Junk Miles

As I’ve mentioned before, I love to run, but it wasn’t always that way. I never ran a day in my life before February 2010.  Since then I’ve run all sorts of distances: 5k’s, 10k’s, a few half-marathons, and even a marathon in January 2011.

When I first started running I hated training plans. Because here’s how basically every training plan starts:

“Warm up with 1-2 miles.”



Maybe a 1-2 mile warm-up isn't so bad



I’m sure there were other sentences that followed that one, but I never read them because “warm up for 1-2 miles???” Seriously? 1-2 miles was half or sometimes even three-quarters of my ENTIRE run.  “1-2 mile warm up.” Yeah right.

To be honest, I’m not sure I ever ran a 1-2 mile “warm-up” even when I increased my mileage for half-marathon or marathon training. I’m not a big training-plan person, especially the really complicated plans.

But as I’ve become a more established runner I’ve had to acknowledge what training plans are attempting to eliminate from a running schedule: JUNK MILES. Junk miles are miles you run that don’t actually improve your fitness or challenge you in any particular way.

When I first started running, there were no junk miles. Every mile improved my fitness or challenged me. But now, many miles later, I have to be careful not to get lazy in my running. I have a limited number of running hours each week: how will I use them? Will I push myself with speedwork or hills or distance? Or will I just run along at a pace and route that doesn’t really challenge me?  It’s something I face every run: Am I going to put in my full effort or am I just going drift along?

What I’ve come to realize is there are junk miles everywhere, not just in running.

There are junk miles in my job: Am I just going to just assign a grade or take the time to help this student understand the issue?

In yoga: Am I really going to engage all my muscles or just stand there holding a pose?

In my writing: Am I actually going to work on my book or just blog and Twitter all day?

Even in how I interact with my children: I’m sitting with them, but am I actually listening to them?

Junk miles can be everywhere and if we’re not careful they can become the norm instead of the exception. 

So in this season when people are giving up things, I am going to attempt to give up something permanently: junk miles. Even in running.

I have a limited number of hours this week. How will I use them?

A Loud-mouthed Runner Reflects on Her First Yoga Class

Quiet. Introspective. Serene.

None of these words have ever been used to describe me. Ev-er.

So when I was told by a physical therapist that I would really benefit from yoga due to lower back, ITB, and general lack of flexibility issues, I balked a bit. Okay maybe more than a bit  - you would’ve thought she had suggested I cut off both my legs and thrust the rest of my body into a cauldron of boiling oil, the way I reacted.

I mean yoga is scary. I got a yoga clothing catalog in the mail a couple of days ago and, no kidding, this is what was on the cover:

That pretty much sums it up: impossible poses, held silently for a really long time, while everybody finds their inner Zen. I really only had three problems with yoga: 1) the impossible poses, 2) being held silently for a really long time, 3) while everybody finds their inner Zen.

You see, I am not really good at stretching, being quiet, or Zen. But despite all that, I still went to my first yoga class yesterday.

Here were the discoveries I made about myself in a yoga class:
1) Evidently I can be separated from my Internet umbilical cord for sixty minutes without death ensuing. Had been wondering.

2) I can still put forth significant physical effort without Ratt or some other 80s hair band blaring in my ears. Difficult, but possible.

Here were my discoveries about yoga, as a class:
1) There was nary an incense candle or a Buddhist monk to be found. Go figure.

2) In yoga, “we don’t use the word ‘pain’, we use the word ‘energy.’” Um… yeah. Just because you don’t call it pain, doesn’t mean you don’t feel it. I felt a whole lot of “energy.”

Also, this “no pain” motto is the total opposite of distance runners. We distance runners are pretty infatuated with our pain. At any given run/race you’ll find t-shirts: Pain is weakness leaving the body, No Pain, no gain, Pain is temporary, quitting is forever. We wear our pain like a badge. So taking part in something that denies the existence of pain was… different.

3) In yoga, you breathe in through your nose and out through your nose. Uh oh. As a runner, I breathe in through my mouth and out through my mouth. Actually, as a runner, I pretty much suck in oxygen any way I can.

4) Evidently it’s not appropriate to yell out, “Alright ya’ll – we’ve got this. Let’s keep pushing!” three-quarters of the way through a yoga class. Note to self…

 5)The last five minutes of class was spent laying on our backs “concentrating on our breathing” . To a mother of four, that equated to nap time. But they woke me up eventually.

 I guess what’s important is I survived my first yoga class. I wouldn’t necessarily say it is my favorite activity, but I can definitely see the benefits. And I have committed myself to continuing classes at least twice a week for the month of February, to find out if it is really for me. We’ll see.

Namaste. Gesundheit.