Scientists recently discovered that sitting for long periods basically shuts down your body's ability to dispose of fat. Since you can't dispose of fat, it accumulates at a rapid rate in the tissue around your organs.

This research is particularly interesting for those of us who sit at a computer all day. After storing fat all day, it might be that evening exercise can only re-balance the scales instead of yielding a lot of benefits. Some standing up during the day might allow exercise to have a greater effect since it doesn't have to burn off each day's worth of rapid fat accumulation.

At Microsoft, I actually had a desk with a motor that would move from a sitting position to a standing position. I already loved that desk because it kept my defective hip from hurting; now it turns out it must have also helped me keep off some fat.

As more research like this comes out, more people spend their workdays at computers, the population gets fatter, and health care costs continue to rise, I think we'll see stand-up desks and even treadmill workstations become much more common. Now we need health insurance companies to offer incentives (lower rates or rebates) to companies and individuals that buck the standard desk and chair in favor of a healthier setup.

The Race for the Cure 5K was a lot of fun, but my 23:15 goal (7:30 mile pace) remains unachieved. This year we registered for the non-competitive race and it turns out we did the competitive one last year. The difference was apparently only about 15,000 participants. :)

I was relatively close to the starting line and it was a good thirty seconds after the start before I could even run at all. I hit the first mile split at 7:15. Not bad at all, I thought, considering the slow start and weaving through the crowd.

I needed to keep up roughly the same pace for the second mile, but a stomach cramp slowed me to a crawl. I knew I was in even more trouble when the rolling hills started. The second mile split came at 16:30, or 2:03 behind my goal pace.

Over the last 1.1 miles I picked up the pace and only ended up losing another 32 seconds compared to my goal. I crossed the finish line at 25:50 which is an average pace of 8:20. That's not a time I can be proud of, but at least I have the good excuse of being sick for over a week before the race :) Seriously though, I don't think I could have run any faster under the circumstances, so I can't be too disappointed with how the race turned out.

Going forward, I clearly need to run more mileage and cross-train more often. Another thing I need to mix in are some morning runs, hill runs, and runs on pavement since I usually run in the evening on relatively flat trails. I definitely felt weird running on pavement in the race. With 25:50 as my baseline for 2007, it should be pretty easy to improve a lot in my next few races.

The first two years I ran Cross-Country in high school I really had no idea what I was doing. I ran a lot after school and then ran as fast as I could in races. Sometimes I finished without feeling very tired and sometimes I was out of gas at the two mile mark. I wasn't terrible, but I wasn't very good either.

I got a whole lot better the last two years of high school and then dramatically better still after my senior season ended. What changed? I simply started tracking, analyzing, and improving my running stats like distance, time, pace, and weight. Like Peter Drucker said of business processes, "If you can measure it, you can improve it", and that's exactly what I did with my running.

So with that in mind, I'm looking at my recent stats and trying to come up with a plan for the Race for the Cure 5K on Saturday. I realize this plan may go out the window since I was just sick and unable to run for over a week, but I felt pretty good on an easy run yesterday, so you never know.

My goal of 7:30 pace works out to a 23:15 5K time. (I'm still embarrassed that that's a stretch goal for me, but hey, I haven't run competitively for nine years.) About a month ago, I ran a 22:46 5K by myself, so I at least know it's possible.

Five kilometers works out to 3.1 miles and that extra tenth of a mile always seems to ruin everything. You approach the three mile mark feeling pretty good about your time, you can see the finish line, you're almost there, and then, boom, you're caught in a tenth of a mile time warp that adds 45 seconds to the clock. It's too hard to do mental math during a run to account for that extra tenth, so I like to work backward and set my individual split goals in advance.

I don't want to depend on running any faster than eight minute mile pace over the last 1.1 miles, so my two mile split simply cannot exceed 14:27. If it does, I'm in for a world of hurt for 1.1 miles that probably still won't result in me reaching my goal. Without doing any speed work lately, I can't imagine I'll be able to run much better than a 7:00 first mile, so my second mile has to be 7:27 or better.

There you have my planning process. I can't say I feel very confident about being able to hit those splits after being sick for a week, but they are what they are if I'm going to reach my goal. 7:00, 14:27 (7:27 pace), and 23:15 (8:00 pace) are the only numbers I need to remember. Maybe it'll happen this race, maybe next race, but either way I know exactly what I need to do.

Despite being sick and not running at all for over a week, I'm registering for the Race for the Cure 5K this coming Saturday. This event was a lot of fun last year and I was amazed how huge it was. There were something like 20,000 runners!

I doubt I can hit my 7:30 pace goal in this race (unless antibiotics and Sudafed are performance-enhancing drugs), but I figure I need to start getting some races under by belt to see how I'm doing so far this year.

Let me know if you're going to be there, too, so we can meet up before the stampede starts.

Before my run on Saturday, I had just read in Runner's World about a high school cross-country coach who tested some pacing strategies with his runners. It's common knowledge that starting out too fast is going to leave you exhausted toward the end of the race, but this coach discovered that the groups that ran a more conservative first mile actually finished slower than the groups going out faster. In fact, the group that ran the fastest first mile finished first, even though the runners slowed down more dramatically in miles two and three than the runners pacing themselves more prudently. The common advice of "don't go out too fast" appeared to be just plain wrong - at least for short races like 5Ks.

I decided to test this go-out-fast strategy on Saturday and ran hard right from the start. At times I felt like I was nearly sprinting and it took me several too-fast-I'm-dying, too-slow-catch-my-breath iterations to settle in on my best sustainable pace. As I approached the spot where I turn around if I'm doing a 3.1 mile (5K) run I was feeling pretty good and was planning to run a bit farther. Then I looked down at my watch as I passed the turn around spot and saw my time was 11:40. A rough calculation told me that's a faster pace than any of the races I ran last fall, so I turned around to see if I could keep up such a pace over for a whole 5K.

The run back was brutal. My fun Saturday run had turned into a desperate race between me and my Timex. My legs were suddenly heavier, the sun got hotter, and even the wind seemed to be working against me. I had to stop checking my watch at about 19 minutes because it was demoralizing me to think about the remaining distance I had to cover in such a short amount of time.

I was determined not to waste all this effort for a mediocre time, so I gutted it out and surprised myself when I crossed the finish at 22:46. This was not only better than any 5K races I ran last fall, but at 7:20 average pace this was faster than the 7:30 goal I set on my exercise page.

What's most surprising was that even though I followed a go-out-fast pacing strategy, the 7:31 pace for the first half was blown away by the second half's 7:09 pace. Could I have run faster on the way back if I hadn't gone out so fast at the start? No way. In fact, I think the fast start is exactly what fired me up and made the faster finish possible.

The only thing that remains is to duplicate this pace in a real 5K race since that was my original goal. After that, well there's a lot of room for more goals between 7:30 pace and my old personal best of 6:05. :) Honestly, I'd be elated if I could break 7:00 pace (21:42 for 5K) later this year. Now it's time to register for some races and test the go-out-fast strategy for real.

Now that it's been almost two months since I started my thirty minutes a day exercise plan, I thought I'd share some results and things I've learned.

Consistency trumps intensity

I ran two to three times as many miles in August and September last year, yet I can tell I'm in better running shape now than I was then. Why is that?

When I ran Cross Country, there was a saying that you start to lose your training effect after just three days off. Some long bike rides inflated my minutes of exercise per week, but I was only exercising a few days each week last year. By being inconsistent and taking too many consecutive days off I was actually throwing away a lot of my training effort.

Like the miracle of compound interest, working out for thirty minutes a day allows conditioning to keep building up. I ran a 7:20 mile pace yesterday which is faster than any run or even race from last fall. That's hardly the 6:00 pace I ran many years ago, but it's a huge improvement over the 9:45 pace I was running (if you can call it that) last year!

Cross-training is essential

Back when I ran a lot, that's about all I did. I didn't swim, I biked only in the off season, and I'm not sure I even knew what an elliptical machine was. Fortunately, starting the 30 minutes a day plan in the winter has forced me to spend a lot of time in the pool and at the gym. I've been amazed at the results.

Running too many days back to back used to cause leg soreness and knee pain to build up until I'd have to take several days off. Cross-training spreads that soreness around and lets me alternate between high impact, low impact, and, if swimming, no impact activities. It also has the added benefit of strengthening supporting muscles making workouts easier on the joints.

Here are a few cross-training tips:

1. Elliptical machine
   • Somewhat approximates running without the impact.
   • Don't just bounce around on level 1 at a billion RPMs like 90% of the people at the gym. Increase the resistance so you're actually pushing hard and building muscle.
   • Go backward about 30% of the time to work the muscles that stabilize the knees.
   • Can be hard on the balls of the feet.
2. Recumbent exercise bike
   • Crank up the resistance and grind out 30 minutes at about 90 RPMs - there's no better cross-training for building up endurance and leg muscles.
   • Your torso is still and your hands are free, so bring a book to read.
3. Swimming
   • Good cardiovascular and back workout that seems to have a therapeutic effect on sore legs.
   • Tough, at least for me.
4. Walking
   • Don't rule this out. Walking fast on hills can work the calves better than running and with less impact.

Push yourself

I've read several articles recently including one in Runner's World about how you have to push yourself past your comfortable training zone (or lactic acid threshold if you want to get technical) to improve. I'm going to give this a shot like I did in yesterday's run and I bet I'll be running 7:30 pace regularly in a few more weeks.

Likewise, don't get used to a certain level or even target heart rate on the gym machines. If you're only exercising for 30 minutes a day, make sure you're giving it everything you have. Even when I have to stagger away from the exercise bike or elliptical machine, I'm ready to go again the next day. I don't push it quite so hard swimmining unless there's a lifeguard. :)

I already feel better even after just 10 days on my thirty minutes a day exercise plan. I thought I was exercising a decent amount last summer and fall, but the graph below shows I only rarely approached the minimum amount of aerobic activity I'll get on the thirty minutes a day plan.

For a little while you may seen some discrepancies in my total number of minutes per week due to way I'm recording time for swimming. I'm spending thirty minutes in the pool, but I'm not recording the time I spend huffing and puffing between laps. Hopefully it won't be long before I can swim the entire thirty minutes.

I'm going to rework my exercise page and stats soon to reflect other activities instead of focusing only on running. Getting back to running respectable 5K times is still a major goal of mine, but maintaining the consistency of the thirty minutes a day plan takes precedence.

The throngs of people that show up at gyms in January and vanish within weeks make new year's resolutions about fitness a cliché, but I'm going to tell you my plan for 2007 anyway. After all, the fine (few) readers of this blog aren't like all those January gym membership people. We stick to our goals and just need a good plan and some motivation to make them happen.

My fitness plan starting in 2007 is simply to do at least thirty minutes of aerobic exercise every day, 365 days a year. That will total over 10,950 minutes or at least 7.6 days of exercise in 2007. This may sound like a lot to some, but not when you consider the average American spends 26 days a year just watching TV commercials! Surely your health is at least 30% as important as the Aflac duck.

The beauty of the thirty minutes a day plan is its simplicity. There are no decisions to make, you will exercise today (and tomorrow) for 30 minutes. With an X times per week plan, it's too easy to say you're tired today and will exercise tomorrow. Pretty soon you've taken all your off days at the beginning of the week and you haven't scheduled enough time to get the exercise done later in the week. On the other hand, if you know you have to do thirty minutes every day, you'll work that time in to your daily routine.

What happens if you're sore, stuck in an airport, or don't have time for a shower afterward? Just walk. Everyone except Dean Karnazes needs some rest days. Instead of letting them throw off your exercise routine, just walk for thirty minutes. Grab your spouse, co-workers, cell phone, or audio book and use that time you've already budgeted to catch up or listen to something interesting.

What if you go on a two hour bike ride one day; can you take a few days off? Nope. The plan is at least thirty minutes a day, not 120 minutes some days and zero for three days afterward. Stay consistent and make exercise an integral part of each day. If you have extra time for a long run or bike ride, go for it! Take a walk tomorrow if you get too sore.

The best part about this plan is that you'll get the good feeling exercise gives you every single day. Over time, your fitness will improve, your energy level will increase, men will see their feet again, and women can wear their "skinny jeans" again. If you need any more reasons, the Mayo Clinic has a long list of the benefits of thirty minutes of aerobic exercise per day.

If you haven't seen it yet, the latest addition to joshchristie.com is a page called Josh's Running.

About a year ago, I started tracking my exercise in a simple Excel spreadsheet that I was just never satisfied with. I wanted a good way to roll up weekly stats so I could see my progress at a higher level. Like a good software developer, I put my skills to work creating a database and web app for tracking exercise and generating some cool graphs and stats.

I'm only showing graphs for running since that's really the only activity I have any goals for right now. My PR for 5K is 18:54, so you can see I have a whole lot of training left to do to get anywhere close to that. Feel free to heckle me for running too slow and make sure to keep me in line if you see me slacking off or eating at McDonald's.