Treadmill 10K

I got to the gym on Tuesday for a run at lunch and found that under the "Advanced" presets there was a "hilly 10K" option on the treadmill. I selected it and started out at a 7:30/mi pace after the 2 min. warmup period that the program adds on to each side of the 10K. The hilly part of the program meant that the incline of the treadmill would change from 0% to 3% through out the "course" as it were. It wasn't that much of an incline as I usually set it to 2.5% or 3% when I run on the treadmill. The display counted the distance in Kilometers instead of Miles which was a little odd to get used to. Every Kilometer or two I bumped up the pace 0.2 mph. I got to the point where I was up to 9.5 mph for the last 2 or 3 KM. I held on at this pace for the rest of the "race" except for a short 6% incline spike that the program threw at me right before the end.

I finished the "race" in 40:39, coincidentally the same time that I finished the Turkey Trot 10K (real) race on Thanksgiving (which was only 6.01 miles according to my Garmin 305). I don't know what the conversion factor would be going from a treadmill to a real outdoor run but I'd guess that I'd be a minute slower on a mildly hilly outdoor course compared to the ease of just putting one foot in front of the other on a bouncy moving belt. The other downside of the treadmill is all the sweating. If I ever get one for home I'd have to put a fan in front of it.

I'm very happy with my time and at finding the hilly 10K preset on the treadmill. It's definitely something I'll try again. I also want to run a flat 10K on the treadmill and see how fast I can go. I'd like to see if I can set it to a 5:50 pace and just hang on for 37 minutes. Not this week though. I think one hard almost-race level effort is enough. I'll hope for running repeats (or accellerations) tomorrow and then lift (legs) on Friday before another long run on Saturday.

Time: 40:39
Dist: 10K
Pace: 6:33/mi.