I hate treadmill running - a little bit less

When the weather conditions are just too horrendous to go for a run outside, I face the choice of skipping the practice or going to the gym and run on a treadmill. I usually take the first option, but these days I’m trying to stay on track with the training for my first marathon (seriously considering a half-Ironman as well next summer!). Therefore I opted to run on the treadmill this morning, as I felt the storm and the rain were simply too unappealing for an early morning open-air run.

Running on a treadmill is probably the most boring form of training ever invented.  True, most gyms have TV screens to help people forget what they are actually doing there, but in my gym the screens are so high on the wall that my neck starts hurting after a few minutes of watching. After that I can choose between watching myself in the mirror or staring at the treadmill’s dashboard.  I usually don’t find the picture in the mirror appealing at all so I end up staring at the dashboard, waiting for it to show the time or distance I need to reach so I can go and take a shower. It is all so painfully slow when you keep staring at the digits.

But anyway, this morning was different. Not fun, but different. I went through the program as my coach had set it up. During the warm up, everything was normal. An interval of 6 x 1000 m at half-marathon pace went relatively well, also. Then there was this 4x200 m “fast and furious”. I put the treadmill on 20, the fastest it can go. The first two sprints were fine, but during the third one, there was a power failure. The bloody treadmill stopped before I did, so I went head first over the dashboard and ended up basically head-down-ankles-up. Fortunately there were not many other people in there to see this, but the owner noticed what happened and came running, worried that I had seriously injured myself. It didn’t hurt at all, though, (apart from damaging the ego a tiny bit) and once the power was on again, I finished the program.

But now I realize that treadmill running is not only boring, but dangerous as well. Which again makes it a little bit less boring.