Due to the fact that it’s a bit difficult to get out for a run as a family, my wife had a temporary mental aberration and bought a treadmill. It’s a Bowflex Series 3, which is good enough for a gym – it’s no Life Fitness or Tunturi, but it’s pretty good.
Anyhoo, after a few runs on it (well, my version of running [jogging]), I’ve started doing tabata or interval training on it. You pick a period of time, e.g. 30 seconds / a minute, and then walk for that period of time, then jog, then run, then back to walking, etc. Basically, you cycle through walk / jog / run for the period of time, repeating as many times as you want.
It gets your heart rate up quicker, and gets you used to short bursts of activity (e.g. martial arts), but with the added benefit of improving your overall stamina. I’m feeling the difference already, but I’ll still be doing long jogs as well.
So, give it a go! There’s some more information over on Wikipedia; it would appear I’m using the fartlek (snigger) approach to interval training.
