When it's cold and rainy, it's time to unfold the treadmill and enjoy running in the great indoors! Normally, I hate the treadmill, but by looking at the weather outside the window I find I can take pleasure in it. Also, it is a great opportunity to try something different.

Yesterday I had scheduled intervals. With the bad weather, I decided to run my intervals on the treadmill. However, I also wanted to make them part of my “running faster” program, so I did a variation on the usual interval theme.

I set the treadmill at a slow speed to warm up and then gradually cranked it up as I felt comfortable. I also checked my heart rate on the treadmill – something I don't normally do. I think I found the explanation for why the first few minutes of exercising are so painful.

I found that my heart rate quickly went up to 70-80-90-100 and then started to drop back to 80. As I increased the speed, it went back up to 100-110 and then dropped back to 80-90. By the time I got to a normal easy running pace it had settled into a 110 area.

This might explain my discomfort in the early stages of a run. I would be interested to hear from you if you have experienced this while running. I have not heard of it before, so don't know whether or not it's normal.

Once I had settled down, I did a slow, easy jog until the first 10 minutes was up. This was at my normal slow stride rate. Then I increased my stride rate to the maximum I could sustain for 1 minute. I found this was a 30% increase.

After the minute was up, I dropped back for 5 minutes, then repeated the process, ending with a cool down to lower my heart rate.

The point here is that, instead of running at a faster pace during the intervals I maximized my turnover, keeping the pace constant. This sounds like it should be easy, but in fact it's quite a workout. What is happening is that you are accustoming your heart and lungs to the fastest turnover you can manage, shortening your stride as you do it.

If this sounds weird, you need to look back at my earlier posts on running faster to see why I'm doing this!

Biscayne 20" X 60" folding treadmill

Transformer series full-sized folding treadmill with 3.0HP motor, 20"X 60" running belt, iPod dock, fan, cup holders and speakers.

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