First OS run work out blew up
BLEW UP Sunday run work out on treadmill. Tested on the road. Never been on a treadmill in my life. I am very smoked by life(husband gone for a week. On own with our 4 kids 7 and under) Old treadmill bought second hand. I use to be a runner and can pull a good run out of a hat once if enough mojo is there. Don't ever tend to be consistent runner the way tread makes you be. I always neg split. I have a real sprint at the end which does not show in tread times. OK all the excuses and poor me is on the table. Now why???? and what should I do. retest on treadmill so I know what I can do on it?(hate the thought of that) keep going with same times next time and see if it happens again. I blew up in the last mile of the intervals with 20% left to go. I just gave up and slowed the tread down to a jog. Finished the time out at the zone 2 pace Any thoughts?
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Sorry
I do all my training on the treadmill in the winter and don't get outside till towards the end of March and then try to do all interval work on the track.
I warm up for one mile and then do 6x30 second bursts and within that 30 seconds try to have 45 left foot strikes. Over time this will change your gait and speed. This is my third year doing it and I am now more of a forefoot striker, much faster, and I have had significantly less injuries. Note this is my normal warm up before any of the work begins.
When I am testing I like to play around so i will set it at what i know my last Tempo pace was and each quarter i will speed the mill up my 1-3 speeds. So if it was at 8.7 I take it to 8.8-9.0. I do this until hitting the mile and then I will drop the speed to where I first started the test plus one. So if it was 8.7 I drop it to 8.8 and repeat. The last 800 of the test however I try and gut it out at a speed I can go without breaking good form.
I however only test at a 1% incline and not a 2%. When I make the transition from Tmill to road or track I am not slower but often faster.
Hope that helps.
I run on both treadmill and outdoors regularly. First of all don't panic. Maybe you just had a bad day. Second, it is known to be psychologically tougher running on a treadmill as one can feel constricted in the smaller space. I routinely try to think about keeping my shoulders relaxed a lot more when I'm on th treadmill as I can feel myself tense especially at the beginning of runs. Third, maybe ventilation in your treadmill room is a problem? Also personal heat build up is likely to happen faster indoors as there is less evaporation. I require a large fan blowing on me to be comfortable indoors and even then I sweat buckets compared to outside even if I keep the room temperature 10-12C. Finally, don't assume your treadmill is actually going the speed it says it is. My treadmill is 10-12s/km too fast i.e. 4:13/k on the treadmill at 1% incline feels close to 4:00k outside pace. I could never run treadmill intervals as fast as outside which was really frustrating and lead to many 'blown' workouts until I realized this.
EDIT: further to point 3 my treadmill is in a huge 900sq foot space. Even with the windows cracked open in winter the room temperature goes up 1-2C when I am on the treadmill or bike! We create a lot of heat!
EDIT#2: when I transition to the treadmill in the fall it takes a few runs to get used to running on the treadmill!
Unless you had the treadmill outside on a deck, or you had two giant fans blowing on you, and were wearing a swim suit or jog bra, you probably had raised your core temp too high to do any work @, say, Z4 or 5 for any substantial period of time. If you've done all your running outside there in the GWN, then going inside will not only raise the ambient temp by 15-20C this time of year, but also you lose the effect of air flow produced by your forward motion on your face and clothes to help cool you off. For reference, it's quite possible to lose greater than 60 sec/mile in your sustainable pace in a marathon when going from, say, 20C to 35C.
If you know it is way too fast then slow the pace to the pace you could do if you had to for 1 hour. Know what I mean?
Trying to use the garmin on a hilly course causes the same issue. Need to use perceived exertion. This is a long OS. If it feels way to hard then definitely feel free to drop it back.
I did the inaugural IMSG and that run course back then was a beast. Super hilly. Right away I knew I had to run by PE and not the long run pace + 30 as it was an uphill start. I ended up not looking at my Garmin anymore and just ran. Had I tried to use the " plan", I would have never finished the race. Guaranteed!!
And as Al said, core temperature is going to be up significantly if you are inside.
And then, there are life's stressors which play a huge role in how you feel. Sounds like there's a lot on your plate.
Bottom line? Don't get discouraged by a single point in time (good to remember this in all of your training). If the treadmill is going to be your method of training, get used to it, train and test on it, and get it set up so you are "comfortable" on it: fans, drinks, towels, etc. Treadmills can be mind-numbingly boring, too, so get something to pass the time. And a mirror can be helpful to watch your stride as well as keep you centered on the belt.
Interesting Matt. I was thinking to use 22:00 as a vdot for TM compared to my 21:27 outside. That only gives me a 4sec diff on Z4 and a 6sec diff on Z1. I really don't want to test again and I wont do that many runs on TM but I may need to further adjust my times it sounds like. Thanks for everyones support and encouragement