Flood advisory = running inside. Usually running inside = the track. Last night, I opted for the treadmill. While I was on there, I kind of went into a trance and starting thinking about the pluses and minuses of using the treadmill... this train of thought continued on my drive home, which took longer than usual thanks to the ceaseless downpour.
+ Treadmill is really brainless. I could completely zone out and be distracted by the trashy People magazine in front of me, boning up on my knowledge of Royal Bumpwatch 2012.
+ Treadmill forces me to take an easy run. My "easy" runs never really work out to be true easy runs... I am terrible at making myself slow down my pace. On the treadmill, I only allowed myself to go between 6.2 up to 7.0 MPH, average page of 9:05. A true easy run for me.
- I seem to sweat exponentially more when I'm on the treadmill. And if there's one thing I hate about running, it's feeling sweat dripping down my back or chest. Yuck.
+ Unlike the indoor track, I don't have to dodge and swerve around children, old ladies, or teenagers having social hour. I also don't have to keep track of which lap out of 17 I'm on... which takes a lot more brain power than you can imagine.
- Both treadmill and track provide the opportunity for an easy out. When I run outside, I can't just stop at mile 2, walk off the street, and go home. I have to get back to where I started. On the track or treadmill, if I feel tired early on, it is so easy and so tempting to just push the big red "STOP" button, hop off, and go home.
- Stopping to stretch on a treadmill is kind of a pain. I hate stopping the thing, then hurrying up and getting in some stretches before it erases my workout, then slowly ramping back up to speed. Not to mention I know all the people on the ellipticals and weight equipment behind me have a great view of my butt when I bend over, and it makes me self conscious to stretch out my calves if they feel tight.
In the end, being zoned out and forced to run at a slower pace than usual meant I was able to run further than I had intended (despite dripping sweat). I haven't been feeling the best the past few days, and on Tuesday we had a substitute teacher at yoga who had us do some weird and new poses, leading to underused muscles aching. I know, excuses excuses.
Speaking of excuses, I still haven't gotten my lazy butt out of bed and gone running in the morning. I set the alarm at 6:05 am each morning and then proceed to hit sleep. So I've made a deal with myself: I cannot use my free Starbucks drink coupon until I get myself out of bed and run in the morning.
I'm really going to need that Starbucks tomorrow afternoon, so I'm going to try to make tomorrow morning the day.
Incentive, baby. Incentive.
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