Too lazy to go outside

Today's run (treadmill): 25 minutes

It may be odd to say this, but I feel like I've gotten a little lazy in my workout routine. It's not that I'm running less frequently or backing off on my intensity. Not at all. In fact, the amount of time I'm averaging per weekday run is up 4%. What's different is that a third of my morning workday runs have been done of the treadmill instead of through the streets of my neighborhood.

I'm not sure if it's the January chill or my reluctance to spend ten minutes gearing up to go outside, but every night I check the weather and if they say cold, rain or heavy winds, I prep for an indoor workout. That's exactly what happened last night. The news station said light snow at 4:00 AM so I said, "that's that" It turned out to be clear, but instead of heading outside I still hopped on the treadmill.

So I'm calling it laziness even if I'm ultimately working hard. But tomorrow, even with the predicted snow, I have every intention of doing my run outdoors.

The more you think the worse you'll perform

Today's workout (elliptical): 25 minutes

Perhaps there is something to the idea of "clear mind, sound body." I followed a link put up by blogger/podcaster cyktrussel who publishes http://www.runrunlive.com/ that states "intense thinking could [also] affect a competitive athlete’s performance." The term used in the article is "ego depletion" and the article further states that "the harder you think, work or stress right before a practice or race, the worse you will perform." 

Perhaps the next time I have a bad run or workout, I'll blame it on my tendency to think too deeply.

Want to take it easy? Run a little faster.

Today's run (treadmill): 25 minutes

If not for the 50 MPH winds this morning, I would have been happy to get outside for my run. It was 49 degrees (and dropping) at 4:00 AM and I was already on the treadmill. After Sunday's full hour run on this machine, I had no problem returning for another round. I got up to speed quickly and followed my normal practice of increasing speed throughout the run, so that I would finish my run about an 8:30 pace.

A week ago Saturday I went out for a run with the intention of running slowly as a way to facilitate recovery. I feared that I'd finish feeling like the easy effort had made no impact. In reality, I had the opposite experience. Running slowly turned out to be harder than running fast.

I've applied that lesson in every run I've done since then. Perhaps the momentum of an efficient stride helps me move along better. The energy created by faster leg turnover certainly seems to fuel my effort. Of course once I'm running at threshold speed it becomes a whole lot harder. But right now, as counter-intuitive as it seems, working a little harder is making for easier running.

A look ahead in 2012

It was great to wake up and realize I had a scheduled rest day this morning. Coming off a three day weekend, it's always nice to ease into the work week by sipping coffee and watching the news. Somehow, going from a deep sleep into the cold wet weather to run lacked appeal today.

I'm thinking about my running goals for 2012 but I haven't yet set them in stone. I would like to do more running outside of Long Island than I did last year. As a subset to that, I would like to explore more off-road venues. I'm hoping to participate in as many races as I did in 2011 and to improve my half marathon time by at least ten minutes. I did five personal bests in my ten 2011 races, so it will be hard to repeat that this year. But I promise to try.

I'll be listing my full set of goals soon. The most important, as always, is to finish the year as excited about running as when I started it.

60 minutes going nowhere

Almost there!

Today's run (treadmill): 40 minutes@ 2% incline, 10 mins@ 1%, 10 mins level

It was another 18 degree morning and I just didn't feel like running outside. I normally rest on Mondays, but with the holiday I couldn't resist a workout with no time constraint. I hopped aboard the treadmill as soon as my wife had finished her daily run. My goal was to run an hour because I've been remiss about pushing my base training. I really needed to focus on that.

When I start my runs outside, I usually get to speed within the first ten seconds. No metaphoric dipping my toe in the pool to get used to the water. But the treadmill is different, probably because I find it odd to have so much motion contained within such a small area. A misstep would be bad. I'll admit that I'm a little afraid of the machine, especially when going full speed.

I started at a moderate pace but set the incline to 2%. I maintained that combination for the first 10 minutes at which point I began my steady increase of speed in .1 MPH increments. By the 20 minute mark I was sweating and at 40 minutes I took the incline down to 1%. It's amazing what a difference that made, but I traded off by increasing the speed a little more.

At 50 minutes I dropped the incline entirely and blipped up the speed every minute so that I was running about an 8 minute pace by the end. I wore my Thrive running shirt that is made with cotton and bamboo and it was completely soaked by the time I finished. I was glad to get through a longer run today and pleased that I still had plenty left in the tank when I finished.

I'm concerned that my original Hattori's are beginning to wear out and the left shoe of my replacement pair doesn't fit very well. After much research, I'm hoping to replace the Hattori's with either the Kinvara 3 or the New Balance MR00 when they hit the stores in March. Since I haven't tried either model I'm concerned that I might be disappointed (like when I finally tried the Brooks Pure Project models). If that's the case, I'll need to start my search once again.