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I've never liked running....

I've never been a fan of long distance running*, but it's about as evolutionary an activity as you can choose for exercise. It's interesting to think that a million years ago, some human was running across the steppe, endurance hunting an animal. I, on the other hand, spend my running days in a constant battle with myself. As soon as I start running hard, my inner voice starts asking me what the hell I'm doing. Why don't you just stop? It'll feel so much better. Are you a masochist? Maybe you're tired today. You can do it next time. Well, putting it off till next time is a cop-out, and running is actually a decent metric for aerobic improvement.

So, after finishing my strength circuit today, I decided to run a time-trial mile on the treadmill (always at 1% incline, to best simulate running outside). I cut 45 seconds off my previous fastest mile, run last summer in a gym in Tokyo. I felt like I was going to die at the end. But I guess the training is starting to pay off.

*Sprinting, on the other hand, I find incredibly interesting. Expending a maximum amount of energy in 10-20 seconds to traverse the land as fast as humanly possible is just so uber cool. Still waiting for my stopwatch from Amazon, which means the sprinting trials will have to wait till after my vacation. Anyone successfully stay in shape while on a two-week vacation?

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  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. No one stays in shape while on vacation :-) Folks say you start losing fitness at about a week of not working out. Enjoy your vacation tho!

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  3. I worked out 11 times out of 14 days of vacation! =)

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