Here I go: I’m going to run a marathon (gulp)

“Why on EARTH would you do that to yourself?”

I’d just cheered on my sister in her first marathon some years back and this was what I was thinking. I had no concept of what 42.2k meant (other than freakin’ long), I just knew she’d been running for more than four hours. FOUR HOURS. Hence my “Why oh why????” I mean, sure she looked happy, but lots of things make me happy–like sleeping an extra four hours.

And here I am in 2012 planning to run my first marathon.

See, since then, I’ve somehow become a runner (check out what I get from running here on my post at The Kit). And I’ve got nine half-marathons and one 30k race under my belt (that’s my pile of medals above) and I need a new challenge. And short of running a half even faster (which would call for killer speed training), I’d rather double the distance — so I think that means I’m only somewhat a glutton for punishment? Or maybe I’m just crazy, like that blogger chick on the current season of The Bachelor.

Wish me luck. Training will be hard.

And long.

And sweaty.

Oh. Boy.

Leave a Comment January 3, 2012

Exercise motivation booster of the day

Tempted to slack off from working out today? Here’s something that may prompt you to work up a sweat:

Researchers from McMaster University have found in study conducted on mice that aerobic exercise prompts your stem cells to more often become bone rather than fat — bone increases your body’s ability to produce blood, which is a boost to your overall health.

2 Comments September 13, 2011

Make your warm ups short and sweet

And by sweet I mean less strenuous — based on these findings at University of Calgary: too long and too intense a warm up for sprinting, cycling or speed skating, for example, may tire you out too much. This University of Calgary study found that a shorter warmup of 15 minutes at lower intensity (compared to 50 minutes at high intensity) resulted in less muscle fatigue and 6.2 percent higher peak power input.

Leave a Comment May 30, 2011