Friends with the treadmill

Practice makes perfect

The winter in Bergen has so far been colder than usual with quite a bit of ice covering the ground and the roads. I must admit that I find it harder and harder to run in the cold. Uphill intervals and slow runs go fine, but when the temperature is below 0 degrees C, fast flat runs become quickly unpleasant. Not only my spike shoes get uncomfortable, my muscles become stiffer, and I never get them properly warmed up with the outside temperature all the time cooling them down.

Fortunately there are treadmills! You might remember that I have had a hard time getting used to running fast on a treadmill. There I get the opposite problem: it very quickly gets hot, and of course very boring. But practice makes perfect, and having a plan makes it all much more pleasant. Last year, I followed the treadmill plan that the Norwegian marathon queen Ingrid Kristiansen was posting regularly throughout the winter. Most of those sessions were quite doable, and with music in my ears, I slowly got used to doing longer and longer intervals on the treadmill.

I still find it quite unbearable to do a long fast run in steady pace on the treadmill, but I have found a couple of interval sessions that work really well for me. They are motivating, as one can measure progress all the time, and they are both well established among coaches toward the goal of faster running in races. They turned out to be doable and fun for me, so I wanted to share them with you.

For improving your 10k race time:
This interval session is recommended by several coaches. There are of course many ways to improve your 10k, but I have seen the following mentioned many times: when you can run 3 x 3000m in the pace that you want to achieve during a 10k race, then you are ready. This interval session prepares you to get to that point. The important thing is to do all the intervals in the pace that you want to achieve at the race. So, if you want to run a 10k in 45 minutes, then your pace should be 4:30 min/km, which corresponds to 13.3 km/h. I would actually be happy with a pace of 5:05 in my next 10k race, so I set the treadmill to 11.8 km/h. The first goal is to run 6 x 1500m in that pace, without getting your heart rate much over lactate threshold. When you are comfortable doing this, then you do 1 x 3000m + 4 x 15000m in the same pace. When this goes well, then you do 2 x 3000m + 2 x 15000m, and so on, until you reach 3 x 3000m in the desired pace with not too high heart rate. At this point you are ready for your next race. Just rest for a week, and then GO!

I am not even at the point of 6 x 1500m yet. I can do 4 of these, but my heart rate is a bit too high at the end of the fourth one, so I have so far stopped after 4.  But I feel that I can very soon do 5 of them. And then after a couple of weeks hopefully all 6.  On my way to the 6 x 1500m, I am also considering to do 4 x 1500m + 4 + 750m on my next attempt. The 1500m intervals, in my speed, take about 7.5 minutes. The first one feels the longest. Then it gets more manageable. I have to work with my brain all the time, and use the milestones 500, 750, and 1000 meters to motivate myself. It helps if the gym has TV screens or the treadmills face the weight training / cross fit area. Watching other people makes time go faster.

For improving your marathon time:
This is something I learned from our local running guru Per Gunnar, who had a remarkable article in the Kondis running magazine about how he helped a runner to achieve a sub 3h marathon time. The interval session is called Yasso's 800s. I have read a lot about them since then, and they are surprisingly easily doable. The session consists of 10 x 800m intervals. You run each interval in a time that reflects your goal time for a marathon. If you want to run a marathon in x hours and y minutes, then you have to run each 800m in x minutes and y seconds. So if you want to run a marathon in 3h 30min, then you run each 800m in 3min 30 sec. The break between the intervals is 400m, and you spend exactly the same time in the break as you do in the intervals, meaning that you run in half the speed.

I tried this immediately after reading the Kondis article, and of course I had to try sub 4h marathon time. Running 800m in 4 minutes corresponds to speed 12 km/h, so I set the treadmill to 12.1 km/h and 0.5 incline. Consequently, I did each of the 800m intervals and each of the 400m breaks in slightly less than 4 minutes. I was pleasantly surprised that I could do this without getting my heart rate much above threshold. But what does it actually mean? Can I run a marathon in sub 4h now, if I train for it? My single marathon attempt so far resulted in 4:17. Can it be that I am in better marathon shape now? At least, in 2017 I broke all my previous records in single every race and on every single course. I also participated in more races in 2017 than the total of all races before that, so perhaps I should try a marathon again this year?  In any case, the fact that Yasso's 800s are so easily doable, and one can all the time improve by setting the speed just a tiny bit higher, makes them a really fun interval session on the treadmill.

Of course, for street races, the intervals are better to do out on the road. But with 0.5 incline on the treadmill, I hope that the effect can be comparable. Running on the treadmill is in theory easier than out in the street, since the mill goes without you having to push your weight, and there is no air resistance because you are not moving forward. But at the same time, the fact that you are not moving forward is really hard on your brain. You have to constantly convince your brain to keep pushing your body forward although you are not getting anywhere! I am sure this plays a different role for each person, but the fact that you actually can focus on a point in the distance and run towards it and it gets closer and closer, definitely makes outdoor running much easier psychologically. The advantage of the treadmill, when it comes to these particular intervals, though, is that you can make sure to run at the correct speed all the time!

Hit the mill and get the skill!

Ingrid's recipe

No, not for Christmas cookies :-)

Although my main focus for the time being is uphill running and leg strength training, I haven't forgotten all about flat running. Every now and then I like to do a long run, but there haven't been any short or fast runs recently.

Still I want to build a basis for the street races of next season, and I have stumbled upon some interesting advice from the Norwegian multi-distance world champion Ingrid Kristiansen. In her blog, she gives a winter treadmill schedule for setting a 10k PB in the spring. She indicates the speed of a progressive 50 min run, which should feel very easy at this point. But she will increase the speed as the winter proceeds. Her initial advice is for advanced runners who want to do 10 k below 40 minutes, and this is how it looks: start with pace 5:55. Every 5 minutes, decrease the pace 10 seconds. The last 5 minutes are at pace 4:25.

Now, my goal would rather be to manage 10k at 50 minutes or below, which means exactly 1 minute slower per kilometer. So, it is very easy to change the suggested paces to what I think fits for me: start at 6:55, and decrease 10 seconds every 5 minutes, ending at 5:25 for the last five minutes. Ingrid also gives a heart rate indication of how the pace should feel. Her heart rate at start is around 140 and at the end 160, well below her threshold.

To test this on the treadmill, I translated the pace (min/km) to speed (km/h) since this is how a treadmill works. I ended up with the following schedule, changing every five minutes: 8.7 - 8.9 - 9.2 - 9.5 - 9.8 - 10.1 - 10.3 - 10.6 - 10.9 - 11.1. It looked really easy compared to what I manage normally. So far so good. But I had forgotten how boring I find treadmill running, and how hot I get when I run indoors.... The heart rate started out even lower than what Ingrid suggested, but it ended up higher at the end.

In general, I do get a higher heart rate when I run indoors, which I think is due to the temperature. No matter where, I always find the indoor conditions too hot to run on the treadmill. I suppose a training studio holds at least 20 degrees C and of course there is no wind.... If I were to design a studio, I would keep a separate room for the treadmills, set the temperature at 14 degrees, and install some fans to simulate pleasant wind. In fact, perhaps every treadmill could be covered, like a glass bubble, and one could set the temperature as low as one wanted inside there, and the sound as high as one wanted and played one's own music without using ear plugs. I wonder if such mills exist. If not, perhaps I should apply for a patent... :-)

Anyway, so treadmill running is no fun, and I must admit that I am not sure I will be able to follow Ingrid's recipe after all. Perhaps I can rather do it outside, on a flat stretch. I found it very pleasing and motivating that it is such an easy workout, so I do want to follow it up in one way or the other.

What I do enjoy much more, are treadmill intervals at Barry's Bootcamp. I owe a lot to this kind of training, which brought me up to shape to run my first half marathons. But I haven't done it much after I got the taste of outdoors training. I do regularly go to Barry's Bootcamp still, but normally I have either personal training session with Ketil, or I do a pure strength training session, called double floor, which means that one skips the treadmill part of the class and stays on the floor throughout the entire session. This week, though, I joined two sessions with treadmill running. I had forgotten how fun it was! And I realized that I'd lost a lot of sprint speed compared to before. So I'll definitely do more of this through the winter.

The rope jump competition is also very useful for running form it turns out. I have read that many top athletes rope jump several times a week to keep their ankles strong, their tendons soft, and to increase their calf strength. I can now do 2:15 at a time. And I really feel the increased strength. It is so great to have friends who initiate such games to combine fun (there is a lot of incredibly funny discussion every single day), competition, and increased strength and form.

Play hard, win easy! .... or the opposite... whichever inspires and motivates you :-)

Running away from the heat on a treadmill

And not succeeding...

In the beginning of the holidays I was optimistically thinking that I could do some of my runs on the treadmill to avoid the heat outside or having to get up very early in the morning. Unfortunately, in addition to being very boring, treadmill running turned out to be quite hot, too. The treadmills I'm using this summer have big touch screens connected to internet, so it is possible to watch entertaining stuff from YouTube. I started out with a 1 hour 10 minute long Jerry Seinfeld stand up show, which I thought would keep me going for about 10 km. I managed to finish the 10 km but it was really no fun at all. Even though the gym is much cooler than outside, I suppose it is still pretty warm, like about 20 degrees. It feels fine when you start running, but after a while the sweating gets really annoying. More annoying than outside, and there is no wind to dry you up. The fact that the surroundings are not moving affects the brain in a negative way, I have read. Like, "We are not getting anywhere!"

I then thought doing intervals should be fine on the treadmill, so I tried that the next time. I am used to doing intervals on the treadmill from Barry's Bootcamp and from training on my own. It is much more fun than running a long distance. Still, this time it turned out to be more challenging than expected. I had planned 20 x 400 m intervals with 60 sec rest in between. For each interval I figured out that 14 km/h (about 4:15 pace) is a good speed on the mill for me... I managed to do only five intervals. I cannot really explain what stopped me from doing more, but I think it was mainly the heavy sweating. The sweat was running in my ears and making my ear phones fall off, and my fingers were so wet that the touch screen did not react to my instructions. I then did 10 x 200 m intervals at the same speed instead. And then I simply could not convince my brain to go on.

A few days later I was able to complete the 20 x 400 m intervals outside. Because of the temperature the speed was quite a bit lower, but the heart rate got to zone 4-5 as it was supposed to, and I did manage to complete all the intervals, although I really really wanted to stop after 10. Of course it helped a lot that Frank was with me for the outside intervals. Doing such a thing alone is much harder. Perhaps if I did the treadmill intervals with someone, I would also be able to complete them. But the static speed of the treadmill is also somewhat demotivating for the coming rounds. Outside, you can regulate the speed as you go, and you very quickly pinpoint some landmarks that show you how far you are from the end of the interval, and reaching them is great motivation for the mind. And even though the temperature is higher outside, the pleasant wind and the scenery really helps the state of mind.

After the first ten intervals we had a break of two minutes instead of one, and we drank some water. I was seriously considering not to continue, but I thought I could do two more before I stopped. After 12, I thought I could do 15 before I stopped. And then I thought, in the worst case, I can just go slower for the last intervals. There is something very special about passing half way, regardless of the distance or the count. Once you pass half of what you had planned, you are able to convince your brain to complete the rest. However, the thought that you will perhaps stop after just half of what you planned also helps your brain during the first half. Like, "If I really do well now, perhaps she will let me off the hook earlier than planned". It is a strange game. It is mainly about tricking your brain to continue all the time...

As a good running buddy repeats frequently (in stronger words): I really don't like running! :-)