Sweatin' Away

4.00 mi. in 50:51 min. Top speed 4.9 mph.
Temp: 24°F, 12°F wind chill.
Time of day: 6:30 a.m.

Too cold to run outside this morning so me & my best friend, The Treadmill, worked out together at the gym! I know I've mentioned how much I sweat on the treadmill, but today I felt like I might float away. But be that as it may, I ran my 4 miles in good form and good time.

Recently Scott and I were talking about how he passes the time on the treadmill. He doesn't watch TV, nor does he listen to music. Kudos to him! He told me he picks a spot, just focuses on it and runs. I tried something similar today. No way I'm not listening to music, but I did pick a spot on a poster and focused on it and just ran. I didn't watch television; I didn't watch the treadmill display; I didn't look around at what was going on in the gym. I just focused on that orange spot and ran.

I found that when I did that I was able to focus on my form and breathing. I think my feet and legs are working great, but my arm movement needs helps. I don't keep my elbows close to my body when I run and that allows my arms to cross my body in front, rather than move straight ahead. Part of this problem relates to my carpel tunnel. I have to be careful how I hold my right thumb or my fingers begin to go numb on my right hand. So I took some time today to keep reminding myself to hold my elbows close in to my body and figure out how to relax my right hand. I wasn't 100% successful, but I'm making progress.

Another issue I have is hunching my shoulders. I know that when I keep my shoulders down and relaxed I run much better, but they tend to creep up into that hunched up position. So I worked on keeping my shoulders down and relaxed.

I wasn't focused on my "spot" 100% of the time. I had to keep reminding myself to focus and keep bringing my attention back to my spot. But I strung together about 6 songs of good focus time. One of the biggest distractions was the sweat. I told myself, "You can wipe your face only at the end of each song." A couple of times I had to wipe off my face mid-song. I read somewhere about weighing yourself before and after running to see how much sweat you are losing. Maybe I should do that just to satisfy my own curiousity.

I'm a little stiff today after strength training yesterday. Not surprising since I missed last Thursday's workout due to a migraine.

The weather forecast is for sunshine on Thursday and more snow Friday. I may swap workouts so I can run outside on Thursday, then strength train on Friday at the gym.