I Really Hate the Treadmill

I met Trish at the gym last night. It has been a while since either one of us ran on the treadmill, and it showed! I started out strong, running my first 3 minutes at 5.3 no problem. Well, I was tired but I did it ... I really wanted to stop at 2 minutes, but I kept going like a good kid. (chuckle) I walked my 90 seconds, which goes by SO very fast, let me tell you! Trish pushed herself hard and finished her 3 min set too. However, her heart rate was in the 180's, so "Coach Kay" helped her get it under control before she began again.

I never ran my 5 minute set ... I have not managed to go 5 minutes on the treadmill yet! I just do not understand what is going on, but I cannot make myself do it; on the track it seems so much easier. I did a lot of 2 minute runs and one minute breaks between.

I finished with two runs of 5.7 and one run of 6.0 to get me to the 2 mile mark. I did my 2 miles in 27:30-45 (I was not paying that much attention to the time, just the distance!) and in my 35 minutes I did over 2.25 miles. Oh, and I ran one extra minute at 5.7 just because I could! I did not really want to, but I felt I needed to do a bit more.

I felt like I pushed myself pretty hard, but not as hard as I did for week 2 or 3. This being in decent shape now makes it harder to push yourself that hard. My heart-rate was up in the 140's and even in the 150's towards the end, but within a minute or two of walking (at 3.7) it would drop back down to 138-ish. That was my arbitrary recovery goal. And I have to say that when I get to the 145+ mark I am uncomfortable; I just do not enjoy anything about pushing myself farther than 145 area for more than a short period of time.

I need to get over that feeling! It is amazing, too, because I can feel when my body hits that heart rate range ... I start "shutting down" and want to quit. Without even knowing where my heart rate is, my body feels it. I guess it is good that I can recognize that physical feeling, but I would like to get past it and push myself just a bit harder.

Maybe I do better outside because I do not get as hot. That could definitely be part of it, now that I think about it. Because I felt far too hot to lift afterward; I was bubbly headed and not feeling "strong." Hmmm, I'll have to think about that for a while.