With the temperatures dropping, stay inside and hug your treadmill…..then get on it and run!!! Even though I am a big advocate for staying outside, I was super grateful to have the option today! Between the school closings and the weather there was no way I could run outside. So with the help of Disney's 'Ant Farm' to babysit my son (judge me if you must) I utilized the dreaded 'mill!!
'Whats the difference?' you ask…well, there are a few.
1:Running outside demands more from your body, it is really an 'all body workout'. Running on a treadmill does feel easier though and nowadays they are padded so they can decrease the impact which is great if you have knee issues. If you are training for a race make sure you set the incline to 1 or 2 %….this can simulate your outdoor run. At the same time, it's advised not to set higher than 7% for long durations as it may lead to Archilles tendon or calf injuries.
2:Fresh Air... can't beat it !! You cannot receive fresh air from the gym, (far from it in some!) which means missing out on good oxygen!. And there is something to be said about being outside amongst nature, well, for me anyway!
3: Germs…If you're at a public gym, make sure you wipe the machine down first just incase the previous runner wasn't as courteous…there are a lot of nasty virus's going around right now
4:Boredom…Ugh, this is what i struggle with the most. The treadmill is soo monotonous and with no destination! Sometimes I can have the tv on, music on, a magazine and i'm still bored so I have to play mind tricks on myself. I'll set mini goals either time or distance, i'll rev up my pace for 5 mins, uphill for 1, tempo pace for 5, sprint for 3 etc. Sometimes I'll rope my son in and we'll play alphabet games like naming food or animals in sequence i:e: A for Antelope, B for Baboon…you get my point! And if he is reluctant to play with Mummy, i'll play the mind games by myself. Since the Newtown tragedy one of my favs is to spend 1 min focusing on something i'm grateful for and i have to get to 26…very often I go past a minute so my run goes by super fast!
One of those things would be that I'm grateful to have the use of a treadmill on days like today, which is why I want to hug it when i'm done!! Spring is only 77 days away folks ;)
