Wednesday, April 15, 2009

I ran 3 miles today.


So I have decided to kick my exercise routine up a notch. After watching my non-blood relatives compete (competitively) in last weekend’s marathon, I decided that I need to get my butt in gear. They might leave me in the dust if I don’t (for real, apparently I’m slow). I mean Pat ran 26.2 miles at a 6 minute 40 second pace. He clearly lived to tell about it so why do I feel like death is around the corner when I run?

I discussed the pain with my lovely cousin, Lesley, who was in town last weekend (cheering on her friend Tina and some Bradley girls). She is a Physical Therapist (well almost, she graduates in May with her Doctorate) and a runner. Can I write a sentence in this paragraph without parentheses (I don’t think so). Anyway, she was telling me that my body may actually contain more fast twitch muscles than slow twitch, hence my speediness. Maybe my cousin Shauna, who has her PhD. in PT, could give me some good exercises to build up my slow twitch muscles.  She is the expert.

My point is it’s not my fault. It’s all hereditary, dang genes. So my new goal is to be able to run 5 miles on a consistent basis before the end of June, especially now that Matty is getting back into running.  He's running another 5K in Springfield this weekend.  Maybe someday I'll run one with him.  I use the term "with him" very loosely.  Most likely I'd be the one crying in the back.

I've been going to the gym over my lunch hour for the last few weeks and this was the first time I completed 3 miles without stopping to walk. I was pretty proud of myself.  At the end of the run I glanced down at the calorie counter on the treadmill and it said 350 calories.  I wonder if those things are accurate.  If it is true I can think of lots of things I could eat for 350 calories, 2.25 star crunches to be exact.   The possibilities are endless.  I guess working out does have it's perks. 
WHAT would YOU eat for 350 calories?

3 comments:

Shauna said...

Leslie's got a good point. If you've got sprinter genes, you're not going to be an elite marathoner. But fiber type composition mainly becomes a limiting factor only at elite levels. For the rest of us, it comes down to conditioning (physical and mental). And from what I've read, you can't really trigger fiber type conversion without heavy-duty, elite-level training. OR, you can hook yourself up to an electrical stimulator for several hours per day! Think of an electric fence shock every few seconds...Nice!

Shannon Leigh Anderson said...

I had a feeling it was mostly mental. Guess I better start conditioning.

Caitie Breeze said...

for 350 calories, we can eat 93 reduced fat cheese nips (those are 45% less fat than regular cheese it's).