2/100 of a mile closer.

[Guest guest]

I took Thursday off from working out because I had cardio scheduled

and had so blasted my lower body on Wednesday that I knew I would be

in for trouble. Plus, I had an extremely weak feeling in the

morning making me really late for work. All in all I was really

having an off day and figured I needed some time to recuperate.

So, I pushed my cardio back one day. My next free day from workouts

will have to be the 30th of March. Or who knows, I may just

schedule my free days from workouts during the week as I need them,

but never more than one a week. The days after lower body workouts

are tough, though.

Anyways, to the point of my post...

As many of you may know, one of my goals for the end of the

challenge is to reach 2.5 miles on the treadmill (0 degree incline)

during my 20 minute HIIT. My progress thus far has been good. I

broke that barrier and made it completely through the entire run and

posted 2.06 miles. I missed a workout due to travel but when I

returned and ran on Tuesday I posted 2.04 miles. Within range...

The decrease I attribute to speeding up slowly, slowing down maybe a

little sooner, and a slight precision issue between machines (I was

on a different machine).

Today, I was able to grab the original machine and concentrated on

hitting my transitions on the exact minute. Also, I sped my second

minute from 3 mph to 4 mph and my last 30 seconds I bumped my speed

from 9 mph to 9.5 mph.

My net gain? .02 miles. I racked up 2.08 miles at the end of 20

minutes. I know it doesn't seem like much of a gain, but it is a

big deal to see that number going up.

The workout is seeming to get a little easier so I think I'll be

bumping my speeds up by .2 mph. Over the 17 minutes of running that

should net me an additional 0.057 miles. If I can increase my

speeds by that same amount every week of the challenge, then I

should be able to hit my 2.5 mile mark. Though, I may have to do

some minor adjusting since the maximum speed on the treadmill is

10.5 mph.

I know that going for a full 10! would be ideal. The idea of being

able to really kick into a 15+ mph sprint down the long side of a

track makes me reconsider running outside. But, I know myself too

well. The treadmill forces me to maintain a certain level of effort

even if the first 15-20 seconds don't feel too bad. It keeps me

going fast enough that the last 10 seconds have me watching the LED

so it will tell me when I can stop.

I have a plan. 0.2 mph increase every week.

Dan L.

C1W3D5