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General

Why You Should Exercise Every Day Plus Random Thoughts on Running

  • Kerrie

Why I believe in active rest days:

“Exercise guidelines from the American Heart Association and other groups recommend that, for health purposes, people accumulate 10,000 steps or more a day, the equivalent of about 30 minutes of walking or easy jogging. Few people do, however. Repeated studies of American adults have shown that a majority take fewer than 5,000 steps per day.” (Why It’s So Important to Keep Moving, Gretchen Reynolds, The New York Times, Feb. 29, 2012)

Not so long ago, I thought rest days were exactly that: lay around, watch TV, do nothing. But then, after reading Run Less Run Faster, I realized I could, and should (although they didn’t necessarily say this), exercise on my rest days. By rest, it means “rest” the running muscles. Not be a couch potato for a day. Besides it’s much easier to stay in a routine of something if you do it every day.

Exercise every day, even if one day it’s just a 30-minute walk or hike. Get up and move.

Read the rest of that article I excerpted above here.

END YOUR BACK PAIN
“Keeping Your Lower Back Pain-Free”: This story’s from the LA Times. It’s actually a fun little read, in addition to being important for those of us who have chronic disc issues. I often curse my back. I have to remember to engage my core when lifting or bending or I get reminded of the crippling pain I felt for throughout 2008-2009.

Basically, the story says to fix your disc problems, you have to work on your core. Get fit. Don’t sit as much. Surgery, in most situations, is a quick fix and won’t last. Get moving; strengthen your stomach and back. It’ll never go away completely, but you can get it under control.

I agree wholeheartedly with this article. It’s how I got better, and it’s what got me running and motivated me to get in shape. So, I guess, my back pain was a good thing.

TUESDAY’S TEMPO RUN
T Junior’s day care was closed Monday so I was not able to get my track workout done. I wanted to take him for a bike ride and then the park, but he complained that it was “too far to drive” and he just wanted to walk to the little park down the street. I felt bad dragging him on my bike ride, and just decided to do what he wanted to do. We had a lot of fun at the park on a sunny day — even though it was very cold (glad we didn’t ride the bike!). At dinner, he recapped the park for Mr. T: He was the captain of the pirate ship and I was…well, he couldn’t remember. But I was the first mate.

That evening, I felt I needed to get my sweat on, and I hit the treadmill for a computerized 300-calorie burn walk. DailyMile said I only burned 130, though. Oh well.

Normally, on Tuesday, I would’ve made up Monday’s track workout. But I didn’t get a full night’s sleep – I got maybe 4-1/2 hours, so I was extremely tired and grumpy. Mel (Tall Mom on the Run) wanted to run at lunch, but I was feeling exhausted. Fortunately, after whining to Chelsea (Will Run for Food), she reminded me that I’d run on a lot less sleep (Hood to Coast). I had some breakfast and felt better, but then found out Mel had to work through lunch! I decided I would still go, and I would do the tempo run (because it seemed more realistic given my sleep-deprived state) from last week that I missed due to illness (and because the one of the RLRF schedule for this week is too many miles to fit in my lunch hour).

I have not been listening to music on my runs. For some reason, I feel like I have to concentrate more on this plan. But on Tuesday, I took music. I actually think it helped some. I felt like I was able to stay in a rhythm a little bit easier when I hit my short tempo pace (8:13). RLRF called for a warm up, 3 miles at short tempo pace and a cool down. I was only able to do about a half-mile warm up and a half-mile cool down, plus the three tempo miles, because of my schedule.

Tempo results: 8:15, 8:14, 8:12

FAST IS FUN, BUT…
I’m ready for something different. I enjoy training and running at these faster paces, but Tuesday night, I was dreaming about trail running. When I went for my run on Saturday, even though I was on the same trail I run fairly regularly, I felt like I was noticing it for the first time. I was running hard, but I was enjoying the natural scenery. It was quiet except for the crunch, crunch of my Saucony’s on the gravel. Occasionally, I inhaled the scent of a newly broken evergreen tree (due to storms) and thought of Christmas.

There were other runners and walkers with and without dogs or kids every so often. And even though, I felt I had to bring my pepper spray, I still felt relatively safe. I thought about it in my pocket and how if I had to use it on the trail, it would more than likely be on some sort of wild animal, which made me think of that time I encountered the buck on the trail.

Anyway, my point is: trail running makes me feel more alive than road running. I want to do more of it. I’m not particularly interested right now in super long trail running – 5-10 miles is good. Maybe a half on the trails would be fun eventually.

On Sunday, my friend Zoe (Run, Zoe, Run) ran her first trail race, a 5-miler. I thought about the race all weekend, and was sad I had not signed up for it.

AFTER THE ST. PADDY’S DAY RUN
The 5K is coming up fast – only 2-1/2 weeks away now! I can’t wait for the training to be over. It’s been tough, and I’ve enjoyed it, but I’m ready to move on. That’s the beauty of not being a professional athlete. Don’t feel like running fast anymore? Fine! Change it up!

After the 5K, I don’t know what I’m going to do.

I’m scheduled to run the Rock N Roll Seattle half in June even though I have yet register. I’m toying with NOT training for it. Well, obviously, I will put in the mileage, etc., but not training for a speedy race. I just want to run and enjoy myself and not worry too much about pace.

I’m still trying to pick a tri. I’d like to do the same race as my friends who will be “tri-ing” this summer. Any recommendations?

In September, I will run the You Go Girl race. I can’t decide between the 10K or the half – I sort of love the half distance, so I may go for that. Also, I think I’m supposed to be organizing Team Will Run for Ice Cream this year, so I better get on that.

I think I will sign up for some trail running this spring and summer.

Anyone else want to run some trails with me?

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5 comments
  1. Kris says:
    March 1, 2012 at 7:02 pm

    I would love to run trails with you but I live in Spokane, Boo!! Trail running is so much fun and that’s why I want to run an ultra some day…in the very far future though. I like doing activity every day even is its just walking because when I don’t I feel so Blah! Great to know the research behind it. Great Post!

    Reply
  2. Nicole says:
    March 1, 2012 at 7:22 pm

    I so needed to read this tonight. I am dealing with a terrible disc problem and I am losing it. I finally see a back doc. next week. Did you run when this was happening to you? I ran just a little today and actually feel not to bad. I haven’t had a real run since the first week of January.

    Reply
  3. Marie from whysheruns says:
    March 1, 2012 at 8:10 pm

    OMG, I have horrible lower back pains too and need to plank as much as I could and do some core exercises. Same reason why I got into running. Thanks for those links! I do believe in active rest days as well. After having a heck of a time with PF and my ITB the last month and a half, I figured out that it’s because I’ve been very inconsistent with my cross training. If I lived closer, I’d love to try trail running one day with you! Thinking of hitting the trails here once my PF and ITB are not bugging me as much.

    Reply
  4. Ricole Runs says:
    March 2, 2012 at 8:43 pm

    I want to run more trails too! I love them so much but hate that I feel like I can’t run them alone. I definitely want to do a trail race of some sort sometime. Nice tempo miles too, way to get out there despite not getting enough sleep.

    Reply
  5. Claire says:
    March 2, 2012 at 8:52 pm

    I’m running the St. Patty’s Day Dash (and I haven’t trained for it), and I’m also running the Rock and Roll (and am planning on training for it). See you out there!

    Reply

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