Whoops (again...)

Today was a big milestone in my ankle's recovery. I ran for 30 minutes on the treadmill. While I really prefer not to use them, I did it for a reason. I wanted a nice even running surface so I wouldn't have to worry about turning my ankle again. Basically, I wanted to baby it. And I did. And it felt fine. Stiff but fine. I'll venture out onto the trails again soon.

One of the nice aspects of running on a treadmill is that there are usually other people around. And sometimes they're quite humorous.

In the gym there are 2 rows of 3 treadmills, with 4 bicycles and about 10 ellipticals behind them. I got a late start to the gym today, so by the time I got there I had to grab the last open treadmill in the back row, far right. I got it set up and went to plug my headphones into the audio jack and alas, no audio.

So I was left with a choice of watching one of three TV programs-with no sound:

1. analysis of the presidential election on a news channel,
2. a rebroadcast of the Bears vs. Colts game from Sunday night, or
3. some movie that I couldn't identify.

Needless to say only one of those really lends itself to sound-free enjoyment.

It soon became obvious that the gentleman using the front left most treadmill was a big Chicago Bears fan. Every time something went their way, he'd let out a little cheer, every time something went wrong, a little exasperated sigh. This was going on for some time and it was really entertaining.

Everything was going swimmingly right until there was a "big play." I don't recall if it was a touchdown, interception, fumble, dropped pass or maybe a safety. What made it so entertaining was that as this was going on the poor guy ran off the side of his treadmill and tried to take a header into the control panel. Luckily he failed in his attempt and got right back up running again.

Nothing is more humorous than the travails of others.

So, I guess running on the treadmill isn't 100% safe either.

Treadmills

So the weather today was just like yesterday, only snowing and colder. So I elected to run on a nearby treadmill. It ended up being a good idea as the snow just kept getting stronger.

I don't particularly care for treadmills too much. I just think it's kind of boring. I also have a problem with them. And not just because the one I was on seemed to half-stall every 5 minutes or so, kind of a stutter-step, nothing too terribly serious. My real problem with them is psychological. I always end up running too hard and too long. I went out to do about 30 minutes and just get a little exercise. I ended up with a 45 minute run, doing pyramids at up to a 6 minute mile pace for a couple of minutes here and there.

I think I fall prey to the fact that you can very exactly control your pace, and I just feel I have to. So tomorrow, I'm going to run outside, or I will very seriously, honestly NOT push my self on the treadmill.