Dreadmill day!

Missing a Sunday long run can be annoying. You don’t want to fall sick during a training block and miss the longest run of the week! If you are sick, you have an excuse to miss a run! But if it rains all morning and if it is a total washout… i dread the dreadmill long runs!

Running on treadmill – to me that should be an emergency. Missed summer morning runs; of course it’s not ideal to run outside in the afternoon when it is hot and humid. Rain – where else you do? Running in rain can be fun; until you fall ill. After the recent flu attacks, i am not so sure about those rain runs and rain fun!

So, today when it was raining all morning and i had a 26k long run planned, i knew i had no choice but to hop on to that machine and get it done. I struggle getting a 10k even. To run a long run, you need to be better prepared and I was all in!

First, get the headphones on: Unlike the roads runs, treadmill runs don’t have much entertainment going on. So, pick a good audio book. I suggest books over music. Because music is so familiar and the right books have your attention and you will never know how the time passes!

Run in parts: By parts i mean, break the run into many parts and set different targets. For example, for my 26k run, I decided i will take a pineapple juice break at 10k and change the towel at 15k and do some fast splits after 20k and slow down after 24k; also set an option to stop at 24. So, with the audio book keeping me engaged, these milestones were motivating to keep me moving to the next block without having to stop or getting bored!

One more km won’t hurt: Always try to top it up with some more. I have decided from the start that i don’t need to do all of 26 and can stop at 24. When i was closing in on 24, i told myself a bit more won’t hurt. Before i knew it i was going for the 26th.

So, another long run on treadmill done! I now need to come up with a strategy for shorter runs on treadmills!