So, 5 months later, I returned to the same treadmill. Not by choice. It is raining and hailing with gale force winds in Cape Town.
I hopped on, walked a bit to warm up the legs. I knew the treadmill would be in kilometers, but I figured 10k in an hour was a good recovery pace after the 18 on Saturday. However, something was wrong. 10k/hour felt REALLY fast. I thought maybe the 18 miles took more out of me than I thought. I seriously couldn't hold 10k/hour pace...
I was sweating all over, sucking my water bottle, and my heart rate was through the roof. I just couldn't do it. I settled into a comfortable 8.6kilo/hour pace. I was bummed, but then started to think more.
There is NO WAY this treadmill was right. Then I started to do math....
Maybe the treadmill wasn't in kilometers after all? NO WAY....no way I had been trying to run10 MILE/hour pace. Wait....
So I sweated through 8 kilometers (miles?). My heart rate was under control, but I just couldn't figure out the pace. Hmmm, 8 miles in 57 minutes...hm, just over 7min/miles. No freaking way.
Two of the cutie trainers that been watching me struggle (and probably laughing hysterically at the silly American girl) came over and said hello. I politely smiled, tried my best to bat my eyelashes while still profusely sweating and said
"This may be a silly question, but is this treadmill in kilometers or miles?"
They looked at each other and laughed. I wanted to run away and hide. They asked what I thought it was. I told them that I had just run the slowest and hardest 8k of my life, or just ran a 10k PR.
They laughed a bit more, then assured me the pace on the treadmill was fast. They said there had been problems with the belt and that when they got it fixed it came back a bit 'fast'. They were not sure exactly of the discrepancy, but said people estimated 6kilo/hour speed was more like 8, and 8.5 was more like 11.5. So using that math, I ran 6.9 miles.
Sweet. So I accidentally did a tempo run. And now when I think back, I actually felt pretty damn good at that pace. Hopefully tomorrow I can just run outside.
Too funny!
ReplyDeleteThis is actually a really interesting situation. There's a bunch of modern (last 5-10 years) research supporting the notion that the brain is the primary limiter to running performance.
Your brain was getting *very* mixed inputs on the run. Your body told it that it was doing a tempo run. Your logical side told it you were doing 6mph. Your emotional side told it, well, a bunch of things... including that it was too fast and too slow!
Somehow the brain synthesized it all and gave you 7 miles in an hour. Runs like this are great because they force you to evaluate how you feel more than a number on a treadmill or GPS device.
Keep up the great running!
Great job! I'm very jealous reading about your Cape Town adventure. Have fun out there - it sounds like your marathon training is right on track!
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