Yesterday I did something truly, truly nuts. It felt great. I might have to do this more often.
I ran twice in one day.
My first run wasn’t so much fun. I dragged myself out of bed at 5:45 AM and went outside for a tempo run. It was horrible. I hadn’t had any coffee yet, and none of my pieces seemed to fit together right. My form was off. My shoulders were tense and aching and I couldn’t remember to push off with my toes for more than two strides. I was just concluding that I really need to get acquainted with the concept of “the warmup” when I looked down at Master Garmin and said, “oh! Only a tenth of a mile left to go!” That last tenth of a mile it all came together. My feet remembered to bend. My back kicked in and my shoulders came down. I was fast! And then I was done.
It was a strange feeling, to be tired and a little sore but still feel as though I could have done more. I went to work figuring I was done for the day, but that midafternoon, a colleague called.
“Hey, want to go for a run?” she asked. I thought about it for two seconds. Did I want to go for a fun run, in the middle of the day, no slave master Garmin, no orthotics, no iPod, no agenda? You bet your teeth I did. So we went. I even almost managed to keep up with my new running partner. When she found out that I was running for the second time in the day, she burst out (as best one can while keeping up a good pace) “wow, you’re hardcore!”
Honestly, this made me melt a little inside. I’m so used to being the nice/friendly/unhip type that being called hardcore was quite a compliment. I went back to my desk and found this article from Runner’s World. Apparently running twice a day gives you better results. Then again, most runners would gargle swine flu if they thought it would improve their running, so who knows?
One thing the article seems to have gotten right is the issue of enhanced calorie burn:
“Double workouts have an added appeal: they increase calorie burn. Even after you stop running, your metabolism takes a few hours to return to its resting level. So when you work out twice a day, you get the calorie expenditure of the two bouts of exercise, plus the double postexercise boost.”
All I know is that I sucked up the contents of the fridge with more enthusiasm than a Dyson vacuum cleaner when I got home that evening. This is probably why I can’t seem to lose any weight.
