Running after Baby - Week 5 : Taking to the treadmill

Now that winter seems to be officially here (26 degrees today with winds gusting 40-60 and a nice coating of snow on the ground) I have taken to the treadmill. Although I miss being outside, I just can not push myself to freeze when I am lucky enough to have access to a free treadmill in a nice warm house.

  by maHidoodi via Flickr

Here is the treadmill workout that I have been doing. It is mostly a hill workout with a couple different shorter sections of increased speed to try to increase endurance and to continue pushing myself. If at anytime I feel too tired to increase the speed or elevation, I don't. I only push myself as much as I feel comfortable.

Side note: I am not a trainer, nor a doctor. I have had no training in this. This workout is something that I have adapted from reading magazine articles and listening to my own body...do not try this workout if you don't feel comfortable. Talk to your doctor if you are unsure, or seek the help of a personal trainer if you would like to come up with a personalized workout. 

Start out walking at 4.5, elevation 0, to warm-up to 2:30
2:30 increase speed to 6.5 and elevation to .5
5:00 increase elevation to 1
7:30 increase elevation to 1.5
10:00 increase elevation to 2
12:30 increase elevation to 2.5
15:00 increase speed to 6.7 increase elevation to 3
17:30 increase elevation to3.5
20:00 decrease elevation to 3
22:20 decrease elevation to 2.5
25:00 decrease speed to 6.5, decrease elevation to 2
27:50 decrease elevation to 1.5
30:00 increase speed to 6.8, decrease elevation to 1
32:30 increase speed to 7.0, decrease elevation to .5
35:00 decrease speed to 4.5, decrease elevation to 0, to cool-down

On any given day this treadmill workout can vary slightly by adding speed increases sooner, more slowly (.1 increments gradually), or not at all. This gives me 32 1/2 minutes of running and 5 minutes of warm-up/cool down. I have also cut it down to as much as 25 minutes when the baby is particularly unhappy and needs to be soothed sooner. But, hey, 25 minutes is better than nothing. (My second motto?)

Now that I have a solid month under my belt, I think (hope) that I have gotten through the toughest part; establishing a routine and building endurance to complete at least a 5K. At this point, I think if I had to sign up for a race I could complete it. Not easily, but it would get done, which I think is a HUGE accomplishment. From now on, I plan to do more monthly updates of my running progress.

Miles run this week:6.7
Days run: 2
Days walk: 2

Goals for next week:
Run 35+ minutes per day
Run more than two days

For getting started and other weeks check out:
Running after Baby - Week 4
Running after Baby - Week 3
Running after Baby - Week 2
Running after Baby - Week 1
Running after Baby - Let's Get it Started