Slowing Down

Last week I went to get my metabolism tested. My hope was that I can rev up my metabolism enough to stop taking my daily dose of thyroid medication and that I can get past my current running plateau.  There was good news, my metabolism is now actually slightly faster than most people (this is really good news for someone with hypothyroidism, generally people with low thyroid counts have really slow metabolic rates). There was very bad news as well: to get any faster, I am going to have to start lifting weights and I am going to have to increase my aerobic base.

This is now my most important training tool

First, the weight-training thing sucks. I thought that yoga was a convenient way to get mind-body exercise and avoid weight-training(unfortunately, the person doing my assessment is a vinyasa yoga instructor, and said, "not so much", I should really do both). I don't like lifting weights, I don't like looking at weights, heck I don't even like the smell of weights. It's boring.  The whole idea is to do the same movement several times and gradually do it with heavier pieces of metal.  Who even invented this torturous activity? I wonder if some fitness expert back in the day actually said to himself, "you know what would be awesome? lifting and squatting with heavy objects in a repetitive motion. This will make me strong and able to impress the ladies." I am NOT impressed, inventor of weight-training.

Increasing my aerobic base is just code for slowing down. The idea is that training my body to run at really slow heart rates will train my body to run for a really long period of time without wearing out. Great idea, in theory. However, I run because I love the feel of flying as my feet barely tough the ground passing by each other. I love going slow enough that I can breathe in the salty air by my house, see the boats go by on the ship canal and still run fast enough to enjoy the wind hitting my face as I glide towards Golden Gardens.  "Running" at 4 or so mph is unlikely to feel like gliding or flying.  It is more likely going to feel like clomping.

But I have to say, as a constant optimist, I did enjoy some things about my first "slow" workout. I was able to think the entire time I was running. I never ran out of breath and I always knew exactly how hard I was working.  I have had this constant heel pain in my right foot on my runs. Generally, I just run through it and call the pain a "character building experience"

 As I was running slowly, I figured out what I have been doing wrong to cause the pain. I hit midsole on the left foot, but heel strike on the right. And I hope it looks less weird than it sounds: I limp when I run. My right foot falls down heavier than my left every time. I was actually able to make adjustments to my form while I was slow running, and for the time being, the heel limp is gone.  

I will admit that this heel has made my running life miserable many times 

The slow base building training is supposed to last eight weeks and then I can speed up (and frankly ditch the weights). I am going to put my trust in the expert and hope this nonsense works as well as she described it. 

Off Topic: Morality and Theft

This is part of a short series of blog posts about my day job as a criminal defense attorney.

As a criminal defense attorney in a large suburb of Seattle, I tend to represent a large number of thieves. It may be a surprise to some of you, but there is a great deal of diversity in the theft community. I divide perpetrators of theft into two categories: 1) the unsympathetic thief and 2) the sympathetic thief.

In the first category, I represent the drug addicts who steal your car stereos and the traffickers who steal and then sell their wares on the black market. I have the 18-22 year old women who steal Seven and Juicy Couture because their wealthy parents won't buy $200 jeans for their young adult children. (I did not have any idea what Seven jeans were until starting my current job, I thought Fergie was singing about wearing a size seven). I have young women and men who steal to see if they can get away with it . They usually buy many items and then add an additional freebie to their purse or pocket. On the face of it, all of these individuals look like pariahs.

In the second sympathetic category, I have the homeless men and women who literally steal a sandwich from Safeway. I represent individuals with mental health issues who have serious impulse control problems and have tremendous difficulty keeping themselves from pocketing things (usually small and weird) from the local drugstore. In addition, I have actually had young mothers who steal food, diapers and medicine for their young children. Although, this second category of thieves are also taking things that don't belong to them, they are much more sympathetic to me and the court system.

The first group commit the same exact crime as the second, but we naturally gravitate our affection to the second group. The sympathetic and unsympathetic thieves both know what they are doing when they steal and have the intent to carry out their crimes. Both groups are equally guilty of their thefts. However, my sympathetic thieves get less jail time, lower fines and fewer long term repercussions from their actions. Why? Because the second group is deemed to have better motivations for their actions than the first group.

I can almost bring a judge to tears (okay, not quite tears) explaining that my client stole tylenol because she knew it would make her toddler feel better and she did not have the educational background to access resources like WIC. But I never get very far trying to explain why my client needed the juicy couture handbag with the gold chain clasp.

And I agree with the sentiment, the second group does deserve a better shake than the first, but I keep wondering why. The actions of my two groups of clients are not different, just their motivations......And this is where I started visualizing my own reasons for not stealing.

In my example, I picture myself walking into a store. It is always Nordstrom or Bartell Drugs. I go to the a section of the store with costume jewelry and pick up a long silver chain off the rack. I put it in my pocket and walk around the store looking to see if anyone is watching. I visualize myself walking out of the store with the necklace and the first thing I see is a "loss prevention officer" (the new PC term for a security guard), who proceeds to take me to the back office. Then I see the police officer questioning me and hand cuffing me. I fast forward to the future and see myself living in my parents' basement because no one wants to hire someone with a theft on their record. I don't steal, because I do not like the risks or consequences of getting caught.

What I don't think about (until I examine my motivations) as I am visualizing my crime. is that my friends and neighbors have to pay higher prices for their purchases because of my poor behavior. I don't think about the horrendous example I am setting for my son. I don't think about the loss of trust that my thieving behavior creates in society. I am just as selfish in this example and thoughtless as my most unsympathetic clients. I am just too risk adverse to steal.

In my example, my motives for not stealing were just as selfish as the motives of the girl stealing juicy couture, but the court isn't punishing me or rewarding me for my poor motivations. I didn't do anything wrong, so why should I get punished(and trust me, I agree that I should not get punished for my thoughts, we don't live in Minority Report). so, why is there a difference in how we treat the juicy couture thief and the mother who steals medicine for her kid? They both are committing the same crime. In some ways, I feel like they should get treated the same, but intuitively, I don't want my sympathetic and unsympathetic clients treated the same way by the court system. I want mom with tylenol to have her case dismissed and I want juicy couture girl to go to jail for a few days to learn a lesson.

Maybe, we, as a society are only supposed to look at people's motives when they behave badly....?

Or, more likely, is it that we assume that the people with bad motivations for stealing have done it before and will do it again, so we want to punish them more(but then we are just punishing people for crimes they have not yet committed)?

Redlissa's World: Smoking Pete's BBQ - or why I will probably gain 2...

Redlissa's World: Smoking Pete's BBQ - or why I will probably gain 2...: "http://www.smokinpetesbbq.com/ The end of all of my healthy eating was innocent. I wanted to take Sean out to dinner and I wanted to walk. ..."