Treadmill Tolerance

So maybe I'm getting used to the treadmill, or it's getting so cold outside that it's better in comparison. Not sure which but I'm going with it. Winter is smacking us around in the Midwest again so it's back to the treadmill for my runs. I've been mixing my treadmill runs up a little lately and it has helped ease the boredom. Instead of running at the same pace I've been simulating road courses by adjusting the incline and speed - sort of like a fartlek workout. Fiddling with all the settings seems to help the time pass. Was able to go an hour today on the treadmill without feeling too much like a hamster.

I found this great little audio tool available from http://www.mixmeister.com/download.html. It's a free download if you register for their free stuff emailing list. I did so and didn't get bombarded with junk. The tool is "BPM analyzer". The BPM analyzer looks at all your MP3 files and determines what the BPM of each song is. It will then write that into the BPM tag on the MP3 header. You can then setup Itunes to display the BPM of all your songs. This is awesome! The only downside is that it doesn't work on ACC's. This is the file format used by Itunes. If you've purchased and downloaded your music directly from Itunes the analyzer won't work on those files. You can get around this by burning the music to a CD first and then ripping it into MP3 format.

So why bother? Once your tunes have the BPM info in the MP3 header you can now organize your playlists according to your desired run or bike cadence. For example, if I'm running overdistance I'll load up a playlist with songs in the 82 to 86 range. Then you just run your cadence following the beat of the song. This is great on the treadmill because you just sink into the music and ride out the boredom. For interval work I have different playlists that alternate songs between 85 and 95. I also have playlists for spin workouts ranging from climbing cadence (around 60) to super spins (ranging around 120). This has really helped ease the boredom of my indoor workouts - check it out!