The debate over whether cold or warm water is more beneficial has been going on for a while. Some argue that warm water is better because it doesn’t require as much energy for your body to heat to the necessary 98.6°F (37°C). Others say that cold water is better because your body absorbs it more easily.
So what’s the best temperature for your water?
I recently added 10k runs to my training regimen. In fact, I completed my first 6.2 mile run a few weeks ago, fulfilling a goal dating back to sixth grade. Each year, our local elementary schools participated in a 10k. Students qualified by either running twenty laps around the soccer field under the supervision of a friend, or by running twenty-five laps during gym class. I managed to jog and walk about seventeen laps while my best friend observed. He was kind enough to testify to my qualifying effort and so I was “in”.
A few weeks later, race day arrived. Like many students, I came out of the gate running. Unlike many students, I was overweight and extremely out of shape. I faded fast. Within the first quarter-mile, I was walking, panting and looking for the white rescue van. I was ready to give up. Adam, a fellow student and quitter, joined me. Together we planned to hop into the van when it caught up to us. After an interminable period of suffering, the van sidled up. Sitting inside were the beaten souls of kids who dropped out of the race and ‘took the ride’. Sitting in front of them, hanging out the door was our school gym coach, who we fittingly called “Coach”.
Today’s post was submitted by Andy from Big Andy’s Running.
Running has helped to change my life.
My story starts on November 18, 2011. That was the day I decided that I had finally had enough and things needed to change. Let me start by introducing myself, My name is Andy (Big Andy if you are a friend), and I am a 35-year-old dad living in the suburbs of Philadelphia.
I have always been a big guy, even before I got really heavy, hence the longtime nickname, Big Andy. For the past 10 years or so, I slowly made the switch from being a big guy to an insanely overweight and dangerously out of shape guy.
At the time when I hit my breaking point, my daughter was 6-months-old, and I found myself as a 330-pound man who was long on ideas and short on action. I always knew that I was out of shape and overweight, I knew something had to be done, but I just couldn’t find the time to do it.
Today’s post was submitted by Birdie G.
When I first joined the “Run a 5K in 2012” Facebook page earlier this year, I thought “What in the world?”. I mean, I’d never run in my life. Why would I start now?
A co-worker of mine asked if I wanted to run the Color Run in San Francisco later in the summer and I decided that might be fun. But that would mean I actually had to be ready to run a 5K. A 5K? Seriously? That seemed like an awful long way. I highly doubted I’d ever be able to accomplish that.
So I started to run. Not too far at first. But each time it became easier. At that point, I didn’t even know how many miles a 5K was. After one of my runs, I came home and checked it out on an online conversion chart and was shocked to find that I’d just run a 5K. Woohoo! I didn’t even realize that the loop I was running through my neighborhood was 3.25 miles. Perfect!
