{"id":6744,"date":"2013-05-03T10:05:55","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T10:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.littlejohnesque.com\/shazam\/?p=6744"},"modified":"2013-05-03T10:40:23","modified_gmt":"2013-05-03T10:40:23","slug":"why-i-chose-running","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.littlejohnesque.com\/shazam\/?p=6744","title":{"rendered":"Why I Chose Running"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems totally contrary to what I should be doing: running. Running is notoriously hard on your knees, the slamming impact bursts your joints, not to mention the discomfort of flopping skin and burning lungs… And I am not a tiny person to be running around the block at 250 (or now, 240).
\nAt first it was the bad-assery of it that made me want to run. People who are serious, run. None of this pansy assed walking or sauntering, or machine exercise – as if?! Run on the street, run for a goal, no walking – it’s hardcore and romantic, right? So at first, it was just to see if I could. Guess what? I can.
\nAfter I established that I can do this running thing, I started noticing a side benefit: calories burned! When I ran, I could come home and eat a giant sub sandwich and STILL not have met my calorie allowances for the day! Running burns calories like nothing else! I run for 20 minutes and I’ll burn over 600 calories. Usually I run for about 40 minutes, so I’m really burning a lot! As I lose weight and my chassis is weighing less, I’m also burning fewer calories, but running is far superior to any other activity that I could find. Then I found this little graph:<\/p>\n

\"20130502-202549.jpg\"<\/a>
\n[I have to be honest and say I don’t know the original source for it – I found it at another running blog<\/a>, so please A. don’t take this to your doctor as scientific fact or B. sue me for copyright. I’ll take it down if you ask.]
\nThe numbers align somewhat with what I supposedly pull and comparatively it makes me feel like I’ve made a smart choice in exercise to assist the rapidity with which I would like to shed the pounds. Remember: 40 before 40!
\nWhich brings me to my last point… My obsessiveness with weighing myself has turned into my obsessiveness with burning calories. I have to run. I MUST run. Back in the day when I walked and Bradley ran, he would walk with me often but never officially count it as his exercise. It always seemed somewhat insulting- unintentionally, of course. Now I understand. According to this graph walking burns less than half the calories as running. Unless I run, I feel like I haven’t worked out for real. The stationary cycle seems too simple, walking seems too unsweaty and the Wii fit, while fun, seems mostly just fun now. I must run every day, it seems like. That drive is exciting, but I need to keep it in check so I don’t injure myself.
\nYesterday I just had to run and forced Bradley out the door with me. I needed to burn some calories or I was going to pace like a panther all night. Because we were going for a shorter run,* I asked Bradley to push me to a better pace. He did. My second mile was at a 10:30 pace, but the first mile was in the 9:40’s! Both miles kicked the booty of my previous miles, telling me yes, you can, girl. Yes, you can!
\n***
\nWith that run, I hit 10.75 towards my goal of 12 miles this week. If I take a 5K on Saturday I’ll exceed my goal. How proud would I be?
\n***
\nI’m tweeting my runs these days if that sounds like something you’re interested in. Follow me, if you want to know my mileage and splits and all that good stuff.
\nTwitter<\/a>
\n@tamarashazam
\n(Someday we will activate the twitter button, but for now you can play it old school)
\n**
\n*I laugh inwardly all the time about how I call half a mile ‘easy’ now, how a short run is ‘only’ running a two miler. TWO MILES?! Who am I? Sorry, but what the hell is happening with me?! Ha ha ha!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems totally contrary to what I should be doing: running. Running is notoriously hard on your knees, the slamming impact bursts your joints, not to mention the discomfort of flopping skin and burning lungs… And I am not a tiny person to be running around the block at 250 (or now, 240). At first … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-littlejohnt","4":"post-6744","6":"format-standard","7":"category-manifesto"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.littlejohnesque.com\/shazam\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.littlejohnesque.com\/shazam\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.littlejohnesque.com\/shazam\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.littlejohnesque.com\/shazam\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.littlejohnesque.com\/shazam\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6744"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.littlejohnesque.com\/shazam\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6981,"href":"http:\/\/www.littlejohnesque.com\/shazam\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6744\/revisions\/6981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.littlejohnesque.com\/shazam\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.littlejohnesque.com\/shazam\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.littlejohnesque.com\/shazam\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}