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My friend L, 58, finished after multiple failed attempts his
first 100-mile race early Nov and looked great. Proudly
showing off his shinny buckle, he started to talk about the
crown event of ultra running in the U.S., the Western States
100. It's a lottery system, he explained, and he had to
finish some other races to have more tickets in for a better
chance. He wouldn't go longer than 100 miles, he said, and
next he was going to speed up for the Boston Marathon. I
joked about his perverted obsession and sprinkled some
friendly cold water. Meanwhile, what an inspiration!
For me, running feels better, too, for two reasons. (These
days, I run four or five miles two or three times a week.)
One is the pure animal joy from effortless moving as
weight-lifting has tremendously improved the quats and
glutes. Another is from the re-discovery of breathing.
Running by myself, I have always paid attention to breathing.
I have counted the number of steps per inhale and exhale
as an alternative to wearing a heart-rate monitor. Easy
five-in-and-five-out or 5io was, for a long time, the only
way I run. At the second half, however, I often had to
struggle for oxygen. I stuck to 5io as I thought it was
equivalent to keeping heart-rate constant (now I think it is
not). Often, I finished with painful lungs.
One day, I decided to relax a little, i.e., to drop from
5io to 4io, in the middle of the run. As a result, the 2nd
half felt fantastic as oxygen supply increased by 20%.
This finding has been applied for the last two weeks as I
have adopted the HIIT (high intensity interval training)
methodology to combat weight gain*. I would jog at 5io or
4io for some distance, drop to 3io for a 20-30-sec all-out
sprint, and trot baby steps for a few yards before going
back 5/4io. Over the next half-a-mile or so, I'd fully
recover and be ready for another blast. I repeat this four
or five times within four miles.
So far, HIIT hasn't dramatically cut my weight. But I like
the feel. Variety makes running more fun and I have always
been able to finish strong. Long rest between bouts is the
training style for many athletes including martial artists
and distance runners. Let's see where this is to lead me.
* Over one month, defying discipline, my body added 5 lbs,
which I attributed to weight-lifting. My waistline stayed
the same but shoulders expanded. Regardless, I felt I needed
to go back to 145 lbs to look more like Bruce Lee.
(Somehow, I'm obsessed. I don't need to have his martial
art; I just want to look like him.)
Thank you!
> I'd like to sprinkle some cold water too. Isn't it some kind of self killing:))
Reminds me of Joy Johnson. Many are attached to living; few can choose the way of exiting.
He's unique and can't be duplicated, of course. But if I lose 20 lbs of fat (which I don't know if I still have) and put on 10 lbs of muscle, I'll be close in body composition ;-)