Me and Treadmills

So back at home, I have a treadmill that I've rarely used since the summer post-8th grade. I've had really bad experiences with it, especially after I started running outdoors, because it's sloped up quite a bit and running at 3 or 4 mphs for 30 minutes on the treadmill feels worse than running 5 or 6 mphs outside for 42 minutes. That's why I expected to never use the gyms here at Harvard.

However, I gave it a try on Monday, since I didn't wake up early enough to run with my friend [these last 2 days], and I quite liked it. 4 mph felt really slow, so I went up to 5, 6, and 6.5 mph and ran quite comfortably for a mile (well, as comfortably as you can run while sweating and struggling to breathe). I've been doing sorta-intervals, walking for a bit to warm up, then running for a mile or so at 6.5mph before slowing back down to around 4mph, then jogging one final bit at 5.5-6.5mph. This has resulted in about 3 miles in 35 minutes, and about 10 calories burned per minute. Not particularly remarkable, but at least I'm getting back into the habit. Hopefully I'll stop being a wimp after another week or so and I'll actually be able to run outside [until the weather makes it impossible] to MIT and back. For now, though, going to the gym hasn't been as horrendous as I expected it to be. And that's always nice. :)