Don’t you feel amazing when you have accomplished something difficult. As it gives you a buzz telling you anything is possible. This week I have done one of the things I tried so hard to do but failed miserably last time, only this time I had great success.
Hi guys today I will talk about my story with the treadmill. Why I use it, pros and cons and lastly my workout I did on it this week. Running on a treadmill can be either a blast because you love it, or it can be the nightmare from hell.
When it is dark and cold in winter time, early in the mornings or late in the evenings, it makes it very hard to see where you are running, biking or just walking. You need lights, reflective gear as well as warm running clothes. This is were the treadmill comes in!
Pros Of Treadmills
The treadmill is great for this, as you can set it up in your home or in the garage. You have light as you just turn the lights on, so you know where your going. The room can be adjusted temperature to your liking. You don’t have to worry about slowing down and crossing roads, because the treadmill is at a fixed speed of what you please. Some of the treadmills have cushioning, so when you run the belt/frame flexes, providing more comfort. This also helps lots of people with bad knees, as they don’t have to run on the concrete. If its a awful day outside, you can just stay inside on the treadmill. If you need to leave at a certain time and, your can be called on and you readily need to leave when they call, you can just jump right off. Most treadmills have hill settings, so you can practice running up hills if you don’t have many close to you.
Cons Of Treadmills
Treadmills can be expensive as this puts many off. Cost a bit to run. If your using your treadmill a lot, it may become quite expensive because of the power bill. Limited speeds, although most of the treadmills now go quite fast, most are limited to about 3 minutes a kilometer. Can be quite big and bulky and take up a lot of room in your space you wish to put it in. Can be very heavy and not easily transportable without two people……..
Well about 3 months ago I had a long run (90 minutes), to do for my training. It was about 5.30pm and was nearly dark, so I decided for safety reasons I’ll run on the treadmill. I was already quite tired from the busy day at school, but I knew I had to get it done. I had already forgot my nutrition whilst I do a long run, and had no T.V set up, so I knew it was going to take a while.
35 minutes in I was already starting to get tired. I had to drop the speed from 14.1 kilometers an hour, to 13.5 kilometers an hour. When the hour mark finally went by, I was exhausted and ready to give up. The strides then changed the speed up and I felt really weird then I became quite faint and lightheaded. For the last ten minutes I dropped the speed to nearly a walking pace, nervous I was going to fall off.
I was very disappointed with this as I only covered 18km instead of the normal 21km-ish. This made me annoyed that I didn’t accomplish what I had set out to do and I wanted better.
So last Friday, it was an awful day, we had lots of floods, and I thought to myself that I would rather run on the treadmill and get my redemption for what happened last time. I did. This time I ran 21.3km and was very happy as kept almost a 14.1kmh average. Treadmills can be hard as you are running on the same spot constantly, but that’s just part of the fun to me as well as improving on my stride technique, as I look through the windows like mirrors.
Hope you guys have learnt a good handful of ideas about treadmills and how they might be useful in your training and how you may need to buy one in the future.
Cheers Luke Clatworthy (Clatters Chatter)
All Luke’s previous articles can be found here:
https://www.coachray.nz/category/client-stories/clatters-chatter/