roxie 2, treadmill 0

wednesday i planned on doing a regular run on the treadmill after work, since the cold has set in. but when i checked my email that day, there was ramon - and he was having practice! i was already at work without running stuff and the brooklyn crew was not having practice that evening so there wasn't a way for me to join. despite the frigid air, i was slightly disappointed - because work was so crazy during december i had yet to attend a tuesday practice and those are the practices where they basically, well, kick your butt.

ramon did give a treadmill alternative to the workout though, and so i decided not only to battle the treadmill (which i loathe), but also to take on the prescribed interval work out. for those of you who are just joining me or for those that have forgotten, the point of these sessions are to build strength and speed. saturdays are purely about getting used to long distances, and the other weekday runs are more fitness maintenance than anything else. if you want to improve, and i need to if i'm going to hit my time goal, the intervals are where its at.

the workout was as follows:

warmup 8-10 minutes
then do:
8 times: 1 mins @ incline 2 and 1 min @ incline 4 (keeping same speed)
run easy 5 minutes @ incline 1
5 times: 1 mins @ incline 2 and 1 min @ incline 4 (keeping same speed)
8 mins cooldown

it was...well, not easy. i could see in the reflection of the tv that my face was read, i was sweating like crazy, breathing a little heavy (which is, frankly, the point)and the weird quad pain was back but i managed. it was actually not as boring as when you're just plodding away like a hamster on a wheel at the same level for 45 minutes. i was very close to taking that 5 minute break a bit early, somewhere around the 6th time of the first set, but i kept at it.

when all was said and done i was a sweaty, dizzy mess (the 'mill usually throws my equilibrium of balance a bit), but happy for it.

last night, i opted for fundraising letter writing and stretching/icing of the quad instead of the treadmill. i'm going to go for 9 miles on saturday - i'm trying to get ready for a 1/2 marathon at the end of the month - and i'm trying to balance my stubbornness at wanting to get out there and run vs. being smart about when i should take a night off.

time on treadmill: 45 minutes
wednesday's miles: 3.6 (with intervals!)
miles to date: 45.9