Treadmill workouts

UPDATE, April 2, 2022: As it turned out, I was probably already suffering from COVID-19 during this workout, so that probably had a wee bit of an effect on my performance, too. See here.

Here it is three days since I ran the 5K on Monday, and it is still affecting my workout performance. I am clearly not the iron man I thought I was. The solution is, I suppose, to run more.

But in the meantime there is today and on the positive side, I was able to run at the regular speed without my legs calling me nasty names, as well as do my now-usual 5K instead of the previous workout’s mere 3K. The downside was just generally being slower, as I’m obviously still not fully recovered from Monday. I am tentatively planning on running a 5K at the river tomorrow, but we’ll see if that happens and how it goes. The weather looks like it might be soggy, and I’m not sure if I’m prepared to run and suffer both sore muscles and rainfall.

As of today, I completed the month of March with 33 workouts. Pretty good! Note that a few were just outdoor walks where I’m walking at my usual manly pace, so not exactly beefing up the legs or anything. Still, averaging more than one per day is something I’m not likely to replicate reguarly.

Stats:

Speed: 6.5
Incline: 5

Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km)
Time: 48:43 (47:05)
Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km)
Calories burned: 478 (335)
BPM: 130 (120)

After making myself so very sore (see previous post), I opted to do a more namby-pamby version of my usual treadmill workout. At first I thought I’d just do a 30-minute workout and keep everything else the same, but when the treadmill ticked up to its full 6.5 speed, my legs said WHAT ARE YOU DOING WE ARE STILL VERY SORE. So I turned it down to 6 instead, which meant for a mellower, more soothing workout in which I sweated just a little. This is reflected in the stats below.

Since I was more limber by the time I did this workout (at around 8:30 p.m.) I’m hoping my legs will not be yelling at me in all caps tomorrow. We’ll find out soon!

Stats:

Speed: 6.5
Incline: 5

Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km)
Time: 48:43 (47:05)
Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km)
Calories burned: 478 (335)
BPM: 130 (120)

I lazed around most of the day and in the back of my head knew I would regret it at least a little because it would mean a late evening workout tyo complete my rings and not be a total fat slob.

And so here we are.

I kept tonight’s workout to 30 minutes, as this still put me at 10 p.m. with all the usual post-workout stuff to do, not to mention actual sleep at some point.

The workout went fine, though I have to admit 30 minutes (a little over 3 km) feels kind of short now.

Also, I’m running out of good videos to watch from my usual sources. I’m so demanding.

Stats:

Speed: 6.5
Incline: 5

Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km)
Time: 48:43 (47:05)
Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km)
Calories burned: 478 (335)
BPM: 130 (120)

I was originally going to go outside and run out there today and indeed, the weather would have been great for it, as it’s partly sunny right now and 13C. But late this morning I found myself with a bad headache, so I took some Tylenol, laid down on the bed and dozed away an hour or so of the day. When I woke up, I felt fuzzy-brained and the headache was not fully gone, so I had some soup and took more Tylenol.

By mid-afternoon the idea of going out had little appeal but my guilty conscience told me I should do something–and the headache was successfully muted–so I got on the treadmill.

The workout went better today, with no weird slowdowns, and my BPM was I think the lowest it’s ever been, so that was nice.

Stats:

Speed: 6.5
Incline: 5

Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km)
Time: 48:43 (47:05)
Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km)
Calories burned: 478 (335)
BPM: 130 (120)

As per usual, I loaded up a bunch of videos for the workout and despite a somewhat slow start, was humming along after that. When I hit the 5K mark I was astonished to see a pace of 9:18/km–this is actually slower than the speed of the treadmill, which is set to a pace of 9:13/km. How did I defy physics?

I did lean down to scratch a leg a few times, but that couldn’t be it. I also leaned forward to scrub through the sponsored segment section of a Corridor Crew video. Now, I get it, these people need to pay the bills, but there are right ways and wrong ways to include sponsored segments if you insist on doing them.

The right way:

• Ryan George puts them at the end of his videos and actually makes them into little sketches unto themselves. He does the weird trick of making you want to watch the ads.
• Brad Colbow puts the ads in mind-video, but he keeps them short and tends to stick to stuff he actually uses/endorses.

The wrong way:

• A previously mentioned Let’s Game It Out featured a 2+ minute long ad that was a bored-sounding Josh reading boilerplate about the game Genshin Impact. It was literally unwatchable (I scrubbed through it).
• Every Corridor Crew sponsored segment uses the same guy, so I now associate him negatively with advertising. I see him and the urge to scrub goes through the roof. Also, his segments are too long, consistently fail at being amusing, and constantly push products of dubious value (enough with the VPN ads, people).

Anyway, back to the workout. I am still a bit puzzled over the weirdly slow pace of that fifth km, which brought my overall pace down, but what can you do? Machines don’t lie. Well, they totally do, sometimes, but I don’t think that’s happening here.

Stats:

Speed: 6.5
Incline: 5

Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km)
Time: 48:43 (47:05)
Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km)
Calories burned: 478 (335)
BPM: 130 (120)

I was pleasantly surprised to find myself not feeling stiff or sore after the run on the treadmill yesterday, but still opted to return to a walk today. Friday is looking cloudy and mild (14C!), so I may try running in the great outside then.

In the meantime, I was slightly slower today for reasons unknown. I sweated more than usual, too. Maybe I was a little more tired than I realized after yesterday’s workout.

On the plus side, my BPM was pretty low, so maybe I was being secretly lazy. Lazy or not, this was still my 22nd workout of the month. I am a workout machine! If only my weight dropped as much as my workouts climbed. Maybe it will all...work out in the end. Ho ho.

Stats:

Speed: 6.5
Incline: 5

Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km)
Time: 48:43 (47:05)
Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km)
Calories burned: 478 (335)
BPM: 130 (120)

I went grocery shopping this afternoon and bought all kinds of fresh, healthy vegetables and fruit.

And I also bought a bag of Doritos. I was bad and feel bad. I felt slightly worse after indulging in them.

And so I took to the treadmill for a guilt-filled workout that actually went fairly well.

Stats:

Speed: 6.5
Incline: 5

Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km)
Time: 48:43 (47:05)
Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km)
Calories burned: 478 (335)
BPM: 130 (120)

A mid-evening workout tonight, but I did get a smidgen of exercise earlier in the day, too, when we went to IKEA. It was crowded and kind of yucky, for the record. I’d say about 60% of people were wearing masks (they became optional nine days ago) and while I hate wearing a mask, I was happy to keep one on in there.

But we did get some containers for the kitchen.

As for the workout, it was fine. I had a slower first km due to having to stop and re-tie my shoelaces. This always throws off my rhythm. Still, the slower pace and shorter distance also meant a lower BPM, so I have no complaints. Yet!

Stats:

Speed: 6.5
Incline: 5

Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km)
Time: 48:43 (47:05)
Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km)
Calories burned: 478 (335)
BPM: 130 (120)

A decent workout, but I’m really running out of things to say. I stopped about 3/4 of the way through a Solar Sands video because I had to use the loo. Curse my tiny bladder.

Stats:

Speed: 6.5
Incline: 5

Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km)
Time: 48:43 (47:05)
Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km)
Calories burned: 478 (335)
BPM: 130 (120)

Because it was raining like the dickens today! What are dickens, anyway?

The workout went well, and I even went well past 5K to finish the video I was watching. It was this one by Tom Scott, in which he corrects (and also mocks) perceptions about VPN, given how ubiquitous VPN services are as sponsors for videos on YouTube (something that still happens in a lot of current videos, nearly three years later):

The workout was pretty decent, too.

Stats:

Speed: 6.5
Incline: 5

Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km)
Time: 48:43 (47:05)
Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km)
Calories burned: 478 (335)
BPM: 130 (120)

Nothing exciting to report. I watched some videos, all the stats were pretty standard, but with a little more pep than yesterday. I’m edging closer to trying an actual run outdoors, but the weather this week has been very soggy. I’m being fussy, but I don’t want my first outdoor run in a few months to be in the rain.

Stats:

Speed: 6.5
Incline: 5

Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km)
Time: 48:43 (47:05)
Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km)
Calories burned: 478 (335)
BPM: 130 (120)

Back to a more reasonable time of day for today’s workout and was a bit faster. I had the bedroom/office door mostly closed, so it got a bit warm and sweaty and my BPM predictably went up as well.

I have nothing else to add. For now.

Maybe I’ll try an actual outdoor run this week. Or even try running on the treadmill again. I bet it would feel weird. Weird, I say.

Stats:

Speed: 6.5
Incline: 5

Pace: 8:51/km (8:49/km)
Time: 48:43 (47:05)
Distance: 5.50 km (5.34 km)
Calories burned: 478 (335)
BPM: 130 (120)