My knee has been thwarting my attempts to run for many moons now, which sucks because I am one of those freaky people that is addicted to running. I heart it fiercely. I used to think that "runner's high" was a sick joke played on people who didn't run, but now I catch myself making excuses in the gym: It's just five minutes, I need to warm up for my weight workout anyway, I CAN STOP ANYTIME I WANT TO!!!
A lot of people who do enjoy running hate the treadmill for a variety of reasons I can appreciate, like the frustration of running for an hour and staying in the exact same spot. I happen to love that. I can people-watch without judgment, I can watch TV while running (amazing), or I can completely zone out until suddenly half an hour has gone by. My, my, it's like I wasn't working at all! Plus the numbers! I love knowing exactly how far I went, how fast I was going, and how many calories I burned.
However, my knee hates the treadmill as much as I love it, so I took the plunge and tried out an indoor track. It wasn't as great as my beloved treadmill, but it was a lot less painful, so I guess you win this round, knee. The lack of numbers means I have to count laps and guess about the track length. I kept time with my iPod. Numbers and I don't really get along, so after the run I was trying to figure out how far I went and how fast I was going. It took many more minutes than it should have, and a lot of Google Calculator-ing, but I came up with 3km in 45 minutes, or 15 minutes per km. I squinted at that number for a long time because it seems awfully slow, but the treadmill measures your speed in miles per hour, so that means I have to convert (hold me) miles to kms, carry over the unicorn, make it a percentage, ow my brain…
In the end, after a corrected number for the track length (I was off by, shall we say, a lot), and some laughter at my expensive from my number-inclined partner, I found out I actually ran 5km in 45 minutes. So apparently I win at running, but lose horribly at math.
UPDATE: Yesterday, I ran that same 5km in 34:57 minutes. Then I found the distance posting on the track, so I actually ran 5.56km. STOP MESSING WITH ME, MATH.
