Man - I wish I was in better shape!

"I wish I were in better shape" is a thought to which most Americans over the age of 21 or so can relate. Trust me, I'm no exception. Presently, I am disgusted with myself and completely determined to get back in shape. The question for me is "how far back can I go?" Professional athletes have something called a 'prime' which happens somewhere between the ages of, let's say 24 to 33 years old. Professional athletes, that is. The rest of us? Well, for the most part, we never had a prime. I had a couple of adolescent periods and skipped right to middle age.

That's the good news! Since most of us never had a prime, we can achieve all kinds of great things in the years after prime and be doing better than we were when we were in those prime years. Anyway - I'm going back to my thirties - and what was my best condition - starting now.

The Exercise Physiologist in me has always preached that, in fitness as in travel, you can’t get where you’re going if you don’t know where you are. Pretty basic, sure, but I’m talking about knowing exactly where you are. You have to get some measurements and they have to be meaningful, accurate and most importantly – repeatable. Don’t give me that crap about height/weight charts or body mass index (BMI). And I’m not looking for electrical impedance body fat readings, either – they’re problematic for repeatability. Either it’s an underwater weigh or body fat calipers on between five and seven sites and in the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing or forget about it. There are ways to get the basic information you will need about yourself at home doing such things as a step test for aerobic fitness, curl-ups, bench presses, and/or push-ups for muscular strength, and a sit and reach for flexibility. Body fat could be a little trickier, but it's important to know the make up of your weight - how much of it is fat if you are to really get a handle on it.

Where am I now?
So. I’m 54 years old. My body fat is 18% and I weigh 206 pounds. I’m wearing pants with a 38” waist. I’ve got squat in the upper body strength department and my flexibility is for shit. My aerobic fitness is still decent since I run only every third day though only about 30 minutes (calf injury from 2001 which I’ll get into later). I spend time hiking in the Cleveland Metroparks and do some pretty serious backpacking in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York in the summer months. I ride the bike two or three times a week when getting ready for a backpacking trip and mix in some hikes with about 60 pounds in a pack on my back, stopping on the trail to do step ups on rocks and logs along the way in an attempt to build the quads for climbing in the mountains.

I suppose it’s not too bad, but hey – I’m a two-time Iron Man and sported a body fat of 6% with a 32” waist in my mid-thirties. I was a stud then. Now I’m a plow horse.
“John – you were in your thirties then. Let’s face it – you can’t look like that anymore,” I’ve heard. But is it true? I mean sure, physiologically you lose strength, speed and endurance with age - maybe 1% per year from your prime, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still work out hard and look like you did in your thirties, does it? Well, I’m on a quest to find out. It's going to take over a year and I will challenge myself with some dificult goal - I think everyone should. Maybe the Iron Man again. Or kayak across Lake Erie. Or bike the perimeter of the Great Lakes. I'll do something and it will be reasonably radical. Count on it.

There. I've laid the groundwork. Now, I'm going to document what I do, how I feel, what I eat (sometimes) and the results I'm getting. I hope you follow along. I hope you're inspired to begin your own quest and that the information I'm sharing helps you in that pursuit. If I can help - send me your questions.

Friday, 2/19/10

The official kickoff day. I drove to the North Chagrin Reservation Metropark, a 600-acre park filled with many miles of hiking and bridle trails and steep ravines - excellent for hill workouts or just a good hike. I parked at the entrance off of Wilson Mills, having planned a run that would take me out on River Road for the first half of the run before cutting back into the park and the snow-covered bridle trails.

It was sunny and about 35 degrees. I wore gortex running pants, a short-sleeved cotton t-shirt (stupid – because this keeps moisture next to your body and can make you quite cold, but I’m old fashioned and cheap), socks on my hands (good for warmth and wiping the sweat off of your brow – bad for style points), and an old biking cap to hold in a little of my body heat escaping from my hairless dome (folically challenged for over 20 years).

I plodded along the roads at a pace of around 9 minutes per mile, but slowed from this when I hit the snow-covered bridle trail. I was slipping and sliding up a winding, quarter mile hill, but loving the serenity of the woods and the crunching of the snow under my shoes. In places, it was more slush than snow, which splashed on and saturated my shoes. I was sweating, so the freezing cold on my feet was not too unpleasant and makes me feel somewhat macho. I completed the run in a 35:33 covering somewhere between 3.5 to 4 miles.

There are some really great advantages to running in the snow on uneven terrain. The body is forced to go through constant balancing adjustments with each step, strengthening the muscles of the feet, ankles, legs and hips. Sure, you run slower times, but it’s all about the effort, which is what you want it to be. Mine is typically greater in the snow – I’m running with a higher heart rate - and that is what burns the calories - and the body fat!

I was quite pleased with the run. It’s the longest I’ve taken in a number of years – back to 2001 when I blew out a calf on a run and with which I’ve had trouble ever since.

Training heart rate: 140 beats per minute

Calories burned during workout: 500