Taking the Next Step (or 14,000) Towards Mixing It Up...

As I have mentioned prior to this post, one of the most enriching things as far as boosting my personal workouts goes is continually mixing things up. I don't like to get into too much of a routine--something that seems to go against everything most of us have ever learned about fitness.

Hold the phones! Let me clarify: I think routinely working out is a great thing; indeed, for our unfortunately obese nation, we have to constantly REMIND ourselves to work out each day. We have to meticulously track everything we eat. We have to SEEK OUT healthy foods like an octogenarian combing the beach with a metal detector. In other countries, healthy food tends to be cheaper, walking is the most common form of transportation, and if someone gets fat, it is a rather unusual sight to behold--at least, that was my experience last fall in Bulgaria with my wife; WE were the fatties over there.

At any rate, I think it is important to keep my body guessing, so that it can get the maximum possible gains with each workout.

With this thought in mind, I took the next step--or, as I mentioned, 14,000 steps--toward mixing things up: I went on a 10-mile jog around Utah County. Now, let's not kid ourselves here--there are plenty of people for whom 10 miles is hardly a challenge. I spoke with a worker at a running store where my wife (plug for my wife's blog HERE) bought some new running shoes. He routinely runs between 100-140 miles a week. (PAUSE to pick my jaw up off the floor. Again.) So 10 miles is nothing, right? Well, up until yesterday, I had only run around 5 miles at most, with most of my runs falling somewhere in the 3-4 mile range. But something convinced me that this was a good idea.

I have to mention here that a good portion of my thunder was stolen by the reality show The Biggest Loser, whose pleasantly plump contestants participated in a half marathon for the week's challenge. My 10-miler (and my pride) was severely weakened as I watched a crowd of obese men and women go 13.1 miles. But that's another story...

So, to get to the point--how was my run? Well, the first 5 miles--my normal run range--were quite a breeze, although I must say I did not pick the easiest 10-miler to run; you tend to exclude things like elevation gain when you're staring at a MapQuest-powered image, planning out your runs. There was a lot of uphill. I also didn't realize that many of the roads I chose were both shoulder-less, AND had little to no lighting, so much of the 10 miles was trail running.

At about mile 6, I started to feel a sharp pain in my feet. It wasn't so much the balls of my feet as it was the outside-bottom part. This pain continued for most of the rest of my run, but it wasn't enough to make me walk it out.

At around mile 8, my joints started feeling it. You know that place where your leg and hip join together? That socket, if you will...? It started hurting there quite a bit with each step, which was unfortunate, because running requires a good deal of STEPPING. Then my kneecaps started to ache, which was kind of random; it felt like I banged knees with someone in a ball game...

Okay, so I'm making this sound a little over-dramatic. The truth is, changing things up and going for a long-ish run was a wonderful experience. I ran on a road for 2.8 miles and only had one car pass me that whole stretch. The night was uncharacteristically pleasant for this early in the year. And there were moments in the poorly lit area I was running in where I just looked straight up at the sky and was mezmerized by the stars and the dark shadows of the mountians around me.

I will NEVER be a guy who routinely runs 100 miles a week. I said it already--I HATE routines when it comes to fitness. But I WILL regularly seek out a way to break my routine by ditiching the gym in favor of one of these long runs on deserted back-roads, with my cloyingly randomized selection of Ipod tunes to accompany me on my journey, and a half-empty--NO, half-FULL--water bottle sloshing in my hand.