60 minutes going nowhere

Almost there!

Today's run (treadmill): 40 minutes@ 2% incline, 10 mins@ 1%, 10 mins level

It was another 18 degree morning and I just didn't feel like running outside. I normally rest on Mondays, but with the holiday I couldn't resist a workout with no time constraint. I hopped aboard the treadmill as soon as my wife had finished her daily run. My goal was to run an hour because I've been remiss about pushing my base training. I really needed to focus on that.

When I start my runs outside, I usually get to speed within the first ten seconds. No metaphoric dipping my toe in the pool to get used to the water. But the treadmill is different, probably because I find it odd to have so much motion contained within such a small area. A misstep would be bad. I'll admit that I'm a little afraid of the machine, especially when going full speed.

I started at a moderate pace but set the incline to 2%. I maintained that combination for the first 10 minutes at which point I began my steady increase of speed in .1 MPH increments. By the 20 minute mark I was sweating and at 40 minutes I took the incline down to 1%. It's amazing what a difference that made, but I traded off by increasing the speed a little more.

At 50 minutes I dropped the incline entirely and blipped up the speed every minute so that I was running about an 8 minute pace by the end. I wore my Thrive running shirt that is made with cotton and bamboo and it was completely soaked by the time I finished. I was glad to get through a longer run today and pleased that I still had plenty left in the tank when I finished.

I'm concerned that my original Hattori's are beginning to wear out and the left shoe of my replacement pair doesn't fit very well. After much research, I'm hoping to replace the Hattori's with either the Kinvara 3 or the New Balance MR00 when they hit the stores in March. Since I haven't tried either model I'm concerned that I might be disappointed (like when I finally tried the Brooks Pure Project models). If that's the case, I'll need to start my search once again.