The inside of an airport, plane, rental car, and hotel room has been a norm for me for the past year. Having said that, trying to keep some sort of fitness has been tough for the obvious reasons. One alternative to get fit -huge mental block- is the treadmill. So why do I cringe when I think of spending as little as 30 minutes on the mill? To be completely honest, the treadmill keeps you honest. Either go this pace (that you set) or fall off. Things don't seem to be changing in my work space so I've got to change my mentality. The treadmill is my friend and I WILL embrace the self inflicted pain.
Paul Dewitt, my coach two years ago, was very creative with the treadmill. One workout in particular that I still use today is the Kenyan cutdown. This involves a 2 mile w/u and c/d, then starting at 7MPH make a progression of 0.1MPH every 0.25 mile, all flat. Each time I tried to "one up" myself and so far my record is 10.3 MPH. Each workout gives you about 12 myles, give it a try.
This morning in SoCal I embraced the TM and got creative. I have seen some tweets lately on Anita Ortiz and her hill workout, which is 15% at 11:15 pace for an hour. Truth be told, I am not ready for that so I decided to ramp up. My new hill workout takes the same idea of the Kenyan cutdown in the sense it is progression and getting to LT. Here's what the guidelines look like:
- 0.5 mile w/u and c/d @ 6MPH
- Then 6% at 6MPH for 0.5 mile
- Next jump up 2% every 0.5 mile and see what you can get to
- Once you can't go anymore drop down to 10% @ 6MPH for 2 myles.
This morning here is where I made it to:
- 0.5 mile w/u and c/d @ 6MPH
- 6%, 8%, 10%, 12%, 14% @ 6MPH for 0.5 mile each
- 2 myles @ 10% and 6 MPH
- 5 myles 2111 ft climbing and 45 minutes
I tapped out at 14% so now I have a good baseline of my fitness. Each time I will try and "one up" myself and see where it goes. Obviously I am seeing the benefits of the TM now, can't say I like the mill, but will embrace it as long as I'm away from my hometown hills of Colorado. I am seeing the TM as an endless hill with lots of O2 in this California air.
I'd be interested to know what you can do on this workout and what you think of it.
