The plan was for 12 outdoor miles today, since I've been doing so many treadmill runs.  The fact that it snowed last night was not going to stop me.  Upon arrival at Lake Scranton, I immediately noticed the lack of cars in the parking lot.  It is usually near full, and today there were two, other than my own.  I made my way down to the trail, nearly falling a few times on the snow covered, ice slick path.

I hit the trail a few moments later to find it completely snow covered, with a few sets of footprints through the middle.  I setup my Ipod and Nike+ and began running.  The snow definitely increase the difficulty level, as your feet sink in and slip every which way.  As difficult as it was, I had a blast.  The first 2.5 miles where snow covered, then I hit a 0.5 mile stretch where the path had been plowed, before getting back into the snow for the last 0.5 miles.

Unfortunately, the difficult surface was decreasing my efficiency, and I was getting tired on just the second lap around.  At 6.5 miles, my IPod battery ran out.  I decided it was best if I just finished up at 7 miles, with an approximate 8:30 pace.  I should mention that running in the snow caused my Nike+ to measure the 6.5 miles as 7.4... Interesting.

These are some pics from after the run.

I don't know what it is, but there is something about the way I run on a treadmill vs. the way I run outdoors that is very very different.  I am leaning towards it being my stride, but its going to take a few more runs to make a real determination.

I did 5.5 miles today in 45 minutes with the incline set at 1.  A decent run, but just as last time, I get a pain in the outside of my right knee.  I only get the pain if I run on the treadmill, though its a tradeoff, because I don't get any shin splints.  The reason I'm leaning toward stride is that my Nike+ is not registering every footstep, in fact it only registered me as having run 5 miles vs. 5.5 as reported by the treadmill.

Time will tell.  In the meantime, I'm going to peruse RunnersWorld for some treadmill training tips.

I'm still looking for 2010 race recommendations, particularly in february.

I went to the gym last night, and did 5 miles on the treadmill.  I had almost forgotten how boring running in place is, and how hot the gym is.  It made for an approximate 8:40 pace run overall, which isn't that bad, i suppose.  I may do it again tonight, and continue doing so until it starts getting a little brighter out in the morning.  I'll save my outdoor runs for the weekends, for the time being.

The only upside I see is that my legs are already warm from being on my feet all day.  Perhaps I can do treadmill tempo runs.