Thursday, February 19, 2009

Love and Running

For Valentine's Day, C and I stayed in hotel Softiel which is practically in the city. Naturally, I needed to fit in a run. Softiel has an awesome gym. Saturday, I spent 20 minutes in the sauna. It was so sweet! It may seem weird, but it takes me longer to get cold now that I've spent that time in the sauna. Its like I got the chill out of me.






Dull, but warm.

I am not yet brave enough to run in foreign areas alone. I know its a great way to explore new places and that running outside is better on the universe. But I am really paranoid. What if I accidentally run into the ghetto part of town, and someone hears me say "Picture me rollin'" in my best Tupac voice, and then, BAM! I'm abducted or in the least, my run is stopped. I just can't yet. But one day.

So I ran on the treadmill. And I was actually excited about it. I knew this run would be different.

Last time I ran on a treadmill was at the Holiday Inn in Ottawa: they didn't have a TV, my ipod was dead, and the treadmill faced a wall in which only an empty water cooler stood. Not even a picture!!
But the Softiel, no, the gym was on the top floor. Its only 10 stories, but still! the top floor! It was a great view.




mmm...here it looks like the view is mostly the top of a parking garage. But you can see pretty far, honest.








But I have to admit, I only looked at the view for a 1/2 mile because there was a TV on the treadmill!!!! So I indulged myself with celebrity gossip.




Evil TV treadmills........





Nonetheless, it was a great run. It was a little harder than I expected. There is an ongoing debate about whether it is harder on the treadmill or outside. Some say its easier on the t-mill because there is no wind or hills. While other say it is easier outside because you can set and change the pace.

I feel that it is definitely easier outside. Whenever I'm on a machine, I am always watching my time and distance. I feel like I've been running forever. Outside, I watch the yards and the cars and I look for squirrels. It's grrreat. I forget what I'm doing. I finish my run feeling energetic and, sometimes, I'm ready for more.

Either way, it's another run under my belt. The downfall: Pool Closed. We did get to swim in it Saturday, but I really wanted to after my run. I figured a nice swim would be good on the knees.