Under cover

Three things have taken place that are going to affect my running in the next few months:

• First, fall is nearly finished and temperatures have started to drop significantly in Minnesota (we even got our fist snowfall, followed just a few days later that by ice-covered streets)
• Second, I have started a new job at work that has changed my schedule slightly and I find myself running mornings instead of evenings, something I have always preferred, but at this time of the year it is colder and even darker.
• Third, having just completed the Rails to Trails marathon, my next one is the Zoom! Yah! Yah! indoor marathon.

This is the trifecta from hell that is resulting in me hitting the treadmill this winter instead of the paved road. I am not crazy about treadmills and really don't have a problem running outside in winter, but it is the third one of the reasons that is making me waver. (Although I do intend on taking a few outdoor runs this winter, they are just too fun.)

Running an indoor marathon is miserable enough (in this case a closed track that has to be run 150 times), but the temperature will be too warm for me (I imagine somewhere in the 60's, a cry from my ideal low 40's).

So I decided to train on the closest surface I could think of (closest also because it is right inside my building's fitness center). So the idea is to mentally prepare for a boring 26.2. Can you think of a better way? In fact, when looking at my log, historically, I have averaged faster runs on treadmills than on road (9:03 per mile vs. 9:07). This is either due to having a pace forced on me or do to a need to speed up to get it over with. Either way, faster is faster.

It's not something I haven't done before. While a member of Bally's, I run 20 miles on a treadmill, I did it in four segments, since most treadmills won't run for more than an hour. So I took a 1-minute walking break in between each segment. Sufficient time to write down on a piece of paper the time and distance achieved for the last segments and setup the new one on the treadmill.