From the great outdoors to the Treadmill :( Help!!

[Tracey0711]

I graduated in September and have been running 3 times a week for up to 45 mins. Due to family commitments it's been a struggle to get out so a friend (who is pregnant) has loaned me their treadmill. It's such a struggle to keep going I get so bored! Any advice? I really don't want all my hard work to go to waste! X

[crox Graduate]

Put it in front of the telly

[Beads Graduate]

Audiobooks or intervals.

Intervals being one minute (or 30 seconds, or 1½ minutes, or even 2 or 3 minutes depending on how long you can go for) on 'jogging', then the same time on 'so fast I can hardly breathe', repeat the intervals for the desired time i.e. 30 minutes.

Or pyramids instead of intervals, so start off with a warm up jog i.e.8kph, then climb the pyramid with 2 minutes of 9kph, 10kph, 11kph, 12kph (top speed on my little mill), then back down the other side, 11kph, 10kph, 9kph and back up, repeating again for however long you want.

I think the theory is that I'm concentrating too much on getting my breath that I don't get too bored, and it's only for 2 minutes or so at a time! And it's amazing when you're coming down the pyramid how SLOW 11kph feels after running at 12kph!!!

I strap my ipad to the treadmill and have an app that buzzes or dings every however long (I can program in a warm up time, intervals of x minutes for 'high' and y minutes for 'low' repeated z times, then a cool down time, these can all be different or the same (and all from a free app) and the speeds I go at vary from run to run). 'Course I generally only treadmill once or maybe twice a week in my 'before work' run, so still manage to get outside 2 or 3 times a week.

[baronblaze in reply to Beads]

Totally agree with beads. When on a treadmill you need variety with speeds, distance inclination. I do short stints of running to the max followed by a recovery period. I tend to be hurting, time watching or totally exhausted to be bored. Just running on the treadmill at an easy, constant speed is boring.

[Tracey0711 Graduate]

My treadmill is already in front of the telly Crox lol! Can't seem to concentrate watching anything tho, tend to just have music channels on.

I do like the idea of intervals and pyramids will definitely give this a go. What's the name of the app u have for ur timing Beads?

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'm determined to keep at it

[Beads Graduate in reply to Tracey0711]

It's just called 'interval timer'! If it helps the icon looks like a little tv, with 0:30 on the screen and a red, blue and green dot (total = 3 dots) below the screen. I haven't a clue how to paste a link from iTunes, but be careful, you can upgrade to a paid app, probably not needed, the free one has been serving me well since not long after last Christmas.

[Masaike]

Hi Tracey0711,

Beads is right. Set yourself little routines. Pyramids are great. Also a great music sound track can help. If you Google "making the treadmill fun" (and I just did) you get a huge range of stuff. Lots of boring ads and psychological mumbo-jumbo, but in amongst it all, there are work-outs eg peaceloveandoats.com/2013/0...; which is a three miler some American girl has done. But there will be plenty more. Let us know what works!

[Mufasa Graduate]

Have you tried getting a good film on? Either a chic flic or a James Bond - something that is absorbing but not too complicated. Oh and ignore the family. Good luck!

[Suelyn]

I've had to do my run on the treadmill a couple of times recently due to weather. I 'save' stuff to think about. At the moment - I'm off to goa for 6 wks in 20 days - so I keep making lists in my head of what I need to take. That plus going to the gym where there is some rubbish on I wouldn't watch usually but can be defined as a guilty pleasure...This Morning! If I am working at home then I time my gym time when it's on and if it's stupid enough I forget I'm running. I tried the intervals but I couldn't last the time!