Chinese Insanity

I believe it was Einstein, or some other smart person that said the definitions of insanity was “doing the same thing and expecting different results.” I think this is a wise saying but I’d add another definition as well. “Doing something that was hard in the US and assuming it would be at least equal or better in China.”

I am not a natural born runner. In fact one of my more traumatic childhood memories is of my brother quacking like a duck while I ran to first base during a softball practice. I thought it was rather rude (although accurate) of him considering he was one of the coaches.

I know I run and walk like a duck. It’s not my fault that I inherited the Renshaw walk and that my feet turn out. I blame genetics. I’ve never let my genetics though stop me from trying to do things. So this past year I worked hard to teach myself to at least be a decent runner. Despite a hip injury I realized I could handle runs around 5-8 miles, although I wouldn’t call my running fun. I even can say I finished a half marathon.

This morning at 6:00am I headed out with my neighbor Pat for a run. I need to mention that Pat reminds me a lot of my cousin Cheryl because he is into fitness BIG TIME. He is actually training for the Chicago Marathon and hopes to qualify for the Boston Marathon. To do this he has to run 26.1 miles in 3hrs and 50 minutes. That is fast.

Pat agreed to run at my pace – bless his heart, I don’t think he realized that my best pace is an 11 minute mile. Compare this to his average of 8-9 minutes.

About ¾ of a mile into the run I thought I was going to die. I looked at my heart rate monitor and was shocked. My heart rate was extremely high (185). The morning heat and humidity was taking a toll. No wonder I was thinking about death my heart was threatening to beat right out of my chest. At this point I told Pat to run on ahead as I know I was slowing him down BIG TIME. I also had to focus on trying to control my heart rate – this was a struggle. I couldn’t keep it consistently within my ideal range of 151-171.

43 minutes later I finished 3 miles. Basically my pace averaged out to a fast walk or a really slow jog.

What was I thinking when I thought running here wouldn’t be that bad? At least tomorrow when I head out I’ll know what to expect.

Note: To put this in perspective as I write this at 9:00 am the temp is 88 with 70% humidity and weather.com tells me it feels like 99. I’m sure at 6:00am it was only a few degrees off of this.