On a zoo treadmill

#running #treadmill #animals #zoo #winter

October 15, 2015, running on the treadmill a very weird thought came to my mind something very similar what our animals would be thinking when they are moved from forest to zoo.

Well, stopped the treadmill, reason running all these months under the open sky and fresh air and here on one winter like on a rainy day I am standing 6 feet tall in the gym made me very heavy at heart and speechless as animals.

I instead took the stairs climber for my exercise explaining my heart and head people take stairs to go to upper floors by stairs case ( another good lie to self).

Hope this thought does not linger for long as the outside run is not possible to reason the winter-like weather is already in Chicago. 

Few takeaways, when friends read about my post in social media…they reacted in following ways:

• SS:  I have always felt bad looking at caged animals in the zoo! Any day I would prefer being outside!
• CMM: Urban Animal with ‘stories’ rather than Savannah. Man didn’t walk upstairs, he walked and elevation was part of it.
  Personally, as a former long-distance runner, going up is easier than going down. Run or Hike up to 1500′ and it is rather easy (how we use our muscles), but going down – next day…knees bark at me like an angry dog.
• AD: You can run & walk. 25F is my cut-off temp. This is not a bad weather.
• SK: Don’t blame the weather. We are having the near perfect weather for long-distance running. Just use winter running gears.
• CMM: Funny memory. I ran Cross Country in 1967 for my Middle School and it FROZE in San Francisco.
  My coach suggested some Methyl Salicylate to rub on our legs. It burned! The grass froze overnight and as we ran, it cracked like ice would – crunch, crunch, crack, crack. I did my first sub-5 minute mile that day, and my legs burned for hours from the wintergreen oil and my lungs burned – awful – for the heaving breathing of freezing air.
  Came in third.
• DM: The situation is the same in Dubai for six months in a year – though for reasons of the other extremity of climate.
• Me: Well said SK with right kind of gears all weather can be enjoyed. My today’s update after running outside so much this year right from the beginning of 2015 in LA, Tampa and summer of Chicago I could not appreciate the treadmill run.

November 30, 2017, or like any day like today I go and run outside. The changing landscape really helps me unwind my mind and there is nothing like fresh air and I told all people who commented…You are all so right – Winter does not bother anymore.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/zoo