This weekend I was on a mission to complete Cori’s Virtual Half Goofy Challenge. After all, it was on my schedule so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
On Saturday I had to run 10 km. I had plans to meet up with Keith and Deb for a fun social run through Fish Creek Park, followed by bison burgers back at Keith’s place. It sounded like the perfect way for me to get my 10 km in. Unfortunately freezing weather blew in and it was –25C with the wind chill Saturday morning.
I absolutely hate the treadmill. Going nowhere with nothing to focus on but little numbers ticking off how far you’ve gone? It always goes by so slowly! Unfortunately my tolerance for running in the cold tends to end around the –20C mark. In order to make sure that I wouldn’t get waylaid by the cold and not run the full distance I announced that I was a sissy pants and was going to run inside.
To make a treadmill run bearable you need to have good music! I loaded up a brand new playlist on my iPod to keep my brain grooving instead of looking at numbers. Two of my favourite new tunes are Madeon’s The City:
and AWOLNATION Kill Your Heroes:
With the iPod loaded up I made my way to the gym. Luckily the gym at my office is pretty quiet on the weekends so it wasn’t an issue to grab a treadmill and run for longer than the usual 20 minute limit. I set my treadmill goal to distance and got running.
Even with good tunes and a movie playing on the treadmill screen to distract me from the numbers it was still a tough run mentally. I can’t believe I’ve run two hours on the treadmill before! Sometimes you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do when it is cold outside though. Good job to Keith and Sophia for braving the cold temps for that run in Fish Creek Park!
I’ll assume I was building some mental toughness by gutting out a run on the treadmill… Day 1 of my Virtual Half Goofy was done!
I’d have a tougher time on the ‘mill than running outside. Good for you.