Back on the treadmill

Last week, after who knows how many months, I got back on the treadmill. My timing to run outside has been off, and I cannot bring myself to run in the rain or the cold, both of which we have seen in the past two weeks, so I figured I needed to do something.

As usual, I was reminded how much I hate the treadmill. For the first few minutes, I jogged about 6.0 miles per hour, to the best of my recollection, although it could have been a little slower. I will never understand why running a 10 mph pace on the treadmill is rather difficult when that is how long it takes me to run up that awful hill. Shouldn't it be easier on the treadmill? I had the hill set rather low.

After a couple minutes of that and feeling convinced I would never be able to complete a mile, I decided to alternate running with jogging. So for 20-some minutes, I would run for about a minute, each time increasing my speed 1/10th of a mile until I got to around 8 mph. In between each run, I would jog about a minute at anywhere from 5 to 5.5 mph.

Despite the challenge and how out of breath I was, I think I could have run longer than the 25 or so minutes I did. Unfortunately, the treadmill is a little temperamental, and the last time I switched from about 8 mph to 5-something, the treadmill stopped. After a couple of minutes of unplugging and replugging, I just gave up. Ugh!

Anyway, I considered the run a success because I did run over about 2.5 miles and I do not recall feeling any pain. I would like to go through that routine again to see if I can do it for 30 minutes. Hopefully the treadmill will cooperate next time.