Training Post

I decided to sleep in and run after church today. The temperature was predicted to be in the triple digits and the air quality was poor from all of the wildfires in the area. I decided the night before I would go to the gym and log my miles on the treadmill. I normally try to avoid running more than 30 minutes on the treadmill because it can be very boring. I was planning on running for over 2 hours on this one. Another drawback to the treadmill, is your not really running as fast as the treadmill says your running. There is a noticeable difference between running 9.0 mph on the treadmill, then say, on the track.

Granted, most gyms have televisions to help stave off boredom in the cardio area. However, there is slim pickings on the television on Sunday afternoons. My choices were limited to an infomercial on hair care products, a preseason football game between two teams that I wouldn't even want to watch during the regular season, Mexican league soccer, and some weird western show on TNT. I went with the Mexican league soccer match while listening to music on my iPod. The match ended before my run was over, so I was left watching a Spanish soap opera until my run was over. The closed captions are also in Spanish, so I had no idea what was going on with that show.

There are some benefits to running on the treadmill though. You don't have to worry about pot holes, cracks, or other forms of uneven surfaces. You can also control the speed and elevations as well. The most important benefit is you don't have to worry about interacting with traffic. I had an interaction with a car last year that was rather unpleasant. As in most of those types of interactions, the car won despite my gallant efforts.