​Did you know the treadmill was originally invented as a torture device for prisoners? I suppose that gives new meaning to the term ‘dreadmill.’ In spite of its common “dreadmill” status, the treadmill has come to the rescue for many Stroller Warriors. It’s often conveniently located in your own home and you can log some stress relieving miles without disrupting naptime or the family schedule.
 
Some amazing Warriors have taken treadmill running to a whole new level. This is something you’re going to have to see to believe. I thought I was super productive to push the kids in the stroller while they napped. Well, Jessica R has reached a whole new level of productivity. She folds laundry while she runs. Yes! You read that correctly. She FOLDS the laundry while she is running.
 
Jessica is a Warrior from Yuma who moved away from her tribe about a year ago and is now a part of our virtual chapter, Stroller Warriors Elsewhere. Jessica says her treadmill productivity was originally, “born out of necessity,” and has continued out of necessity. “If I want to get my miles done, it has to be done on ‘mother’s terms.’”
 
When Jessica moved from the hot desert of Yuma, Arizona to Minnesota she got to take her job with her. Which is great! But also presented some added difficulties. Now, Jessica would have to work from home and stay inside for the harsh Minnesota winters. Naturally, she decided to buy a treadmill. 

​Unfortunately for Jessica she got rear ended and ended up with a concussion the day before her T80 treadmill was delivered. As a result, she was unable to run for 4 very long months. Once Jessica was cleared to run she decided to celebrate her 40th birthday and, “just to get back into things” by signing up for another 50k trail race. Jessica says, “Accident + age crisis meant I needed the miles more than ever! Training for a long race takes many hours, so of course I found the compromise by discovering I could walk, and then run, while working.  Why stop there? Reading, folding laundry, surfing the Internet, you name it. Doing it all during the workday takes the guilt out of the long hours of run therapy. I’d rather be outside, but the T80 has handled up to 4 hours of straight running, and doing something in the meantime takes the monotony out of it.”
 
Jessica claims she is not particularly coordinated, she just “never thought it was NOT possible.” And decided to go for it. As you can see by the video, Jessica has clearly mastered the goal she was after!
 
As the saying goes, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” –Norman Vincent Peale
 
Happy Running!
Kelly

​Sometimes treadmill running can be a little monotonous and boring. There are little tricks you can do to make it more fun like listening to music or bringing a magazine to look at. If you’re as amazing as Jessica you can FOLD LAUNDRY and get ahead on your weekly to do list. These days you can even watch TV while you’re running. My gym when I was in my twenties happened to have individual TVs per treadmill. The TVs were pretty big and right in your face. It’s a nice setup.
 
I’ve often wondered if most gyms have security cameras on their equipment. If so, I would likely be on my gym’s blooper reel.

​One of my favorite types of shows to watch are documentaries. I love real life stories. So, one day when I was at the gym on the treadmill I found a documentary about plastic surgery and started to watch it. What better way to distract yourself than TV, right? I started running on the treadmill, built up some speed and mentally vegged away. Suddenly, they cut to a scene of an actual, real life, real time medical procedure.
 
Now there is something you should probably know about me. I can handle blood, but I don't like needles and I don’t like internal organs. So here in front of me on the TV screen is a doctor pulling someone’s internal organs out of their body BLECK! I gasped and jerked my head to the right quickly to move the TV from my sight.

​Have you ever jerked your head to the right while running? DON’T DO IT! Especially when you’re on the treadmill! Me jerking my head threw my body out of alignment and suddenly I had my arms out stretched and was flailing around trying to regain my balance. My feet were stomping like crazy as I flailed. I sounded like a herd of elephants. Finally after what felt like a good 30 seconds of crazy-flailing-trying not to fall running, I caught my balance and was able to press stop on the machine. I looked up to see every in the gym was looking at me.
 
What did I do? I changed the channel of course! and tried again. We all fall, we all make mistakes, we all feel silly sometimes. I know that if I ever went back to the same gym and asked the same people if they remembered me almost falling, they wouldn’t. Each of us is our own worst critic so don’t let yourself get in the way of your own success. Get up and try again.
 
Happy Running,
Kelly