I enjoy having a treadmill. A couple of weeks ago when it was -16 and slick outside, I ran on it instead of putting on YakTrax and extra layers and grinding my way to a thirty minute run in terrible conditions. However, while I’m not dependent on scenery for enjoying a run, staring at a wall and a clock for several miles while on the treadmill is not exciting. I could watch a video on my phone or put in earbuds for music, but I don’t like having things on my head or ears while running and getting the audio loud enough to enjoy a video on my phone would disturb the rest of the house and possibly blow my phone’s speakers.
I found a way to cut down on the boredom on the treadmill and as a possible bonus, I think it might help with pacing for races. Let’s say I’m planning to run four miles. I’ll set up a target time at the beginning of the run, say 29:00 or a 7:15 per mile pace. If I was going to run outside, I would attempt to start out at 7:15, hold that, and if I was still feeling good by mile three, kick up the pace and try to blast the rest of the way home.
On the treadmill, with the aforementioned pace, I’ll start at 7.0 miles per hour, or roughly 8:30 per mile. As I run, I’ll periodically, every 100M-400M, nudge the pace up by .1 miles per hour through the first couple of miles until I hit 8.3, which is my target pace. Of course, I’m still behind my overall target because I was under pace for a while. At this point, I have to run faster than my goal pace to hit 29:00. Depending on when I got to 8.3, I not only have to go above the pace but I have to continually do mental math to determine the speed I need to go to cruise in at 28:59, or faster.
My treadmill goes up to 12.0 miles per hour so it would be possible to push the speed way up for a quarter mile or so, then back it down and essentially do an interval workout. However, there’s a much bigger thrill to gradually increasing the pace, wondering if I’ll be able to hold it, but knowing I have to do so or even push it a bit higher for the last half mile to mile.
The boredom is now alleviated with this tactic and here’s where the possible bonus comes in. I’ve mentioned the challenge of pacing in races, especially when aiming for a specific time. There’s temptation to create a time cushion so that I’m not right on the edge for the last chunk of the race and having to push for a goal time when I’m running out of gas. Of course, I’ve seen plenty of times that even pacing is the most effective way to reach a goal time so creating the cushion is not a good plan. While I wouldn’t want to start a race too slow and create too much time to make up, my hope is that by using this game to avoid boredom on the treadmill, I’m also reinforcing a more effective pacing strategy. This is different than even pacing, but it does condition my legs and brain to trust myself to continue to push hard at the end of a race, even when it’s extraordinarily challenging to so do.
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