Panic on the Treadmill

I took two easy days to let my legs recover. I swam at the pool one day, and did my core workout the next day. Today I felt ready again for a hard workout, so did Cheetah Fast DVD on the treadmill.

I still love the ifit feature of my treadmill. I previoiusly had programmed the Cheetah Fast interval sets into the ifit program. That way I don’t have to hit any buttons during the workout because the ifit program controls the speed an incline. I had both the Cheetah Fast DVD and ifit running on my laptop simultaneously (click screenshot below).

This is a really hard workout. I focused on good posture, short strides, fast turnover, and “what can I do to make this feel easier?”. This time I made it all the way to the last three power sets without any unplanned rests. Those power sets consist of three 90 seconds intervals at a 8.5 mph (pace of 7:30m/m) with increasing incline. This is what they look like.

Power Set:
3×90 seconds on; 1 minute off
30: 8.5mph; 3% incline
30: 8.5mph; 3.5% incline
30: 8.5mph; 4% incline
1 minute off at BP, 0% incline
30: 8.5mph; 4% incline
30: 8.5mph; 4.5% incline
30: 8.5mph; 5% incline
1 minute off at BP, 0% incline
30: 8.5mph; 5% incline
30: 8.5mph; 5.5% incline
30: 8.5mph; 6% incline

I got through 80 seconds of the first set. I go through 70 seconds of the second set, took 10 seconds off, then finished it. I got 70 seconds through the last set, took 10 seconds off, tried to hop back on but could not do it.

These power sets bring my entire body to the point of exhaustion – to the point where my lungs ache for air, and my heart rate approaches it’s maximum of ~180. At that point, I feel a sense of panic washing over me and I can’t take it any longer, so I jump off. Then I immediately regret it and think, maybe I could have kept on going.

I forgot about my “Shut up Brain” mantra. Next time I will do that to help me successfully get through this entire workout.