Since it gets dark before I get off work now (and I’m terrible about getting up to run in the mornings), I found myself on the treadmill twice this week. I am mentally incapable of running at one pace on the treadmill, even if I have music or TV to distract me, so I tend to play around with the speed a lot. Here’s the workouts I did this week:

Workout #1: Treadmill Progression Run
Start at an easy pace for you. For me, this was 5.0 (12:00 min/mi). At a predetermined time or distance, increase the speed by 0.1. I increased by 0.1 every 0.2 miles for the first mile, and every 0.25 for the next two miles. I planned to do 3.3 miles total, so for the final 0.3 miles, I increased the speed every 0.1 miles. This gave me a final speed of 6.8 (8:49 min/mi) and an overall average pace of about 10:30.

Workout #2: Easy Speed Work
For the second treadmill day, I wanted to do some speed work, but didn’t want to completely exhaust my legs since I’m still streaking. I got the idea to use my Couch to 10k app to time intervals, but, instead of jogging, I ran fast. I combined the first two weeks’ intervals to come up with this plan:
Warm up at an easy pace for 3-5 minutes, then alternate sprinting (I used speeds between 7.0 and 8.0, starting slower and increasing speed as the intervals went on and my legs warmed up) for one minute with walking (I walked at 3.5) for 1.5 minutes. Repeat six times. Then alternate sprinting for 1.5 minutes with walking for 2 minutes. Repeat six times. Cool down.

Other treadmill workouts I’ve posted:
Ways to Beat the Treadmill Blahs
5/6/7/5 Workout