Runners High

I love watching KQED. There's always something interesting to watch. I do DVR a few series, one being 'Truly CA.'

The latest episode, Runners High, is a truly inspiring story about an organization called Students Run Oakland (SRO) in which High School kids are trained to run in the Los Angeles Marathon. They get free running shoes to start off in their journey. However the ultimate goal is completing the marathon in Los Angeles. These kids aren't given many opportunities and at the end of the episode you get to see how several of the students progressed beyond High School.

The interesting thing is seeing the diversity of students - both physically and mentally - and how they approached the training. Some were larger, some were smaller. Most were out of shape to begin with. Many people bitched and moaned but were ultimately surprised with how much strain they could put on their body. It's a mental game. The documentary isn't so much about the Marathon as it is an analogy for life. You're gonna be faced with challenges, road blocks and other things in life. It's really about how you handle them, set goals and train your mind to get through them.

I definitely want to train to run a marathon, but start slow.

I know I can run a 5K (a little over 3 miles) in a little over 30 minutes. Next goal will be a 10K. I'll practice on the treadmill. :D

The Trailer

Running outside

I feel rather accomplished today. For the past month or so, I've been taking some exercises at Google with my friend Nai.

We've tried:
Vinyasa Yoga
Bootcamp
Stepping (was a substitute class for Cardio Kickboxing because the instructor was out)
Cardio Kickboxing

Today's Bootcamp Class was pretty much an endurance run around the Google campus with loads of stretching and warm up/cool down. We ran around the Googleplex area twice (each lap around 1.6 miles) for about 3.2 miles. I've never run that far outside before and I felt pretty accomplished. We were given about a half an hour to run that far, so I felt pretty good. And it was nice to just be with nature for a bit.

Considering I have pretty crap knees, I'm surprised I lasted that long. And you know what else? I could have kept going...

I just wish I knew we were running so I would have brought my iPod!