Friday, March 28, 2008

Snow day

I'm scheduled to run 9 miles today. It's snowing (yes, it's snowing in Vancouver in late March!) so I think I'll do my run indoors today. In fact, I do the majority of my running on a treadmill. I think that puts me in the minority among runners. From what I've read on various forums (Running Mania, Running Room, etc.), treadmills seem to be a last resort for many runners with a lot finding them extremely boring. I happen to prefer them for a few reasons:
  • It rains (and sometimes snows) a lot in Vancouver
  • I have difficulty maintaining my desired pace outdoors
  • It's a lot easier on my knee (I suffered from patello-femoral syndrome)
There's always seems to be great debate on whether running on a treadmill is equivalent to running outdoors. A lot of runners claim that running on a treadmill is easier than "real" running because of a lack of wind resistance and that to compensate you should add an incline of 1-2%. Others claim that the treadmill is doing much of the work for you with the moving belt. I'm in the other camp. I find that when I run outdoors, I run faster at the same effort level.

For my first half marathon, I almost exclusively trained indoors. But that was a mistake as my legs weren't ready for the pounding they took from running on a much harder surface. I'm wiser now and trying to mix things up and to get outside whenever the weather has been nice.

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