You know that saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”? Well, that’s the story of my life sometimes.
I’ve come to realize that as much as I love my treadmill, I don’t have the right set-up to do a long run on it. I used to run 6 miles a day on the treadmill when I belonged to a gym that had a bank of televisions in front of the treadmill. And I used to do my long runs there from time to time, too. When I did my long runs last fall before my half-marathons, I did them on the treadmill but I moved the treadmill to the living room and watched movies while I ran. When I travel, if the fitness center in the hotel has cardio machines with televisions hooked up to them, not only can I run farther than I do on my own treadmill, I can run faster.
So, knowing that I need to get a little more serious about my long runs because training officially starts next week, I have been mentally preparing for today’s long run. I decided on Thursday that I couldn’t do an out-and-back of 3 or 4 miles (for a total of 6 or 8 miles) because I just wasn’t sure if I could last that long. So yesterday I visualized the best route to run to give myself easy outs if I need to cut the run short – for 6 miles, it’s around the pond (out), halfway to the dump and back (out), repeat once; for 8 miles, it’s halfway to the dump and back (out), around the pond (out), repeat once (outs as indicated), halfway to the dump and back.
But, all the good intentions in the world can’t take the place of actual action. You know where this story is going. Yes, that’s right, I didn’t go for my long run this morning. I got started on a project and by the time the project was done, there wasn’t enough time for the long run before Father’s Day brunch. See what I just did there? I blamed my dad for not being able to do my long run. And on Father’s Day, too!
So I did a quick 30 minutes on the treadmill and called it good. And I have the best intention to do my long run outside next week. 🙂
Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there and especially to my own father. And as always, happy running!
Confessions of a Treadmill Runner 