Run Test

I thought the bike test this week was painful. That was nothing. At least on a bike you don’t have to support your body weight with your legs while going all out. I chose a treadmill in front of a mirror so I could give myself dirty looks when I started thinking about giving up. It worked, for the most part. I think somewhere around 13 minutes in I started to wonder if I was going to make it to 20. I tried to make peace with the pain, which was sort of an on-again-off-again thing. I did not prepare my ipod selections with care and consequently found myself clawing at my ipod in a panic while trying not fall off the back of the treadmill, because some of the songs were altogether too slow for that kind of running. After some cursing and random pressing of ipod buttons, I located a faster song and got back into the groove, but minutes between 13 and 18 were eternal. I started to look like death might not be far around the corner and I noticed the woman behind me glancing around. I think she was looking for the gym attendant so that when I collapsed with heart failure, she could locate him quickly for help. She looked genuinely concerned that I was going to collapse, shoot off the back of my treadmill and crash into her. I did not think that was an overreaction on her part. It seemed feasible and at around minute 16 it started to seem quite likely! I tried hard to remember the feeling of victory. To remember that this was all part of the plan. To keep my eye on the goal. I think at minute 17, the goal started to shift to “stay alive”. Then at last I hit 18 minutes. 18 minutes is only 2 from finished. 2 minutes is practically nothing at that point. I took a sip of my drink which threatened not to stay down and then I cranked up the treadmill, smiled at my frightening reflection, and hung in there for the home stretch. The woman behind me saw me do this and I thought her eyes were going to pop out of her head when I turned up the speed. She was worried. I smiled to assure her it was almost over. She did not look comforted. And then it was over. It was all I could do to press the various buttons on the various contraptions to record the numbers I had worked so hard for before sitting down on my treadmill. I sat down on my treadmill. (I had turned it off at this point). This is a whole new level of gym-weird. If I saw someone sit down on their treadmill I would definitely have all sorts of internal dialogue aout how weird they were. I think I saw my treadmill lady shake her head at me. I imagine she was thinking “I knew it! I knew she was going too hard. These stupid young people think they’re invincible” as she plodded away proudly on her own ‘mill.
Once I regained my presence of mind, I stood back up and ran an easy cool down. TML looked worried I might start the whole thing over again. I laughed at the impossibility of that idea.
So that’s it for a while. Test week is over. I can relax (sort of). TML can relax. I have earned some data and need to start preparing for the next batch.