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Lets all get running

There is no clear reason, but for many months already, I have almost given up running – Which is a shame, as I enjoy it so much. And yes, I can talk a lot about why not, but –outside of one seemingly stupid point– there is really no reason.

And yes, I have taken on cycling, although on a very different fashion: Cycling is by far not as good as an exercise as running – Yes, cycling for ~1h on average 3 times a week has kept my body from becoming sedentary again, but I do feel some increased clumsiness and a undeniable weight gain that I don’t want to allow.

I said there is one seemingly stupid point: Shoes. My running shoes are around two year old, and they are an important factor on me not running. Why? Because they started giving me blisters at ~5Km. And my shoe size is beyond what is considered as normal by Mexican standards – European 44-45 (US 10½-11). Shoe-shopping is always frustrating and very off-putting for me, as instead of what most people do (go to one store, ask for their favorite n pairs on their size, test them on, pay, be happy), I follow almost the opposite process (go to n stores, ask for whatever they have on my size, test it on, pray, pay). Of course, for some people, entering many stores and checking what’s offered at each is a thrill by itself. For me, that sounds as thrilling as visiting the dentist for an endodontic treatment.

Oh, and to make things even better, I am quite low on cash. Scarcity economics explain that if a given good is hard to find, it will probably be more expensive. So, while many people in Mexico buy ~US$30 shoes, I often get to pay ~US$90. Fun, hah?

Anyway, I had a short semi-vacation to Argentina. I decided to kill this excuse, and went shoe-shopping. Fearsome memories sprang in my mind when the first store said they didn’t have anything right for me. But they pointed to a second store, one block away, where I found (I was even able to choose between several models!) a nice pair of Olimpikus.

In 2008, I was routinely running slightly over 10Km. Today I went out to get back the feeling, and made a not-so-great-but-still-satisfying 4Km. And upon arriving back home, I read Christian’s chronicle on his Paris Marathon run — Well, only 10% of what my fellow DD achieved – But I am definitively back on track. I expect to make some time to get a run, at least three times a week, trying to push my limit at least back to the nice spot I was at two years ago.

Comments

Gabriel Saldaña 2010-04-12 00:30:44

also running

I’ve also started running this past week. What I’m doing is high intensity interval training ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training ), specially since my main goal is to loose weight and get in shape. Sedentary life has also made me go into not only bad shape but also bad health. With only a couple days of exercise I’ve started to feel a lot better.

Oh and I wear the same shoe size. It is painful to shop in Mexico. Fortunately Texas is very close to me so I always buy my shoes there.


gwolf 2010-04-12 06:20:55

Mail-order shoes?

Humm… I’d rather test them on before buying them. Thanks anyway!


gwolf 2010-04-12 06:35:44

So, in August? :-}

NYC might be hot and humid, but we will surely have some runners at DebConf. Are you joining?


gwolf 2010-04-13 14:19:10

Aides for excercising

Well, even though I do have the clear target of getting back to excercise to avoid gaining back weight, my main motivation to run is that… I enjoy it. Not that I want to have as much sweat and effort as possible.

When I started doing excercise for the first time ever (~2005, at 140Kg), I was too unfit to consider running. My excercise was walking, at a vigorous pace, for ~2Km — And from that point, my trainer started increasing the demands on me. One of the first steps was to move my arms (without any added weight) while walking. Man, does it make a difference!

But then, she saw I was fit enough –to my surprise– to start running. First, short bits, bursts of ~50m while walking. Then, she started increasing it… Until I reached slightly over 10Km.

Kludging around an extra weight might be benefical if you are interested in sweating off the calories… But I am interested in enjoying the ride, so I’ll stay with my hands free for now (:


jhr 2010-04-11 23:30:17

Way to go

…in the full sense of the word.

Good to see you back on the road. Whenever we finally get to meet, we should run a few miles together! :-)


Josh S. 2010-04-12 20:32:40

Kettlebell?

Have you considered exercising with a kettlebell? It's a time-efficient form of exercise that's worked well for me ever since I moved from Los Angeles to a rainier city. Here are a couple of kettlebell-related quotes from my fitness notes.

"The reason for the surge in kettlebell training is that it gets back to basic training that requires functional, whole body fitness. Kettlebells require an individual to focus on whole-body conditioning because lifting and controlling a kettlebell forces the entire body, particularly the core, to contract as a group, simultaneously developing strength and stability. Kettlebell workouts engage multiple muscle groups, making it a great way to get a whole body workout in a relatively short period of time."
-- American Council on Exercise, "ACE Says Budget-Friendly and Boot Camp-Style Workouts Among Most Popular Fitness Trends in 2009"
"During the 20-minute [kettlebell] workout, the average calorie burn was 272 calories, not counting additional calorie burn due to the substantial anaerobic effort. 'We estimated oxygen consumption and how many calories they were burning aerobically, and it was 13.6 calories per minute. But we also measured the blood lactate, so anaerobically they were burning another 6.6 calories per minute,' explains [John Porcari, Ph.D.]. 'So they were burning at least 20.2 calories per minute, which is off the charts. That's equivalent to running a 6-minute mile pace. The only other thing I could find that burns that many calories is crosscountry skiing up hill at a fast pace.'"
-- American Council on Exercise, "Kettlebells: Twice the Results in Half the Time?"

vicm3 2010-04-11 17:30:01

I think

I found a thing that you would find useful, it happens that a friend of mine buy a pair of basket ball shoes via footlocker.com and believe it or not, they send to .mx and happens to have discount on large sizes.

I think that could be a good option ;)

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