[Trumpetman]

Okay as mentioned that the "other" place, I have begun a bit of a fitness program. I've lost 9 lbs so far. I work out 6 days a week. (3 lifting and 3 cardio) It's the Body for Life program for those of you who are familiar with it. If you aren't you can head on over to www.bodyforlife.com and check it out.

On the days I do cardio, I start with a two mile run on the treadmill here at my home. Then, since I teach fifth grade, I have to help them get ready for the President's Physical Fitness Challenge. What I have been doing is dressing and running with the kids in hopes that my own progress will drive them to measure themselves not just against others but against themselves as well. The fact that I cannot beat some of them actually seems to encourage quite a few of the medium to slower kids to begin measuring their progress against just themselves. I mean if I can't beat the fastest kids, then they don't feel so bad they can't either.

The results have really been pretty good. I've got some boys that came in well under eight minutes for a mile today. However there is one little girl that for whatever reason has quietly determined that I will not beat her. Since I am an out of shape, full grown man, my times have improved pretty well from the huffing and puffing first attempts at running. My first time was over 12 minutes and today I pulled off a 9min 33sec. Well this little, likely 3 ft 8 in girl has shown just as much dramatic improvement over the last three weeks. She popped in today at about 9 min 17 sec.

I find it humbling yet inspiring at the same time. As a teacher, I get so tired of everyone labeling today's kids as damaged goods. It seems there isn't a single kid they can't find a way to label "disadvantaged" in some manner. This little girl has serious heart. Lots of the other kids have made good improvement as well but the reality is that this girl, likely the shortest in my class is in no way intimidated. According to the thinking of some, this girl could never even attempt to consider competing against me. She would see that I am a full grown, "privileged", white male and just give up. I'm glad I never bought into that B.S. thinking when I was growing up because I was dirt poor. I'm glad that she seems only what she can accomplish instead of how she is a "victim."

The reality (thank goodness) is quite different than that. I can see the same quiet, stubborn streak in her that I had at her age. (and still have to this day) No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. This girl has listened to no variable or person that would tell her she cannot beat me.

So if you see any sort of sudden stop to my posting. It is because I am still just a stubborn and will chase this little girl down in to the low 8's assuming my heart doesn't explode in the meantime. God help us because those 7 min 45 sec boys will likely be running 6's by then.

Nick

[Chinney]

I went for a run today for the first time in years (although I have been trying, when I can, to keep fit other ways). I am on a business trip in Victoria B.C. and I had some time to kill at the end of the day.

I felt like a geezer out there - as slow as the old guys I use to pass when I was running regularly in my teens and early 20s. Come to think of it, I am as old as the guys that I use to pass back then. Welcome to my 40s! At least my heart kept up. Other parts of me still working fairly well too, thank goodness.

[alcimedes]

man, i can't run anymore (doctor's orders), but reading this thread i really, really DON'T miss it. god i hated running. used to run cross country to get in shape for winter sports, and i hated every damned second of it. more power to you if you can keep with it.

absolutely grueling.

[FFL]

Running's tough. I did it back in the day but I don't think it would be good for my old and abused ankles and knees. However, I am on a bit of a swimming and light weightlifting kick for the past month or so. It does feel good to be exercising again after quite a few years.

[machem]

I wouldn't run out of a burning building. I figure god wouldn't have invented bikes if he really wanted us to run around looking foolish.

Glad to hear you are losing some weight, though.

[Mac+]

Hey Nick I like the story - but have to concur with the others that running (for me) does indeed suck. I much prefer swimming or Karate to keep fit. Unfortunately, it's been a while since I last did any serious Karate and I don't think these old(er) bones and tendons will be quite up to the challenge presently.

[Argento]

I can't run without my IPOD, but when it was working I loved running because it was basically me just listening to my music and puffing like God him self was on my chest. That didn't bother me though with music.

[drewprops]

At one point in my youth I made it up to being able to run 4 miles at a time, but I developed a "clicking" sound in the ligaments/whatever-they-are at the back of my foot/ankle area. It didn't hurt, but I'm a firm believer in body parts that don't make noise....so I stopped running. I suppose I should've asked somebody what it was at some point....running was something that I've always hated and when I finally achieved the ability to do it my body rebelled...

Keep running Trumpetman!!

Run Forrest, RUN!

[SonOfSylvanus]

<thinking to self> *I'm definitely gonna post something in this thread, compared to all these oldies, I'll sound like an Adonis... muhaha* </thinking to self>

Before I do weights at the gym, like this morning, I run for 6 minutes or so on the treadmill. Every visit I have been turning up the speed on the machine so that I run a little more every day. I finally hit 1.6km today (a mile ) in a time of 6mins 15secs with the speed maxed-out at 16.

Yessss! </beaming>

[thegelding]

yeah, my body hates the first mile, keeps telling me, "hey, g, wouldn't you rather have a beer?", when it realizes i'm not stopping it settles down and i'm fine till about mile 5 when it gets bored and starts asking about beers again

trumpet would have liked my wife when she was a kid...she was this little monkey girl...they had all these school wide competetions...when she was in second grade she won the rope climb for the whole elementry, including the boys


as for diets, not sure what i want to do now...went on the atkins last year when i was feeling doughy...lost too much weight, people thought i had cancer...went off the diet and still lost 5 more pounds...started eating everything in sight and now i am back to almost 180 (was down to 155) at 6 foot even...just want to lose 10 pounds and tone up...170 is a good weight for me

anyways, good luck trying to beat the little girl

g

[Moogs]

My motto is "why run when you can skate", but I think that is a very cool story. It's great that you recognize these things as a teacher; I'm sure many don't take that level of interest in their kids. Good work, man. And keep up the fit for life thing... can only be a good thing I suspect.

[low-fi]

Originally Posted by Argento I can't run without my IPOD, but when it was working I loved running because it was basically me just listening to my music and puffing like God him self was on my chest. That didn't bother me though with music.

Yep, that is the only way I can do it. And it really pisses me off when my girl nicks my iPod grrrrgh

[noleli2]

Getting your butt kicked in running by an 11-year-old girl is nothing. I (19-year-old male) lost an arm wrestle to a 16-year-old girl. Granted she does throw shot-put in high school, but still. I will admit to having no upper body strength, but six years of marching band will build up strong legs and good cardio.

I hate starting to run, but once I'm into I actually enjoy it. My general opinion is that unlike other sports, running has no rules to confuse me, and no projectiles to injure me.

[thuh Freak]

hahahahaha, you lost to a little girl. personally, i've never been into the whole 'healthy' gig. and running in particular is difficult for any length of time for two main reasons: (a) i run out of breath in like 10 seconds. (ii) if i do manage to go for some time, its hard to hold the cigar/cigarette/joint steady and spark a flame while running.

i once lost a pretty embarassing match against a pair of similarly aged (both to myself and each other), but obviously weaker girls. we were hitting these spike dealies (i think they are called rivets) vertically into this wooden bridge we were building. i on one side, and girl # 1 on the other. so, eventually, everyone else is crowding around, and i notice that she is trying to compete, but she is losing verily. she passes the minisledge over to a smaller statured girl, who creams me. i was hitting two shots for every one of hers, but still lost. not exactly a fair competition, since they were a pair and i alone, and that it was near the end of the workday, and i had done several of these damned spikes while they were doing relatively easy work, but who's complainin? (me!). for the rest of that trip, there was constant mention of the "incident". by the by, slamming those rivets is a lot more fun than you'd expect, even when you slower than puny girls.

[Crusader]

Originally posted by drewprops:At one point in my youth I made it up to being able to run 4 miles at a time, but I developed a "clicking" sound in the ligaments/whatever-they-are at the back of my foot/ankle area. It didn't hurt, but I'm a firm believer in body parts that don't make noise....so I stopped running. I suppose I should've asked somebody what it was at some point....running was something that I've always hated and when I finally achieved the ability to do it my body rebelled...

I have the same problem in my right arm, it developed after I started to lift, and I never did get it checked out. I tried to work through it but one day my elbow just "popped" and I felt a heck of a lot of pain. Stopped lifting after that, but alas I never did have it checked out.

[Fangorn]

Okay, this is an old thread, but it popped up when posting my new year's cheer.

When I was in High School, I ran the 200 m, won some medals, blah, blah, blah. The thing was, my couch got this "brilliant" idea of having me train by running 200's against high school boys. Do you realize the time difference between a high school boy and a high school GIRL running 200 m, especially at a "training" speed? They were barely stretching out and I was matching/besting my meet time. AND I'm not exactly one of those leggy, types you envision running track--I was 5'3" at the time, not quite at the 5'4" I topped out at in college. So I hope you didn't push the girl too hard! You've got a lot more stride once you get that cardio vascular system on line.

Happy New Year

[Mac+]

Man - that must have been some, "couch"!

[Luca]

I hate running. Yet I've lost about 30 pounds in a few months, because I've just been eating less. I only work out about once a week, not including the significant distance I walk most days. But the reduction in eating has really helped. I feel hungry fairly often, yes, but I'm never starving. It's just a matter of suppressing your natural urge to eat as much food as possible. I can get by just fine on a pair of softball-sized portions of food per day.

For me, it's an easier way of losing weight than exercise. I don't know, I just really hate exercise. Not eating, on the other hand, is great! I mean, it just lets me continue being lazy, yet I lose weight anyway! And I realize that it's not as good to lose weight by eating less as it is to do it by exercising, but I'm already pretty overweight so I think right now it's just important to get rid of some of this excess body fat. I am down to about 240 now, which is still overweight (height 5'11"), but it's a lot better than before.

[Koodari]

The sooner you get over that someone will always be better than you, the more progress you will make, since you can learn and get inspiration from them.

My ideal is to become an expert in most things; the downside is that I can't be the best in any one of them. That means I can't compete in a narrow manner. But, to quote Robert Heinlein:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

I plan to become a lot stronger and skilled this year. I don't particularly like exercise... but I certainly like the results it can produce.