Today it’s -4 (-18 with the windchill) which means my 20 Miler would be on the treadmill.
Since I had to do this run on the treadmill I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to simulate the Mercedes Marathon race terrain as best as I could. I took the elevation chart and took points in the course and used them to caluclate the grade percentage using this calculator. Of course this can’t account for the rolling up and down incline, but I wanted to attempt to get some grading percentages to use on the treadmill and estimates will be good enough for this run. I’m not great with math so this is about much calculation that I can handle and I will round/guestimate when neccessary.
3.8M 597ft to 6.01M 636ft = 39ft variation = .33% grade increase
6.01M 636ft to 6.99M 683ft = 47ft variation = .89% grade increase
6.99M 683ft to 8.67M 735ft = 52ft variation = .59% grade increase
8.67M 735ft to 9.51 709ft = 26ft variation = .59% grade decrease
9.51M 709ft to 11.01M 640ft = 69ft variation = .87% grade decrease
11.01M 640ft – 13M 600ft = 40ft variation = .38% grade decrease
The course is two loops of the half marathon course and it appears that 3.8M comes again at about 16.9M so I will repeat the hill calculations here until I hit 20M.
So my 20 Miles looked like this:
Miles 1 – 3.8 @ 1% incline
Miles 3.8 – 6 @ 1.5% incline
Miles 6 – 7 @ 2.5% incline
Miles 7 – 8.67 @ 3% incline
Miles 8.67 – 9.51 @ 2.5% incline
Miles 9.51 – 11M @ 1.5% incline
11M – 17M @ 1% incline
17M – 19.2M @ 1.5% incline
19.2 – 20M @ 2.5% incline
This is now my longest treadmill run. Between the incline changes, sports beans at miles 5, 10, and 15, and restarting the treadmill after it hit its 100 minute limit, I felt busy the whole run. I ended up just rocking out to tunes and no TV. I day dreamed about upcoming 2010 races.
This is also the end of the peak mileage week in our training plan. It is the highest mileage week I’ve ran so far.
Here is how the week went.
M: Bike 8.6 Miles (Hills, P3, L5, 30:00, 17.2 mph), Sit Ups, and Push Ups
T: 6 Miles Recovery W/ 6 X 100M Strides (Treadmill, 1% Incline, 46:46, 7:48 Pace), Upper Body Weights
W: Rest, Push Ups
R: 12 Miles Med – Long (Treadmill, 1% Incline, 1:35:53, 8:00 pace), Abs and Bridges
F: 12 Miles LT W/ 7 Miles @ 15K – HMGP (Treadmill, 1% Incline, 1:31:47, 7:39 Pace), Abs
Sa: Bike 4 Miles (Easy, Warm Up, P1, L6, 15:00, 16 mph), 5 Miles Recovery (Treadmill, 1-3% Incline, 39:53, 7:59 Pace), Lunges and Squats on BOSU
Su: 20 Miles Long (Treadmill, 1-3% Incline, 2:40:04, 8:01 Pace), Push Ups
Total: 55 Miles
Update: Rob wasn’t home when I did my 20 Mile run incline calculations so when he got home he read my post and noticed I made an error that caused the run to be harder than neccessary. Apparently I did cumulative calculations on the points I took and instead I should have compared each point to the starting elevation, thus making the incline grade from 1-2%. Woops. I can manage accounting type work, but other types of math I am terrible at.
Chase:Every:Second 
Just found your blog…I can't believe that you ran 20 miles on the treadmill!! That was smart of you do vary the incline – I've heard that the Mercedes Marathon is a tough one! At least the medal will be the best part. Good luck in your training!
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Wow, 20 miles on the TM! That is impressive. You are such a strong runner! I hope that one day I can be as strong as you are.
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I CAN NOT believe you did 20 miles on the treadmill! You are ridiculous and awesome.
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I am seriously impressed that you did 20 on a TM! Awesome.
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Way to go girl! I'm so proud of you! your gonna rock the marathon!
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I ran 8 on the treadmill today and was bored out of my mind, I don't know how you did 20. You are amazing and an inspiration! The incline calculations were a great idea!
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I just started following your blog! and I love it :)….you are so motivating that I am going for my treadmill run right now! great job on your 20 miler!!! What or you is your motivation?CheersBarb 🙂
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20 miles on the treadmill. Wow. I don't know how you do it. That's dedication.
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I cannot imagine doing 20 miles on the treadmill. I have not read your older posts so do not know if you do lots of long runs on it. Wow! I love love your header of the picture of all your medals! Do you display them in any special way at home?
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I have been so out of it this past week. I just caught up to everything that's been going on, and then I read bam…..20 on the treadmill. I'll just say ditto to what everyone else said.A BIG congrats on the new mileage PR (must be something in the air :-)! I'm so excited for your next marathon…two back to back training cycles like this will mean great things for you.Congrats and soooo excited for your awesome week of accomplishments!
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Way to go on the long treadmill run! I prefer outdoors but have done several in the 20-22 mile range in the past year to make weather or family accommodations. Nicely done.
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Wow! Incredible job. I can't get over the 2% and 3% incline. I hate even using 1% on my TM runs! And all at an 8 minute mile pace. Aamzing!
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Wow! I thought it was cold here in Florida. I cannot imagine that cold!And what a workout! You are such an inspiration 🙂
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Wow! Thanks for all the responses!intheskinny – Hi there! Thanks for checking out my blog! I've heard that too about Mercedes Marathon so this will be interesting. I'm used to super flat IL.Steph – You are silly! You are a very strong runner! You killed your first full marathon and I love reading about your training.
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ESH, Eatdrinkrun, TiredMama, monicac2, and Devon – Thanks!Nicole – Thanks girlie! I'm missing ya on the phone. I'll try pinging you.Kristi – Thanks! I saw the suggestion in the latest issue of Runner's World and it took a crummy indoor long run and turned it into something useful and interesting.
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Hey Mrs.BB – Thanks for checking out my blog! Motivation from me comes from all sorts of places, just depends on the day. Most of the time it's the training towards my next big race, but sometimes it's something simple like getting out to clear my head. I can say there are days that I don't feel like it and that feeling comes when I feel tired, but that's where I just try to focus on my training plan and get out there. I always feel better after a run.CJ
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Laurel – Thanks! I look up to you and your running accomplishments. Thanks for all the inspiration!ajh – 20 miles is the longest and I've had to do 17 and other long runs on the treadmill this winter. This is my first time training for a full marathon in the winter and going out for a long run in negative degress just doesn't seem like a good idea to me. I can't say I have my medals well organized. I thought a new banner picture of my 2009 medals would be fun. We have shelves and hooks in our workout room, but someday I hope to get them all displayed better.CJ
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Stevi – You crack me up! I love how you describe things! Thanks for the props!I think I responded to everyone (I hope!), I kept hitting some blogger text limit so I had to break it up. I wish blogger had the quote option like wordpress. Maybe it's user error. :)Let me know if I missed anything. :)CJ
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Awesome job on the 20 miler AND the mileage PR!!!! I'm predicting really, really good things for you in B'ham! I lived there for many years, and know all those roads well. If you have any questions about the course, just shoot me an email, okay? Good news is the new course is WAY easier than what it was a few years ago. Yikes, it was brutal.
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20 miles on the treadmill?! Wow – props to you! The farthest I've run on a treadmill is 7 miles, and couldn't even imagine running 20. But I gotta say, I can definitely see why you didn't run outside on Sunday – thank God it's getting warmer out.Also, just saw your time for the Jingle Bell 5k – 21:25 – that's incredible!
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When you took the sports beans, how many do you take at a time?
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Hey Rebecca! Thanks! B'ham – love the name, I can't wait!! I will totally email you with anything that comes up. Hey Paige! Thanks! Yeah fingers crossed that we get a few degrees this weekend!Hi Cynthia! I reach in the bag and grab one or two at a time and I bit them immediatelly to prevent them from sliding to the back of my throat and cause me to choke or gag, so far this has worked. They are a bit slippery so eating only one or two at a time seems to work best for me. Plus it makes them last a bit longer and they are so yummy!CJ
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Great, thanks for the info! I bought an assortment of gels and sports beans to try, but I wasn't sure how many to use! 😀
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Cynthia, if you meant how many packages do I eat, for this run I ate one package of beans at miles 5, 10 and 15. Hope you find a flavor you like!CJ
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