Tired of heading to sweaty, stuffy gyms in order to stay in shape?

The great things about working out outside are the little mind games you can play with yourself.

For instance: when running, I pick a point - a tree, a fence (or ideally, another person, moving toward me) - where I make a deal with myself that I can stop once I pass that point. "Just run to that tree/fence/person-running-really-quickly-toward-me, and then you can stop, and walk, and buy yourself an ice cream on the way home."

Another game I like to play while working out outside is "Pretend you are Oprah," otherwise known as "Freak Out the People Near You" and/or "Make them Think You are Famous" Now, this game is played to much better results in a city like New York, where you are guaranteed some level of anonymity. In smaller communities where you are more likely to run into lots of people you know, you might want to pass this up. In this game, I like to walk instead of run, pumping my arms like crazy in order to bring my heart rate up (Oprah, a' la 1995). Because it looks really stupid, I prefer to wear sunglasses and a bandana. Funny thing is that - instead of deciding you are an idiot - people who pass you assume you are a celebrity. They then start Oprah-ing their arms as well. Soon, entire swathes of people working out are doing their best to clothesline each other.

Sometimes, I practice the "borrowed landscape" routine - I do some sort of cardio workout outdoors and then on the way home, I "borrow landscape" (this is a landscape design term, but I think it fits) to complete my training. This involves stopping at someone's front steps and using them to do modified push ups and calf stretches, or holding onto a railing for lunges. Note: this tends to scare other people's dogs. They don't like to be scared. You've been warned.

All in all, I have to say - even if you don't do odd little things that make you look like a freak when working out outdoors (whether you walk or run or stroll or pretend to do pushups), there is just something truly more fun about being outside. What end-goal can you make for yourself on a treadmill? ("When you get to 30 minutes, you can stop?" Bah. What is the fun in that?)

Don't get me wrong - the climate here necessitates that I workout indoors sometimes. But by and large, I prefer the Pretend-to-be-Oprah-Walking routine. It gives me hope that I will be mistaken for a celeb and will see myself featured in Gawker Stalker someday.