Treadmill Time

When I first started running, I would run only on my treadmill. I ran almost every day for a good month before I ventured outside. At first, I did not like running outside. I felt that the runs were long and I always knew how much time I had left because I knew how much further I had to run to get back home. On the treadmill, you kind of just zone out and lose track of time. Once I started running outside, I soon became addicted to pounding the pavement. My treadmill, once again, started to collect some dust. Now with the weather getting very hot outside, I started back up on my treadmill today. What a difference being back on the treadmill! I actually felt stronger running on the treadmill. I remember when I first started (and if you look back at some of my very early posts in March) I impressed myself with running on an incline of 1 or 1.5. It was tough. Today I started out at a 20% percent incline and it was easy!

I have also become a huge fan of HIIT-High Intensity Interval Training. This type of method truly does help you get stronger and run further and faster. When I first started running, I just ran. One day I did 1 mile, the next 2 miles and so on until I was running 15 miles a week within 10 days of just starting too run. Bad idea! This is definitely not how you should go about running for distance. Because I did too much too soon, I ended up fracturing my ankle that went undiagnosed for a few weeks (because I couldn't get an appointment with an orthopedic for 3 weeks). That put me on the sidelines for quite awhile and put my goal of doing a 10 mile race in August possibly a no go. Two weeks ago, I started interval training-a combination of running and walking. Jeff Galloway, who is the preferred trainer for Disney races, believes in this method. Well, I am finding that I can run longer and faster distances using this training method.
I plan on continuing my training using interval training.

So my plan is to do 3 days a week of running-a long run, fast run and an easy run. It seems like this is the way to go when training for long distance races. This will help make sure you reduce your risk of injury and also makes sure you don't over train. On Sunday I did my long run-6 miles. Today I did an easy run-2.5 miles and on Thursday or Friday I will do my fast run. On the days in between running, I will cross train. I will do the elliptical, walk, do free weights or dvd's such as Turbo Fire or Insanity. Last night-a cross training day, I took a 3 mile walk with my friend at a decent pace. Ideally, I would love to do my interval training every other day but this won't always be possible. So I will just have to play it by ear and just remind myself that doing something is better than doing nothing.