Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Sluggish Sloths, Exciting Endorphins, Amazing Alliteration

It's amazing how quickly I can feel like a sluggish sloth. Even with all my outside garden work, if I don't get in a workout of running or weight training I feel lazy and my inner monologue becomes full of not niceness. Slooooooowly I am learning not to ignore this and to listen to my body. It's hard because my slothiness begets more slothiness, which only leaves me more unmotivated. This is the part I am still working at - to not let more than 1 day go by without a planned workout.

A 2009 article in USA Today backs up what I am saying: exercise makes you happy! They tested two groups of people, those who worked out and those did not. The mood and perspective of those who worked out was elevated/improved/less stressed than the mood of those who did not work out. This didn't last just an hour after the workout, the study shows that these feel good feelings last up to 12 hours after your workout! All exercise produces endorphins, so the runner's high can be achieved regardless of your chosen activity. My introverted self decided to go for a run last night because I wasn't feeling up to a group class at the gym, but it turns out the class is exactly what I needed.  I found an article put out in 2009 by the BBC that talks about working out in groups. The study they cited finds that even more endorphins are released by group exercise.

I ran last night for 45 minutes, deciding in the midst of the run that I should go the 3 mile distance. If all of my runs had to total 2 miles during March then my runs in April should be 3 miles. I won't be able to keep that distance up once I get into higher mileage, but for now there is no reason why I can't hit those numbers. I bounced around a lot last night, and to keep this post from getting any longer I will just link to my mileage tracking page so you can check out the details. Here are the mile breakdowns:

Mile 1: 12minutes30seconds 
Mile 2: 28minutes39seconds (avg = 14minute19second mile)
Mile 3: 42minutes30seconds (avg = 14minute10second mile)

*My overall time appears to be about the same when compared to my times for March, a 14 minute mile. To me this information is telling me that I am not actually doing what I need to in order to get faster. 
As I often find to be the case, I need more structure and planning.* 

2 comments:

  1. Going in the right direction. You just have be consistent. Your doing good, keep going with those workout girl. As EMZ would say You Go This.

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  2. Thanks Penny! I am going back out tonight for another run, and will pace myself better.

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