Not gonna lie, feeling pretty awesome right about now. Since I'm heavily invested at this point I'm going to weigh in on the treadmill vs outdoor running question. This one pops up a lot when you spend time surfing message boards and blogs about C25K. Not that I've been doing that on a regular basis over the past week or so or anything. Maybe just a little.
Anyway, here are my thoughts, assembled in stream of consciousness fashion. I began my running on a treadmill at the Y. My thinking first of all is that most people who work out at the Y look ridiculous, so if I look ridiculous running I'll blend right in. I liked knowing my exact speed and not having to deal with traffic, sun, or pesky hills ("hills" being a bit of an exaggeration, as I live in the Chicagoland area in which curbs are higher than most of our "hills"). I also didn't have "real" shoes yet, so I thought it safer to run in my cross-trainers on the treadmill than outside. I had no real basis for this theory, just pure speculation.
I attempted running outside for the first time (after getting real shoes) after completing Week 4. Week 4 ends with a Run 3, walk, run 5, walk, run 3. To be on the safe side I repeated a Week 2 workout - Run 90 seconds, walk 2 minutes, repeat for 20 minutes. I figured that would be a good way to ease into running outside, since I was up to 5 minutes on the treadmill.
It was hard. Each 90 second interval seemed to get longer and longer. I began griping at myself internally for not starting outside sooner.
My second attempt was after finishing Week 5, which ended with a 20 minute non-stop run. I thought that since I had run for 20 minutes on the treadmill I could handle moving on to Week 6 Day 1, which was Run 5, walk, Run 8, walk, Run 5. 8 minutes after running 20? Piece of cake.
And it was. At the end of that workout I decided that I was finished with the treadmill, as running outside was far superior!
Here's why. One of my hesitations about moving from machine to nature was the fear of boredom. At the Y I had multiple distractions in addition to listening to music: I could read my Kindle, I could watch the morning news shows (airplane crashes, train crashes, second degree murder trials, and of course Matt Lauer), I could watch the other ridiculous looking people working out. I was afraid that without the distractions I wouldn't be able to trick myself into making it through the long stretches. I couldn't have been more wrong.
Running outside, away from those distractions, made me more focused on me, which turned out to be a good thing. Outside I experienced the run, rather than avoided awareness of the run. I felt strong, I felt powerful... I felt like a beast!
Running outside you feel the wind on your face, you hear the birds tweeting, see the bunnies frolicking about, and the smell is the best part - that smell of cut grass and flowers and nature.
I'm getting to know my neighborhood a lot better. We've only been here about a year, approximately 10 1/2 months of which were winter (ahem, Chicagoland) so most of that time has been spent indoors. I don't plot out my routes ahead of time, I just run where the spirit moves me (and it usually moves me along tree-lined streets, weird huh?), which leads to plenty of exploration.
Most of all, running outside gives me time to think. No distractions, no disruptions, no temptations to multi-task (as that would result in falling down). I finally felt the freedom that I hear runners talking about.
So, there is my long answer to the question. Running outside is preferable, by a long shot. I may choose to revisit the treadmill in the event of inclement weather, but we'll see what happens.
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