It's the attitude towards health, coupled with an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, topped off by marketing hypnosis. Marketing lies. So even though it looks as if the majority of us want to live healthy strong lives, we just don't have the will power to do what it takes. We're looking for a shortcut to making our lives healthier and there's an industry out there that's willing to provide all the suggestions we are willing to try, for a price, that is.
I don't ever remember when I actually became interested in exercise. It was probably back in University, watching my waistline grow daily and wondering why I was feeling tired all the time. High school fitness programs were more like a military experience. Nothing I really like to remember except for a few sports that I really enjoyed. However, moving out of the externally managed world of high school, to an independent lifestyle in University, the choice of whether or not to exercise was an easy one.
At the beginning, it was swimming. I was on the high school swim team and so I would go to the campus pool whenever I felt a bit lethargic. However, as studies took precedence, I found that going to the pool was a long and involving journey. There was a lot of planning to do just to get to the pool for a few laps. So, as expected, swimming happened less and less. The waist got bigger and bigger and finally, it really didn't feel all that good going to the pool. I think that I finally became conscious of my body.
So I switched to squash. I'd played a bit in high school and so I knew the rules. I found players who were willing to go to the squash courts a few days a week and that kept me motivated. Once you made an appointment at the squash courts, you could not back off. Leaving someone high and dry waiting for a partner would have been a serious crime. So, gradually, my strength built up and I found myself playing squash about two to three times a week. Swimming started again and I was back to at least five full days of exercise.
Those were the days of youth. The body responded by becoming tighter and stronger. A friend of mine suggested that we go for runs up Mount Royal (yes, I forgot to mention that this was in Montreal). So we started jogging a few days a week and my hatred of running started to abate. I found that I could actually run, with a partner, or without, and not die of exhaustion or shame. High school running was not the same. High school running was a painful nightmare. Imagine, going to a Kenyan high school where most of the kids are excellent runners. Whenever we had cross country running, I would cringe. I couldn't run a few meters before starting to gasp. In hindsight, I think that I was just psychologically defeated. I knew long beforehand that I would be last and this permeated into my core, right down to my muscles.
And so it was during a Friday night drinking episode at the graduate's campus pub that a friend, more like an acquaintance, told me that they were going to run a marathon that Sunday. We talked about running for a while and he told me that he'd been training for months. I was buzzed somewhat, and I looked at this guy. Kinda stocky with more like a body builder's image. So I told this guy, that if he could run and finish a marathon, definitely I could. I felt strong and confident. I could could go clubbing and dance for hours on end. Not just lazy floor movements, but energetic total body dancing. On top of that, I was doing at least three squash games weekly, each game lasting no less than thirty minutes. If you haven't played squash, 30 minutes is a lot of time especially for a high paced game.
So this guy said, there's absolutely no way that I could get up on Sunday, run 42.2 kilometers without having trained at all. There was absolutely no way at all. That's all it took to get me into my first Montreal Marathon. Hung over, I went to register the next day. There was a half-marathon and a full marathon. I took the full thing. Got my bib, some freebies and my t-shirt.
That was the hardest race in my life. Actually, the first half was nothing and I took of like it was an actual race. But by the time I got to 30K, I was in serious pain. I believe I stopped a couple of times. My sneakers were not real running shoes and my knees were in pain. But I finished, crossing the line at 4 hours 30 minutes or so. My friend who'd challenged me, finished in 4 hours 50 minutes. I beat him. He could not believe it. Even though he'd trained for months, it didn't matter. I still finished ahead.
Later that evening, I thought about it. Running for over four hours continuously. I actually did it. My feet were really sore, in fact I could barely walk. The shoes that I was wearing were not running shoes and I could feel sharp pangs of pain in my heels each time I took a step. So I decided to get my feet checked out at the hospital. I took myself to the emergency room at the Royal Victoria Hospital (on Dr. Penfield Street) in Montreal. They took x-rays and found nothing. No fractures, the feet were fine. So I hobbled about for a few days just waiting till the pain subsided, and eventually it did. It took about two weeks, but after that I was out and about again. I hadn't realised what I had done until much later. Talking to people, watching news on TV or reading newspaper articles about how difficult it is to run a marathon. Good think I didn't read those articles before the race because I went into it blindly thinking it was just another afternoon jog.
I've been running now for about twenty years. I'm 42 as I write this, and that first race, almost twenty years ago I still remember fondly, though the memory of the actual pain is forgotten. There have been good and bad races. I ran an excellent 3:08 in Ottawa in the late eighties. I'm not an elite runner, but in that race, I passed the half-marathon mark in just over one hour. That's elite pace. I must have really died on the back stretch. In any case, I always get to the finish line. Exhausted but elated. It's a wonderful feeling that I can still push my body that far and come out on top.
Training for running has always eluded me. I like the thought of training and when I'm at the best of my form, I can really enjoy it. I love going out for a run in the early morning, or in the late evening after work. Having children, it's a difficult job to juggle everything, but with a bit of determination, you can find that time at the end of the day to get out and run. Running in Canada has it's trials. Minus thirty (for the Americans, that's about minus twenty-two farenheit) temperatures make it difficult in the winter. Winter running is an art in itself and can only be enjoyed if you have the right equipment. The right warm clothing, hats, gloves and, of course, shoes. Not just regular warm clothes, but real winter running gear. Once you have the right gear and the right attitude, getting outside is just a matter of will power. I learned to run late in life. My running season would end summarily in mid October. As soon as the weather started getting too cold for t-shirts, I would hang up my running shoes and wait for the next year. A running buddy got me out of this habit. Took me to the running room store in Mississauga and I decked myself in warm pants a dry-weave running shirt and a wind breaker. Once I started running in winter, I actually found it quite enjoyable. You don't see too many of us running in winter. Only the die-hard runners stay outside all year and they're a really fun group.
But apart from the winter running gear, I've discovered that in order to enjoy running, you really have to make it a part of your life. Much like eating and sleeping. It's something that you have to love doing. Not just like doing because you think you'll get some health benefits from it (and you will) but something inside you must want to get out there and push your body a little bit further. Like I said earlier in this post, I was never a good runner growing up. I was a lousy runner and hated it with a passion. Thinking about running almost made me sick. Somewhere I convinced myself that I needed to get some exercise and I started to jog in university (Waterloo... then McGill). I never really liked it. And many times I'd quit for weeks, even months. But I kept pushing and trying. I didn't know how to run properly and I didn't know that there was a running technique. That you could actually learn to run. My technique for running was quite simple back then. Change into sneakers, shorts and a t-shirt and then get moving. One leg after another, shuffling along sometimes. There was no thought to drinking water, having a quick snack or even taking care of my health by having good rest.
Partying was still the order of the day and Fridays and Saturdays were innevitably spend outside. This party attitude lessened when the children arrived, but the parties were now indoors. A consumate workaholic and computer addict, I barely slept more than four or five hours, which was fine to begin with, but as a runner, barely adequate. Because of that haphazard training, or lack of training, becoming better was simply impossible. I got to a specific point in my running and got stuck there. It was alike an equilibrium point between my health and my lack of discipline. The Ottawa run of 3:08 had become my greatest achievement ever, and it looked like I would never get into that form again. I had settled into runs of between 3:20 and 3:30.
Throughout all of this, I've learned a couple of things. No great revelations, actually quite obvious to even people who don't run. Here they are:
1) Eat well, sleep well.
This is a tricky one. Eat well means that you need to give your body wholesome foods that will provide you with the energy you need to run. You need to eat protein to keep your muscles in good shape. Running is hard business, and you can imagine the wear-and-tear that your legs undergo. It's important to make sure that you eat foods (your favourite foods) that are rich in protein. In addition to protein, you need to eat a lot of carbohydrates. Yes, despite all the diet fads about reduced carbohydrate diets, this one's not for you. Even if you are a casual runner, eat some carbs to give you the energy you need to maintain a happy, enjoyable run. Keep alcohol and coffee to the minimum. They are both dehydrators and they don't allow your body to refresh itself during rest periods. Water is your best bet or low-sugar juice. Fresh vegetables should be at every meal. Some running magazines propose that you should graze all day. This means, instead of having three-square-meals you have many smaller meals. I've practiced this for a number of years and I can say that it works wonders. The main problem that I find with three-square-meals is that each meal fills you up significantly. At the end of the meal, your body is challenged to digest a large quantity of food, most of which you really don't need immediately. If the next meal is a few hours away, your body saves up the excess food and as your next meal approaches, you begin to get hungry again since you haven't had any food for a few hours. Your body is good at storing food that it doesn't need and it's very poor at fetching it when the time comes. The easiest way to replenish your stock is to eat more. So when your next meal arrives, you're really hungry so you eat a lot more. When you graze, you eat smaller portions and more of them. You might eat every two hours but nothing really significant. At the end of the day, you might have eaten close to the equivalent of the three-square-meals, though I doubt it, but you were never hungry during th day. Your body repairs itself while you sleep. Therefore you need to give your body enough time to repair and build muscle tissue. When you are well rested, you will be able to build strength faster. When you feel weak and tired, it's a sign that you are probably pushing yourself too hard and you need some time to rest. Take a day or a few days to give your body the rest it needs. How much rest is enough? Well that differs with each person. There's a rule of thumb that says eight hours of sleep a night is required. Some people that I know do very well with six. I've settled on six-and-a-half hours myself. The extra thirty minutes do make a difference for me and I've found that if I don't compromise this rule, I am a happier person in the morning.
2) Train wisely.
This means that you do different types of exercise. Run, because that's your passion. Swim if you have a chance. Do some sit-ups, push-ups and weight training, because they'll make you stronger. Walk a lot to keep the leg muscles warm and limber. Having good core muscles is essential to running well. Your gut and hip area must be exercised very well. When you're running, you can hold your stomach muscles tight and breathe from the core. This takes a while to get used to but you will strengthen your abdominals even while you're running. Sit-ups have never been a favourite of mine. I prefer to do crunches since they're better on my lower back. However, I find that sit-ups with a medicine ball work well. I try to do about 100 each morning when I wake up as well as 100 crunches. Then I'm off to work. I normally run in the evening and depending on the type of run, I'll get back and do about 50 crunches after the run. No, I don't have rock-hard abs, but I'm working on them. This is a project in progress. Train wisely. If you go to the running room's web site (http://www.runningroom.com) you'll meet an amazing personality, John Stanton. He's the founder of The Running Room. His story is quite amazing and it's proof that anyone can run. He is a marathon runner trainer and says that there are three types of running that a marathon runner should do in order to get ready for that long 42.2 Km run. Regular daily runs at about 70% effort. Then speed training, or as the swedes call it, fartlek training. In this type of training, during your run, you burst into speed at 100% effort for short, medium and long periods. At each end of the burst, you take a rest running slower till you are ready for the next burst. Speed training will build up endurance, pushing your body beyond what it is normally used to. Finally, every marathon runner must do a really long run as part of the training. Some runners take this very seriously and on some of the long runs actually complete a marathon distance. The longest I've ever done on a long run is about 30 K. The point of all this is to do many different activities. Run, swim, bike and even when you're running, don't do the same type of running. Sometimes do a short run, with many sprints. This may last only 30 minutes and you're done. Sometimes do a long run, very slowly with walking breaks. This may last two or three hours.
3) Make running a part of your life.
This means don't see it as a chore that needs to be done. Enjoy it. Just like eating and spending time with loved ones, running should become one of those activities you just can't wait to get out and do. This takes time to achieve. Like I said earlier on. Running didn't come easily for me. It wasn't a gift that I was blessed with. I actually suffered immensely to get to the point that I'm at now. But I can attest to the fact that with perseverance, you can arrive at the same place. Running is not easy. However, once I'm changed into my running gear and I step outside, I'm not afraid anymore. I know my body well and how far it can go. I know that even when I'm bonked out, I can still get back home. I know that it's not a shame to walk when you're really tired. I know that I'll have good days and bad days and that when I get back home from a really bad run I shouldn't beat myself up for it. However, the freedom I feel from being in motion far outweighs any negatives that I feel. I'm in flight and I feel good. Even in the depth of winter when I have to dress up to the tee, I still feel great being outside. And when I'm back indoors, resting, my mind is clear and my body thanks me for trying my best.
Running for life is just that. A lifestyle that includes a diet of running as a regular, daily activity. It won't be easy. Like many diets, you have to forgo certain foods. You have to be strong enough to keep to the things that will make you a healthier person. So with running, there are days where you have to take your medicine. You'll have to dress up, get outside and just do it. I believe after doing it long enough, your body will stop fighting it and will join you in celebrating the outdoors. I don't know when this happened for me, but eventually it did. I don't wake up every day and dash outside. There are still days that are very tiring. But one thing that I've found out is that it's much better to be out there than inside. It's much better to hear your feet click back and forth and your breath in unison, than sit in front of the TV or slouch on a couch.
Sometime in the mid 1990's I injured my knees. It was a hard lesson in doing too much. I could barely walk let alone run and for a few years tried all kinds of remedies, including bandaging the knees and taking an unhealthy amount of Tylenol. The runs were atrocious and the more I tried to run, the worse my knees became. I could barely cross a road if the light was about to change from green to amber. I'd wait till the lights changed then cross the street. Crossing in the middle of the street was risky business. I went to see my doctor who took some x-rays and could see nothing really wrong except for a bit of wear around the cartilage. No fractures or bones crushing each other. The pain actually felt like my knee bones were rubbing against each other. My doctor then told me about Glucosamine Sulphate. He had been giving Glucosamine to his dog who was old and getting some arthritis and he noticed that the dog's friskiness and energy was picking up. He said that I should try it, but it's a slow worker. Glucosamine is an ingredient of cartilage. Your body builds it naturally, but as you get older, your ability to manufacture Glucosamine decreases. So, sometime between 1995 and 1997 I started to take Glucosamine. It took a long time. A very long time. But sometime around 2000, I started to feel better. In fact, towards the end of 1999, I began to jog again. I had gained a hundred and one pounds and could literally feel my weight when I moved. Not good at all. So when I actually felt that my legs could take it, I began to jog. The exercise was as difficult as when I first started. When I first started running though, I was in my twenties and my only problem was weight. Now in the mid-thirties, I had knee and weight problems including issues with age. But nonetheless, I persevered. And I struggled to get out, not every day, but frequently enough. And slowly, week-by-week, month-by-month, I got leaner and better. That's how you do it, slowly and surely. Like the tortoise and the hare.
Our North American society demands instant gratification. We want it now, actually yesterday. We aren't willing to wait for anything. Money, we want it now. Health, we want it now. Fame and success, we wanted that yesterday. The fitness industry has made a ton of money by promising goals that are difficult to achieve. "Attain absolute fitness by only exercising three times a week for only twenty minutes," the ads scream. If I'd found out that secret, I probably would never have become a runner and enjoyed the benefits of running. A good thing it doesn't work. There are fitness clubs galore in many cities in our countries. Diet books abound in many book stores. But there are also many painful stories of defeat. Why do we buy into these scams, and scams they are. There's no other word for them. There's little proof that exercising for twenty minutes, three times a week, while eating anything you like will do you any good. There's absolutely no way you can get better.
While I was learning to run, I was still trying to keep my old lifestyle. Running was something I did on the side, not a core activity. Not a central part of my life. When I decided that everything that I did would focus on getting me to run better, I saw that many of the things I was doing would have to go. The partying would have to slow down. Sleep would have to take priority over watching late night movies. Eating well would have to take precedence over quaffing down steaks and pizzas. The sacrifice seemed overwhelming, but in practice, it wasn't that bad. I was just scared of change. It's just another life changing moment, and I wasn't willing to step into it. So I started slowly. I made sure that I was outside daily. If not for a good strong run, for a pleasantly light jog. I found out that even on days that I wasn't feeling 100%, I could at least muster enough energy to run comfortably. Sometimes it would take 2K to shift from fatigue to relaxed running.
I started writing this months ago. It's become a journal since I now run 20K daily without issue. I've learnt that the mileage increase is not damaging. I used to get lower back pain from a weak core, especially weak abs. I still don't do a lot of core strengthening, not as much as I should be doing, but the pain's gone and my core looks better. It could be a whole lot better still. So at 120K to 140K a week, I think that I have definitely improved. I read somewhere that long runs, the Sunday long run, can lead to an increase in speed. Even for middle and shorter distance runners. There are coaches who put their runners through long runs. Something to do with aerobic and anaerobic muscles. Fast twitch versus slow twitch muscles. As a runner, you need to develop both muscle types. Fast twitch allow you to adjust to different running conditions anaerobically such as quick uphill climbs or sudden requirements for speed. Slow twitch, aerobic muscles, allow you to run greater distances and take longer to fatigue. Both types are required for long and short races.
It's time to publish this and move on to something else. Perhaps a topic that's shorter, and less boring. Running isn't boring. It's great when you know how to do it properly. In any case, check out the following links: http://www.runningroom.com, http://www.runnersworld.com and http://www.coolrunning.com.
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