Saturday, July 21, 2012

Looking for Indoor Running Solutions

I think we've reached the stage of the year when denial is unavoidable: the dog days of summer are here, at least in north central Florida.  For several mornings I have been struggling to get in simple 3.25-mile runs around my neighborhood against the ever-intensifying combination of heat and high humidity.  Finally, yesterday I caved in and resorted to the treadmill at my nearby YMCA.  Ditto for today.  And I wonder whether tomorrow will bring more of the same.

It is awful outside, even in the middle of the evening (at this writing it is about a quarter to ten).  Right now the temperature and humidity are such that I still wouldn't run in it, and it's nighttime.  It is times like this when I wish I lived in a more temperate, cooler climate.  I'm thinking more specifically about the coastal Pacific northwest, running from San Francisco northward to the Canadian border.  No, I'm not too keen on that Olympic National Park area of western Washington state, where it rains so much (and the hopefully-fictional vampires roam).  But dammit, even that would be preferable to what I have to go through right now.

When you cannot even just sit still in a chair on your front porch, in the shade, for a few minutes without beginning to sweat from the oppressive weather...well, I guess that's what air conditioning is for!  And why I am currently sitting INSIDE this Starbucks instead of outside.  Oh, and those mosquitoes out there don't help either.

I get tired of running on treadmills.  I would much prefer an indoor course, not necessarily a running track, where I would have dependable access and could escape the often intolerable outdoor conditions.  Something like a warehouse, auditorium, mall...even the sanctuary of a church would do.  I wouldn't want to mess up any carpeting, though: the flooring would need to be more solid.

So perhaps that's my solution to the weather here: find such a place indoors to run to my heart's content.  Easier said than done, but who said it can't be done?  Not me. But where?

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