Treadmill
- Better pacing. Hit a button, voila. I’m running at the speed / pace I want. On the other hand, I’m forcing myself to a pace, instead of what my body feels like.
- Available clock / odometer. Good in that I know how long / far I’ve been running. Bad in that I frequently get focused on how slowly time / distance is progressing.
- I can jump off the treadmill at any time. Not good for dedication. Good for when I’m just plain tired. I can also easily get water if I need it.
- Boring scenery.
- Temperature / climate / terrain controlled.
- Only at work. On the other hand, easily available at work.
Outdoors
- Need to self pace. My body gets to do what it wants, but no machine to keep me from slacking.
- No clock. Might want to consider buying a watch. Probably not though. The timelessness feels good. Since I run around the river, I have a general idea of how far I’ve run.
- Unless I hop a cab, I need to complete my run. Unless I backtrack, I need to commit to anywhere between ½ and 2 mile increments, depending on which path I choose.
- Need to carry water with me.
- Variable temperature, wind, sun, etc.
- Bumpy terrain.
- Obstacles, traffic lights, bikes, pedestrians.
- Scenery.
- Eye candy. I frequently find myself looking at other runners thinking “If I just keep running I could have a flat stomach / nice pecs / a cute ass / an effortless stride / a faster pace just like him / her.” For some reason, I rarely find myself thinking “I could have a nice rack like her.” How some of these women put up with what looks like obvious and utter discomfort is beyond me.
- Seeing other runners in various states, from elation to pain, is encouraging. Someone else is going through what I am, and they’re pushing through it. The occasional smile or wave is also encouraging. Having other runners pass me as I’m walking is also good encouragement to start running again.
- Millions and millions of allergens streaming through my respiratory system.
- I don’t like running in the dark, since I can’t see well. This leaves me few hours in the day with which to run.
All in all, outdoors is way better. More thoughts on this as I think them.
I second that – nothing beats a little outdoor action!
Nothing beats the outdoors, but I find that when I’m on a treadmill I can focus more on the inner action of what’s going on, rather than the outer action.
That is to say I can focus more on the movement of my own body because I don’t have to deal with the world around me. I can pay attention to my own movement in a way that lets me refine it and experiment with different ways of moving under more controlled circumstances.
As a dancer and former martial artist, I think of myself as an amateur student of movement, particularly my own body movement. Movement should be natural, smooth, and graceful. Movement extends, ultimately, outward from our core, but often we tend to think of where and how we are putting our feet down, when that is the end of the movement, instead of thinking about how we are using our hips and legs and knees, all of which have to move before our feet ever do.
For fun, next time you are out and about, or on a treadmill, just walk a little, and try to think about each step as a combination of pushing your weight forward off of your back foot, AND pulling your weight forward over your forward foot. Be gentle, start slow, there are some muscles (whose names escape my memory) that attach to your femur in the inner thigh area and extend through your pelvis to your lower back that are used for this, and much of western society only finds them when they pull a groin muscle or injure their lower back.
You can also experiment with varying degrees of keeping your core muscles solid and supporting while also allowing your hips to be loose and move fluidly.
Ogden: Hmmm… I’ll have to remember this next time I’m on a treadmill… which won’t be for a while now. Hopefully I’ll get to think about this when I’m outdoors next time.