Me and Exercise? Yeah we go Way Back
Ed. note: Here’s a little exercise story about a young man named Metroknow. Why his parents chose that name is beyond anyone’s recollection, but that’s not really integral to the story.
When I watch my soon-to-be four year old, like millions of parents before me I marvel at his sheer level of energy. He plays hard, laughs hard, cries hard, and sleeps hard. In my case I seem to have replaced all of those items with “work” hard. But, I’m getting back to playing a little too.
I grew up playing just about every sport I could get into, though rarely in an organized league. While I went through long periods of constant football, soccer, basketball, and some baseball, I really excelled at competitive volleyball into adulthood. As an adult, my somewhat regular exercise was either biking, running, or pickup games of basketball on weekends.
I was also an avid skateboarder from my early teens to my late twenties, and I have the knees to prove it. Throw in some skiing and snowboarding, and you have several years worth of the orthopaedic surgeon’s yacht payment.
At some point I got out of the habit of finding fun ways to exercise, and life times laziness plus a love of food equals about 5-10 lbs a year gained, multiplied by 7 years. Not pretty.
Why I hated running…for a while
In my thirties, realizing what was happening, I started getting back into running, or so I thought. When I was younger, distance running was much easier (to which I hear a collective, “DUH” arising…). But in my thirties, things like my knees started to make odd creaking and popping noises, my lungs seemed to have atrophied, and my ankles were prone to give out from time to time. What was happening to me? Was I being poisoned?
When it came to running, things were particularly frustrating. I was constantly trying to improve my time on my little course around the neighborhood, hoping for weight loss results. While I found it was beneficial mentally to get out, I saw absolutely ZERO results in weight loss. Why?
Looking back, there were obviously two parts of the problem:
1. I hadn’t changed my eating habits
2. I wasn’t doing it enough
I know it sounds simple, but the truth is when it came to exercise I was doing just enough….to hate it. I was running for only about 30 minutes or so, including warm-up and cool-down time. I was getting my heart rate up for what I considered long periods within that 30 minutes - but realistically? That was probably a sustained heart rate of 85% for about 7 minutes or so.
That is not going to yield a climber’s physique any time soon.
When I returned from my “run” (which I say with that ultra-annoying two-fingered “quotes” gesture), I was completely out of breath, convinced that I was exhausted, and ready to sit down and eat something good because I had earned it.
Let me just pause and say this: If you are not seeing a stadium full of little red flags waiving like a television pan shot at the coming Olympic games, then I think you may have a lot in common with me way back when.
So what changed? In short, I decided to participate in a charity training event to run a 1/2 marathon. To be frank, while I really was supportive of the cause (and I did raise my $2000 pledge), what I really wanted was some guidance on what I was doing wrong. And it worked. I was introduced to the walk/run technique, which ultimately allowed me to run 13.1 miles without dying. Though I felt like it was a close call by the end.
Do you have something you’d like to share with the class?
Basically I learned that a) If you don’t exercise enough, you won’t see results for many months, if at all and you will HATE it, and b) Injury is the enemy, so take it slow. That is what I did; even at 75 lbs overweight, I was able to complete the 1/2 marathon. Of course, my knees resented me and reminded me of my lack of consideration to them for many months after, but they seem to be a little more agreeable now.
All of that taught me half of the equation: If I want to see real fitness results, I need to exercise for longer than one half hour three times a week. While there may be some intensive programs out there that advocate abs and hind-quarters like titanium in 5 minutes or less, that is really not what I’m interested in. Wait. That came out wrong. What I mean is, my fitness goals are simply to improve my health, not to be the butt stand-in for Brad Pitt.
In the mean time, I am gaining mastery of the second half of the equation: My diet. Eating real food in moderation really does work. 26 lbs lost so far this year. The problem is, while I do feel better, and the weight is slowly coming off, I do not feel strong. I am not sleeping as well as I would like (a lifelong problem), and things jiggle when I walk that I would like to make stop.
That, and each day that goes by, my son is getting faster. I can’t let him beat me just yet - I have to have a LITTLE dignity, don’t I?
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Doing a half-marathon no matter how you did it is impressive. Is the walk/run method any more complicated than it sounds?
Hi John!
Nope, it’s actually quite easy. You basically just need a watch with an interval timer. For me, I started out by running 1 minute and walking 1 minute, then eventually run 2 mins, walk 1 min, run 3 mins then walk 1 min, and so forth. For the 1/2 marathon I was running a 4:1 ratio for much of the race. It really was a tremendous thrill for me, and one I hope to repeat soon.
Great post and one that I can completely relate to.
Though never a runner in my earlier years, I did love sports! I played fast-pitch softball for at least a decade, swam and water skiied until I looked like a prune and biked all over town. My eating habits were horrible but were never a problem. In my mid-20’s, career became a number one prioity and the sports stopped. Eating habits - stayed the same.
I finally got off my fat a** in my mid-30’s and picked up exercising again, but not in a big way. Lost some weight but not enough. In 2006, I broke my leg - badly. The last step of my physical therapy was running. At first, I was extremely excited about it. Not being able to walk, much less run - for months - made me extremely excited about any kind of movement. Unfortunately, I got over it pretty quickly. I found that I had to psych myself up for EVERY single run. I took up hiking instead. I have tried the run/walk method, but I have not tried the “sign-up for a 1/2 marathon” method. Will have to think about that one.
You are right on target with the lesson of the day: You must do more than 30 minutes 3 times per week.
I was laughing so hard when you talked about feeling entitled to eat gobs of food after one of your runs. I suffer from that mentality, too, even though I know better. I’m training for a half marathon right now and it is a great way to find a structured program. I am not seeing weight loss success as of yet because I am off track in the eating department. THAT is coming to an end. It is frustrating to be doing all this running without being able to see the results.
I was trying the walk run method when I was training for the 10K walk run I was going to do. Then I wrecked my back and that put the kibosh on the whole idea. Anyway it does work go even for old people who still have reasonable working knee joints. (and hips and ankles and heels) I was managing to increase the distance I could run before I had to walk.Some people would not define what I was doing as legitimate running but I really don’t care that much about that. It was running to me. I just got a brand spanking new bicycle. That is the summer plan. It is funny that you mentioned food after exercise. I caught myself thinking I could pedal to the ice cream store the other evening! Ya! Brilliant idea! Hahaha!
I love this post. It’s so dead on because it’s so realistic. My biggest hang-up when I run a lot is that I become a ravenous beast. Seriously, if I run for 45 minutes then I’ll eat twice as many calories as I burned. Talk about your catch 22.
Now, I run ocassionally, unless training for an event, and I make sure to have a protein and fiber-filled snack immediately after it. That keeps the hungry beast at bay.
@Susanna: I think that is probably the most common thing to happen - career gets in the way in some way, shape, or form. Although for me, I _wish_ that were the case…While my career certainly was incredibly demanding, I had ample opportunity to exercise, even through work (free gym memberships, etc.). So unfortunately for me it was just, well, I got lazy.
@Healthy Amelia: Hi Amelia! That is Awesome that you are training for an event. The great thing is when you get up there in distance during training, you really can eat more - it’s one of the tradeoffs for ice on the knees.
@Christine: Hey there Christine! I know what you mean on the folks who don’t “get it” with walk/run. The funny thing is the folks who believe in it often become a little religious about it too - our coach pointed out that walk/run times are often as good or better than traditional run times. It was funny - I walk/ran a 10k in downtown L.A., and part of the event was cheerleading squads on the sidelines as you went. When my “walk” interval started in front of them, I had 3 mid-teen cheerers run up and say, “c’mon! Don’t give up! You can do it!”
@Jenn: Thanks - I’m glad it resonated with you. The hunger thing I think is really bad when you get injured, because the hunger doesn’t go away! :)Great idea on the fiber-filled snack. I’m going to remember that as my mileage increases.
I’m a walker and have always been a walker. Running never quite did it for me. I hated the pounding on the pavement, so race walking, here I come. I was pretty regular at it, actually race walking 4 miles the day before my first daughter was born.
But, as many people pointed out, real life (having 4 children in 6 years) intervened, and children, work, house, and everything else daily life throws at you, took precedence. Oh, I did walk periodically, but not on a regular basis.
It’s only been in the last few years, I’ve gotten back into it on a semi-regular basis, and the last few months, I’ve been very religious about it.
If I were to give any advice, I’d tell people how important it is to exercise (which I do over at Iowa Avenue). Don’t make the same mistake I did. Make exercise a priority in your life, and your body will be forever grateful.
Keep up the good work, Metro. Hey, why don’t you start a discussion about your exercise. “Let’s get back into exercise” or how about “What are you doing to get in shape?” or even “How do you make time for exercise?”
Hey, it’s just an idea…………………………:)
I know what you mean when you say you do just enough to hate it. I’ve done the same thing, where I’m out of shape so a half hour causes me to lose my breath and feel like i’ve made progress. But in reality, it’s not nearly enough to make a difference. I need to get my heart rate higher for a longer period to see any real results. Also, that’s cool with the half-marathon. My dad did the exact same thing as you did with the walk-run. The race itself is great exercise, but the motivation to train leading up to it is really good for you as well. A few years prior to him running he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, so he used the half-marathon as motivation to gain back his strength after he completed his treatments. It’s been great for him, and he’s actually going to end up doing two this year. For anyone who is considering it, I highly suggest you take part in one at least once.
Jeremy
Your right! Injury is the enemy. I’d rather have proper form, nice pace and so on than showing off or over training which will lead to injury.