Kelly Booth, mom of 2 and full-time teacher, hit a personal record in the marathon last December when she broke 3 hours at the California International Marathon (2:57). With the marathon now behind her Booth, a Lululemon ambassador, has her sights set on a half marathon personal best this summer along with racing her first triathlon of the season – the Donner Lake Olympic Triathlon.

For most scheduling workouts around work and family can be a challenge but Kelly has almost perfected her training schedule. On most days she is up at 4:30 am logging miles on the roads and the track to ensure she is home before her kids get out of bed. To get in extra miles or double days she sneaks in some family runs with her husband Tuesday nights at the Lifetime Fitness Roseville Run Club or mashes out one of her favorite treadmill workouts at the club. 

Read more about how Kelly incorporates treadmill running into her training below.

How often do you incorporate treadmill running into your training/routine?

With the weather and seasons changing, I am more outside now than during the rainy/ winter months, but overall, I would say anywhere from 2 to 4 times a month.

What do you love about treadmill running?

There are so many perks to running on the treadmill! To name a few: The weather is always perfect; you can adjust the treadmill via incline and speed to fit your workout plan and goal; it can be a simple transition from a spin class to complete your brick workout; and one of my favorite parts about the treadmill is that is keeps you honest and spot on with your pace goals. There have been times when I am given a workout to stay on goal pace, and I feel like it makes you mentally stronger to not hit the “down” arrow to slow your pace when you are fatiguing, and even more importantly, not to hit the “up” arrow to go faster when you are feeling good, when your goal is to stay on prescribed pace. There is something about the amazing feeling of hitting that stop button after a strong, goal accomplished, drenched-in-sweat treadmill work out that lures you back for more!

You mentioned you like to do a workout from Sara Hall? What is the workout? Why is this your go-to treadmill workout?

Yes! Sara’s treadmill workout could not have come at a more perfect time. I was back in Florida, about to embark on a day at Disney World with my family and needed to run 60 minutes that day and my only option was on the treadmill. I most definitely could have just run 60 solid minutes on the treadmill catching up on shows and rocking out to my iPod (haha), but I wanted to add a little “spice” to the workout. As I was browsing Instagram prior to heading to the gym, I came across what Sara noted as her one of her key workouts during a marathon training cycle. Being in the heart of my marathon training cycle, the timing could not have more perfect. I was even giddy heading off to do the same workout (not the same pace workout, but the same workout plan- ha- wink) as THE Sara Hall, she is amazing and so fun to follow, not to mention, pure inspiration – on and off the road!

The workout was 20 x 1 minute repeats 30 seconds faster than goal marathon pace (GMP) and 1 minute rest/recovery- only 30 seconds slower than GMP, including a warm up (10-20 minutes and cool down with the same time frame). What I loved about this workout was that you push yourself out of your comfort zone going 30 seconds faster than GMP, the recovery, which is a still a solid pace, feels relatively comfortable, and you have just accomplished running your GMP for 40 minutes! . For example, if your goal pace is 6:30 minute miles, you would run 20×1 minute repeats at 6:00 m/m and your recovery would be 7:00 m/m. I felt that this was such a great strength building workout, both mentally and physically. This specific workout and the pace dimensions can be applied to races of any distance- just dial in your goal pace and subtract and add 30 seconds for your one minute repeat and recovery, respectively.

Another workout that I love to do on the treadmill and that was given to me by my elite running, course record setting coach, and overall amazing human being, Jenny Hitchings, is: 3 x 15 minute progression intervals starting at goal marathon pace. This is where the treadmill holds you truly accountable to start at GMP and subtract about 10 seconds to your pace, getting faster as you go, at about every 3 minute mark during the 15 minutes (so you hit the “up” arrow 5 times during the one interval)! This is another go-to workout because it teaches you to push through the fatigue as it sets in quickly since you start each interval at GMP and finish strong-about 50 seconds faster than GMP. Then to repeat the interval two more times! This is definitely a confidence booster knowing that you are teaching your body and mind to push and work through fatigue and to finish strong- as these are two key components during any race.

Image: Kelly Booth at Body Concepts Inc. in Folsom. Kelly shown wearing Lululemon run apparel and Stance Fusion Run OTC socks.

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