Week 20: The dreaded treadmill

With the days getting shorter and winter approaching, I'm having to rethink my running program. Because yesterday was cold and rainy, I figured it was the perfect time to use my trial membership at fitness center near my house and decide whether that'll be my home gym this winter. A few observations about treadmill running:

• Wow, I knew I wasn't setting any world records, but I'm really slow. My confidence definitely took a hit yesterday.
  
• I've been running for time rather than distance. My mileage isn't nearly as impressive as I thought.
• My hip flexors and groin muscles hurt today.
• It's boring. Where am I supposed to look? The monitor? The TV? The sweaty guy next to me? The mirror three feet in front of my face?
• I must make sure that my iPod shuffle is fully charged BEFORE I get to the gym. I'm sure lack of music contributed to the boredom factor.
  

I should've done more research about treadmill running before I started. Runners World helped me identify a few causes for my sore muscles:

• I used different muscles to stabilize my body on the treadmill.
• Lack of side-to-side mobility, coupled with stability issues, changes my gait. I think I took shorter strides than usual.
  
• I went too fast. This is very easy to do because the treadmill keeps a consistent pace unless you adjust it. (A total duh, but how disheartening -- I must be REALLY slow outdoors!)
• I used too much of an incline. I'd read on a message board that treadmill runners should use a 2.0 incline to avoid shin splints, so that's what I did. Turned out that .5 would've been sufficient.

Bottom line, I'm not sold on the treadmill concept but I'll have to use it if I want to keep up my training through the winter. I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to cold-weather running. I'm usually okay once I get started, but it's not much fun until I get warmed up.

Luckily, the rain has stopped and it's nice and sunny today. After a good amount of stretching, I'll go on a 30-minute recovery walk before the sun sets.