One Run, One Day, 50 Miles: A tinge of cool

The air finally has the edge that portends winter, and by that, I mean temperatures dropped into the 40s here in North Carolina (while my friends in MT, ID and CO are in the single digits and covered in snow). I love running in this weather, that crisp chill that requires a longer warm-up, but allows you to run without overheating, the air feels fresher and there's always that race against the waning afternoon sun.

That being said, I got remanded to the treadmill for at least a month by my PT in an effort to rid me of this nagging calf injury. With compression socks for both legs, especially if I do the stairclimber (no incline allowed on the 'mill). Whatever it takes to get me healthy, man.

Fortunately, while I am not a fan of tons of mileage on the treadmill, I respect it and know that it can be a great tool. Below are several of my favorite treadmill workouts. From my earlier training with Ed Eyestone, it's been ingrained that I should set the treadmill at 1.0% incline for any run where I know I am doing speed work, other than that, there's no need, not that I have always followed that, probably to my detriment! (For more on that concept, a few reads from earlier this year, from Runner's World which was spurred by this study and from Oesh founder Dr. Casey Kerrigan's blog post.)

To The Barn (any distance /negative split run):

Do a 1-mile WU at your LSD pace
At every 1/2 mile, increase your pace by .1 on the treadmill (i.e. 6.5 to 6.6), this should equate to approximately 6-8 secs reduction in your mpm pace, (more if you are starting out at a 10:00 mpm pace).
Continue to increase your pace, it should not feel difficult, if it does, you started out too fast.
Once you reach your tempo run pace or :30 secs slower than your 10K race pace, run a full mile at this pace.
Drop the pace back to your LSD pace and do a 1-2 mile WD at this pace (I usually do 1 mile, then walk backwards, and do side cross-overs to loosen out my hips).

Listen to the Music (any distance/interval & tempo run):

Do a 3-song WU as per a normal outdoor run pace (this will give you anywhere from a 9:00-12:00 WU, time isn't really important).
When the next song comes on, increase your pace to match your turnover/footfall to the tempo of the song. (If you normally have a numbered playlist, I recommend using shuffle or Pandora, as well as having a playlist with varied BPMs).
At the next song, adjust your tempo again, this should ideally be a reduction in tempo, but you can increase it as well, just don't go crazy with the multiple increases. Two options: 1 up/1 down, 2 up/1 down. Going 2 up/2 down usually ends up with a little too much rest.
Repeat until you've hit your target distance.
Drop the pace back down to your regular WD pace, 1-2 miles.

Up and Up (any distance/interval & active recovery combo):

Do a 2-mile WU as per a normal outdoor run pace.
Increase the pace to your regular 800m interval (like a track workout). Run 1/2 mile.
Decrease the pace to .1 above your warm-up pace (so if you warmed up at 6.7, set it at 6.8), recover for 1/4 mile.
Increase the pace to .1 above your regular 800m interval. Run 1/2 mile.
Decrease the pace to .1 above your last recovery pace (it should now be .2 above your warm-up pace).
Repeat the cycle so you get your desired number of 1/2 mile intervals, then reduce the pace all the way back down to your WD pace (you can go slower as well). I have done as few as 4 and as many as 8, but they get significantly harder after 4.

Also, if you are in need of a few good songs to get you going, here are some stalwarts that are on my playlist, both for their tempo and their lyrics (links are to YouTube; I recommend just listening to the songs rather than watching the videos, since the two don't always match, IMO):