Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Hotel Treadmill Running

I am currently working in McLean, VA (just outside of Washington, DC). Today was a scheduled run day. Since I had gotten to bed quite late last night, I decided to run after work. I figured it would be a good time to wind down.

By the time I was driving back to the hotel, I was SO ready for a run. Since this is a fairly urban area, I decided to use the treadmill. I figured it would be easier on all my recent aches and pains as well. This was one of those fancy treadmills with it's own built in TV set. So I started the treadmill up and began with a 5 minute brisk walk to help warm up. I stopped to stretch, then cranked it up a bit to a 12 min/mile pace to take a nice easy run.

After about 25 min of news and other TV items, I couldn't find anything interesting so I fired up the iPod and cranked up the treadmill some more to about an 11:20 min/mi pace.

Around 45 min into the run I was really feeling great when I realized that this silly hotel treadmill will only go for 60 minutes. I tried to add time but I couldn't. If I wanted to go longer I would have to restart it - which isn't a big deal, but kind of a pain. Meanwhile, the workout room was getting more crowded - and with only 2 treadmills, an elliptical and a bike, I needed to give up the treadmill and not be a hog (sigh).

After my hour was up, the machine kicked into warm down mode, slowed me up a bit and kept going. After a couple of minutes I realized I got 5 bonus minutes to warm down. I cranked the speed back up to 10 min/mi and at least got past 5 miles after my slow start. (OK, not the purpose of a warm down, but I could just warm down afterwards while stretching...).

I felt fired up after that run - I could have gone another 1 or 2 miles easy. I guess to get my longer runs in this week I will have to run multiple times. :-) But it felt great to run. The hammy let me know it was there but didn't really hurt and a hot bath afterwards seemed to really help it.

Running strong in Virginia!

8 comments:

Petraruns said...

Sometimes you need to be flexible and adaptible in training and it sounds like you're right on top of that. Well done!

Irish Blue said...

You're so dedicated. Way to hang in there lady.

Susan said...

Excellent run!!!

ShirleyPerly said...

Yup, I hate it when treadmills have a time limit. But you got the run done -- good job!

Are you at SAIC McLean? When Dave goes there, he's always riding his bike on the W&OD trail after work which is nearby. I remember seeing lots of runners on it last time I was on it.

Maddy said...

Awesome job! I'm also not a big fan of the time limit.

Keep up the great work while you're away!

Unknown said...

The hammy will let you know it's there for a while. As long as it just aches, you are good. Just RI-CH-E it and you will be good.

Shooting pains... you should probably stop or move to a walk.

nice footwork on the treadmill!

Mike said...

Hey, if you have to use the treadmill, go ahead. Some people are against the things, but I see no problem with them.

Keep it uP!

Brian said...

Hey,

I found your blog and I listened to your podcast, and you do a great job with both.

I think your right on choosing to run on the tread.
I love the tread, I work on my speed, every few minutes I crank it up a notch and see how long I can go, then I push it a another notch.

Keep the rubber side down,

-Brian
www.GeorgiaRuns.com