FARGO, ND – April 22, 2025 — Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced $340.6 million in U.S. Department of Agriculture disaster assistance to deliver relief to farmers, ranchers and rural communities impacted by natural disasters that have caused devastation across the country.

(Washington, D.C., April 21, 2025) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins joined the 2025 White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn alongside American egg producers.

Instagram has a new feature that curates custom Reels feeds for you and your friends. Blend, an invite-only option within individual or group chats, refreshes daily and suggests content based on participants’ tastes.

Spotify has a similar Blend feature that creates shared playlists—also updated daily—based on both listeners’ tastes. Note that Instagram Blend, which is a mobile-only feature, is not yet available to all users, even if the icon appears in your chats.

How to use Instagram Blend

To start a blend, you’ll need to invite users via your individual or group chats. From Messages on the mobile app, open the one-on-one or group chat you want to create a blend with and tap the new Blend icon. Everyone in the chat will receive an invite—if at least one person accepts, a blend will be created, but an individual’s suggested reels will be added only if they accept.

Once a blend is created, you can view it by tapping the Blend icon at the top of the chat, where you can then comment on or react to it. You can delete a reel that has been suggested for you by tapping the three horizontal dots and selecting Remove from your blends, though this will remove it from any blends you are part of. If you want to leave a blend, open it and tap the Settings icon > Leave this blend.

According to Instagram’s explainer page, you can also curate suggestions by indicating whether you are interested or not interested (tap the three horizontal dots on the reel) to get more or less of similar content. Sensitive content will be filtered based on the member with the strictest settings.

(Washington, D.C., April 18, 2025) – This week, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins visited Central Pennsylvania where she toured Talview Dairy, participated in a farmer roundtable at Martin’s family farm, and visited the Bank of Bird-in-Hand mobile bank to discuss agricultural lending with community leaders. Secretary Rollins was joined by Senator Dave McCormick, House Agriculture Committee Chairman GT Thompson, and Representatives Dan Meuser, Rob Bresnahan, and Lloyd Smucker.

Is the treadmill harder or easier than running outdoors? Survey runners, and you’ll get plenty of different opinions on which feels harder or easier, but the basic physics of running are the same on both. (I promise.) So why do people who are used to treadmills find that they’re slower when they run outdoors? I’m going to run through the factors that are at play here, and talk about how to adapt if you want to be able to enjoy both. 

If you find treadmill running harder, you probably already know the reason: it’s boring. You have nothing to distract you from your own effort and the glowing numbers telling you how little progress you’ve made. This is a problem that we can train our brains to solve for us over time, whether with distractions, mindfulness, or simply being grateful that we’re not outdoors in the bad weather. 

For those who find treadmill running easier, the biggest reasons have to do with the environment (heat, hills, etc.) and with your mindset (especially your ability to pace yourself). Training both indoors and outdoors will help you to make the transition a little easier. Let’s dig into the reasons. 

The treadmill is not literally easier

Before we get into the relevant factors, I want to dispel a few myths. Physics-wise, running on a treadmill is pretty much identical to running outdoors in the same conditions.

The treadmill does not move your feet

The first myth we need to bust is the idea that the treadmill “moves your feet” and thus makes running easier. That’s not true. You have to spend just as much effort to stay in place on a treadmill going (say) say 6.0 miles per hour, as you do to move forward at 6.0 miles per hour on flat, steady ground. Running is the action of pushing off the ground to move yourself forward. In both scenarios, you are asking your muscles to push off with a force that will keep you moving 6 mph faster than the ground. 

(If the “treadmill moves your feet” theory were correct, would we not have to consider the rotating Earth its own sort of treadmill? And thus it would be 2,000 times harder to run west than to run east? Come on.)

You only need to add a 1% incline if you are running very fast

Then there’s the issue of wind resistance. Some runners will say you need to set the treadmill’s incline to 0.5% or 1% to mimic outdoor air resistance. Even on a calm day, your body has to push into the air to keep moving. Adding a small incline to the treadmill is supposed to mimic that extra effort.

But that is only true if you run at a pace of 7:30 per mile (8.0 mph) or faster. Below that, “the difference is so small as to be meaningless,” a scientist who studied the question told Runner’s World. So if you’re jogging at 6 mph, you don’t have to worry about accounting for wind resistance. 

Now that we understand the physics, let’s talk about why treadmill runs often feel easier than outdoor runs. 

Pacing

This is probably the biggest factor (aside from weather) in why outdoor running feels harder for a person who is used to treadmill running. On the treadmill, you decide on a pace—say 6 mph, as in our example above—and then your body knows what to do. 

But outdoors, you just have to run, and then figure out later what pace you’re going. Even if you have a watch that tells you your pace, it takes a few seconds to minutes to work out what that number is. (You also may not be used to reading minutes-per-mile pace if you’re used to seeing mph on the treadmill, which makes it even harder to know how fast you’re going.) 

So you, the treadmill runner, head off on an outdoor run without a good sense of how fast you’re going. Perhaps you end up going a little too fast, but you don’t realize it until it’s too late and you’re pooped. 

Meanwhile, outdoor runners will develop a sense of pace out of necessity. You have to listen to your body, not just look at a number, to know how hard you’re pushing. 

The good news is that it’s easy for treadmill runners to learn a sense of pace—all you have to do is run outside from time to time. You’ll learn what your body feels like when you’re going at an easy pace versus a harder pace versus an unsustainable one. It just takes a little practice.

Heat, humidity, and other weather conditions

If all your treadmill runs are inside of a 68-degree gym, they’ll all feel pretty similar. But the great outdoors is fond of blessing us with heat, wind, humidity, rain, snow, ice, and similar complications. 

Heat slows us down a lot, especially if we aren’t used to it. (You do build up some heat adaptation throughout the summer.) Humidity, in combination with heat, makes this even worse. Your body can’t cool itself as well through sweating, so you get hot and stay hot. It’s normal for your pace on a hot day to be anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes slower each mile. 

Heavy winds can also slow you down (when you’re running into the wind) or speed you up (when you’re running with the wind at your back). Ice can make you slow down to watch your footing. Snow can make you work harder as your feet sink into the ground and you have to fight to pull them back up again. 

On the other hand, a cool, dry day is better for your performance than the conditions inside a sweaty gym. Perfect running weather is (in my opinion) around 50 degrees, calm, and overcast. Most people will run a lot faster and feel better in those conditions than on a treadmill at room temperature.

Hills

If you live in a pancake-flat part of the country, you can skip this section. But many of us live where there are hills. Big ones, little ones, maybe some mountains. On the treadmill, you get to choose what incline to run with. Outdoors, your choices may be limited. 

I live in a hilly place, so even my “flat” outdoor routes aren’t entirely flat. A regulation running track is my only truly flat option. Even gently rolling hills can add up over the course of a long run, making you work harder on the uphills without ever fully giving you that speed back on the downhills. 

Different surfaces

A treadmill only has one surface. Every step meets flat ground. Every step is the same softness or hardness. Outdoors, there’s so much more variation. 

Even on a simple city run, you’ll find yourself traversing curbs, slightly tilted sidewalk slabs, cambered edges of roads, pebbles, stray garbage, and occasional patches of grass or dirt. Take your run to the trails and you’ll also hit packed dirt, mud, soft grass, leaf litter, rocks, sticks, logs, little streams you have to hop over, ruts carved by mountain bike wheels—you get the idea. Your feet have to land and push off just a little differently for each of these. 

The variety in outdoor running is good for your feet, but it can be fatiguing on the small muscles of your feet and lower legs if you’re not used to it. 

How to train for an outdoor race if you prefer to run on the treadmill

It’s OK to do plenty of your training on a treadmill, and in some situations it may be necessary. The treadmill can let you get your training in when the weather is bad, when you can’t line up child care at your running times, or any of a number of other reasons. 

The important thing is to still run outdoors at least sometimes. If you’re training for a marathon, try to do your long runs outdoors, even if some of your shorter runs and speedwork have to be on the treadmill. Get outside when you can. That way you’re adapting to the weather, training your feet on different surfaces, and building the muscles and mindset necessary to tackle hills. 

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We like to think that our home is also our fortress of privacy: Once you walk through your front door, you’re free from prying eyes (or lenses) and can relax. There are a ton of ways to ensure your privacy inside, starting with items like window films, shades, and curtains. And if you want to protect your outdoor space from neighbors peering over the fence, you have several easy options.

Most of those options, however, assume your neighbors are on the same level as you. If the neighboring homes are located above yours, you’ll need to re-think your privacy plan. This is especially true if your neighbors have outdoor areas that offer a perfect view of your backyard. If you get the sense you’re being watched every time you step outside your house, here are a few ways you can regain some privacy.

Plant trees

The simplest long-term option is to plant trees—specifically canopy trees, whose branches stretch out and form a living roof over the area below. You’ll want to consult with an arborist or other landscaping professional to identify canopy trees that will thrive in your region and climate. You’ll also want to get some advice on spacing out the trees so you eventually get the lush, thick “roof” effect that will offer the privacy you’re looking for (not to mention cool down the space and block out the sun’s damaging rays).

Note the word “eventually,” however: Trees don’t just pop up in a matter of days. Maple trees, for example, are excellent canopy trees, but can take several decades to reach their full height and size. But if you’re going to be in the house (and using the yard) for a long time to come, investing in canopy trees will solve your problem and beautify the space.

Install shade sails

A shade sail is typically a large triangular or rectangular sheet of fabric that you attach to posts or existing structures in your yard (such as a fence). They let air and rain through, but block out the sun, creating shade wherever you want it. That means they can be used for vertical privacy, too—one or more shade sails installed in your yard will block someone’s view of your yard from above.

Shade sails are relatively affordable and easily installed. You can buy a shade sail kit that comes with everything you need, but it’s easy to DIY by sinking a few posts or attaching some hooks to your fence or exterior walls. They can also be quickly removed if your circumstances change.

Add a covered patio

If you have a defined patio or deck space where you spend most of your time being observed by your neighbors (or imagining you are), you can cover it pretty easily using several options:

• A freestanding pergola or a pergola attached to the house, combined with some outdoor curtains

• A gazebo with a canopy is a less-permanent choice that can also afford you a ton of privacy, at least in that specific area of your yard.

• A pop-up canopy tent is a quick, cheap, and temporary solution.

Build a pergola by the fence line

Speaking of pergolas, if your neighbor’s house looms over your yard, you can enhance your privacy by building a pergola near your fence line where their house is located. The angle will work in your favor; even a modest pergola can block much of your neighbor’s view if they’re not looking straight down into your yard. And if you have multiple neighbors up there, you can add a strong of pergolas along the fence line to block the angle everywhere.

You’ll have to check local regulations (or your homeowners association) before building. Some areas will require a pergola to be a set distance from a boundary fence (e.g., 16 feet), while others might have a calculation based on the size of the property and the height of your fence.

Invest in tall fencing

Finally, privacy fencing isn’t your best option for elevated neighbors, but if it is your only option for some reason, go big and install an extremely tall privacy fence. You’ll need to check local regulations to see if there are legal limits to how tall your fencing can be and then build or buy a fence at the maximum height (you can buy pre-made 12-foot and even 16-foot tall privacy fencing, though you’ll likely pay a steep price). As with pergolas near the perimeter, a tall enough fence can block your neighbors’ viewing angle. Another option is to grow a “living fence” using hedges or other plants (such as nigra arborvitae, which can reach 30 feet in height). You’ll have to wait for your plants to mature, but this can be a prettier option than a looming fence.