OK, on Tuesday it was raining but I still needed to train. So I went to the gym in my neighborhood to run on the treadmill. What a difference that made! Running outside I can barely run 1 mile without stopping to walk. Its so hard to push myself. I LOVE being able to watch the time, watch the distance, and control my speed! Wow! I felt like a running machine! I was running… 1 mile… 1.5… 2 miles… wow! I was almost to 3 and was so tired, but thought for sure I can do this… I can make it to 3. And when I hit 3, I pushed just a tad further and ran 3.1 – the distance of a 5k! I’m still pretty slow, so it took me 37m 02s. Slow, yes, I know. But as I’ve said in other posts, I have no doubt that I am THE slowest runner on the planet. Besides, speed wasn’t the big accomplishment. The fact that I ran 3.1miles without stopping for a walk break is what I was so proud of. I took Wednesday off since I was sore. Thursday I went to the treadmill again. I love the control it gives me. Same thing 3.1 and my time was 37m 04s. Took Friday off. Saturday I did 5 miles. Wasn’t able to run the entire thing but I did run the first 3.1 because I was challenging myself to beat my time and keep pushing on after that. So my time was actually 25m 54s! Slow, but faster than before. And then I kept running until I got to 3.5 miles. After that I used the last 1.5 miles to do some sprints – maybe that will help my speed in the long run. So I’d run .25 miles FAST then walk for .25 and RUN .25, etc. until I hit my 5 miles. All in all I did 5 miles in 58m 48s, which is faster than a 12min/mile pace. Big for me. I’m actually so motivated to run for as long as I can AND watch my time when I’m on the treadmill… but I also know that running on the treadmill is way easier than running outside on pavement. But the way I see it, its better than not getting in enough miles if I’m not motivated to get out and run right? I dunno. I need to research it. Off to RunnersWorld.com I go… OH but before I do. TODAY was my day off. I was taking the kids to the pool. But before we went there, I snuck in a quick 2 mile run 
And guess what – I actually enjoyed it!! Up until this week, since August 4th, the most mileage I’d logged in a week was 8. This week I hit 14. 8 pavement vs 14 treadmill. Not sure how that translates when it comes to marathon training. I’ll keep you posted.
