Spring is here

So it's finally getting warm enough to run outside again and I've found myself sorely out of practice. Having used the dreadmill only sporadically through the winter I'm pretty much back to square one. In any case, I'm happy to retrain myself, hopefully I can still run a mile.

Wanted: Motivation to Make it Through the Winter

Needless to say, I haven't been very motivated these last few weeks. I can rattle off excuses about how much I've been working (16 hours straight on Christmas, YAY!) or my health (2, count 'em, 2 kidney stones say that my body got confused by meat and wants to go veg again) but in the end, they're all justifications for slacking off.

It's not really all that hard to stop by the gym on the way home from work. Yes I hate the gym. Yes I hate treadmills. Yes I would much rather be smoking half a pack over a giant beer and a shepherd's pie the size of my head. But it is far easier to give up than to keep pushing myself that next mile or seeing how much I can improve my 5k time, and I'll never be accused of taking the easy way out.

I Hate Treadmills

And winter. It's official. It started snowing too much to run outside (also, they don't salt, plow, or even shovel our street) and so I've consigned myself to the treadmill. I absolutely hate it. Needless to say there's not a lot to say about running in place, in front of a television, surrounded by 20 year old meatheads dropping 50lb handweights and grunting.

Someone who lives in a beautifully warm and balmy place please tell me how you're logging miles in the sweet sunshine. I will live on through you.

Back from Vegas!

And it was pretty awesome. I made a point of staying at the gaudiest hotel I could find and it was perfect. Upon returning home, though, I found it is truly the beginning of winter-the first snow had fallen and temperatures had plunged.



Great.



This wouldn't really bother me except for the fact that my neighborhood streets don't get salted. The cold I can handle, but trying to run on solid ice isn't going to work for me. So I pose a question:



Should I break down and buy a gym membership to use the treadmill or should I start looking for different routes to run outside?