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Thursday, July 3, 2014

Run, girl. Run.

Lovely post from Caitlin.  I was struck particularly by her observation that young girls have confidence, only to lose it around puberty, when they begin to learn and then internalize straight-up patriarchy.  Being strong and fit then becomes less important than being thin, delicate, and small.

One sees this, I think, in many of the popular "healthy living bloggers", who often exemplify unhealthy lifestyles.  Exercise addiction, disordered eating, and so forth.  But being thin and pretty means they are held up as a role model; a fat girl eating candy gets shamed, but a thin girl eating candy is just cute and carefree, you know?  And I wonder how much of this is the idea that women can exercise and be fit and strong... as long as it doesn't get in the way of being fundamentally ornamental.

Man, I'm cheerful.

Great run this morning.  I am beginning to suspect I like intervals mostly because I like hitting the splits on my Garmin.  (MOAR DATA!)  I started with a ten minute warm-up, running easily up to the service road, and then added another two minutes of warm-up to get to the nice flat stretch of crushed gravel.

Then I let it fly.  45 seconds at 95% effort, 1 minute recovery, four times.  Screwed up the Garmin on the first split, but two through four came in at 6:37, 7:17, and 6:51.  The service road heads toward the canyon, and mornings are typically accompanied by a stiff breeze, and it really picked up as I neared the canyon on intervals three and four.

One day, I'll be able to hit that pace for more than 45 seconds.  I then cooled down with an easy jog home (9:20 pace -- funny how much slower that feels after gunning it.), and then I cross-trained by... scrubbing the bathroom.

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