For the second day in a row, I drove to work early to beat traffic and get a 90 minute run in. As I was stretching and doing crunches afterward, it struck me that between the 20 minutes or so packing my stuff last night, the 5 minutes getting dressed, the 90 minutes running, and the 10 minutes stretching and crunching (to coin a term), I spent over 2 hours devoted to this run. I did the same thing yesterday.
Is this really worth it? Seriously, is there some sort of record for hours running per year per age grade point. I should patent this. I'll call it the futility index. Mine for 2007 is 6.4 based on my 412 hours running and 10 mile time of 1:09:49 (64.7 age graded). Post yours for fun. I used this calculator (the first google found) for my age graded score.
I satisfied myself with one of my favorite rationalizations: opportunity cost -- better known as "what the hell else am I going to do?" (This same rationalization got me a PhD in Chemistry.) Really, what was I doing before I was running? Mainly, I was getting a little more sleep and staying up for my local news and part of Letterman. I'll take running. This morning I saw the sun rise over the Potomac and ran by the George Washington Masonic Temple Memorial before turning around and heading back for work. There are worse ways to start your day.
3 comments:
Now that is cool. I wish I could plug it in but I switched to RunningAhead in October (which I love) but they don't keep yearly data. So all is lost. I will try to figure it out though as this is pretty rockin....
Oh yeah, and for rationalizing the why of it all - I always figure that it makes me "me." No one can take that from me and thankfully no one has to pay for therapy for me since I can't find her! Running is such a personal and wonderful time for whatever you need to think about "now." Plus it can be the ego boost when you hit that big PR. How do you go wrong?
Well, we can get a pretty good approximation based on your mileage of 2113. Assuming 9 min/mi pace, that's 317 hours. Based on your 5K, your age graded score 72.4. (I think your mile could be better, but the calculator didn't have that.) So your futility index is approximately 4.4.
I can bask in the glory that my running is almost 50% more futile than yours!
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