Heart Rate Training and The Day I Got a Treadmill

Yep, I got a treadmill!  It's nothing fancy, it's actually a pretty basic model.  As in probably the cheapest model.  But it works!  The first time I used it, it was kind of scary.  It felt so short and narrow, especially since the only treadmills I've ever really used were the ones at the gym.  By the second time around, I had gotten the hang of it.  I'm not sure how it'll work once I start running faster speeds, but for now it's perfect.  I've been playing around with low heart rate training (MAF Training), and things are progressing along.  I first started hearing about this method of training a couple of months ago, and it intrigued me.  I'm the kind of person who would much rather go run an easy 10 miles than run a fast 3 miles, so this sounded like something I should try.  For those of you who haven't heard of it before, the basic idea is you build up your aerobic capability by running at a specific heart rate (131-141 for me).  It'll be slow at first, but over time you'll get faster and faster while maintaining the same level of effort.
So, on Monday I went for a 45 minute run, all while trying to keep my heart rate within range.  Easier said than done!  I kind of felt like I was back doing the couch to 5k program, where you run for 30 seconds and walk a minute!  Ok, it wasn't quite that bad, but it felt like it!  I had to walk a ton.  This basically means that my aerobic base is horrible!  Which is kind of sad considering I've been running consistently for about a year and a half, and also just completed a half marathon!  All said and done, I finished 2.01 miles in 45 minutes, at about a 22:29 pace.  Sad, no?  I'm already a slow runner, and I knew I would be quite a bit slower in the beginning, but that was much slower than I expected.  But, I decided to keep at it.  On Wednesday, I tried again.  This time I managed 2.1 miles in 45 minutes at a 21:45 pace.  Slightly better!  Encouraging enough for me to keep trying =)  I have two more runs scheduled this week, and next week I'm hoping to add some swimming into the mix for some cross training.  It'll be interesting to see what happens!
(PS - I made sure the treadmill was off and the key was out before letting my 2 year old on it!)