One athlete I am working with recently made a remark about the snow getting in the way of her training and that she’d have to use the “dread mill.” It’s not a “Dread mill” unless you look at it that way. It is simply a treadmill. My first vote when it comes to running, and walking would be to get outside in the fresh air, among the trees, under the sky, and varying terrain. But sometimes that is not an option, weather, time, and the area you are in can be limiters. This is when the treadmill becomes an option. You may not like the treadmill, or “dread” mill, but that approach or mindset doesn’t help you. If you already are missing being outside then using the treadmill as your back-up or plan “B” to get the run or walk in, then dreading it only additionally takes your soul. It’s a double whammy of one missing the outside run and then on top of that “dreading” it. Instead, appreciate having this as an option. Second is not to wish your time away as you “get this over with” or wish for the “future” to be here, or numbing yourself with music, or television. How about not fighting it, but surrender to it, then accept what you are doing by being there to witness it. The body is running whether you are on a treadmill or outside, it’s the mind that is whining looking for entertainment. Surrender to the fight of the voice in the head. If there is no resistance then there is no fight, mental pain and suffering diminishes. To keep this going, though, is to keep noticing how the whiny voice wants to get a rise out of you. This is a chance to practice awareness of which you can apply to running outside, a race, and life.
To have a new experience is to make a shift in your perception. Since your needs are the same wherever you are and whatever you are doing this practice powerful.
