fitness

The art and science of running are improbably complex and impossibly arcane. So many principles, controversies, and practices populate the landscape of running that no one person can hope to explore them all. And yet, you can make a pretty good start. Here are the five books -- in the correct reading sequence -- that offer most to the curious and careful reader.

This from the list of subjects for which I really should write an article but seem never to get around to it. So, here are the bullet points:

Boundary Bay
(between Centennial Beach and the Delta Heritage Air Park)

This stretch of beach, dike, and bog offers great views of the mountains, ocean, and local wildlife. It’s uncommon to see more than a couple of other walkers or runners during the most isolated stretches, near the Air Park (which provides free parking). At low tide you can run a mile or more offshore, right at the edge of the world (don’t drown when the tide comes back in).

Burns Bog

The largest urban wilderness in North America. The wildlife viewing and the quiet (especially along the 2K boardwalk) are mesmerizing. Burns Bog has the cleanest air in the Lower Mainland (due to the ecology of the bog). Running beneath the canopy is like passing through some primordial landscape. Enchanting in many ways.

For my students:

Michael Moschen puts on a quietly mesmerizing show of juggling.

It has been slightly more than a season since I began my fitness plan. It seems reasonable to pause here, assess how far I've come, and consider what still remains.

Looking back to my original post about this project, here are the health and fitness issues that seemed most pressing at the time:

Generally low energy, impaired hip flexibility, right hip discomfort, right shoulder discomfort, impaired right hand flexibility (post-surgery, after my skateboarding accident last year).

Let's take them one at a time. My energy is generally much higher than before. I've noticed a basic shift which involves the distinction between tiredness and sleepiness. Previously, I found myself sometimes tired, though not sleepy. These days, I get sleepy (when I should be sleepy) but I am rarely tired.

My right hip remains stubbornly tighter than I would like, though it has become much more flexible and comfortable than before. My right shoulder is also better, and also still twingy at times. I think it's a function of scar tissue, and I'm trying to work it free slowly, without pushing too hard.

My right hand is much improved. As is my overall sense of wellness. Generally, I just feel much better.

In my strength training, I'm working upward to the next level (150 pounds of weight on most machines). My quads still feel weak, but they are coming along grudgingly. The lat pulldown is still my favorite machine.

And I'm closing in on three miles for my post-strength-training run. Yesterday (with the help of the classic Bon Jovi song Livin' on a Prayer, which happened to come on the radio just as I was nearing the end!) I ran 2.85 miles in just under 25 minutes. I felt good: not tired, or winded, or uncomfortable. My next goal, which might take me a while, is to run 3 miles in about 23 minutes. It would be satisfying to make it all the way down to 21 minutes -- three, seven-minute miles -- but I'm not sure if that's reasonable to expect quite yet. We'll see.

Speaking of Bon Jovi: music makes a difference. I have developed the habit of choosing the treadmill closest to the radio speaker on the ceiling, in the hope that something motivational will come on. Guitar-heavy tracks from the 80s seem to work best for me. Stuff that's light on the lyrical content and heavy on everything else: anthems from Bon Jovi, April Wine, Rush, Van Halen, Asia, Tears for Fears. The kind of music I listened to in high school.

Music with more lyrical emphasis -- the kind of stuff I listen to now -- also seems to work alright, but not quite as well. Hard rock anthems seem to be the ticket. At the gym, when I'm running and there is a long stretch of radio ads or songs from Culture Club or Metallica or ZZ Top (my least favorite band), I tend to feel as though I'm not going to make it to the finish.

But then I just remember my fitness anthem:

Whooah, were half way there
Livin on a prayer
Take my hand and well make it - I swear
Livin on a prayer
We've got to hold on, ready or not
You live for the fight, when its all that you've got.

No complications there, no adult complexities. Just simple, passionate drive, the kind of thing to appeal perfectly to a middle-aged guy who still remembers what it's like to feel young. I wouldn't want to go back to my youth, but I don't mind borrowing from that inexhaustible well.

My program seems to be moving forward smoothly, despite my few aches and pains and my tendency to convince myself — every time — that I will not be able to make it through twenty minutes of running. Yet I do make it, and sometimes I even manage increase my pace. My strength training regimen is going very well, and I’m enjoying it a great deal.

Here are the bare details:

Strength Training
I’ve managed surprising results in this area. On most of the machines I am completing between 8 and 12 slow repetitions, using 140 pounds (twice per week). This is almost a fifty per cent increase in weight since I started. On the lat pulldown machine I am completing two sets — one with arms facing forward, one with arms facing each other — just because it’s fun. Though I still struggle with the quad machine, the pain in my right hip (which is quad-related) has almost completely vanished.

Running
Within the past two weeks I have increased my running so that I complete a total of two miles in about twenty minutes. This is not a fast pace, but I run after forty minutes of intense strength training, and the combination seems to feel about right. I plan to increase my pace slowly as I go on.

Badminton
I’m only managing once per week, but it’s such fun when I do play that I’m planning to increase to twice per week very soon. I find that I can now play for an hour without exhaustion. This is due, no doubt, to the other fitness activities.

Overall, I’m very happy with my progress. My energy is higher and I feel more fit — though I do not seem to be losing any weight. As I have some to lose, it would be good to make progress in this area. Increasing my running may help. Eating less sugar probably will too. But I am not going to go on a diet, or buy into any of the crazy quick-fix schemes out there. I am going to continue what I’ve been doing: staying active, paying attention, working toward improvement.

One of the most rewarding aspects of this program at the moment is that it feels easy (now, finally); like a habit. I’m not pushing myself but rather following my enjoyment. That feels good.

As I come to the close of my sixth week on this program, here is a small self-reminder, a snippet of useful information:

Exercising with regularity does not entitle me to consume fifty chocolate macaroons, nor several large bowls of ice cream, nor a gallon of Cheesies, nor three Eat-More bars, nor one venti mocha frappuccino (which, by the way, has roughly the same number of calories as a Big Mac).

Otherwise, things are going well…

I have managed to boost my strength training amounts about twenty per cent on most of the machines (typically going from 100 to 120 or 130 pounds), my overall sense of health is improving nicely, and my aerobic training has started off reasonably well.

This is a quick update, just a little reminder that I’m still working on my program. Within the last week I’ve done a bit of running, a bit of badminton, and I’ve made it to the gym a couple of times. But things are a little slow in the exercise domain because things are moving so fast elsewhere: taxes, teaching, presentations, parenting. On and on, with precious little time to fit in the hours per week required to stay fit.

This is the challenge, really: to make fitness a fundamental part of my daily life, something as essential as brushing my teeth. I can sense that my initial enthusiasm will soon need to be replaced by a constant routine. I hope it happens soon.

I made it through Easter, but barely. I seem to have a limitless appetite for bacon. And chocolate, of course. But this week I worked hard at the gym (twice), and I also added some aerobic training at the beach. In addition to my strength training regimen (which is primarily anaerobic), it's going to be important for me to improve my aerobic fitness -- and, by extension, my lung functioning. Whenever I get sick, it's almost always in the lungs. I tend to blame my chain-smoking mother for this, but it's also due to my generally poor aerobic fitness. So, today I began a small amount of interval training while completing my hour-long walk. Basically, interval training involves running for a short while, walking, then running again. Typically, a good place to start is with jogs of thirty seconds interspersed between stretches of walking for three or four minutes. I did not time myself today; instead, I focused on listening to the amount of exertion my body seemed comfortable with. This translated into short jogs of a minute or two, with a few minutes between. Interval training works: the research is clear about this. And, as if on cue, this appeared in my news this morning:

Coaches and athletes don't realize it, says exercise physiologist George Brooks, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology, but endurance training teaches the body to efficiently use lactic acid as a source of fuel on par with the carbohydrates stored in muscle tissue and the sugar in blood. Efficient use of lactic acid, or lactate, not only prevents lactate build-up, but ekes out more energy from the body's fuel.