Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Faster is not always better

Some of the better things in life benefit from a slower process...

...chocolate conching and tempering....
...a slow rise for bread...
...braising and roasting and low temp barbecuing...

hmm. of course I'm having a bit of trouble finding examples that are not food related ;)

why the fixation on slow vs fast? It's because I'm re-teaching myself how to run. Not that I ever forgot, but I've got a bit of a hangup in that when I was (much) younger I was a sprinter, and never trained for endurance. I've been a bit slow this year on getting myself onto a healthier track - most recently I've been waylaid by special edition Snickers Peanut Caramel Chew Minis...guaranteed to add back a few pounds thanks to those little tasty morsels. Anyhow my workout has been leaving me with something to be desired...and it didn't seem like my cardiovascular fitness was improving at all with the selected regimen I had placed myself on. I had always heard that running was good for cardiovascular fitness and endurance. Further urged into the running pursuits by Raquel (who seems good at getting me sucked into all kinds of things ;) ) I'm trying to unlearn my sprinting habits and gain some ability to actually jog for a reasonable length of time. At first my feet were proving most uncooperative, and three pairs of shoes later, I think I have them finally convinced that running is not akin to being pursued by demons. The next battle was finding a speed to attempt to run at that was comfortable on the treadmill - I've finally come to grips that the training plan is not intended to kill me and leave me breathless and groaning - I've slowed my pace (it isn't a race after all) and I think I'm slowly getting back on the right track :)

2 comments:

Raquel said...

just call me the great enabler....:-p

Anonymous said...

I love to run. Hang in there because nothing takes away stress, disappoinment, anger, frustration and anything else that ails you like a good run.