Sunday 24 April 2011

Move to Keep Moving

The title probably sounds like some kind of running mantra but its a phrase I kinda coined during another warm and painful run today. I was running along the Thames Towpath around Barnes (again) and I passed two very different people of very different ages who were having a similar problem. First was a very old gentleman who lets say 'was well journeyed' who was really struggling to keep moving along in the 23+degree weather and I thought to myself dang that looks hard.....that will happen to me one day (to be fair its probably how I look after every race!). The second person was a generously proportioned girl with an astronomically bad attitude towards walking or maybe just exercise. She was only a young girl and she was out walking with her parents (I presume, maybe they just stole her which was why she was whining.....) with every scrapping, stomping, shuffled step she moaned about being tired. At this point I thought to myself.....besides the thought of pushing her in the river.....that she will end up just like the old guy when she is older- barely able to move.
At this point my running mentality took a new twist. My body was aching, my throat was on fire and my iliotibial band was at breaking point but instead of continuing to dwell on how crappy training can be sometimes I refocused on how great it is to be able to cover the distances I can with my singular skinny human frame. I was just enjoying movement as we were all intended to do. The way I look at it- the more you move now the more you will be able to move in your twilight years. Everybody will have some sort of physical deformation as they get older and older but surely the more you move when you are younger the more you will able to move when your older, agree? Their is the argument that the fitter you are the more depreciation of mobility you will get and by running myself into the ground (excuse the pun) the wheels will eventually come off. However, if I can walk/run 100km per week now and had a 50% depreciation by the time im 70years old then I can still do 50km per week. Compare that to the girl who probably moves day to day no more than 15km per week, if she is hugely lucky she might only get a 25% drop off by the time she is 70 but that means she can only move 7.5 km per week, that's 1km per day!
Now obviously these are all hypothetical numbers and im definitely not suggesting the old man must have been a lazy arse in his younger days, his problems could easily be non-fitness related. But then again its widely reported that staying healthy at a young age can dramatically cut the risk of heart diseases and strokes http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3324107.stm
I guess this rather weird post just brings me around to saying enjoy movement and move more now to move more later (hmmm like that, my own quote). Your own two legs can take you to places that no plane or car or boat or train can. If you dont believe come and join me for a hike sometime. Below is a picture of a secret spot of mine and another picture at the top of a mountain range......only feet can get you to these spots! On another note, monthly training numbers are updated at the bottom of this page. Distance isn't much but vertical is good which is keeping me strong. I'm at 15400 vertical so far which is almost half of what I managed last year and its only April! Well done to all my marathon folk, seemed pretty good across the board, hopefully prague next month will be as fruitful for runners on my training programmes and on my insoles. Happy Easter


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