Trail Running on a treadmill?
What, you might ask? And you would be right to ask such a question. But it is not only possible, I’ve done it.
How, you ask?
First, see previous story about massive gale force winds on the cruise ship where I had been attempting to run. I went up on deck on Saturday to try and get in one final run. The stairs leading to the deck were roped off with the ominous sounding sign “Caution - Closed to High Winds”. Well that’s easy enough to get around. I went back inside and then up the stairs to the ping pong deck and out the sliding doors that way. Haha! I tricked you, cruise ship. I’m on your jogging trail and I can claim I didn’t see the sign. I started jogging around the deck and turned full force into way stronger wind than yesterday and as I was nearing the end there was another roped off section. The rope was going crazy, so no way to safely jump it. I decided - for once - to do the sensible thing: to give up running on the deck and head to the gym.
The waves were pretty rough and I could see the horizon jumping 10 feet through the windows, but it still seemed like a good idea. I hopped on the treadmill (strangely, all of them were available). The treadmills were angled and so when the boat bobbed up and down the treadmill was actually going sideways at an angle. The treadmill would stay level for a couple seconds, then dramatically swerve from side to side with no seeming pattern. I found myself running on the left edge, right edge, left edge, right edge while all the while *trying* to run in the center. Several times I had to grab the side railings to keep from launching off the treadmill. This was quite amusing for a while, but after about a mile I began to question the safety of doing this. (Who ever said I wasn’t smart? It only took a mile to realize this wasn’t a good idea.) I decided to stick it out for another half mile but finally came to the conclusion that I was likely to get thrown off and blow out my knee or something equally stupid if I didn’t stop.
So, this last run was very much like running on a trail, I had to pick up my feet and move laterally to keep from flying off. I was never sure what elevation the treadmill would have or where my feet would land.
After only 1.5 miles I decided I should at least hit the bike or something, so I got on an exercise bike and started pedaling. For some reason it would never add enough resistance to make it worthwhile and so after a mile I gave up on that as well. I headed back to my room, defeated and wondering what this meant for my Ironman (Coeur d’Alene) in June, which as I look up online real quick is … 96 days away. Whoops! I guess it is time to start thinking about swimming and biking.
Luckily for me, I don’t think swimming is at all important, so I am not too worried about having not swam at all since my last Ironman (Florida) in 2004. But I do need to get in some cycling. 3 months should be plenty of time to get in shape for an Ironman, right? The saga continues…
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