Treadmillin’!

A few weeks ago, Tyler was talking about how he had become addicted to running and was pushing himself more and more everyday.

I was happy for him, but somewhere in the back of my mind I was thinking that he was full of sh*t!  He, of course, wasn’t…but I was basing that upon my own experience with the treadmill.  I HATED IT, not as much as I hated (and still do hate) the stairclimber, but I hated it. 

• I hated the way I felt on it.  My legs would hurt, my side would hurt, if it could hurt, it did.
• I hated the way I LOOKED on it.  The treadmills in my gym face wall lenght mirrors, so I got to see anything and everything that was loose on me flop around like a fish out of water.  It was gross.
• I never felt like I accomplished anything.  It takes a much LLLOOONNNGGGEEERRR time to burn the same amount of calories on the treadmill than I could burn on the ARC Trainer (per the machines calorie counters, anyway), and I would end up hurting and sweating more.  Efficiency, people!!! Why in the hell would I want to work out for LONGER with less results and more pain!?!

But alas, Tyler has been a HUGE inspiration for me, and has lost a crapload of weight..I figured he’d have to be onto something, plus, going full resistance and incline on the ARC Trainer wasn’t nearly as hard as it used to be, so I knew I needed to change things up.

So I tried out the treadmill.

I started out for 30 minutes, walking at 3.5mph and 2.5 minutes, jogging at 5.0mph for 2.5 minutes, lather, rinse, repeat..and while everything I said above held true about pain, looks, etc…I didn’t find it to be that bad after all.  After while I started going 45 to 60 minutes, walking at 3.5-3.6mph, jogging/running anywhere from 5.0 to 8.0.  The faster speeds could only be accomplished in micro spurts, but I was pushing myself past 5.0mph, so I was happy.

Last week, Jessie and I challenged ourselves to complete 15 miles in a week, and we both succeeded.  At one point, she ran a mile at 5.5mph.  I proceeded to whine in her comments section that there was no way in hell I could complete a mile at that speed consecutively.  She strongly encouraged me (which I took as a challenge, hehe) to give a mile at 5.5mph a try.

So today on my lunch break, I kinda did. 

I was ONLY going to try for 5.0mph, truth be told, and that seemed daunting enough. A little bit in, I figured “why not try for 5.5mph”…then I thought maybe I could go 5.0mph with a few spurts at 6.0mph, so I tried it…

By some miracle, I hadn’t died yet, so I figured “awww, f*ck it, lets see if I can do a 10 minute mile.”  I’m a glutton for punishment like that.

And…well…

I did not complete a 10 minute mile, but a 10 minute 13 second mile isn’t that bad right? Maybe worthy of a mini-Woot?

Honestly, I never would have thought I’d have had it in me, but I did it.  Yes, my legs hurt, yes, my side hurt (I wish I could stop that), but I frickin’ did it!  I didn’t even think I’d honestly be able to complete a 12 minute mile, and I did it in 10:13, with speeds ranging from 5.0mph to 8.0mph.  WOOHOO!

 

 You know, if I stick with what I think I can do, I’m not going to get anywhere on this journey, because I don’t think I can do much of anything.  In the grand scheme of things, running a bit faster than I thought I could might not matter much, but it is a nice jumping off point.  And maybe thats another reason why I need this blog.  Yeah, I need the accountability, and thats the primary motive behind it…

…but…

…maybe the occasional push (or really hard shove) outside of my comfort zone isn’t a bad thing either.  I may have NEVER attempted this w/o little pushes from Tyler and Jessie, and if I had attempted, it would have been MUCH FARTHER down the road, and I would have been selling myself short the whole time.  So I give thanks to both of them, and to all of my other readers (so matter how few of you are out there), who inspire me everyday by just BEING there.

You guys kick ass.