Fighting the treadmill boredom

Its winter. Its cold. The sidewalks are covered in snow and ice. I ran outside a couple weeks ago armed with my under armor and although I was toasty warm, the slippery running was not ideal. So I've headed back to the gym and back to the mundane repetition of a treadmill. In the January issue of Runners World they gave a hint to saving your sanity on a treadmill.....hitting a button every 1/4 mile. I thought it was a lame idea, although I already knew when I did intervals my time went faster, but I was usually only changing every 4 and 2 minutes. So last week I took their advice and hit a button every 1/4 mile. Although I was skeptical, the result was amazing. I was out to do a 4 miler and at 3 miles my husband who had finished his run asked me how much I had left. I looked down at my mileage and gave it an extra stare because I did not believe what it said. I only had one mile left and was amazed how quickly my run went. Even though I had been watching my quarter miles tick by I hadn't been paying attention to the overall mileage. My run was fantastic, and since then I have been hitting a button every quarter mile and watching the miles speed by.

Here's what I do: the first 1/4 mile I just run a regular pace. The next 1/4 mile I up the incline to .5, then to 1.0 on the next 1/4 mile, then back to 0 incline to finish up the mile. Then I do the same with speed, up it, up it, up it, then a last easy quarter mile. Then I switch back to the incline, only I start off at 1, then 1.5, then 2, and end with an easy 1/4 mile. Then I switch to speed and start off harder than I started previously and up it, up it, and up it. So not only have I found that I am fighting boredom, but I am getting some short interval training in both speed and hills.

It works. Try it. You'll be impressed.