-minute mile setting should be fairly easy, but when I first started, I was huffing and puffing. By the 5th minute I finally settled into a comfortable stride, and I resolved to be patient throughout the entire 30 minutes it would take to run this distance at this pace.

The pace felt good. I felt like I could've continued at that pace indefinitely. So I started to get impatient and began transitioning the workout into a tempo run, eventually increasing the speed to 7.0 mph. I only shaved off maybe half a minute off the 30-minute timeframe it was supposed to take me.

Treadmill runs are largely uneventful, but luckily each unit in my gym has an attached TV, so I got to catch up on my MTV and VH1.