Dreadmill Daze

After my toughie tempo sandwich run on Saturday morning I've enjoyed a relaxing couple of days of easy running to recover well and ready myself for tonight's quality session; long intervals. The pretty but pesky snow has disrupted my nice new training plans but the white stuff didn't get the better of this Runningbear. A shuffle around town last night saw me clock 8 miles in the blizzard that hit Ilkley at 8pm. Thankfully the absence of any cars on the roads left space for hazard free running. 

Tonight was a different matter with no option but to go indoors for some quality. The ice and snow have forced a return to Keighley leisure centre for a bit of dreadmill running. I can just about cope with intervals sessions indoors but remain unconvinced that the physical effort is anywhere near a match for a session on the track. The plan was for something long and taxing so 4 x 5 mins seemed a good start. The trick is to translate the pace; there's no let up once that dreadmill belt starts turning over and you need to get heart rate just right for maximum training benefits. 

I'm not sure I managed it tonight. Starting out at 5.40 pace,  the efforts all felt a bit too 'manageable'; no lung bursting or leg burning of note. I finished with an extra effort of 2 mins at 5.14 pace, in an attempt to end the session on a high note. Somehow the heart rate didn't seem to reach it's usual heights so I'm unsure the session achieved it's true purpose or if in fact I'd selected a dodgy dreadmill. But, a total of 10 miles running was a start at least and not to be sniffed at; it's definitely better than nowt and a sensible start to some quality running.