(Don't) Keep Holding On

Time for round two of running intervals, yesterday was changed to bike intervals but today I am back to running on the tedious treadmill.

I see people all the time doing things on a treadmill that I do not and I wonder if they are right or not. First up is intervals where the person leaps upwards at the end of the intervals and lands on the outside of the treadmill off the belt. This looks a simple move, alas it was not for me. Switching from the speed section to walking saw me have a very near miss which would have seen me fly backwards off the treadmill… grrrrrr. How do they do it so seamlessly? For now I will stick to just adjusting the speed accordingly until I am once again blessed with auto speed buttons on the treadmill which my gym does not possess.

The second thing I notice a lot and have never once been inclined (no pun intended) to participate in is the speed walk on a high gradient whilst gripping with white-knuckled fear to the top of the treadmill display…. Why? This cannot be good for your back and surely it negates the whole point of working at a gradient as your body is tilted with the treadmill and therefore are you not just doing the same thing as if you were on the flat??

Please can someone explain this to me…..?

Christmas Pudding Burning Intervals

I had passed through the festive season, my waistband expanded and my keenness for exercise renewed after nearly the whole of December feeling unwell and suffering from various bugs and viruses. I decided with another week before I returned to work I would hit the gym or at least exercise with daily regularity to get me back towards fitness. The weather, expectedly chilly for this time of year I decided I would opt for treadmill running, and as this is incredibly dull for any distance I opted for intervals as these not only seem to pass much quicker but they are good for improving fitness.

The Traditional Run

Since introducing my brother to Parkrun a few years back it has become a sort of tradition that when he comes home for Christmas (he lives overseas) that we attend the Christmas Day Parkrun (or the one closest to Christmas that also coincides with his visit). Hi then fiancé and now wife also joins us on this run. Today we were going to add another sibling to the run but sadly our younger sister had been struck down with a mystery illness rendering her unable to move from her nest of blankets.  

We arrived to gear some other runners discussing how todays route would be run backwards – and no not actually backwards – just in the other direction and therefore had a slightly different start point. It was also the Christmas themed fancy dress run so it was nice to see so many festive outfits and Santa hats bobbing around Norman Park when we started to run.

I hadn’t run for about a month but as this was tradition I donned my kit and lined up the rest making it clear to my brother and sister-in-law that they should not worry about leaving me behind as I was likely to be walking some of it. We started together and soon enough the gap between us widened and the runner of runners increased.

Trotting along my brain started to work overtime; should I just drop out and meet them at the car? this shouldn’t be feeling this difficult, I do have a lot of cooking to do when I return as today was our early Christmas Day…. As I piled on reasons (not excuses) to bail out I realised that I was on the last lap and it would be silly to stop now however sluggish I was feeling.

I reached the final stretch, put in a bit of a sprint – probably not to look at but that’s how it felt – and somehow managed to finish inbetween a couple who had run the together. I grabbed my token and went to find the others to record our finishing positions. I saw plenty of Petts Wood Runners around wishing the Happy Christmas and seasons greetings as we departed the part to head home for our festive feast.

Glad I finished, and whilst not delighted with the time at least I was started to run a little more regularly again which is a very good sign of my slow recovery.