Trapped on the Treadmill

We here in New England were hit by a major blizzard this past weekend. There was about 2 feet of snow where I live, not including the huge drifts that ended up burying my car:

Poor little car!

For those of you who don't live in colder climates during the winter, it's extremely dangerous to train outside on the road when there's huge piles of snow on the ground. Snow banks make it hard for cars to see you, you can slip on ice that's covered up, and in extreme cases, cars can slip on ice and hit you. In winter weather like this, it's best to train in one of my least favorite ways - the dreaded treadmill.

AKA the dreadmill.

Personally, I much prefer running outside. There's more to look at, there's hills that will keep you in better shape, and it's nice to get some fresh air after being inside working all day. But when there's piles of snow on the ground and I have a race right around the corner, it'd be stupid of me to attempt a run outside.

The treadmill isn't all bad. I love using it for speed workouts, shorter recovery runs, and warm ups for lifting. I know a lot of people who even prefer the treadmill over running outside and can pound out 10 miles on it with no problem. I don't think I'll ever understand how or why they do it, but maybe over these next couple weeks I'll learn.

...haha, yeah right!

So I'm trapped on the treadmill until some of the snow clears off. I usually avoid the treadmill like the plague if I'm running for longer than 45 minutes, but with Hyannis being 12 days away and the snow from Nemo still fresh on the ground, I'm going to have to suck it up and run my 8-10 milers on this torturous machine. Let's just hope I don't go flying off the back of it!