Treadmill Workouts

OK, Amy has a point about the treadmill (see previous message thread) and, given the weather forecast for the next few days, I suspect I'm going to spend a ton of time inside. Several years ago, I spent 90-plus minutes on the treadmill watching a football game (it was the only tolerable way to pass the time) -- it could happen again. (With my Patriots not even qualifying this year, go Steelers!)

So, for those treadmill runners, what are your favorite workouts if you're not just slogging away and trying to pile up the miles?

For me, there are a few:

-- The ladder: 1 mile at 8 minutes, 1 mile at 7:30, 1 mile at 7 ... and so on

-- The repeats: 6 x 800 at a certain pace, with a 400 rest in between.

-- The hills: 1 minute at 3 percent grade, recover, 1 minute at 4 percent grade, recover ... and so on. Or, if you're feeling particularly tough, no recovery ...

-- The tempo: 3 miles at, say, 7 minute pace. (How fast can you run a 5K indoors?) Discuss.

All of the above are done with an appropriate warmup (I try to do the warmdown, but usually give up after another couple of minutes).

Other suggestions?

For those of you bundling up and heading out, do be careful. Thankfully the wind shouldn't be so bad, but it's going to be CCCCCCOOOOOOLLLLLDDDDDD for the next few days.

I hate running treadmill, and so much prefer the outdoors. But sometimes, given extreme weather conditions, it's the best way to get a targeted workout in.