Secrets of Healthy Aging

The picture you see is of me right after ran my second 5K ever. I read an article in the April issue of Body and Soul magazine. The article was titled "10 Secrets of Healthy Aging". Since I am always interested in healthy ideas I read on. You guessed it--one of the secrets was to get your sneakers out and stay fit.

My daughter and her husband have been doing quite a bit of running. My daughter ran a half marathon this spring. All of this influence got me to thinking that maybe I could run too. I'm a pretty consistent walker but I wanted to challenge myself and see if this old girl could really run.

After finding a training program for running online, I started out on my treadmill. After about three weeks I actually ran my first marathon. (My daughter ran with me pushing a stroller. You can see how fast I was...) Anyway, my goal was to finish and I did. But that just made me want to be able to run faster. So I kept training.

I ran another 5K about a month ago. Surprise, surprise--I came in first in my age group. (Well, there were only three of us but still...)This race was much harder even though I trained longer for it. The weather was VERY humid and I was used to running on my treadmill, not outside. I admit I did have to walk a couple of times. But I did finish and even got a medal.

I am going to continue to run. I've been trying to run more outside but it's easier on the treadmill when I can watch tv or read. (A bonus for me was that my other daughter was here visiting two weeks ago and I could run with her outside.)

I've been thinking about that article and some of the other ideas they listed. Eat more potassium, (I have a banana every day.) reduce red meat (I've been eating veggie burgers and soy sausages) get more Vit. D (I am taking a supplement my daughter the chiropractor suggested. It also has calcium.) do tai chai (I've never done it but I'd be willing to try.),think positively (It's easier to do this during the summer when I'm not teaching!) and more that I will have to really consider.

Do we have any runners out there that have some words of wisdom for those of us who are beginners? Has anyone tried tai chai?