The Treadmill

In some ways I find it strange to admit this, but I ran on a treadmill today... by choice. I was at home and the weather was even nice out. Anyone who knows me well, or even moderately well, knows I often talk down about the treadmill. Why run on the treadmill when you can run outside? See the fall leaves! See the city! See the people! Breathe!

Well, I ran on a treadmill because if the hardest part is putting on the shoes, then why not skip that part? I've heard so much about barefoot running and I wanted to be barefoot today, but I don't own Vebrams and I know from the 2 blocks I sprinted the other day barefooted in East Harlem, it's not the best idea. So, I ran 2, 2 and a half miles on the treadmill, barefoot. Of course, my toes are not calloused the way they once were and being barefoot does help you avoid the heal strike so my feet are still sort of on fire, but oh well. Honestly, it was a really good workout. The first half of the running was really slow, running barefoot and running on a treadmill are both strange sensations and put together you don't really believe that you're running as slow as you are. Of course, once I was down to 8:20 pace and felt totally a.okay, so much so that I did my last quarter or so at 7:40 pace, I realized how slow I'd really been going at the beginning.

And, if you think the shoes are easy, it's the getting dressed part, skip that too. Sports bra and skivvies... it's like bun hugger days, but without the race or teammate negativity.
[Side note: I love bun huggers and got so annoyed at teammates who made a big deal about them. I loved running because it was the one time that it didn't matter how you looked]

The other great part about running on a treadmill is that you can run for 10 or so minutes and then stop, drink a little water, do some abs, do some yoga poses, do a couple youtubed workout bits and then return to the treadmill... all on your yoga mat, without ever getting your butt dirty or worrying about dog poo in the grass.

Of course, I'll be honest, I still LOVE running outside. I hate waiting for cars when crossing the streets it takes to get to Central Park, but the Park or the path, if I go east, is so lovely when I get there that I still want to do it a large percent of the time. So, I don't plan on stopping my outside runs. More than 25, 30 minutes on the treadmill would get painful anyways and I don't want to limit myself to that, but there are benefits and I'll admit it, my Monday run was inside my fourth floor apartment.r