You are not the father!

No, I don't have a kid you don't know about. I was watching the Maury Show this afternoon. Before you get worried about me, let me explain. I ran today on the treadmill. Since the demographic of people in the St. Thomas cardio room is mostly young ladies, so the TVs were set up to talk shows and stuff. The TV right in front of me was tuned to the Maury Show, and since I went 50 minutes today, so I saw the whole thing, and that includes the "Am I the father?" segment or whatever, which was hilarious. But yeah, I felt like I let myself down running on the treadmill. I haven't ran inside all winter, but finally broke down. It wasn't even that cold, only -17 degree windchill (not even exaggerating, I ran in -27 degree windchill earlier this year, it sounds worse than it actually is.) The main reason I gave in is because of Grandmas training. This year I'm trying to hit a specific time (Boston, so 3:10:59 or less) so my workouts are usually run at a set pace that goes down by a couple seconds every week. This week its 8:17, save for tomorrow, which is a tempo run at 6:50's.

Yesterday I ran outside, and I actually averaged close to 8:15's, although I really couldn't tell you how. I pieced together a few routes, and ran through two college campuses and passed as many businesses as I could because they have the best chance of having a somewhat clear sidewalk. Somehow, I strung together two 7:00 miles and the rest were mid 8's. It sucked though, the hardest 7 mile run I've done in a while. So today I decided on the treadmill. First time in the new athletic center and I was pretty impressed. Finally something that looks like its worth the tuition I pay to go to this godforsaken school. Lets run down the pros and cons of the run:
Pros:

• Wore flats for the first time in 4 months
• Didn't have to wear multiple layers or deal with wind
• met some really good looking ladies
  
• No hills or ice
• Putting my shirt over the treadmill display made it much easier psychologically
  
• Ran straight 8:17's every mile
• It feels awesome knowing that you ran longer than most people in the room
  

Cons:

• Ran straight 8:17's every mile
  
• I finished my run knowing I had not gone anywhere
• Somebody stole my shirt
• meatheads
• no hills, nothing really distinctive
• It was freakin 70 degrees the whole time!
• I was sweating profusely

Bottom line, I could live without the treadmill. If I wasn't in marathon training, I wouldn't bother with that garbage. But now its a necessary evil. Especially for my tempo run tomorrow. Then we'll see what goes down.