Dreadmills

Awoke today to a pissing cold rain. Sigh. 

I was all fired up to do some speedwork...I'm all recovered from the 21 miler after one full day of rest and one X-training day.

But that blasted rain...too heavy to run in...so off to the gym. Luckily I have access to a very fine gym at my place of work.

I like the gym..I'm getting really into this XT stuff...but I do not like treadmills. There are all the obvious reasons why you might not like them...but I have my own special reason.

Do you like treadmills? I know some people swear by them. 

I swear at them. I suspect the people that like them own their own and can use it in the privacy of their own home...that might be OK...but they are kinda big to have around.

Here's what I don't like: the guy next to me. He's a problem. Really. 

I always end up next to one or two youngn's that bang the treadmill like jackhammers with every stride. 

Or, they bound like kangaroos with a stride rate slower than a elephant and more air-time than Jordan. 

Or, I get the guy that likes to grunt or cry out like he's being water-boarded and just came up for air when doing an interval. 

C'mon man, STFU.

Inevitably what happens is I decide to show the young'ns a thing or two and ratchet the pace up to some level that I'm not supposed to do for that day, and I regret it later. 

The truly fast good runners don't land like a ton of bricks and know not to make big noises, but of course they probably go and run in the rain too.

Anyway, I got on the thing, ignored the pounding and banging around me  and did some intervals. And I did them smooth and fast...running like a Tarahumaran Indian (well maybe not quite that good ;):

After a  1 mile warmup at 10:00/mile pace...did 5 x .5miles at a 7:40/mile pace (HR=147,  83% of WHR) with .25 mile recoveries at 11:30 pace between. (aka "treadmill Yassos"). Could have done more but haven't been doing much speedwork so need to build up more gradually. (Yes, we do learn, eventually).

..then I did 20 minutes on the bike as a 'warm down' at mostly a HR of 115 or so.

Slight chance of rain tomorrow..I think I'll risk it.