Treadmill workouts

Today I did not feel the same pep when I started but managed to finish with a little by the end.

The stats are a mix of better/worse but in all pretty close to the usual averages. I did hit pi again for distance. Mmm, pi…

I checked the calendar of the treadmill app and saw that today was my ninth workout in a row, and my tenth in eleven days. Not too shabby. I may try to run again outside this weekend to see how this wee burst of exercising has improved my stamina. I’m not expecting much at this point, really, but being able to run without stopping before I actually mean to stop would be nice.

The stats:

Speed: 6.5 km/h
Incline: 10

Pace: 9:34/km (9:29 km/h)
Time: 30:03 (30:03)
Distance: 3.14 km (3.17 km)
Calories burned: 323 (319)
BPM: 144 (144)

Today I started out at a very brisk pace of 9:15/km. I was ready to climb right over the top of the treadmill. By the second km I slipped to 9:29/km, respectable but not great. On the third km I was at 9:41/km, clearly paying the price for my earlier enthusiasm (though I felt decent, really). I only saw the heart rate on the treadmill blip to life a couple of times so the light grip seems to be improving.

I originally started playing random songs for the workout. The iPhone music app now shows a list of upcoming songs when you select shuffle play–which sort of removes the surprise aspect when you think about it–and I noticed almost all of the upcoming songs were poop for workouts, so I manually shuffled a mix of stuff I deemed acceptable. Sometimes technology is great, sometimes it’s better on paper.

The stats, most of which are improved once again. BPM was likely up a bit due to the blazing pace of the first ten minutes.

Speed: 6.5 km/h
Incline: 10

Pace: 9:29/km (9:35 km/h)
Time: 30:03 (30:03)
Distance: 3.17 km (3.13 km)
Calories burned: 319 (309)
BPM: 144 (140)

One thing I am doing as I engage in these daily workouts is to try to not be as grippy.

When the treadmill is set to a speed of 6.5 and an incline of zero, the pace is brisk, but entirely manageable. It’s just a fast walk. Set the incline to 10 and that brisk pace now requires me to hang on for dear life.

Almost. Over the last few workouts, I have been trying to use a much little fingertip-style grip on the treadmill’s “handlebars.” Today I even went hands-free a few times, which requires not just sheer physical effort to keep from sliding toward the back of the treadmill, but also a good bit of balance, which I do not have in great abundance.

Still, I am making progress and it’s one of the things I can do to make the treadmill workouts more interesting because, let’s face it, walking on a treadmill for 30 minutes is not something that makes one’s socks roll up and down in excitement.

I felt pretty good today, but my first two km were strangely slow. Maybe I felt too good. I ramped up the effort for the last ten minutes and was much faster. I felt manly and all my stats were slightly improved.

Here they are:

Speed: 6.5 km/h
Incline: 10

Pace: 9:35/km (9:41 km/h)
Time: 30:03 (30:02)
Distance: 3.13 km (3.10 km)
Calories burned: 309 (306)
BPM: 140 (141)

In which I now refer to my treadmill walks as treadmill workouts because it sounds more macho.

The workouts remain the same.

Today’s workout was a bit off. I was slower, to start. Monday blahs? Tired from the weekend? Impending illness? In the last five minutes I felt a little light-headed and my legs became unto spaghetti. Well, not that bad, but I could sense the beginnings of spaghettification. As with so many things in life, I don’t have a good explanation for this.

But I did complete the workout, kept my streak intact and have these stats to share (note that the comparison stats are for a 40-minute workout; today’s was 30):

Speed: 6.5 km/h
Incline: 10

Pace: 9:41/km (9:32 km/h)
Time: 30:02 (40:02)
Distance: 3.10 km (4.20 km)
Calories burned: 306 (439)
BPM: 141 (143)

Since I had time today, I decided to go for another 40-minute workout on the treadmill. Let’s see how yesterday’s workout, along with 17 km of additional walking throughout the day affected my stamina today.

I was a tiny bit slower but burned more calories. BPM was also down a bit, which goes hand in hand with being slower. Overall, the results are very similar. In terms of pace, I noticed I flagged around the 3km mark, but picked up again for the last km. I again found myself experiencing the weird sensation of having my mind go off thinking about other things than the actual exercise, something that is relatively rare when I’m on the treadmill, so this is a good thing.

Speed: 6.5 km/h
Incline: 10

Pace: 9:32/km (9:29 km/h)
Time: 40:02 (40:02)
Distance: 4.20 km (4.22 km)
Calories burned: 439 (431)
BPM: 143 (145)

Concerned that the weather might not be nice and I would turn into a couch potato for much of the day, I opted for a noon hour workout on the usual settings, but stretched it out from the usual thirty minutes to forty. This allowed me to complete both my exercise and move rings early, clearing the way for some serious couch potatodom.

But instead, Nic and I went for a long picture-taking excursion through Hume Park, down the Brunette River and partway up the loop at Burnaby Lake. As I type this I sit at 21.04 km walked (26,415 steps).

The walk on the treadmill, meanwhile, went well and I felt peppy, maintaining a good pace for the first three km before flagging a wee bit in the final stretch.

The stats are boosted where expected with the extra distance, and it was nice to see the extra time did not result in any real change in BPM (ie. not higher) and my pace was technically better, too. Overall, another pleasing result, and I kept my exercise streak going.

Speed: 6.5 km/h
Incline: 10

Pace: 9:29/km (9:30 km/h)
Time: 40:02 (30:04)
Distance: 4.22 km (3.16 km)
Calories burned: 431 (320)
BPM: 145 (144)

For today’s noon workout I thought I would try an experiment, by setting the incline from the usual 10 (steep) to zero (very much not steep) and see what difference it made in terms of energy expended. After a minute of this I had burned a whopping four calories, so I was putting in a little over a third of the effort. I no longer had to hang on for dear life. I probably could have started dancing a jig. I set the incline to 10 and finished the workout as I normally would.

I made sure to add some extra zip to the closing stretch of the workout and was rewarded for my effort.

The stats show the difference, with everything improved over the last workout. Even the BPM was marginally better.

I am pleased.

Speed: 6.5 km/h
Incline: 10

Pace: 9:30/km (9:44 km/h)
Time: 30:04 (30:04)
Distance: 3.16 km (3.08 km)
Calories burned: 320 (311)
BPM: 144 (145)

Starting, let’s say…today, I am committing to a 30-minute workout every day. Yes, all seven of them, every day that ends in “day.” That workout could be any of the following:

• treadmill walk
• treadmill run
• outdoor walk
• outdoor run
• 30 minutes of pushups. Actually, this would probably cripple me.

Today I did a 30-minute treadmill walk. It went fine, though I actually got slower as the walk progressed, which is the opposite of what usually happens. I don’t have any particular explanation for this.

The stats are all slightly worse than the previous walk, except for BPM, which was down a wee bit due to me not trying as hard. Maybe I was weighed down by the ravioli I ate last night.

It was good ravioli.

Speed: 6.5 km/h (6.0)
Incline: 10

Pace: 9:41/km (9:34 km/h)
Time: 30:03 (30:05)
Distance: 3.10 km (3.14 km)
Calories burned: 300 (321)
BPM: 140 (143)