Treadmill Run

I attempted to head out for an ill fated 4 mile run today. I was supposed to meet up with a coworker to get in about two miles with him, but due to my lack of skill in the direction giving area, we never met up.

I assume this is how confused he was. Except he's not as cute as this very confused giraffe. 

Heads up to future running buddies, I may give you bad directions.

Our attempt to meet up was also doomed by the fact that it started pouring as soon as we got to the lake area. And that there's tons of apparent bridges and parking lots that look similar. Let me tell you something about Baton Rouge. The weather here doesn't know how to do something half heartedly. When it rains, it doesn't just drizzle, it goes all out in a downpour.

Totally true. And sort of relevant, because it started pouring right when I got to the parking lot. 

With the whole weather and being confused about the meeting point, I ended up doing a sort of a interval ish run of 2 miles at 8:30/mile. I ran faster than I would normally to each bridge and waited for a while under it to see if he was waiting there. Let's just call that a fartlek workout. Anyways, by the end of the two miles, my clothes were wet and heavy, and my sneakers were seriously waterlogged.

Now comes the dilemma. I would love to meet my major running goal for this year and run a marathon. There's a perfectly timed one in Baton Rouge in the first weekend of December. However, I am not certain I'll be able to get all my training runs in outside.

In an attempt to not fall off the wagon again and also so that I could get some cross training in, I signed up for a gym today. My plan is to go to group classes like spinning. Now that there's some monetary commitment, I'll at least get some good cross training in.

So I know that I'll most likely always have a treadmill to get my runs in. Other than the crushing boredom, I'm worried that running at the treadmill will make me super unprepared to run an outdoor race.

This is totally what I do. I sneak looks at the speeds of everyone around me. I'm glad I'm not the only one. 

Flat, air conditioned treadmill runs do not adequately prepare a person for a varied terrain and humidity. What do you guys think? Do you think it's possible to train for a race with a lot of the miles logged on the treadmill? 

In a random note, I brought the sexy back in my newly obtained prescription safety glasses.

Whoa close up. But look at the side shields on those glasses. Yeah, this is how us chemical engineers do it.