It’s warm in LA, which is nice, but not great because it is the beginning of February and it feels like the beginning of July. I thrive on sunshine, a fact that was proven last year while I lived/survived through the cold, damp, drizzly, and constant grey overcast skies of the Pacific Northwest, where any brief sunbeam felt like igniting a campfire in the woods, fleeting, yet warmly satisfying. I understand that if you are reading these words anywhere east of Arizona with your own frozen over eyeballs, the high temperatures we are experiencing in southern California must be jilting, borderline incomprehensible because of the sheets of ice you are living under, (and among, unfortunately), but what if I told you we were not as far apart as the Weather Channel wants us to believe, what if I suggested that a machine could close the gap to the spectrum of our realities, a machine that even baffles our smart watches with its powers, a machine that allows us to run at high speeds for many miles without moving an inch from start to finish, yes, some disbelievers may call it the “dreadmill”, but the true believers call it the treadmill.
True, I am using the treadmill as a training tool in currently freakishly warm California, while most of you classic Wintering folk are using it as a safety device. I want to use it, you need to use it, I know the difference is distinct, and honesty unfair, I get it, I was trudging in my frost-laced shoes a year ago back and forth from our apartment in Vancouver to “Fitness World”, a gym that provided droves of rough-shod treadmills that thankfully scratched the mental itch of training, but lacked consistent functionality and faith that I desired to both boost fitness, and stabilize my disabled body from toppling over, or flying off the running tread if the machine decided stop before I asked it to, ie., I dreaded running on the treadmill. In fact, by the middle of March, I had boycotted them completely and forged a resolve to run outside regardless of the conditions, and accepted wetness as the currency to running bliss.
Moments after signing up for a membership to Fitness World. January, 2025.
Unfortunately, the qualities Fitness World provided in geographical convenience, wall-to-wall treadmills, and a front row seat to Gen Z dating tactics, it lacked in quality equipment, and ease of mind. Luckily, I still whipped myself into decent enough marathon shape over those wintery months to clock a Boston qualifying time at the Vancouver marathon in early May, but I would make different decisions next time. Furthermore, in both hot and cold climates, I believe finding a dependable daily treadmill opportunity is vital for runners training through Winter.
Fun on my walk home from Fitness World post Treadmill workout, Winter, 2025.
While growing up in southern California, running on treadmills were novel vs. necessary. I did not see the point of running inside when running outside was my preference, until I learned that treadmills could serve as a tool rather than a crutch. The key is to be creative with workouts by changing the speed, incline, duration of intervals, assembling a stellar playlist, and chewing gum. Maybe the last point is subjective, but I stand by the means to surviving and thriving with treadmill workouts is to embrace variety, sweat, and the rhythm of moving forward while staying in place.
I credit the jump I made in my running fitness back in 2017 to including structure and entertaining treadmill workouts to my training repertoire. I wouldn’t have had the guts to boost my leg speed up to 9.0 MPH running outside on the ground, but when the belt underneath them made them do it, they did. Therefore, the treadmill is an effective tool to increase leg-turnover and inspire higher cadence when running on the roads. Also, increasing the incline on a treadmill is diabolical, but builds mental and physical strength more acutely than loping up and down attention-grabbing scenery while running outside. There is nowhere for your mind to escape when running uphill on a treadmill, meanwhile growing familiar with that discomfort is the ticket to freedom during the tough moments of a race, another hard workout, or a challenging moment in everyday life.
Moreover, the workout I want to highlight from week one of twelve of the build toward the Boston marathon was a treadmill workout I completed last Tuesday at my local YMCA:
20min. warm-up @ 0.5% incline
3x 3minutes @ 8.0MPH + 2minutes @ 7.5MPH @ 0% incline
3x 3minutes @ 8.1MPH + 2minutes @ 7.6MPH @ 0% incline
1x 3minutes @ 8.2MPH + 2 minutes @ 7.6MPH @ 0% incline
5 minutes cooldown @7.5MPH
Honestly, I thought beforehand that 7.8-8.0MPH would be my ceiling for the day, but I felt good during the first set, and decided to challenge my legs by boosting the speed up to 8.2MPH, and they hung on just fine, which is a good sign that fitness is building.
Since I am back residing in SoCal, the sun was out and shining bright during the hour I was inside pounding on the mechanized rubber road, (a hefty apparatus that had my full confidence, I am happy to report) but I used the treadmill as a tool rather than a necessity, a privilege, I know, but if trusted (in any weather conditions) serves its meaningful purpose as an everyday opportunity to run.
The book I read last week, A Long Game, Notes On Fiction Writing Fiction by Elizabeth McCracken, helped to kick my blog-writing practice back into gear because among the many valuable suggestions McCracken includes throughout the book, she emphasized the value to writers of showing their work, so here I am, showing my work (writing) to all of you.
I hope you all have a wonderful Wintery week, and feel free to give me a shout if you are intrigued to learn more about how to spice up your treadmill workouts.