Beat Treadmill Running Boredom

Yes, it's that time of year again. The weather is colder, the days are shorter, and our treadmills (whether at home or at the gym) are getting a lot more use. If you're finding that you're already starting to suffer from extreme treadmill running boredom, try some of these tips:

• Run with a friend. If you and a friend belong to the same gym, get her to run on the treadmill next to you. You can motivate each other and provide distraction to make your workout time go by faster. And one great thing about treadmill running with friends is that you don't have to be the same pace, so you can run with friends who you wouldn't normally run with outside.
• Mix it up with strength-training exercises. After a 5-minute warm-up, run at a comfortable pace for five minutes, then step off the treadmill and do two minutes of strength-training exercises, such as crunches, push-ups, side-crunches, lunges and dips. Try doing four sets of running/strength-training.
• Alternate with another cardio machine. Try breaking up your run by alternating with the bike or elliptical trainer. If you want to do a 40-minute cardio workout, run on the treadmill for 10 minutes and then jump on another machine for 10 minutes, and keep alternating until you've reached your total goal time. If you run on a treadmill at home and that's your only cardio machine, try running up and down the stairs for five minutes, in between running segments.

Related:

• More Tips for Beating Treadmill Boredom
• Treadmill vs. Outside Running
• Treadmill Speed Workout
• Video: How to Run on a Treadmill