The dreaded Treadmill workouts, how I despise you. Before, during and after, not one aspect of these treadmill workouts has me eager to make the trek to the gym at 6:15am. Tuesday mornings provide the time for these treadmill workouts, the Rec Center in Long Beach is the place and the why and the how may remain forever unanswered. With all my negative feelings towards this mouse wheel for humans, there are definitely benefits for utilizing the treadmill workouts in preseason, especially those of you in the northeast.

Speaking with other athletes it seems that this is either something you cope with or something that never happens. It seems that if you cannot reach a minimal level of acceptance, some can never make the plunge. The biggest objection I hear is people who get bored and cannot stay engaged for more than a few minutes. Well most have the same limiting factors, so what can you do to overcome this issue?

During the 2009 Hawaii Ironman broadcast there was a featured naval officer who completed the Ironman. This officer spent the majority of time at sea limiting access to a track or adequate space to run. Training for an Ironman requires serious time commitment and hours upon hours of time, running, biking, and swimming. So you guessed it, 3 hours and more spent on a treadmill. I completely understand this is a bit of an outlier but there must be a way to increase volume during treadmill workouts, it is just about finding what works for you.

Luckily I have been gifted with the phenomenal asset of day dreaming and have no problem getting lost in my thoughts during workouts. I have no problems with completing 50-70 minute workouts as long as I have a few key elements. A specific plan, what will be accomplished during each workout? Will it be a speed workout, a force climb or a steady recovery effort. Clearly define your objectives and be sure to map out a warm up, a work phase and cool down. Often I have found setting specific time intervals very beneficial i.e., minutes 1-10 warm up beginning at 3.0 speed at level 1 incline, increase by 0.5 every minute until 7.5. Minutes 10-20 intervals, 2 min increased effort 1 minute rest- starting at 7.0 and increasing to 8.5. I have found that having these clear guide lines really increases my ability to zone into the task at hand and not become sidetracked.

Since this post is going a little long, I will make a few other suggestions than open the discussion up to your suggestions. I have received some great emails about my blog and really appreciate the feedback, but open the conversation to others, submit a comment below.

Have access to a TV, iPod, favorite episodes of Entourage, are all ways to create an escape to start to logging some minutes indoors. Everyone is different and what works for some may not work for others.

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