Running the race

This morning I ran in a 10K (6.2 miles) - as part of my training for running a half marathon in a couple of months, as well as, believe it or not, just for fun. Three years ago, even two years ago, I would never have even imagined running a half marathon, or a 10K, or even running at all. I used to run off and on in high school and college, but after college I stopped running and never anticipated taking it up again.

Now, I am a firm believer that nobody needs to run. There are many types of cardio/aerobic exercise which are just as effective as running and definitely easier on the body. Walking is surely the perfect exercise, and most people can effectively achieve fitness and weight loss by pursuing a walking program.

However, if you really want to run, and your body wants you to run (for example, people with knee problems probably should not be running), running is certainly an efficient method of cardio exercise. The body uses the same number of calories to walk a mile as it does to run a mile (about 100 calories per mile for a 150 pound person). But since running is faster than walking, you can burn more calories in the same period of time by running as by walking, or alternatively, you can cover a given distance in a much shorter time by running than you can by walking. In an hour of moderate walking you might walk about 3 miles; however, in an hour of moderate running you could run 6 miles, consuming twice as many calories as you did by walking the same hour.

As I said, after college I never planned to run again. I have always been a walker, and my sporadic exercise efforts usually involved walking (which I would do daily or frequently for a few months at a time, before lapsing again into inactivity). Walking, when I did it consistently, helped me get in better shape and lose some weight every time I took it up. (It was the stopping that was always my downfall.)

When I seriously began losing weight in the fall of 2004, I knew I would want and need to exercise, and I assumed I would walk. But with oncoming winter, dark evenings and bad weather, I put it off. In January of 2005 I fortuitously bought a (very lightly) used treadmill, and also joined the YMCA. I discovered that walking on the treadmill was great. I could listen to my music on headphones at the Y, or watch TV at home, and weather was not a problem. I soon began upping my walking workout by raising the incline on the treadmill and increasing my speed to faster walking. I did try to walk outside when I could, on weekends and in warmer weather, because it is still more interesting and I think that walking outdoors has functional fitness benefits that the artificial environment of the treadmill does not offer.

But a strange thing started to happen. My body started wanting to spring into a run. When I took the garbage out to the back alley, I spontaneously jogged back to the house. I started interspersing minutes of running into my treadmill walks. Soon the periods of running were longer than the walking - and by the beginning of 2006, if not sooner, I was running on the treadmill for an hour or more, several days a week.

But I still limited the running to the treadmill. When I went outside, I walked, often for miles, and I enjoyed it. I still had no intention of being an outdoor runner. After all, when I saw people running in the streets they never looked very happy, and sometimes they looked downright miserable!

It was a trip to England that turned me into an outdoor runner. There were no treadmills in England (at least not where I was), and although I got plenty of exercise by walking many hours a day, I was a little bit afraid that if I gave up the running entirely, I might not want to take it up again when I got home. I tested the water in Bath. I took a walk up one of the many long hills surrounding the city, and began running on the way down, letting gravity do the work for me. The next day I added some level streets to the downhill jog. Later in London, I ran several miles in Regents Park every morning, and loved it. (How could I not? It was Regents Park - it was London!)

Back home I resumed my treadmill running, until one day I picked up a flyer for the Race for the Cure at Starbucks. Suddenly I had a compulsion to run in this race, and on a whim, signed myself up. Before taking on the 5K I thought I needed to officially run at least 3.1 miles outside, so one Saturday I did - and my running life really began.

Since then I have run 5 to 6 miles several days a week, mostly outside whenever possible. Most of the time it has been in my town, but I also took my running on the road for several out-of-town and out-of-state trips. Including the Race for the Cure in June 2006, I have run in four 5K races and as of today, three 10K's. On the future docket is a 15K in March and the half-marathon in April. After that? We'll see.

The strange thing is, twenty years after I gave up running, I enjoy it more, do it better, and run longer distances than I ever did as a younger person. I suspect that this is because in my past running days I never ran further than three miles at a time, and I've discovered that I don't really get "in the zone" until I've been running at least three miles. Once I'm in the zone, I feel like I could run forever.

And when I'm running? I never look miserable. Sometimes I even smile! :)

Chocolate therapy

Earlier today I seem to have inadvertently deleted my i-tunes off the computer after several aborted attempts to update it. Of course I can download the new software, and I guess I can re-download any music I need too. It is a pain, but this is not a post about my computer inadequacies (which are many).

After I realized what I had apparently done, I announced that I need a piece of chocolate to get over my trauma. Then I went and had a piece of chocolate. (A 50-calorie square of Endangered Species chocolate, to be exact.) It certainly didn't make any difference in my computer problems, and I don't even know that it was particularly soothing, but boy, did it taste good, and I did enjoy it.

Turning to chocolate in times of stress is such a universal response (at least on the part of women). I suppose it is unwise if one turns to excessive amounts chocolate--whole candy bars, bags of chocolate chips, pounds of chocolate, etc. (been there). But small amounts of very good, delicious chocolate are not harmful, and so many sources now say that chocolate is a good source of anti-oxidants. It also makes you feel good (scientifically established to produce the same kind of endorphins that falling in love does).

I try not to eat chocolate so regularly that it becomes a habit. I don't want to get to a place where I need and expect to eat chocolate every day. Like an addiction, I think that might lead to greater and greater amounts. But I do frequently treat myself to small portions of very dark chocolate, from 25 to 100 calories worth, and count that into my day's eating as I would a comparable amount of fruit. I savor every tiny bite--and I think I savor it more because I am not devouring great quantities.

It may not be the cure to computer woes, and it may not be Prince Charming waltzing in to sweep me off my feet, but as therapy goes, it's a pretty good substitute.

Welcome to my blog

Well, here I am. Maybe I am two years too late to write a weight loss blog, because most of the ones I see are all about the weight loss journey. In my case, I'm sort of at the end of that journey, because I've pretty much lost the weight already (except for the last 10 pounds, of course). On the other hand, my journey is really just beginning, because now I'm in it for the long haul--keeping the weight off for the rest of my life. (And maybe losing those last 10 pounds, eventually.)

I've thought about this for a while, as I've read stacks of other people's books and pages of other people's blogs, thinking in the back of my head, "I have something to say, too." Really this is just for myself, a way to journal and express myself without the tedium of pen and paper. We'll see if I keep it up, or if it goes the way of most journals--procrastinated over and eventually set aside and forgotten.

Why did I start today? Well, honestly, it was a way to avoid the house cleaning and tidying that I had meant for today. After a long morning in bed watching all the morning shows that I miss because of going to work (all three hours of Today, followed by The View and forays into Regis and Kelly, The Tyra Banks Show, and Ellen), I went for a run, came home and took a long bath (to soak the muscles sore from yesterday's long run); by then it was time for lunch, General Hospital, and eventually Oprah--well, you see how time flies. I did manage to squeeze in a couple loads of laundry and some desultory housework before I needed to go check my email--and here I am.

The other reason today is a good day to start is because it is the beginning of the week after chocolate fest--that is, Valentine's Day. Not that I have people sending me chocolates, or anything like that (I am perfectly capable of buying them myself, believe me). But it was a week involving several festive lunches, three separate outings involving cocktails, and a birthday party with cake. Lots of cake. I'll admit, too much cake.

I didn't really go crazy--except maybe for the cake--and I think my weight is hovering within a couple pounds of where I expect it to be. But this week is the time to get back on the straight and narrow, and prove that a little bit of celebration need not lead to disaster!