Ah, the treadmill.

It’s a household piece of exercise equipment that every runner loves to hate. It gets some great nicknames too: The Dreadmill. Satan’s Sidewalk. The Conveyor Belt to Hell.

We all love to hate it.

On the one hand, I wouldn’t be able to get any miles in without my friend the treadmill, at least not during the kind of summer Houston has been having.

On the other hand… It’s BORING. Where am I going to go? Nowhere! And because my treadmill is in my office, which is already jam-packed with desks, bookshelves, homeschool stuff, and computer gear, I have an exciting view of… the inside of my closet.

That’s right. Other people at least get to put their treadmill by a window so they can watch birds or butterflies or something. But not me. I get to stare at a beige wall inside my closet.

This is probably a sign that I need to rearrange my office.

What do I do to keep myself going?

When I’m running outside, it’s easy to keep myself going. I start out running, and running is the fastest way to get back home when I am done. I have to keep moving if I want to get back home, so I do. If all else fails, at least there’s something to look at, whether it’s my neighbors or the birds that fly through the neighborhood.

But on the treadmill, if I get tired of running, I can just stop, hop off, and I’m home. I didn’t go anywhere, so I don’t have to keep going to get back home if my willpower runs out. I don’t even get to look at anything interesting. (Trust me, this is the least interesting closet in my house! We’ve decluttered all of them this year, so I can verify it!)

And let’s reiterate an important fact: the treadmill is BORING. Like truly, incredibly BORING. So it takes a lot more willpower to stay motivated to get a run done.

So what do you do to make the time pass?

Some people like to watch shows on a tablet. Some read. Some do audiobooks or podcasts.

I like music.

Every running season, I build a new playlist on iTunes. Some songs are new additions to the list, while others are perennial favorites. I find that listening to music helps me stay motivated and energized.

Having a wide variety on my playlist helps too—I can skip the songs that don’t fit my mood (for example, I can skip the happy songs when I need rage music or vice versa), and I can shuffle the music to keep the order fresh.

My playlists tend to be fairly long too—the current playlist is over 4 hours long—so that I don’t have too much repetition on a short run, and it will grow as I hear songs on the radio that I want to add. I could add this on other platforms as well, but I am old and started with iTunes back when I was in college, so that’s what I use.

It’s on my phone now, but once upon a time it was on an iPod.

 I’m not so old of a runner that my playlists were ever on burned CDs or even recorded on tapes for a Walkman.

(I am old enough for that, but my running career isn’t. It’s an important distinction.)

Here are some of my current favorites.

Flowers—Miley Cyrus

We Will Rock You—Queen

Don’t Stop Believin’—Journey

Demons—Imagine Dragons

The Mandalorian—Ludwig Göransson

Madness—Muse

Hit Me With Your Best Shot—Pat Benatar

I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)—The Proclaimers

All My Favorite Songs—Weezer

Cruel Summer—Taylor Swift

Pink—Lizzo

Call Me Cruella—Florence + the Machine

They say your music should be in the 120-130 beat per minute range, should make you happy, and should keep you motivated. I don’t necessarily choose my music strictly by the beat, but not surprisingly, many of these are in that range. Regardless, they all fit the happy and keeping me entertained and motivated part.

And when you’re stuck on a “dreadmill” because the weather isn’t going to get below the 90s for the foreseeable future, entertainment during a run is key.