tread dread

I really like waking to a fresh blanket of snow, EXCEPT when it foils our 6am planned trail run - for the second time in one week no less! It was just too slippery on the roads for everyone to risk the early drive to the trailhead. Once I got the news, I certainly could have hit the roads running right from my front door. It was so pretty out there with the snow falling. But, then I heard the snowplow and then I smelled the coffee brewing and then I remembered my non-running friends tsk-tsk-ing me for running on the roads when it's snowing and huge snowbanks limit visibility. So I told myself I would do the dreaded Treadmill at lunchtime. Ugh.

After 3 miles I could not take it anymore. Despite ESPN on the TV right in front of me, AND my music blasting from my Shuffle, I was in serious jeopardy of calling it a day. Out of desperation for some variety, I instead pushed the incline to 9, then 10, then 11.5% and slowed my pace WAY down to a mere light jog and then just to a walk. I did this for 1 mile thinking this was the "stairway to heaven" steps on the TrapRock route that we will do 3 times. I'm sure the actual steps are much worse (I have not seen them yet), but you convince yourself of lots of things if it will get you through the Tread dread.

After "the hill", I ran the last mile easy with my Shuffle blasting away until Jennifer Hudson got my arms moving and I hit the emergency STOP button. I'm pretty sure I have a half mile left. My lunch hour was almost up at this point, but it's hard to cut a workout short when you are so close to your target and you have direct feedback telling you so. So, I turned everything on again and finished the .5 miles for a total of 5 miles...even...not a step more.