19 January 2013 - Shredding on the treadmill

Today we went to stay in a hotel in the city so we were both able to enjoy a few drinks at one of our friends recently established cocktail bars without having to worry about the drive home.

I was happy to find that the hotel had an on site gym. Nothing flashy, just a couple of treadmills and basic lifting equipment. As soon as we arrived I headed there to go for a good old run on the treadmill. I hadn't tried any training runs this year inside and considering last year when I was training for my 10km I did virtually all my training in the gym I was interested to see which I preferred.

I prefer outside.

The 5km I pounded out seemed to last forever, with only my own reflection staring back at me and a television showing film clips of songs with "memorable guitar solos" to view as I ran I found I looked down at the distance count more often than I looked up! The air con didn't feel refreshing like the air outside and may have been slightly broken as splatters of my own sweat fell onto the machine beneath me as though it had decided to rain indoors. At least afterward I was able to cool myself off with a dip in the pool.

Sometimes though the treadmill is all you've got - sometimes based on your current location or available time of day its just too hot, too cold, too dark or just too plain awkward (jogging on the spot while waiting for the green man to appear at intersections while trying to run through a CBD is enough to turn me off the run entirely!) to get out there.

So how can we make the treadmill more fun? My favourite way is by using this "Shredmill" workout from Tone It Up. The benefits of completing interval runs are huge - increased fitness level, more fat burning and the time on the treadmill stops crawling and starts to fly - especially during recovery periods!

The Shredmill Workout!

3 minute brisk walk
3 minute jog
60 second "sprint" - as fast as you can
60 second jog
60 second "sprint" - as fast as you can
Recovery and/or Active Recovery for 60 seconds
*Repeat 3 times

Recovery = Calm your breathing, drink some water
Active Recovery options = 20 push ups, 20 squat jumps, 20 sit ups, 30 second plank

Tomorrow and Friday I have split work shifts (a two hour break between morning and afternoon work) so instead of sitting around killing time reading a magazine I'm going to get to the gym and get treadmill shredded!