Hitting the Treadmill

Saturday morning Suzie woke me up barking at the paperboy. We don't get the paper but that doesn't stop her from barking at the guy who delivers to other houses.

I dealt with her and checked Weather Channel. As I recall, it was 3 degrees with a wind chill of 10 below. I had really planned to run no matter what; I've run in colder weather. I've run when the actual temperature was below zero.

But not this time. I just couldn't make myself do it. I went back to bed, and when I got up for the day at 8, the temp was up to 4. Hooo-hah.

Luckily, Melissa was home this weekend and eager to use the Health Club where I work. So we went there at 3 in the afternoon and hit the treadmills. I did my 8 miles on a treadmill and hated it. I had brought along my Bruce Springsteen concert DVD in hopes that it would make the time pass more quickly. Didn't work.

I kept thinking about Dick Beardsley, who said he routinely does 20-mile runs on his treadmill because winter conditions in North Dakota (or maybe Minnesota) are too brutal for training. It's bad enough that Beardsley can finish 20 miles in two hours in his fifties. The fact that he can do such a workout on a treadmill really depresses me.

Oh, and even though I thought I used a liberal amount of Body Glide, I ended up with a bloody nipple. It was too much fun.

After the workout, we went to D'Arcy's for horseshoes and Harp lager as an advance celebration of my birthday. So the day wasn't a total loss.