Ah, the treadmill...

It would appear, I've gotten back on the horse, so to speak. After a few months of distractions, mostly due to a major home renovation project, I have been on the treadmill with some regularity over the past couple of weeks. My sites are set on a half marathon taking place in Halifax in the Spring, so now is the time to start training. I'm pretty much starting over, as a runner, it's amazing how fast you can fall out of shape when you've worked so long and hard to get into shape.

I like the treadmill, I think, at least I like when I'm finished on the treadmill and the sense of accomplishment that I feel. It can be a little monotonous, but I've done what I can to address that by making a stereo and television available for listening/viewing pleasure while working out. I've been putting in a lot of walk-jog-walk sessions, about 30 minutes in total, walking half the time, jogging the other half. My last workout was a 20 minute session consisting of a 10 minute jog sandwiched in between a 5 minute warmup and a 5 minute cool down. There is a method to my madness - I'm first going through a 5-K training program to get me ready for the half marathon training. My results last week put me right on pace to start the 5-K training tomorrow - a lot of 1 mile easy runs for the first few sessions. I plan to complete this training at or about my usual 5 MPH pace, and then get serious about improving my speed during the half marathon training.

I've decided to throw in some abdominal work as well, on my off days from running. I found last year when I was training for the 10-miler, ab work provided some great strength improvements in my running, particularly on the longer Sunday runs, and besides, it's pretty easy to bang out a few leg raises anytime while watching television.

So that's the plan, and getting it down on paper is half the battle.