I did a thirty minute hill workout on the Treadmill Tuesday and the following rants came to mind (which I've lazily copied from my Twitter feed) ...
#1- #espn I've seen the same Julius Peppers highlight package at least 100 times. I'm having sack flashbacks 24-7...
#2- #espn The first fifty times you told us that the Chargers cut LT it was a newsflash. Now it's more like a newsrash...
9:44 PM Feb 23rd via Tweetie
#3- #lafitness no one wants to watch soap operas at lunch
9:45 PM Feb 23rd via Tweetie
#4- #CNN 'Broken Government' ? That's it, inflame rather than inform...
9:46 PM Feb 23rd via Tweetie
#5- college and pro ball sports athletes. Less chest-thumping, less parading. More effort.
9:47 PM Feb 23rd via Tweetie
Seriously. If I paraded around like that at the end of a 5K, JB would tell me not to come to any more of his races...
9:48 PM Feb 23rd via Tweetie
#6 Spandex- use it wisely. A LOT more wisely...
9:49 PM Feb 23rd via Tweetie
#7- Holy sh!t. I just got hot sauce and vinegar in my eye. Rant over.
9:49 PM Feb 23rd via Tweetie
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Showing posts with label treadmill workouts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label treadmill workouts. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Avril Lavigne Saves My Run
Last Monday, the day after Brians, I had a two hour run on my schedule. Monday runs are very doable for me, but there are a certain set of conditions on a two-hour Monday run.
They have to start by 5:30 PM at the latest, and preferably earlier. I have to be flexible about the route and be reachable by cell phone, in case there is an accident on 95 or something that will prevent Margit from picking up Ian at day care.
So that means doing a two-loop run, assuming the weather cooperates.
Last Monday it did not. I skipped lunch so I could leave work early. Standing in my office, I told myself that no matter what, regardless of how bad the rain was, I was going outside. Ironic, because my coach posted a few days later about how people needed to stop complaining about bad weather and get outside.
The drive home completely quashed, or rather washed out, that idea. It wasn't raining. It was pouring. The old man was snoring. The ducks were looking for a place to hide. So I pulled into the garage, grabbed the house phone, the cell phone, two hammer gels and a gatorade endurance and started running on the treadmill. Our treadmill only goes to 99 minutes, so I set the treadmill to, well 99 minutes. I then jacked up the volume on the Apple TV, which has some 40.00 speakers hooked up to it and started listening to Evanescence.
This worked for the first 40 minutes or so. When the treadmill got to 69 minutes, I reset it to 90 minutes and kept going. Running two hours on a treadmill is tough. I'd raced the day before and wasn't fresh and I was pounding along on the tread, kind of looking outside to see if it was going to stop raining.
Finally, as much as I love Evanescence, it wasn't doing it for me. The videos, which are more engaging than the songs as just audio when you are on the treadmill, don't play loudly enough. I started browsing and came up with the Boys of Summer by the Ataris. Great song, but it's not 50 minutes long.
So I decided to try something different. I have two Avril albums, Under My Skin and Best Damn Thing. Under My Skin I know inside out. It's a darker, brooding album that critics didn't like because it was uh, dark and brooding. Under My Skin I'm not sure I'd ever listened to. I only ever found out because iTunes gave away Girlfriend (from Best Damn Thing) as a free download and I found myself listening to it while waiting for the port-a-let at Eagleman two years ago and so the song stuck with me.
I turned on Best Damn Thing and yeah, it's pop-ish and silly and totally commercial. It's also about a mile away from the usual stuff I listen to, and it's probably age and gender inappropriate for me as well. When it comes to getting through a workout though, I could care less. I'll admit to the most embarrassing music I listen to- yeah, I think William Shatner's Has Been is awesome- because there isn't anything I listen to I'm ashamed of. Or I can take the abuse. My best friend from U of R beat all the shame out of me with his constant (and sometimes valid) criticism of the music I was listening to in the early 1980s.
The bottom line ? This isn't your typical bubble-gum pop. It's not just Avril's R-rated lyrics. The riffs and digs of the music were just what I needed to distract me from the last 50 minutes or so of a run that was never going to be easy.
I think the sun came out after about 60-65 minutes, when I was just getting on the back half of the run, at that point where I was no longer getting off the treadmill for anything. It had become a test of wills, and although I hated the treadmill with a passion when I got done, and felt beat down, I'd beaten it. And the music, that had been a big, no a huge help. When Best Dam Thing Ended, it went right to Under My Skin, reminding me of races Eagleman and another race in Rochester two years ago, and I was set.
I'll take that two hours on the treadmill. Just don't make me do it again...
They have to start by 5:30 PM at the latest, and preferably earlier. I have to be flexible about the route and be reachable by cell phone, in case there is an accident on 95 or something that will prevent Margit from picking up Ian at day care.
So that means doing a two-loop run, assuming the weather cooperates.
Last Monday it did not. I skipped lunch so I could leave work early. Standing in my office, I told myself that no matter what, regardless of how bad the rain was, I was going outside. Ironic, because my coach posted a few days later about how people needed to stop complaining about bad weather and get outside.
The drive home completely quashed, or rather washed out, that idea. It wasn't raining. It was pouring. The old man was snoring. The ducks were looking for a place to hide. So I pulled into the garage, grabbed the house phone, the cell phone, two hammer gels and a gatorade endurance and started running on the treadmill. Our treadmill only goes to 99 minutes, so I set the treadmill to, well 99 minutes. I then jacked up the volume on the Apple TV, which has some 40.00 speakers hooked up to it and started listening to Evanescence.
This worked for the first 40 minutes or so. When the treadmill got to 69 minutes, I reset it to 90 minutes and kept going. Running two hours on a treadmill is tough. I'd raced the day before and wasn't fresh and I was pounding along on the tread, kind of looking outside to see if it was going to stop raining.
Finally, as much as I love Evanescence, it wasn't doing it for me. The videos, which are more engaging than the songs as just audio when you are on the treadmill, don't play loudly enough. I started browsing and came up with the Boys of Summer by the Ataris. Great song, but it's not 50 minutes long.
So I decided to try something different. I have two Avril albums, Under My Skin and Best Damn Thing. Under My Skin I know inside out. It's a darker, brooding album that critics didn't like because it was uh, dark and brooding. Under My Skin I'm not sure I'd ever listened to. I only ever found out because iTunes gave away Girlfriend (from Best Damn Thing) as a free download and I found myself listening to it while waiting for the port-a-let at Eagleman two years ago and so the song stuck with me.
I turned on Best Damn Thing and yeah, it's pop-ish and silly and totally commercial. It's also about a mile away from the usual stuff I listen to, and it's probably age and gender inappropriate for me as well. When it comes to getting through a workout though, I could care less. I'll admit to the most embarrassing music I listen to- yeah, I think William Shatner's Has Been is awesome- because there isn't anything I listen to I'm ashamed of. Or I can take the abuse. My best friend from U of R beat all the shame out of me with his constant (and sometimes valid) criticism of the music I was listening to in the early 1980s.
The bottom line ? This isn't your typical bubble-gum pop. It's not just Avril's R-rated lyrics. The riffs and digs of the music were just what I needed to distract me from the last 50 minutes or so of a run that was never going to be easy.
I think the sun came out after about 60-65 minutes, when I was just getting on the back half of the run, at that point where I was no longer getting off the treadmill for anything. It had become a test of wills, and although I hated the treadmill with a passion when I got done, and felt beat down, I'd beaten it. And the music, that had been a big, no a huge help. When Best Dam Thing Ended, it went right to Under My Skin, reminding me of races Eagleman and another race in Rochester two years ago, and I was set.
I'll take that two hours on the treadmill. Just don't make me do it again...
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tuesday Treadmill Workout- The Uphill Grind
Tuesday I wanted a hard treadmill workout and I'm getting ready for a 5K with a psychotic uphill climb in the first mile, so here's what I did on the treadmill Tuesday at lunch after spinning for 45 minutes earlier in the day. With apologies to Coach Troy, who I stole the idea from:
definition of base pace- what pace you run on the treadmill when you are in high A or low B- a run, not a jog. The number in parenthesis is my speed Tuesday (mph)
2 minute warm up at .5 miles an hour above base (8.0) at elevation of 1.5
3 minutes at 30 seconds 1.5 miles an hour above base (9.0), 30 seconds at base (7.5) at elevation of 1.5
2 minutes at base (7.5)
hill repeats
30 seconds at base plus .1 (7.6) at elevation of 5.0
30 seconds at base plus .1 (7.6) at elevation of 5.5
30 seconds at base plus .1 (7.6) at elevation of 5.0
30 seconds at base plus .1 (7.6) at elevation of 5.5
30 seconds at base plus .2 (7.8) at elevation of 4.5
30 seconds at base plus .2 (7.8) at elevation of 5.0
30 seconds at base plus .2 (7.8) at elevation of 5.5
30 seconds at base plus .5 (8.0) at elevation of 6.0
1 minute at base plus 1.5 (9.0) at elevation of 0.0
do the hill repeat 4 times
2 minutes at base (7.5)
3 minutes at 10 seconds hard, base plus .5 (8.0) and elevation of 4.5, 10 seconds easy, base plus .5 (8.0) and elevation of 0.0
(start descending on the 10, start ascending on the 8 of the rest, and go 15 seconds on/off if your treadmill is slow to change elevation)
6 minutes at base plus .1 (7.6), no elevation
I then added 8 minutes of easy spinning on an aerobics bike at high cadence and low tension. This really helped flushed the lactic acid out of my legs.
Probably a silly workout, but sometimes it's fun to just make something up and do it, and anything that releaves treadmill boredom is a plus.
The bonus is that last minute on the repeats you feel like you are roaring downhill.
definition of base pace- what pace you run on the treadmill when you are in high A or low B- a run, not a jog. The number in parenthesis is my speed Tuesday (mph)
2 minute warm up at .5 miles an hour above base (8.0) at elevation of 1.5
3 minutes at 30 seconds 1.5 miles an hour above base (9.0), 30 seconds at base (7.5) at elevation of 1.5
2 minutes at base (7.5)
hill repeats
30 seconds at base plus .1 (7.6) at elevation of 5.0
30 seconds at base plus .1 (7.6) at elevation of 5.5
30 seconds at base plus .1 (7.6) at elevation of 5.0
30 seconds at base plus .1 (7.6) at elevation of 5.5
30 seconds at base plus .2 (7.8) at elevation of 4.5
30 seconds at base plus .2 (7.8) at elevation of 5.0
30 seconds at base plus .2 (7.8) at elevation of 5.5
30 seconds at base plus .5 (8.0) at elevation of 6.0
1 minute at base plus 1.5 (9.0) at elevation of 0.0
do the hill repeat 4 times
2 minutes at base (7.5)
3 minutes at 10 seconds hard, base plus .5 (8.0) and elevation of 4.5, 10 seconds easy, base plus .5 (8.0) and elevation of 0.0
(start descending on the 10, start ascending on the 8 of the rest, and go 15 seconds on/off if your treadmill is slow to change elevation)
6 minutes at base plus .1 (7.6), no elevation
I then added 8 minutes of easy spinning on an aerobics bike at high cadence and low tension. This really helped flushed the lactic acid out of my legs.
Probably a silly workout, but sometimes it's fun to just make something up and do it, and anything that releaves treadmill boredom is a plus.
The bonus is that last minute on the repeats you feel like you are roaring downhill.
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