Treadmill Running Sucks!

Today: 6 miles
Week: 45 miles
Workout: Running in place

I thought it might rain, and I only had the shoes on my feet. I didn't want to wear wet shoes all the way home, so I decided to hop on a treadmill for what seems like only the 5th time in my life. Let me see if I can name some of the things that annoy me about running on a treadmill.

1. I don't get anywhere. If I run, I prefer to get somewhere, even if it's only a quarter mile track, and I'm only getting back to where I started. That's still better than looking at the same wall for an hour! Even a mirror would have been better than the wall I was staring at. At least with a mirror, I could work on my form.

2. I don't know if all treadmills are like this, but the one I was on made me sound like a stampeding elephant. Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! It's not like I'm light on my feet on the roads, but I don't think I sound like I'm trying to punch a hole in the road.

3. I have to concentrate too much on my pace. Usually, when I'm outdoors, I don't worry too much about how fast I'm running. I can speed up or slow down whenever I feel like it. On a treadmill, however, I feel like I might get thrown off the back of the treadmill if I slow down too much. Or, I worry about slamming my face on the control panel if stumble.

4. I don't like the sensation of getting off the treadmill and walking on solid ground. Maybe, it's just me, but I feel like the entire cardio room is flying by me, and I need to grab onto something in order to maintain my balance.

5. It seems to take a lot more effort to run a given pace on a treadmill as it does to run outside. I had the treadmill set at 8:00/mi. It felt like at least 7:30/mi.

I'm sure I could think of a few more annoyances if I had more time.