Treadmill as a "Recovery" Tool
So last night I was feeling a bit fatigued from the big Tuesday bike/run brick and decided that I wasn't feeling to tired that I needed the day off, but wasn't 100% mentally or physically all there for the 4x800m Z4 track run intervals either.
I "hacked" my workout by going to the gym and crawling on the dreadmill instead of going to my usual neighborhood track. I opted to use 0 incline, yes I know but bear with me here. I used 0 incline but decided to do the 4x800 intervals at the correct pace.
I thought this was a good compromise between still getting the legs to turnover at an appropriate pace while effectively making the workout easier than it would have been had I gone to the track. I can tell you for sure that it was easier, but still not easy to hit all the intervals and then run Z3 at 2% incline for the balance of time.
And the dreadmill run was sure better than getting discouraged by not hitting my paces at the track and deciding to bag the balance of the workout...
Anyone else try this game of mental trickery, or am I just late to the party and this is common knowledge (and likely found buried in the Wiki somewhere)?
Jay
PS - I feel much better today, rested and ready to go...the OS (now 15 weeks) hasn't ground me into dust just yet! 
Comments
Jay, great question, and I can't believe no one has jumped on it yet. I just did a speed search of the wiki and did not find the entry which outlines the EN Kool-Aid on modifying an individual workout when you think you can't do it as written, so this is my own formula, and may be somewhat at variance from the Dogma.
Personally, I modify the workout in this order; if the first option is not making things "easier", move on to the next:
• Increase the rest/recovery interval; and/or decrease (slow down) the pace of the recovery;
• Decrease the total work disatnce in the intervals, eg in your instance, do 600s instead of 800s
• And/or decrease the total number of intervals, 3 instead of 4. Both of these option are variations on: decrease total work time.
• Skip the cool down ( I never skip the warm up, although that may be all I actually do)
• Skip the workout entirely. (I guess this should actually be first!)
Notice, I don't decrease the intensity. If I can't hit it, I personally don't think that the same volume at a lower effort in the OS is really going to help my running. For biking, I may noodle around just to get saddle time if I've already penciled in the workout time, though.
@Bill: I laughed at your response and the thought of just crawling into a little ball with a blanket and taking a nap at the gym. I wasn't meaning "recovery" so much as getting the workout in without pounding it out 100%. It definitely wasn't a recovery workout, and I agree wholeheartedly with your assertion that recovery means recovery. In fact, I'm going to enjoy the hell out of my Friday off day. A bit of light stretching, a soak in the hot tub, and perhaps schedule a massage. I definitely get your meaning and the importance (especially near the end of the O/S) of shutting it down completely when the plan tells me to. I've seen the reports of people melting down physically and mentally at the end of the O/S. By the way, I felt great yesterday and stomped the heck out of my 8'(2'), 10'(2'), 12'(2') FTP intervals...so it may have just been an "off" day on Wednesday after hitting the bike hard Tuesday.
Thanks for all the insight, guys!
Jay