Your right! Injury is the enemy. I’d rather have proper form, nice pace and so on than showing off or over training which will lead to injury.

But, as many people pointed out, real life (having 4 children in 6 years) intervened, and children, work, house, and everything else daily life throws at you, took precedence. Oh, I did walk periodically, but not on a regular basis.

It’s only been in the last few years, I’ve gotten back into it on a semi-regular basis, and the last few months, I’ve been very religious about it.

If I were to give any advice, I’d tell people how important it is to exercise (which I do over at Iowa Avenue). Don’t make the same mistake I did. Make exercise a priority in your life, and your body will be forever grateful.

Keep up the good work, Metro. Hey, why don’t you start a discussion about your exercise. “Let’s get back into exercise” or how about “What are you doing to get in shape?” or even “How do you make time for exercise?”

Hey, it’s just an idea…………………………:)

@Healthy Amelia: Hi Amelia! That is Awesome that you are training for an event. The great thing is when you get up there in distance during training, you really can eat more – it’s one of the tradeoffs for ice on the knees.

@Christine: Hey there Christine! I know what you mean on the folks who don’t “get it” with walk/run. The funny thing is the folks who believe in it often become a little religious about it too – our coach pointed out that walk/run times are often as good or better than traditional run times. It was funny – I walk/ran a 10k in downtown L.A., and part of the event was cheerleading squads on the sidelines as you went. When my “walk” interval started in front of them, I had 3 mid-teen cheerers run up and say, “c’mon! Don’t give up! You can do it!”

@Jenn: Thanks – I’m glad it resonated with you. The hunger thing I think is really bad when you get injured, because the hunger doesn’t go away! Great idea on the fiber-filled snack. I’m going to remember that as my mileage increases.

Now, I run ocassionally, unless training for an event, and I make sure to have a protein and fiber-filled snack immediately after it. That keeps the hungry beast at bay.

Though never a runner in my earlier years, I did love sports! I played fast-pitch softball for at least a decade, swam and water skiied until I looked like a prune and biked all over town. My eating habits were horrible but were never a problem. In my mid-20′s, career became a number one prioity and the sports stopped. Eating habits – stayed the same.

I finally got off my fat a** in my mid-30′s and picked up exercising again, but not in a big way. Lost some weight but not enough. In 2006, I broke my leg – badly. The last step of my physical therapy was running. At first, I was extremely excited about it. Not being able to walk, much less run – for months – made me extremely excited about any kind of movement. Unfortunately, I got over it pretty quickly. I found that I had to psych myself up for EVERY single run. I took up hiking instead. I have tried the run/walk method, but I have not tried the “sign-up for a 1/2 marathon” method. Will have to think about that one.

You are right on target with the lesson of the day: You must do more than 30 minutes 3 times per week.

Nope, it’s actually quite easy. You basically just need a watch with an interval timer. For me, I started out by running 1 minute and walking 1 minute, then eventually run 2 mins, walk 1 min, run 3 mins then walk 1 min, and so forth. For the 1/2 marathon I was running a 4:1 ratio for much of the race. It really was a tremendous thrill for me, and one I hope to repeat soon.