My Version of a Snow Dance

Here’s what the radar looks like for Kansas City right now:

Impending snowpocalypse

The snow started about 30 minutes ago, and is expected to fall all day long. All in all, Kansas City is expected to have somewhere around 12 inches of snow.And what does that mean for this teacher? SNOW DAY!

Yes, school was called off last night around 9:30pm. I had just gotten back from the gym where I’d performed my own version of a snow dance. You’re right, it’s extremely rare for me to be performing snow dances at the gym that late at night. Actually, I don’t even remember the last time that happened. My bedtime is generally 9pm to prepare for my 4:15am wake-up call. But yesterday I decided to take a gamble.

You see, I had a 7-mile run on the docket for this (Thursday) morning, and I knew that with Storm Q on the horizon, the chances of me finding any clear sidewalks for the next several days were very slim. I also knew that I would not want to wake up before the sun to make it to the gym’s treadmill and back if I knew there was potential for a snow day. (No, at the time, I did not know they would call it off the night before!) In addition, the idea of staying tucked up warm and safe inside my house all day long on Thursday without having to scrape my car, shovel my driveway, or drive on horrible roads was incredibly tempting. So, on Tuesday night I packed my bags, including running clothes. Wednesday night, when I got done with church around 7:30, I headed to the gym and faced a challenge head-on: a seven-mile treadmill run.

I’ve been having a lot of longest-runs-ever recently. This, friends, happens to have been my longest treadmill run ever. I wasn’t sure how to approach it. I thought about breaking up the running and incorporating some strength training or core work (similar to my Ladder Laps & Abs workout). However, I didn’t get to start running until around 7:45pm, and since I didn’t know for sure that I wouldn’t have to work the next day, I really didn’t want to be at the gym for too long. I also knew that our gym treadmills have a 60-minute time limit–they won’t allow you to set the time for anything longer than that. And if you’re anything like me, you understand what a pain-in-the-you-know-what it is to have to re-start a treadmill in the middle (especially near the end!) of a run. I’m all about the numbers and I like to see them rolling higher, higher, higher (see below).

So, I set a goal: Run 7 continuous treadmill miles in less than 60 minutes. This meant (obviously) I would have to keep the speed at 7.0 mph or higher. That is pretty darn fast for me–usually, my “easy” pace is about 6.5. I can run 7.0–but for 7 miles?

The first three miles were great. I kept it at 7.0, cranked up my audiobook, and kept my eyes glued to the school closings along the bottom of the TV (nothing yet). I was feeling so good, as a matter of fact, that I decided at the halfway point (3.5 miles) I would start playing with increasing the speed a little bit. Then something awful happened. I felt the treadmill lurch, and the speed quickly dropped. “What the hell?!” I’m pretty sure I said out loud.

MOTOR ERROR the treadmill told me. “Damn it!” I’m pretty sure I said out loud. (Hey, I hold it in around first-graders all day every day. By 8pm I just don’t have it in me anymore.)

Here’s what I hate about the treadmill stopping mid-run:

1. I don’t know exactly what my mileage was at. In this case, I knew that I had just hit 3 miles within the past 30 seconds or so, but I know that I cheated myself out of .04-ish mile last night.
2. I don’t know exactly what my time was at. It was 25:–something, I think.
3. It kills my momentum. Here I had been plugging along, feeling great about being almost half-way done. Would I be able to just pick it up again on a new machine!?
4. I don’t get to see the numbers at their highest. Now those numbers that I’d been working so hard to increase were gone. When I stepped over onto a new treadmill, it would start over at zero. At then end of my seven-mile run, I’d only get to see a depressing 4.0 mile total.
5. It’s freaking scary. Good thing my balance is good! I am paranoid that one of these days I’m going to have an awful treadmill injury (I mean, come on, my track record of me vs. the sidewalk is not that great.), involving one step too far forward, backward, or off-center. I really don’t need evil machines jerking back and forth having motor errors to make this any more likely.
6. I feel like a badass. (Okay, this ones a good thing.) Motor error? Yeah, because I was running so freaking fast. (I might be making this one up to make myself feel better.)

But, I sucked it up and stepped over onto the next free treadmill. After .5 more of a mile at 7.0, I began to play with the speed. Every .25 mile, I go up or down .2 mph. This made the last four miles fly by (which is good–I could use help since I’m still listening to Dead Until Dark and not enjoying it very much). I ended up finishing in 58:50 (which took some calculating to figure out my time for the first three miles run at 7.0), however the treadmill showed a measly (post-cooldown):

Well, I am so happy to say that this treadmill debacle was not in vain. When I got home, and whipped up a delicious Strawberry Protein Milkshake (recipe coming soon–definitely a new favorite!), I sat on Facebook, and continually refreshed my NewsFeed until FINALLY my district posted that school would be C-L-O-S-E-D today. I took a long shower, stayed up late (a whopping 10:20pm) reading, and slept in (until 6am) this morning. The rest of my day looks like this:

• Read (hopefully finish the Kate White novel I’m in the middle of!)
• Watch The Carrie Diaries
• Maybe do a little lesson planning
• Blog
• Read blogs
• Surf Pinterest while watching Sabrina or The New Normal or Rules of Engagement on Hulu
• Cuddle with my puppies
• Throw some turkey chili in the slow cooker

What is your longest treadmill run to date?

Do YOU have a snow day?

 

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