Slowly Becoming Friends Again.

 OK, I cannot believe that I'm going to say this but, the treadmill and I are slowly becoming friends again.  That's right, at one point we were the best of friends.  That is, before I started running outdoors more and more for my training and realized that I LOVE to run outdoors so much more.  Technically, it is much better to train outdoors on pavement so that your body is used to the impact of running just like on race day so I have that on my side.  That said, it is not always convenient to run outdoors, especially when we are right in the midst of Winter's mighty grip. 

This past Thursday, the Boston area was in hyper freak-out mode because of Hercules coming to town (first Nor'easter of 2014).  Every local TV channel had a team of at least 15 reporters out in the field showing us everything from how the plows get put on the front of the trucks, ginormous salt piles, traffic tracker vehicles broadcasting live footage from the road and "Breaking News" (just the live broadcast from the road, they wanted to play that dramatic music and show their cool "hey we have to interrupt the regular news for this extra special news" logo, along with extended news coverage which seemed like eternity.  Come on already, I'm missing my favorite shows just because of a couple of snow flakes?!  While everyone else was rushing to the grocery store for the remaining staples of any great storm, cartons of milk and loaves of bread, I was rushing to the gym to get my 6 miles in before they closed early for the storm (hey, I'm originally from Buffalo so this storm was nothing).  I pounded out 6.26 miles with both straight miles and hill training and then finished up with some weight training (trying to add in this type of training to build my upper body and strengthen my core).

Yesterday's bitter cold temperatures made it necessary to visit the gym again and to have another opportunity to work on coming to terms with a necessary dependence on the gym and the treadmill.  I ended up working on speed (which I absolutely love) and hills (not loving it so much but I know that it is a crucial part of my training).  I ended the session with 7.25 miles which I felt wasn't too bad.  I had thoughts of running a long run today in the back of my head the entire time so maybe that was my motivation for the day.  Who knows?  I think that was really it.

Until next time, keep on runnin'!