Treadmill Debate

I've been thinking a lot lately about the debate as to whether running on a treadmill is better or running outdoors.  For the most part, I always figured they were about equal in terms of value and health benefit.  But recently a friend said that running on a treadmill is not running.  He said that your body merely goes through the motion of running, but it doesn't actually do that much work.  So then I started reading some articles to try and see what the experts are saying about the two forms of running.  Mostly, it said that running outside is better, but there are pros to running on a treadmill too.  For example, treadmill running is safer, it can be done almost any time of day, and it's easier on the joints.  But outdoor running is probably a better workout because of the outside elements: wind, hills, fresh air.  I then asked on Facebook what people thought.  Most people feel that running outdoors is better and that running on a treadmill is easier.  So I've concluded that while running outside is probably a better workout, I think that nothing should undermine that treadmill running is still running and is a close second.  And I think that running on a treadmill is better than no exercise at all.  So I will probably continue to run on a treadmill, since it works out better in my daily exercise routine, but I will try to run outdoors as much as possible.

By the way, I recently signed up for my 5th race of the year.  It's the Jingle Bell run in December.  I'm very excited about this!