Oh the smells!

As much as I love running outdoors, I have recently been wanting to go to the gym on campus. I preach about running outdoors over running on a treadmill yet I haven't been able to shake this gym feeling. Until today.

Knowing I had class at 9:50 this morning, I decided I would run in the afternoon. Following class was a 1 hour 45 minute meeting and after that I had to correct some student essays for work. I was actually looking forward to this because I was dying for a coffee!

So I headed over to the Barnes & Noble bookstore on campus and had myself a tall coffee with soy. I was going to grab a Nature Valley Peanut Butter Crunchy bar (So good!! And I already had my daily Clif bar), but I decided to try their Protein bar instead. Now I have to admit, I did count calories as I had lunch during my meeting, but I really wanted something with my coffee. The NV protein bar had 200 calories versus the PB crunchy bar's 190. What the heck; why not?! Now, I wish I can tell you what the flavor was and include a picture of it, but get this: I can't find it online! I was just Googling "Nature Valley protein bar", "Nature Valley protein chocolate", and some other searches with other keywords. No luck. The flavor I had isn't even on the Nature Valley website! What the heck Rutgers B&N bookstore!? I promise you I had a NV protein bar with chocolate chocolate chunks and, I'm pretty sure, cherries in it, but I have no way of proving this until my next visit. If you would like to verify my search or just prove that I can't look for anything (generally pretty true), then check out their website for yourself: http://www.naturevalley.com/snack-bars

Anyway, by the time I got back to the apartment and had my sneakers on, I had just 45 minutes for a run. I wanted to be out there for at least an hour, but that just wasn't possible for today. So I had the great idea of heading to the gym and getting in a quick run on the treadmill and then complete a quick gym workout afterward. After reading this article (http://www.runnersworld.com/running-tips/why-stair-climbing-is-good-for-runners) about stair climbing, I figured maybe I could reap some of these awesome benefits by putting the treadmill on an incline.

So I run to the gym, put my jacket, hat, and ID in a locker, and immediately question the decision I had made: I had to wait around for one of the five six treadmills to become available. If that wasn't unnatural enough (for me), the place smelled awful! I learned that running outside definitely, though undesirably, improved my ability to smell BO when it was around me...and I think it amplified that ability as well.

I finally get on a treadmill and my "run" lasted all of 3 minutes 36 seconds and not because the power went out or a fire alarm was pulled. I just couldn't take it! The smells; the pounding of the treadmill; the incredibly inaccurate pace that the machine indicated I was running  when I know my body and I know what certain paces feel like. So I left the gym and, without a watch or gloves, proceeded to run one of the most enjoyable runs I have completed in quite a while. I don't know if it was the liberating feeling I got from the lack of weight on my wrist or if it was the fact that I felt like I needed to prove why outdoor running trumps treadmill running, but I felt incredible.

So I guess, in a way, I have to thank that treadmill for those 3 minutes and 36 seconds. If that's all it took to remind me why I love running outdoors no matter the bitter temperatures, then that is time I don't mind not getting back!

Happy Running! (Sorry for the lack of pictures today!)