If at first you don't succeed, jump on the treadmill

My intention was to get in a nice long cardio workout before my strength training routine yesterday. I was all set to slip into the big class room, jump on a spin bike and hide out for as much time as my partner would allow. As it turns out, there was a class going on. Crap, I still need the cardio. Reluctantly I moseyed over to a treadmill. I looked at it, it looked back at me (long pause) and I thought back to the last time our paths crossed. I lasted ten minutes and spent the next week or more paying for it with my foot aching for days. Limping should never be considered a reward. So yesterday, as I looked down the barrel of this treadmill I thought, "Its me or you buddy, I'm sick of this bullshit." I started off at a nice walking pace and deduced that I would do intervals of one minute walking and five minutes running for thirty minutes, or for as long as my lil legs would take me. I cranked up the speed to 5.0 (10 min mile) this was good. Five minutes into it I didn't feel like walking. I kept going. My 5:1s were now going to be 7:1s. But when I got to seven minutes I felt great. I didn't feel winded, my legs didn't ache, my foot wasn't screaming out in sheer pain! This is good. I took the speed up to 6.0 (9 min mile) and held it there for the next twenty minutes. I kept repeating to myself that I felt great. I'd adjust my posture accordingly, loosened up my hips, watched my breathing (not that one can actually watch their own breathing, but you know what I mean). And as I finished out 3 miles at a speed of 7.0,  somewhere around 30 minutes I was beaming. This is NOT a stellar time by any stretch, but for me, having not run any real distance since last October, this was remarkable. That treadmill was mine.