Indoor is Okay

I've got this April Ironman staring me down, and when I signed up for it, I fully expected to be dealing with a winterful of cold weather raining. Of course, that was last July, the middle of the summer. Still this idea was strongly re-enforced when we went to Florida for the Ironman and it was too cold and windy in the mornings to go and run.

So it's been a bit of a shock to do three hour rides outdoors, long runs in a singlet and shorts and so on. We've had 60 degree days this month. Still, it is wintertime and eventually it had to actually get cold.

Like many triathletes, during the week I'm basically on a two workout a day schedule. I have three potential workout slots- early morning, lunch, after work. It's almost never feasible to do both workouts in one of those slots. Starting last week, I made a habit of getting one workout completed in the morning, and the second at lunch if possible. Early morning workouts are runs or spins, always inside (it's still dark when I start). And last week all the lunch workouts were runs or swims.

I don't like the treadmill any more than most triathletes. I recognise the beauty of it- for those days when coach hands down a workout with 2-3 minute excelerations or hill climbs, the treadmill is the way to go. But for long runs, it kind of blows. However, i'd been on the treadmill all week, just because of when my runs were falling in my day. So after doing a spin run brick Saturday all in my basement, I found myself with the baby monitor on starting a long treadmill run.

I also found out that the treadmill had gotten an exercise ball stuck under it and the belt had slipped partly off a stay on the underside. After 10 minutes of running, I stopped the treadmill, fixed the problem, and decided instead of 4 thirty minute programs, I would just jack the treadmill up to the maximum nuber of minutes, set it at a slight incline and go.

Turns out our treadmill only goes to 99 minutes and then counts down to zero. If you've never watched a treadmill count down from 99 minutes, you're lucky. I was doing fine for about the first sixty, watching the 1/4 mile laps go by, but then, it just got a little brutal. I was watching The Village and listening to music from my ipod. At about 25 minutes left I had to shed the ipod just to get a change of environment, on the idea that I'd be able to hear The Village (although I have a feeling hearing the dialog would have been of little help)- I was thinking they should change the name of the movie to M. Night Shyamalan's What the Hell ? Maybe hearing the dialog would have helped, but I do NOT recommend this movie as a treadmill movie.

I got to zero, hopped on my bike to loosen my legs and watched the 'end (?)' of the movie.

And while I suffered while I was on the treadmill, I felt good having gotten that long 'run' in.