3.5 treadmill miles

My wife starts her PhD program today and so I'll be doing most runs on the treadmill midweek. I'm not a huge fan of treadmill running and so I decided to work on speed. I figure the faster I can run the less time I will have on the treadmill plus the more distance I can get in before my son needs me to get more juice or whatever. Also, it will help me improve my speed*.

Today I warmed up by starting slower than my target marathon pace (10:00/mile) and increasing the treadmill setting by 0.1 every tenth of a mile. I got somewhere near a 9 minute pace before I had to stop quickly to get something to entertain the boy (what I'll call him here). I got him a iphone video of dog popping balloons that he watched in the treadmill room the rest of the time.

Once I restarted the treadmill I jumped it to a 9 minute pace for a half a mile and then jumped it to 8 minutes per mile pace for maybe 1/4 mile. I slowed it back to a 9 minute per mile pace until I got to three miles. I then ran 1/2 mile at slower than marathon pace to cool down. Water intake=0.6 liters, O calories.

Overall I covered 3.5 miles faster than I have in a long time and it was a good workout.

Up tomorrow: 7 miles

*I've never been fast. We ran a lot in Korea when I was in the Army and I ran even more with a friend during my last six months there (5 miles most days plus PT training runs). It was where I ran my first half marathon. I was likely in my best running shape then for the two mile test and my best time was just under 14 minutes (7 miles per minute) at age 20. However, Korea is also where I found out I finished more towards the front of pack the further we ran. If you can't run fast, run far.