Fitness Realities

At Weight Management on Wednesday, a trainer from the Carle Training Group came and talked to us. He focused on the importance of weight training for overall health. Most of the people in WM tend to be over the age of 45, so he addressed the issue that after 35, your bones don't really absorb calcium any more. What you have, is what you have... So you want to use weight training to keep those bones strong. He also talked about how it's virtually impossible for women to bulk up too considerably and that any exercise regime that you undertake needs to change every six weeks or your body will become used to it and plateau.

He talked about other things, but these were the highlights that made it into my notebook. The one big eye opener... as your body ages, you will need to increase the calorie burning of your workouts by 10 percent each year just to stay the same.

I raised my hand and said, "So, by the time I'm 70, all I'll be able to do is move for 15 hours a day in order to fit into my pants?"

He looked at me, smiled and pretty much nodded before going into talking about how the metabolism slows down with age. How menopause can affect the body, etc., etc. I kind of tuned that out as I thought about who would still be active at 70 and be willing to work out with me for 15 hours a day. Madonna will be 86, maybe by then we'll finally have gotten acquainted.

In other news, I ran my first half marathon today. I got to see a WM buddy at the start who was doing a 10k. Then I got to see a neighbor and a former Millikin student of mine. It was chilly out there waiting to start, but the weather was perfect. I took a GIANT chance and changed up my attack plan for the run. Instead of running the first mile and then walking .2 and running .8 for the whole thing, I ran until I couldn't run any more, stopping only to take in my Gu and G2 at miles 4, 7.5 and 11. I ended up making it to mile 8.5ish before I started the walk/run trend as originally planned. Of course, it doesn't help that Nike+ somehow dropped the GPS at mile 1.5... so I have no pretty map of my run with my paces to show you. I can tell you that the 25 mph wind coming over the hill at mile 6.5 was met by me with a "whatever" but the three additional "hills" where we bottlenecked at Meadowbrook made my heart sink. Not enough to curse them because it wasn't their fault that they got paired with the wind. But it didn't stop others. That whole park was nothing but runners whining, "Fast and Flat course my ass!"

I also know that my heel hurt mildly until mile 10, and then it caught fire, so I walked more at the end than I wanted too. I can also tell you that I felt nothing for the last .4 miles but glee. And I was ever so happy to see MacTroll and X-man on the corner of Pennsylvania and Fourth Streets.

I was also happy to run with and see my friends along the route. But I was sad that the crowds were not nearly as inspiring as I would have liked. I'm a big cheerer. I believe in being loud and proud at these kinds of things. But when I passed by most people (if they didn't have cowbells), they were sitting silently staring.

I still feel smart for packing my own aid. I know others didn't because I felt like I was the only one with a water bottle, but by the time I got to the stations they had mostly fruit Gu left. And vomiting was NOT in the cards today. :-) I'll stick with my Chocolate Outrage, thank you.

Anyway, here's the photo MacTroll clicked of me at mile 12.5 just before I hugged X-man. As you can see, I was deliriously happy.

Oh, and my time... for those who are curious was 2:32:11.