Tough Choice: Treadmill Or Failure?

Raise your hand if you are loving this winter!  Ok, that one person who raised their hand may want to stop reading this blog right now, because the rest is going to be a full on winter blues bitch session.

I hate winter.  And I’m talking the regular, normal winters that I’m expecting in southern Westchester county: temperatures in the 30s with a snow storm or two, and by “storm” I mean 4 inches tops.  This winter we’re actually having with temperatures climbing into the teens and snow deep enough to lose my 5 year old in is a winter where “hate” is nowhere near strong enough to describe how I feel about it.

Exactly one month from today I’m running the NYC Half Marathon.  This race is significant for a few reasons.  It will be my first race of the year.  It will be my first half marathon of the three that I have signed up for, each a month apart.  It is the race that I broke my foot in last year, and I am out for revenge.  Unfortunately, it will also be exceptional in that it will be the race that I have been the least prepared for, ever.

Of course, I have a training plan.  Anyone who knows me knows that I set up a project plan just to create a training plan.  And of course, I’m trying to follow it.  Anyone who knows me also knows that I set up instructions for reading instructions.  So why am I so unprepared?  Well, silly me decided to choose a training plan that doesn’t assume that the temperatures outside would be so ripe for frostbite, or that snow shoes would be a better choice of footwear than running sneakers.

This plan calls for 4 runs per week.  Two are short-ish, say 3 to 4 miles.  One is about 5 miles and is a tempo run, and then the last run of the week is the long run, the meat and potatoes of any training plan (and damn it, now I remember how much I miss meat and potatoes).  But with all the snow and super freezing cold, I’ve only been getting in 2 – 3 runs per week.  I make sure to do the long run, but the last two have had to be during the week on the treadmill.  Have you ever happily run 10 miles on a treadmill? OK, that one person who said “yes” is also excused from the rest of this blog. 

Treadmills are so boring that I occasionally worry about falling asleep mid run and going flying off the back of it.  Treadmills also don’t let you run 10 miles on them.  After an hour they slow down and drop to a “cool down” pace and stop on their own 5 minutes later.  It’s like they know how awful they are and are giving you an out. 

I usually pick one that’s at a window.  The treadmills are on the second floor of my gym, and the window looks out onto a barber shop across the street that isn’t open yet, so there isn’t much to look at outside.  But I still choose the window because I can at least look at the reflection back into the gym and see some life around me as other members go about doing their own workouts.

When I do my long runs on the treadmill, I usually cut them up into 2 or 3 runs, mostly so that the treadmill doesn’t conk out, and partly so that I can pretend I’m finished when I’m only part way through (that second part backfires, though, after I drink a ton of water and then reset the treadmill for section 2 of my long run).  Also, I start to sweat before I even start, and by the end I am an absolute drippy mess.  I’m so gross that I’ve noticed that people don’t get on the treadmills next to me. I don't blame them; I'm so disgusting when I run on a treadmill that I'd like to get away from myself.

Winter race. Brr.

So, if I hate treadmills so much, why am I bothering to do these long runs on them?  Well, because I chose a sport that isn’t really as conducive to winter as say, hockey or skiing, but I also don’t want to give up.  I know that if I take the winter off that I won’t go back.  So, I set up races in the spring that cause me to have to run in the winter, and then Mother Nature sets up a winter that forces me to decide between a treadmill and failure.  So I choose treadmills.

Like I said, that first half marathon is in a month.  This isn’t the most prepared I’ve ever been for a race, but I’m doing the best that I can.  I might not have my best race ever, but I do want to finish it in a time I can live with (and with all bones intact).  I have 2 more long runs before I taper: another 10 miler and then 12 miles the week after that.  I really, really want to run them outside, but if I have to do them on the treadmill, then so be it.  I apologize in advance to the people at my gym who I’m going to stare at in the window reflection and who are going to avoid the machines next to me.