Your Next Treadmill Workout...

Thursday morning I woke up to pouring, soaking rain. Cold, pouring, soaking rain. I could not have been more excited about my run. Seriously.

You see, wayyyy back over Winter Break, I had a brainstorm of a workout idea and I immediately sat down and wrote it out. I had read a post by Tina about ladder workouts and given one a try myself. And I wanted to try to incorporate running. So, I created….

Ladder Laps & Abs

Unfortunately, after writing it, I never tried it out! It was always in the back of my mind, but since the total mileage is 4.5 miles and I’ve been sticking to my careful marathon training plan, I just never felt like I had the opportunity.

Until Thursday. My Google calendar showed a four mile run on the books. It was rainy. So I decided to whip out the ol’ JPG file.

I originally wrote this workout with the idea that it would be done on the indoor track (where 1 lap = .10 of a mile). But I really hate running on the indoor track, dodging other gym-goers, and running in circles. Plus, I really wanted to watch The Today Show (they were having that toddler who can shoot baskets on!). So, I dragged a mat over to the treadmill side of the gym, and got myself all set up. I tell ya, this workout was a killer.

There are two ways to do this workout.

#1 The Hard Way

Go through the workout as written (run .5 mile, do 50 crunches, run .6 mile, do 50 bicycles…).

Or, you can take it up a notch…

#2 The Harder Way

Ladder the ab exercises as well as the running, which would look like this:

1. Run .5 mile.
2. Do 50 crunches.
3. Run .6 mile.
4. Do 50 crunches + 50 bicycles.
5. Run .7 mile.
6. Do 50 crunches + 50 bicycles + 50 double crunches… (You get the picture.)

Or, (if you have a death wish are up for the challenge) you can do what I did on Thursday…

#3 The Hardest Way

Basically, do The Harder Way (#2), but increase your run speed each time. For me, Thursday’s workout looked like this:

1. Run .5 mile @ 6.5 mph.
2. Do 50 crunches.
3. Run .6 mile @ 6.8 mph.
4. Do 50 crunches + 50 bicycles.
5. Run .7 mile @ 7.0 mph.
6. Do 50 crunches + 50 bicycles + 50 double crunches… (Keep going until…)
7. ACTUALLY 10. Run 1 mile interval-style (sprint .1 mile, jog .1 mile).

The Hardest Way took me almost exactly one hour. I was exhausted afterwards, but it was a GREAT way to get myself geared up for that day’s parent-teacher conferences.

I’m excited for some of YOU to give this a try (choose your level!) and tell me what you think!

Have you ever tried a ladder-style running workout?

What secret treadmill workouts do YOU have in your back pocket for a rainy day?

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