10 Miles and No Filler

Chet’s three mile run with his neighbor seemed fairly easy after his 10 mile run on the weekend. It seemed to go faster than usual and he had fewer aches and pains after it was done. He had been doing three milers for a few weeks prior to the 10 mile run, and that definitely put him in better shape for the longer run. He did the 10 miles at a relaxed pace, averaging about 5 mph (12 minute miles), and it took him just over two hours to finish (he walked briefly a couple of times, and stopped once to photograph a cool mushroom growing in the ditch by the side of the road).

Chet’s left hip had been giving him some grief during the past several weeks of running. He thought the 10 mile run would amplify that soreness, but because he took it easy, the inflammation was no worse than after his three mile runs, during which he tended to push himself a little harder to keep up with his neighbor, who was in better shape. He had discovered a decent stretch to alleviate the hip soreness and he did that stretch after the 10 mile run, which probably helped. In fact, his hamstrings hurt more than his hip after the long run.

Chet bike commuted to work after his run this morning, getting more aerobics under his belt (and hopefully, with time, less beer gut under his belt). At work, he got a salad and a piece of baked fish for lunch. The past two days he has been eating “half size” salads in the cafeteria at work. He had been loading the plastic to go salad trays to the rim before, rationalizing that because salads were healthy, you could eat them in unlimited quantities. But he decided to cut back the portions, because these salads contained a lot of protein (chicken, eggs, black beans, chick peas) and thus more calories than a salad filled with a lot of leafy filler.

He usually put a small base of spinach in the bottom of the salad tray and then piled on the good stuff. As a result of cutting back to half as much salad, he also used half as much salad dressing, albeit a low calorie and sugar free one (Newman’s Own Light Italian).

Chet also used to force himself to add raw broccoli and cauliflower to his salads, because they were “healthy.” But all that did was make him like salads less. So he did away with the crunchy veggies and now he likes salads more. He is getting more health benefits from eating average salads he likes more regularly than eating healthier salads he does not like less regularly.