I finally had the perfect opportunity to try out my new treadmill last night. I had a hectic night and never really got home until about 9:00pm. It was clearly way too late and dark to run outside. But wait - this girl has a treadmill now! That means my excuse of darkness is no longer valid. So I laced up my running shoes and headed down to the basement. After figuring out how to operate everything and a brief warm-up walking, I took a deep breath and hit the button to increase the speed.
I don't have a ton of practice running on treadmills, but in my limited experience, I had always thought treadmills were so much harder to run on than running outside. 6 mph on the treadmill was nearly impossible compared to an average of 6 mph outside. Maybe it was all in my head. But I took it easy anyway and set out just over 5 mph for the first quarter mile. It actually felt really good - almost a bit slow - and I kept increasing the speed. I ran most of my 3.1 miles at 6 mph after this, and then bumped it up near the end to finish at 6.5 mph. I honestly have no idea what my true time was - by the time I was done running, I'd forgotten how much time had elapsed during my warm-up walk. I need to figure out if there's a way to incorporate a warm-up walk into my treadmill runs without having it tracked in my stats (both distance and time) for my runs. I know it's petty, but I've always thought it was such a hassle to try to keep track of your warm-up stats to subtract them out; either that or stop the machine, clear out the workout, and start another one - also a pain. I'll have to look into all the program things that came built-in with it to see what I can do. I know - I'm silly. But I can't deny that it bothers me.
Aside from this, I thought my run actually went really well! :o) I was a little slower than outside, but I also started out slower on purpose until I get the hang of this whole running inside thing. I was tired, sweating, and out of breath - just like running outside - but as soon as I was done with my cool down walk and actually stopped the belt, my legs felt weird. I felt like a land-lubber feeling out her sea legs. Suddenly I could tell I had used some different muscles than I normally used to run outside. I couldn't help but remember a comment I'd overhead at a running specialty store one day, when one of the employees was explaining to a customer that his stride would change and/or be different when he ran on a treadmill than when he ran outside. I hadn't really thought much of it at the time, but now I wondered if there was something to it....
I was sure to stretch out my legs a little longer than usual, but despite the weird feeling in my legs, I was happy. I hadn't been in a very good mood when I got home (I was tired, worn out, and starting to get that defeated feeling I have when I'm overwhelmed), but I was refreshed and feeling renewed after the run (once I cooled down and got my breathing under control again, of course!). It was one of the most obvious examples I've ever experienced of how exercise can really turn your day around and even make you less tired. It was late, but it was worth it I decided! I was now even more excited to have the treadmill in the house - I was so happy with my birthday present.
But no matter how happy I was, I couldn't pass up a chance to run outside today. It was such a nice day for Northeast Ohio, so I was excited to get back outside for a run. I hurried home from work, threw on my running clothes and shoes, and raced out the door onto the trail. The same weird muscles I had noticed tingling last night flared up and my legs tired out very quickly. I was very disappointed. I only ran 2 miles (I was also trying to get the grass cut before dark), but it was slow and didn't feel good at all. So much for my high hopes of enjoying a good run outside on a beautiful day. Even sitting here now I can tell my legs are still tired.
I'm not sure how long it will take my body to get more used to running on a treadmill so it can stop sabotaging my outside runs, but hopefully not long. I'm willing to give it a chance; I just hope I don't end up adapting too much to a treadmill run that running outside becomes the hard part once spring rolls around again. Running outside in the beauty of nature was my first love (and one of my favorite things about running in the first place), and that will never change. I'm ready for summer again! :o)
No comments:
Post a Comment