Despite having running gear in my car and every intention to run after work, the miserable afternoon weather made it an easy decision to drive straight home and run on the treadmill instead. The 45 minute workout wasn’t the most exciting or challenging treadmill run I’ve ever had, but a better option than getting cold and wet with the risk of coming down with a cold or maybe something worse.
I took 5 or 10 minutes to warm up before increasing the speed and incline to a level I could sustain quite comfortably. My motivation tonight was watching footage from the 1984 Chicago Marathon – a classic race won by one of my favorite athletes, Welshman Steve Jones, in a then new world record time [2:08:05]
Apparently, going into the race, Jonesy “didn’t even know what the world record was” and “just came to race against people like Deke [Rob DeCastella] and Carlos [Lopez]” – arguably the two greatest marathon runners at that time.
Steve remembers people shouting and getting excited around the 20-mile mark on the press truck, but it didn’t mean anything as he wasn’t wearing a watch. He said he couldn’t equate the time on the lead clock to how fast he was running, but he “knew it was fairly quick”.
Time always passes quickly when I watch this marathon and before I knew it 45 minutes were up and it was time to cool down. I followed up the treadmill run with a repeat of the final workout in week 4 of the Essential Abs program. I guess I’m kind of motivated with regard to strengthening my core at the moment!
Regular readers will know I’m a fan of motivational quotes. In closing this post, here’s my favorite from Steve Jones, which just typifies his style of running:
“I just run as hard as I can for 20 miles, and then race.”
The weather outside yesterday was certainly tough; you made the right choice by choosing the treadmill.
Even for all of my crowing about toughing it out & running outdoors no matter what, I took one look at the snow accumulation yesterday & had the very same thoughts as you! 😉 And you know it has to be pretty challenging weather outside for someone who dislikes treadmill running as much as me to consider that possibility. Hahahahaha! But you did one better than me, because you actually GOT on the treadmill yesterday. 😉
Must’ve been motivating to watch the footage while you were working out. Great quote by Steve Jones!
Yeah, I made it my first priority when I got home, otherwise it would never have happened!
Steve Jones is a great guy. I’ve been lucky enough to meet him a couple of times at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon expo in Virginia Beach. Of course, being a fellow Welshman is a bonus 🙂
Also on the DVD was a great finish by Steve to a 10000m race on the track. I’ll try to find the race on YouTube and post a clip….very inspirational!