Oh, go slower. I get it now...

My, oh my. My alarm clock woke me up at 5:00 this morning, as I was planning on going out running before the heat. Little did I know that those blasted thunderclouds lingered all night long and insulated Reno enough that it was a balmy 74 degrees outside! OK, I can stand running in moderate temperatures during the day, but at 5:00? I just couldn't do that on principle.

So, after watching Eureka for a while (very good show, by the way), I went back to sleep. The cost of such luxury? I had to report back to the gym to do my running today. The treadmill has always been more difficult for me than running outside, and my trepidation was only increased by the fact that I was unable to complete a day from week 4 of the C25K last week.

So, I thought about it a bit. Why am I able to run a solid half mile outside, taking over six minutes, while I am unable to run five minutes on the treadmill. It's the speed, dummy! I hear over and over and over again on the coolrunning forums that speed kills newbies. Sure, I knew that, that's why I slowed down last week and tried to run the five minutes at 4.8 mph, rather than my typical treadmill speed of 5.0. But, if I look at my outside paces, I'm running at an average 4.7 mph (not counting walking). Hmmm... what if I slow the treadmill down a bit more?

Success! I did the three minute intervals at 4.8 mph, and the five minute intervals at 4.5 mph. Well, there ya go.

Additionally, I do my best to always keep the treadmill on a minimum of a .5% incline and, though I was seriously considering dropping down to no incline, I maintained the incline for the whole session. Double success!

After that, I did just fifteen minutes on the stationary bike, which doesn't count toward cycling mileage because I'm some sort of purist, I guess.

Stats: Oh. Well, I guess I won't count the treadmill mileage either today, because I lost the little slip of paper I wrote the details on. Oops.

One final note - I noticed that with the evidence of a comment I can no longer call you "my dear imaginary audience". I'll have to come up with something new... "my dear illustrious audience"? Hmmm... I'll have to think about that. Regardless, I have to say: thanks for the support!