With Penang Bridge International Marathon 2015 less than a month away, I'm getting more and more frustrated for not being able to run outdoor, especially the usual 20 km LSD at Lake Garden-Seri Hartamas route. It's too risky with such hazy air quality lately, so the best is to keep all activities indoor.
Does that mean I should run 20 km on a treadmill?
No way!!
Not in a thousand years!
I would be bored to my socks, screaming out of my lungs, and making a swimming pool out of the treadmill. :)
Well, shy to admit - but the key reason is:
My mental strength is not strong enough to withstand the boring state of running on a stationery treadmill like a little hamster running in spinning wheel.
Perhaps you can relate to it? :)
Many running friends think that I run at least 50 km weekly.
The fact is, I usually run only 35 km weekly:
- Weekday (Mon - Fri) : 3 km run on treadmill at elevation 1.5 and level 10-12, totaling 15 km.
- Saturday : No run.
- Sunday : 20 km LSD at Lake Garden - Seri Hartamas route.
If I remember correctly, I ran beyond 3 km on a treadmill only once. And that was a 5 km treadmill run a couple of years ago. And I almost fell asleep!! haha!
Boringly ran 6 km on treadmill with a twist to make it a little more excited!
Anyway, with little training thus far since Kuala Lumpur has become a "Haze City", I knew I gotta lock in some distance on my running. Otherwise, I would be suffering during Penang Bridge International Marathon on Nov 22.
So, I psyched myself up putting in slight variation to make myself run beyond 3km on a treadmill.
And here is how:
First 3 km
As usual, I put on my Sony MP3 Player, put my water bottle on the Life Fitness treadmill machine and start my usual 3 km run - at elevation 1.5 and level 10-12.
To keep me going, I would watch either one of the 3 TV channels (MTV, Sports, or CNN) on the screen or I would visualize me running outdoors and focus on my cadence.
I don't have a tablet. So I didn't get to watch movie or something in that nature to take the boredom away. Anyway, I don't like to watch movie during run either as I would rather focus on running instead of watching a movie on a tablet.
As predicted, after I reached 3 km, my mood just automatically switched off! No matter how I dragged my feet to continue to run, my feet just refused to move!
So I decided to stop the treadmill machine and went to drinking fountain for a refreshing drink.
Beyond 3 km
I was having such a hard time to continue running. I couldn't understand why I could run 42 km outdoors yet I couldn't run even more than 3 km on a treadmill?
Where is my mental strength?
Where is my determination?
Where is my will power?
Ran on same treadmill
I tried to cheat my own mind that I hadn't run yet. So I hopped onto the same Life Fitness treadmill machine again to start running the next 3 km.
Unfortunately, my mind wasn't as stupid as I thought. haha! It could recognise that I ran on same treadmill before. So after only 1 km, I lost my motivation to continue again.
Ran on different treadmill with virtual New Zealand Trail video tour
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Changed treadmill - using virtual run tour of
New Zealand trails to help me run the 5th and 6th km
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I switched on the virtual tour of beautiful New Zealand trails to keep me excited. And I would look at the trails as I ran.
This tactic really helped!! I wish I could smell the fresh air of New Zealand as I ran virtually passing the beautiful trails.
It helped me to stretch my run to another 2 km!
Total 6 km on treadmill through 3 splits
Yohoo! I was exhilarated that I could break my own mental barrier to run 6km today - longest I ever ran on a treadmill. I should reward myself with an ice cream! Just kidding!
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| Sweat with my favorite Skechers GORun |
Seriously, I have seen some runners run 42 km, 30 km, 20 km, 15 km, 10 km on a treadmill non-stop.
I truly admire and respect them for their strong mental strength.
I know I would never be near them. But if haze continues, it looks like I might need to overcome my mental block to run further than 6 km one day.
And I know that if there's a will, there's a way.
Written on 26 Oct 2015
