Quote:
Originally Posted by lawyerdad
Yes, it's common. Running outdoors is harder. Conditions are more variable, even "flat" surfaces are never uniformly flat, etc. It may also be mental in the sense that you may be unconsciously pushing yourself harder outdoors, whereas indoors you're probably regulating your effort by reference to the readout on the machine.
This is absolutely true. On a tread mill your pace is set automatically (otherwise you will fall off). In addition to the wind and grade variation outdoors which was mentioned above, most novie runners who have previously run on treadmills find pace setting very difficult outside. I believe part of this is mental.
Last year i got back into running over the winter despite not really doing it (in favor of other types excercise) for several years. I had done road races in the past and set a goal to run a 5K road race at a certain pace in early February. Having raced before and being a excellent shape i thought i had it made, especially when i was hitting my goal consistently on the treadmill a couple of weeks before the race. However, at the 5K, having not run outside at all in preparation, i realized imediately that i couldn't control my pace and had run the first mile far faster than necessary. i wore myself out so badly that i missed the target time.
The treadmill effectively takes pace setting/mental control out of running. that said, my lesson was learned, and now i run outside on all but the coldest/wettest days.
