The first 10 minutes, and metabolic profiling

Over the last few weeks of running I've noticed that it always takes me about 10 minutes of running before I feel like I'm in sync with what I'm supposed to be doing.  At first my stride is too short, my breathing too shallow, and my arms aren't swinging the right way.  I can tell without knowing how far I've gone when that 10 minute mark is hit because all the sudden I'm thinking about other things, no longer needing to think about how best to run, until the end of the run, when it gets hard again.


It turns out that there is something a bit special about 10 minutes of exercise.  Dr. Robert Gerszten of Massachusetts General Hospital says, "Ten minutes of exercise has at least an hour of effects on your body."  There's a new field of metabolic profiling, metabolomics, that studies questions such as how long really is it necessary to exercise for optimal fitness effects, and how long the biochemical changes in our bodies last after we stop exercising.  


Hmmm, definite food for thought.  Did he just say I only needed to run 10 minutes, not more than 2 hours, like I did yesterday?  More study necessary!


Até amanhã... 
9/4/11 - 2.0 miles | 21 min | 5.4 mph | 213 kcal