Fantabulous At 40!

Today was the 4oth run of my eight week running adventure, Modern Philosophers.  Tomorrow, I go for my annual physical, so I will know soon enough if all this exercise and healthy eating has done any good.

I haven’t lost as much weight as I thought I would (my scale lies!), but I certainly feel thinner.

Check out that photo on the left.  There is a noticeable difference in the way I look.  The most obvious being that my entire torso can now fit into the frame.

On top of that, my clothes fit much better.  Shirts that had been pushed to the back of the closet because they were too tight, now remain there, but only because they are ugly and should never be worn out in public.

I have muscles where fat used to be, and there is much less of the emergency fat I always keep around my belly and waist to be used as a flotation device.

Forty runs in fifty-five days.  Definitely exceeds my expectations.

I tried something different on my run today, and wanted to put it out there for those of you who run as well.

I read an article yesterday that stated it was good to walk during a run.  Now I’ve always thought that stopping to walk was a sign of failure, and the article addressed that right off in the first paragraph.

I don’t remember the exact argument, but the gist of it was that walking was good for your knees and other joints, and gives you a chance to “power up” again.

Since this was my 8th run in 9 days, and my legs were feeling heavy, I thought I’d test out this theory at the halfway point of my run.  My 4.25 milers (which I think are actually longer) always take a lot out of me, so today seemed like the perfect day to experiment.

So when I got to the halfway mark, I paused to take this photo…

And then I strolled for a little bit as I headed back to The House on the Hill.  It couldn’t have been more than 30 seconds, and then I was back at it.

When I had about 1.25 miles left, I could sense that I was dragging, so I stopped again for a little walking.  No photos this time, though.

Both times, when I got back to running, it was at a much faster pace than I’d been going before I stopped to walk.

So I would have to agree with the article and say that walking during a run can be very beneficial.  I’m definitely going to change my Philosophy on that, and make use of it on my longer runs.

I guess that even at 40 (runs), this old dog can still learn new tricks!

I also totally delivered (Get it? That’s a mailbox behind me!) on the run.  Even with the walking, I ended up back at The House on the Hill over two minutes faster than yesterday.

It was the best 4.25 mile time I’ve posted yet.

Kind of fantabulous for a 40th run, wouldn’t you agree?

I might sneak in another run tomorrow morning before my physical.  After that, I intend to keep up the five runs a week schedule for as long as my body and the weather permits.

Because of the healthier eating I’ve been doing, I cannot wait to devour my Chinese food lunch tomorrow.  All this hard work definitely deserves a reward.

Happy Sunday, Modern Philosophers!  I’ll be back later with another short story adventure featuring the Prince of Darkness…