micke-midlife on March 31st, 2010

26032010027the winter is gradually fading away, also here in the north. With envy we see the weather reports from central Europe. A couple of days southern parts of Germany had almost 20 degrees. The lucky bastards are wearing shorts when on their run, and we’re still equipped with a hat, gloves, a thick neoprene running top, long running tights and trail shoes in order to prevent slipping on icy and slushy streets and walk ways. But we’re getting there. Temperatures stay above freezing all easter weekend long (and it’ll rain pretty much all the time…). The running conditions are actually getting worse this time of the year, before they get better. What was a snowy white and icy road with ok grip due to temperatures around -5 to -10 degrees turns now into blank ice and overfrozen water, melting during the day, freezing during the night, and deep slush or street wide water puddles where even well made trail shoes can’t prevent feet getting soaking wet. Decided the other day to stay inside and try the treadmill once again. I’m not a fan of it, it’s somehow more difficult to do 10 or 15k runs on it.

Somewhere I heard that in order to simulate running outside, you need to put the treadmill to a 1 or 1,5% angle. Program wise, I never learned to operate the machine, so manual does the trick for me. The speed gradually increasing to a 13.7km/h that would approximately be the basic run’s speed outside. However on the mill it always feels more difficult, the heart rate is higher etc. No wind means you’re totally wet after about half an hour. Fortunately there was “Everybody loves Raymond” on TV in the gym. That was definitely saving the moment or actually the training session. The jokes are easy and short enough to grasp while the heart beats at somewhere between 160 and 170 beats per minute. Afterwards it was Dr. Phils turn to educate over ambitous mums not to torture their children, well I was on the home straight fortunately, 15k that day on the treadmill. Hopefully it was the last time on it this winter.

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