I hate treadmills…

Well….It’s been months again. Here I am. Still basically the same body as before. I did a fair bit of running in January and slacked a good bit in February. I went jogging on Thursday and it was great. I went 3.75 miles. It’s the longest in awhile. Let me do some recapping and then I will come back to that run.

So I bought some new shoes. I bought some New Balances. My father highly recommended them. He said he didn’t like Nikes because they made his feet hurt. He said once he went to New Balances, his feet felt great. So my legs were hurting a bit and I thought after 200 miles or so, it was time for some new ones. I had been jogging on the treadmill and couldn’t really get past 3.5 miles. I would barely get through my 5Ks. I thought I would be improving after last summer. Nope. So I went to the store. The people were great, helpful, and friendly. I ended up buying a pair for 80 bucks. (This was in mid January).

Alright, new shoes! I thought it was going to be great. I changed clothes, went to the gym, stood in line for the treadmill, barely got through my 5K. Lather, rinse, repeat. I was going fairly often. I thought I would be getting stronger. Nope. My lower legs started to hurt. So I took a day off and tried again. Legs still hurt. Not just a little either. It felt like someone smacked the sides of my legs with a sledgehammer. It HURT. So I decided to chance it up. I said enough of the stupid treadmill. It was time to start running like a real person. It actually started when I went to the gym one day and the line for the treadmill was 4 people deep in all rows. I had enough. I was going for the 1/12 of a mile indoor track.

First run – not bad. Second run – I think I like this. Third run – never doing treadmills again. Now I am not saying that these were the best runs that I have ever did but it was better. I felt my muscles burn. My back hurt. It was real and I enjoyed it. So I knew that I was done with the treadmill but another problem still existed. I still had the sledgehammer pain. I figured it was something with the treadmill but it wasn’t. So that brings us to the last run.

It was a Thursday. I hadn’t ran in a week. My tummy was pooching out again. All the ab wheels and sits up last week meant nothing anymore. The weather in Chicago was nice. The spring has finally broken the terrible winter’s grasp. It has been a long long winter. So it was outside for me. I kept my New Balances at work (because the gym is in the basement) and for shits and giggles I used my old nikes.

Old Nikes, outside, and I had a week off. This made for a great run. I did my old run at the Sox stadium parking lot. It was great. AND my legs didn’t hurt. I think the problem may be in the shoes. I am going to start running outside a lot more now and with the old nikes. Let’s see what happens.

~ by amikolaj on March 16, 2008.