It was a bit later than usual when I walked down the hall to the fitness center. I wasn’t all that enthusiastic about running on the “mill” when it was such a lovely day outside. I had decided that I must run in the fitness center so that I would get my scheduled strength workout done for the first time in a couple of weeks. Since I had done my Yasso’s yesterday, I didn’t want to push the pace today. This made running on the treadmill more of a challange, but I got around the boredom with a little creative button pushing.
Starting out, I set the speed for 6.7 mph with the incline set at 1%. I did this for the first mile. Read closely as this is an interesting experiment. I wore my Forerunner (GPS) to record the time of each mile as I know that I don’t remember the numbers later on but MUST have the numbers. Its just me. The first mile was done in 8:55. I pressed the button as I watched the mill record the distance as 1 mile. After this mile, I increased the incline from 1% to 1.5%, leaving the speed set at 6.7 mph. This second mile was done in 8:49. Now, I increased the speed to 6.8 mph, leaving the incline at 1.5%. The third mile was run in 8:43. Here is a small flaw, I had originally pushed the 5K selection, but was wanting to run 4 miles so I stopped both my watch and the mill after the 3rd mile. I reset the mill to manual and began the forth mile returning (eventually) to a speed of 6.8 mph and increasing the incline to 2%. This mile was run in 8:42 making the total 4 mile workout in 35:10 (average pace 8:47/mile).
I walked for an additional 1/4 mile to cool down, wiped off the machine and proceed to the weight machines. I began on the leg press with a couple of adjustments trying to figure out where the weight used to be when I had been doing my strength workouts. I settled on a number and began my repetitions but, since I was now listening to a podcast series on the Boston Marathon, I was a little distracted. I forgot to stop at 12…or even 15. I might have been up around 20 reps when I realized what was happening. Lucky for me, the weight were not set heavy so I don’t think it mattered much.
I concentrated better on the upper body machines. I went through them rather quickly, not wasting any time moving from one to the next. I kept the weights set where I could feel my muscles working but also careful not to induce a shocking soreness that I would later regret during my weekend runs.
While leaving the gym, I glanced over at the clock. It was past 1:30 pm. The cafeteria was closed. It’s a good thing that I have Oatmeal and Raisins in my office.