Just curious...

[johnpalmer]

Has anyone on my LJ ever had a rude awakening when moving from, say, a treadmill to pavement about running differently?

I'm trying very hard to be "I am where I am, if I can't jog 20 minutes - after having done four ten minute miles just a couple months ago - that's *where I am*, and it is a bad idea to get too frustrated, because that leads to quitting... sometimes quitting *right before that breakthrough that makes it all worthwhile.*"

But I'm also curious as all hell, and partly... well, partly frustrated.

You remember how I was thinking earlier, I'll try doing pushups frequently, and try to add just one, or maybe two, a week? And then, at the end of the year, I'll be at some ungodly number? Well, I'm frozen at about 40. I've gone as high as 45. I might have been able to do 46, hell, maybe 47, and collapsed, with my heart racing like crazy (45 has my heart pounding quite nicely). And like a good little trooper, what I've done is just added another set of pushups. Now I'll do maybe 40, and then maybe another 30 in my second set. Sooner or later, I'll break through the plateau, and start improving again. Right? My brain says "right!" but my heart says "well... maybe."

Well... maybe. I really don't know. I don't have any real faith in my brain's "right!".

My last LJ entry about jogging in RL was partially a checkpoint. "In six weeks, if I can't jog 20 minutes straight, *something is probably wrong*." I think that's fair. I can jog 11 minutes out of 20, no questions asked, and can't close the deal by getting up to 20 out of 20 in six friggin' weeks, there's a problem, either with my discipline (if I have to honestly admit I haven't even tried jogging 3-4 times a week) or with my body.

But I'm also curious if anyone else has had an experience like this, or knows anything about this. Gads... I almost need to find an exercise support group. (Like that'll ever happen. :-) )

Comments

[wolfette]

running on a treadmill is always different to running on the street or grass in a park or sand on a beach. Every surface is different to walk or run on - in the same way as climbing real stairs is very different from a stair climbing machine in the gym or rowing a boat on the canal is different from a rowing machine.

I've a friend - an older friend - a very active older friend (he's in his 70s and still climbing mountains and trees *g*) who swears that varying the kind of surface and where he exercises is the secret of his fitness (apparently the doctors wrote him off and into a wheelchair 20 years ago). He likes hillwalking - says it's the most challenging form of exercise he's found.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

I suspect I know who your friend is. (-:

[wolfette]

I think you're probably right in your suspicions - did you know we met up in real life, through Flickr? He's a member of a few Edinburgh Flickr groups and suggested I post some of my shots to one of them - and the group likes to have semi-regular meets, where we wander around en-masse (anything from 4 to 14 of us with cameras trawling the streets of Edinburgh and ending up in a pub or cafe).

[kightp.livejournal.com]

How very cool. Tell him hi for me next time you meet, OK?

[woodrunner.livejournal.com]

I suppose I do have the same problem. I try not to run on the treadmill if I can help it. I'm not fond of the treadmill because I don't feel I'm running at capacity -- shorter strides, tossed off balance if the treadmill is angled or inclined to any degree, get tired and stiff more often, get bored very quickly, etc.

For about 8 months in the year (until it gets too freaking cold and too slippery because of the snow) I run outdoors every day. I like it a lot better because I'm running at my pace, at a stride I'm comfortable with, I don't get tossed off balance, and if I get tired I can slow down. The treadmill just ticks me off because I have to adjust the speed, the incline, etc.

When I first started running outdoors, I could run 3 minutes but need a 2 minute break. It took about two-three weeks to get up to running for 40-45 minutes without stopping and maintaining a consistent speed.

Then I got sick, stopped running, and by the time I was up for it again it was the dead of winter and my only option was the treadmill. It took me 6 weeks to run 6km without stopping at a consistent speed, and when the roads cleared enough to run outside, I was not in any condition for it. I was running 5 minutes, stopping 1 for a while until I'd gotten my form back.

The treadmill is not my friend.

[mama-hogswatch.livejournal.com]

As I am sure you're well aware, I am not an exercise physiologist.

If you can do 70 pushups in a day, you're really doing remarkably well, you know! I mean, even by "man" standards.

Since I lift weights, doing exercises in sets is fairly natural and non-disturbing for me, so maybe I'm blowing off something that "should" be an issue, but I bet it's not.

I'm not a runner, so I don't know about running, but I do experience a serious difference between treadmill and pavement for walking. (I do hate treadmils, and would rather walk on sidewalk, so I've limited treadmill experience, as well).

The body does tend to adapt to what you ask it to do, too. People think, for instance, that swimming is the equivalent to 1/4 of the distance running. That would me I should be able to run four miles in 40 minutes. No way in hell can I run a ten minute mile. I swim quite competently, but I cannot run at all. I've not trained for it and my body is not adapted to it.

Perhaps you'd adapted to treadmill work.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Running on a treadmill is just weird. I can do it, but it feels like I'm putting out a whole lot more effort than when I run on the road. I would much *much* rather walk on a treadmill at a 4.0 or so mile per hour pace until I'd gone whatever distance I intended to go than try running on one.