Running 21k... On a Treadmill!

A typical Sunday for me would involve an early morning long distance race event. November 27 was an exception, as there were 7 race events that day, but none offering 21k (maximum 10k category only).

Since I do not want to miss any Sunday long runs, I decided to try long distance running on a treadmill. My teammate from Team Alpha1 Rolly told me it's a good mental training. Our teammate and idol Eugene did a full marathon (42k) and ultramarathon (50k) on a treadmill as part of his BDM training.

With 1 week to go before I attempt a sub-2 21k run, I sort of wanted to simulate how my quick my legs should move to meet the target time, and to assess if it's even plausible for me to do a sub-2 already.

The Gold's gym treadmills have a 99-minute maximum run time (approximately running 15 to 17 kilometers), so I had to split my training run into two. I decided to run the first 15 kilometers at a constant 6 min/km pace, then finish strong with the final 6 kilometers at 5:42 min/km pace. The latter pace is the pace I needed to maintain to make it to the sub-2 goal. I did not want to push myself too much by doing the entire 21k on this pace.

I finished with a total time of 2 hours, 3 minutes and 56 seconds. A glimmer of hope for my sub-2 dream. :)

Call me crazy but a treadmill is my training best friend