It is a little warm down here in Phoenix, and when I say a little warm I mean it is scorching, boiling, baking, roasting, sweltering, sizzling, blazing, burning, and blistering hot!
Instead of melting in the unforgivable sun, I decided to run on the treadmill. It felt as through I was cheating with the cool air-conditioning, and I loved it. I was able to complete my planned four mile run with ease. My heart rate was lower than it usually is, and I did not feel as beat up as I usually do from running on the pavement. It felt great!
If I knew the change in the environment would have made such a large difference I would have bought myself a treadmill years ago. Now I am looking forward to another great run this afternoon at the gym on the same treadmill.
Am I giving myself some sort of false hope? Is there any reasons why I should not start running on the treadmills more often?
Instead of melting in the unforgivable sun, I decided to run on the treadmill. It felt as through I was cheating with the cool air-conditioning, and I loved it. I was able to complete my planned four mile run with ease. My heart rate was lower than it usually is, and I did not feel as beat up as I usually do from running on the pavement. It felt great!
If I knew the change in the environment would have made such a large difference I would have bought myself a treadmill years ago. Now I am looking forward to another great run this afternoon at the gym on the same treadmill.
Am I giving myself some sort of false hope? Is there any reasons why I should not start running on the treadmills more often?
1 comment:
I have this same debate with myself, and have looked into it a bit.
Pros:
- staying out of the weather
- easier to pace steadily
- super easy to do intervals at the right paces
- padded surface is much easier on joints (hence not feeling so beat up). This makes a huge difference if you're carrying extra weight, and is a big reason I still run on them almost exclusively.
- a place to put your drink!
Cons:
- It's actually easier to run on them, so we can fool ourselves about our abilities (I've heard the way to combat this is to put the treadmill at a 1% incline.)
- if a race is coming up in hot weather we get spoiled by running inside. (Way to solve this is to do heat acclimation training in the weeks approaching a race).
I've read about marathoners who successfully train on a treadmill exclusively. I wouldn't go that far, but if I were you I'd have no qualms about moving a good chunk of my runs inside : )
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