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Five Tips to Make Treadmill Long Runs Easier

I’ve talked about it more than once on this blog. I LOVE Friday morning long runs. It’s one less thing on my weekend to do list and now, while I’m triathlon training, it also allows for time swimming and biking with Bo.

However, sometimes things don’t go as planned. I woke up this morning at 5am, got dressed, ate a banana and peanut butter while sipping on Nuun. I walked out the front door at 5:15 and heard a loud clap of thunder and saw lightening in the distance. I am all for running in the elements, including rain,  but I do not like taking chances when it comes to lightning.

Knowing in the back of my mind that we have plans tonight and a Fourth of July BBQ and party tomorrow, the last thing I wanted to do was try and schedule my long run between those activities. While I have learned over the past few months that I can definitely bike with a hangover, I have no desire to run with one. I went back to bed for two hours and decided to pack my gear for a post work long run on the treadmill.

I can now say that I have run 13 miles on the treadmill.

imageWith a little bit of planning and strategy, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. Here are my tips for making your next treadmill long run a success.

5 tips for treadmill long runs

1. Break it 30 minute increments. For some reason, 30 minutes is a very manageable and acceptable time to run on a treadmill. It also means that anytime your eye sees the clock it sees a number that isn’t intimidating. Every 30 minutes I grabbed a sip of water and quickly restarted the treadmill.

2. Switch up your entertainment. For this run, I brought three forms of entertainment: music, television show and the World Cup. I listened to music for the first 4 miles, watched an episode of Mad Men for 5 miles and then watched the France versus Germany World Cup game for the final 4 miles. If you don’t have a television or iPad show option, changing playlists or genre of music can be a good option. Another idea is to listen to a podcast or audiobook half the time and then music the other half.

3. Don’t forget fuel and water. I kept a water bottle next to me on the treadmill but when I started to get tired around mile 11 I realized I forgot to bring fuel. Since my tank was empty for the final few miles my pace definitely suffered a bit as did my overall mentality.

4. Take advantage of the elevation button. Whether or not you’re training for a hilly race, using the elevation button on a treadmill can spice things up during an otherwise monotonous long run. Of course, be careful not to push the elevation too much if your goal is a long distance. One great tip that I found a few years ago is to download the course map for your upcoming race and use try to replicate some of the elevation changes during your run. You can find a lot of elevation maps by typing “elevation grade of <insert race name>” or “elevation chart for <insert race name>.”

5. Bring a towel. I didn’t think to bring a towel since our gym has paper towels readily available. Maybe it was the humidity or the fact that our gym isn’t air conditioned, but I found myself sweating more on the treadmill than I normally would outside! Two hours of sweat wiping later, my face didn’t appreciate the cardboard like paper towels. Next time I’ll bring a small towel to wipe myself down and cover the screen.

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A little over two hours later I was able to push stop on the treadmill and kick off the weekend. Thirteen miles is a new personal distance record on the treadmill and while I have no desire to do it again soon, at least I know it’s always an option when weather or scheduling gets in the way.

How far have you run on a treadmill?

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July 2014 Goals

So I guess I’m not perfect. I had great aspirations to do a June goal post, just like May, but somehow the month sped away. Speaking of speeding away, how the hell are we already half way through the year?

So, while I may not set formal goals each month as June proved, even if I do them every other month that will be 6 times more than last year. I know that July is going to be a tough month for me due to some work stress at the beginning of the month and then two weeks of vacation mentality at the end of the month. Hopefully, by sharing these goals with you all I will stay accountable!

July Goals

Fitness: Woah! I just put out a time goal for my first triathlon! While of course I will be proud of myself to finish, I spent some time researching last year’s times and this would put me in the middle of the pack for my age group which is 19-34. While I feel pretty good about each of the individual sports, I get hives thinking about all of them together. Having a time goal in place motivates me even more to get my ass into my wetsuit and hop in the lake this weekend then get out and hop on the bike. I add the goal about prescribed run workouts because I know it’ll be easy to make excuses when work is busy, next week, and when we’re on vacation in Savannah. But, since I’m my own coach this year, I need to be a hard ass. I know the goal I want on September 28th is going to be tough but if I put the training in now, I can achieve it. Yoga should be an easy one as I know I’ll go in Geneva the first 3 weeks of July and I’m excited to try out a Savannah Power Yoga when I’m home.

Home: I am leaving this one blank this month as I really believe there are bigger, more important areas to focus. Bo has put a lot of effort into our flat these past two months and while to the naked eye it looks very much like it did before, to the person who lives here it is a whole new home. There is better organization, brilliant new gadgets, a laundry room and storage closet which is being used super efficiently, and lots of other improvements Bo has made since moving here.

Personal: I’m able to use my New York state drivers license for one year after arrival in Geneva. As luck would have it, on July 12th I’ve lived here for a year. That means that if I want to drive Alpy, our cute car, I have to get my act together and get my Swiss license. The second personal goal is the most important one for me this month. I have the opportunity to be home in Savannah with Bo for 11 days. I want to soak up every minute of time I get with my family and friends. In order to do this, I’m going to unplug from social media a bit so I am really focused on the moment. I will blog in the mornings or evenings, but otherwise I want to focus on the memories we will create together. It’s such a gift to have this time with them.

Blog: June was all about updating my About Me section and getting my Pinterest plug-in up and running. Now that those two are done the next goal is updating the race recap and travel section. We still haven’t decided how to organize the travel section so if you have any ideas, let me know!

What are your goals for July?

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Geneva Triathlon Training– Goodbye June

June was a pretty great month training wise. I ended the month feeling stronger than ever! Hopefully this trend continues into July. Right now the month isn’t off to a great start after over sleeping by 3 hours this morning and missing my morning run along the lake. But, I didn’t make excuses and squeezed it in this afternoon. July’s mantra is going to be “no excuses” but we’ll talk more about that later. Now let’s recap last week’s training!

Monday: I’m having an issue waking up early Monday mornings which means tempo runs on the treadmill. I really can’t stand the treadmill these days but being able to squeeze in a 6 mile tempo run during lunch is definitely nice. My prescribed pace was 9:23 for the 4 tempo miles which felt tough but not impossible. Later in the evening my tired legs headed to the pool for my first swim meet! We did about 400 meters warm-up before the actual event which was the 100 meter relay. This meet was a huge non-scale victory which I’ll talk about more in a dedicated post but I can’t believe that just 4 months ago I’d never swum more than 100 meters!

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Tuesday: There is a substitute teaching the 90 minute power yoga class this Summer and dare I say I love her just as much as our regular teacher, Patric. They have totally different styles but her Mumford & Sons heavy playlist was the perfect music when paired with lots of long holds, inversions and hip openers.

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Wednesday: This 5 mile run included 3 miles of speed which was definitely a challenge! It was a speed pyramid with each interval getting faster paced. My “slowest” interval was 1200 meters at an 8:26 pace and my “fastest” interval was 400 meters at an 8:12. While these speeds weren’t as fast as previous workouts the length of the intervals made it tougher. I’m also finding that the 1 mile warm-up helps me get into the groove of speed work. Historically I often skipped the warm-up because I didn’t think it was “important.” Trust me, if you’re shirking on your warm-ups or cool-downs try focusing on them for a week and your legs and body will thank you!

Thursday: I headed to the gym during lunch to do some biking only to find the bikes occupied. Instead of leaving I hopped over to the weights area and did a 30 minute strength workout sprinkled with 5 cardio intervals. I ended the session with pull-up practice and arm hangs.

Friday: Rest day!

Saturday: I think I’m still smiling from the Mt. Blanc 10k trail race! It was seriously so much fun! imageSunday: The weather forecast in Geneva was 100% rain with the chance of severe thunderstorms and hail. When we woke up to the sound of rain we agreed that it may end up being an rest day or a perfect day to break out the yoga mat and pull out an old DVD. But, around 4:30 when the rain paused and the sun broke through we decided to head over to the pool. Things worked out and we had the lanes all to ourselves for an hour of drills. Bo helped me with my form and led me through some kicking drills. By the end of the session I swam 1,500 meters and realized just how much I enjoy swimming outside versus inside. Hopefully we can squeeze in more outdoor swim practices this month!

How was your June? Do you have something you’re focusing on this month to help keep your training on track during vacations or the Summer heat?

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