Oh goodness my friends, this past weekend was a frigid one!
Not even cute puppies could distract me from the fact that we were forecasted to be in the -20C range. As the week went on the forecast kept getting worse and worse. I really wanted to try and do my long run outdoors though.
Training for the BMO Vancouver Half Marathon starts now and I had a 10 mile (16K run) on my schedule this past weekend. The thought of running that long on a treadmill or on the track made me want to claw my eyes out. I remained optimistic until Friday where I even went out in search of hand warmers.
Holy smokes Saturday was cold though! News outlets were warning of the extreme wind chill expected to be in place most of the weekend. Exposed skin would freeze in minutes. Um…yeah…this was a little outside of my comfort zone…
On Sunday I bundled up and made my way to the Y for my long run. I brought along an arsenal of items to get me through the time ahead on the treadmill.
I had two bottles of Skratch, a peppermint GU and a brand new playlist on my iPod.
Luckily there were a couple of treadmills free and I hopped on. Surprisingly my run was feeling really good and the time and miles were ticking by. When I hit 59 minutes I slowed to a walk, ate my GU and continued running…for about 20 seconds before the treadmill quit on me! Oh no, there was a 60 minute time limit built into the machine! I didn’t look around, I just tried to get a new workout set up on the treadmill. All of a sudden a fellow ran up to me and asked if I was planning on running again. Oops, there were a couple of people waiting for the treadmills! I hopped off and got in the back of the line but luckily didn’t have to wait too long for another treadmill to open up.
The good thing about breaking up my run like that meant that I wasn’t focused on running 10 miles anymore, I was just focused on my remaining 4.66 miles. That helped a lot. Before I knew it my 10 miles were done. Sure, I would rather run outside any day, but on a frigid day like today the treadmill was the right call.
What is the longest you’ve run on the treadmill? What is the coldest you’ve run outside in?
Ah the fun of treadmills. I just did a 10 mi on Sunday on mine at home in front of a movie. That helped. The longest I have ran on one was 13.2 mi. Not fun. Happy to see the weather is finally going to warm up for us now.
Hehe.. I’m always nervous that someone is going to kick me off a machine when I don’t follow the rules! I just can’t do the treadmill thing, the longest I’ve done is 16k. I opt for the bike or indoor track when the temperature drops. The coldest I’ve ran outside was -29. I enjoy winter running up to -20 to -25, anything beyond is tough.
That’s one of the things about public treadmills, it can be hard to get a reasonable length of run on them. I think the most I’ve ever done on one was a scary 5 K or so. How cold? Mega-tusk cold. Maybe -30 with a wind.
I’m not usually a big fan of the treadmill, but I embraced it this weekend. I did just over 10 miles on the treadmill, but broke it up with over 6 miles on the track. It didn’t actually feel as bad as I thought it was going to!
I’m such a wimp, anything colder than -15C and I’m running indoors. I’m glad I have a treadmill in my condo building and no one seems to care much if I’m on it for over an hour. I’ve done up to 13k and hopefully won’t have to do much further with the weather (hopefully) set to warm up!
I’ve been embracing the treadmill this winter since I’m trying to be more consistent in my running and actually following a real training plan. I’ve started to actually like the treadmill for speedwork. I think the coldest I’ve run in is probably about 30-something fahrenheit. I’m hesitant to purchase the gear I’d need for running in colder weather since I don’t think I’d get all that much use out of it. I think my long run last weekend was the longest I’ve spent on the treadmill… 2 1/2 hours. Luckily the gym was pretty empty on a Saturday afternoon so I could just keep going.
Longest TM 8 miles. Coldest outside -10 F. But zero F is more typical. Last Saturday was cold here for sure.