Still going after the 10k... am I improving? Kind of

Running is a sport that I have a love/hate relationship with. I love the fact that the only person you are truly competing against is yourself and it is just a question of getting your body in the sort of condition that it needs to be in, in order for you to excel at this. I was never a distance runner, I was always a strong guy, or someone that was good at sports that required you to have the ability to run really fast for short periods of time. I was the kind of guy that looked at the people doing cross country running and thought it was kind of stupid.

Now that I am older, my options as far as sports are concerned are becoming increasingly limited if I also want to keep the use of all of my limbs. Older people out there maybe realized this earlier than I did but you are going to get hurt if you try to keep up with the youngbloods.

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Now I am not terribly old, I am in my mid 40's, but since I have been athletic my entire life, I think I am in a position to realize the diminishing returns in certain things and also how more prone to injury I am compared to when I was a teenager, in my 20's, or even in my 30's.

As my pictures over time indicate I took about a decade off from fitness in my early 30's, and it was something that took a great deal of dedication both in diet and dedication, in order to get it back. IT took a lot more than it did for me to maintain such fitness levels in my 20's. Back then, I was basically indestructible and there were a lot of collisions and ankle twists that happened that I just shrugged off, these days these same instances will have me struggling to move for days.

So this is where my love of running comes from. Don't get the wrong idea: I do NOT love running just because I'm some loon that likes to watch his legs move. I love running because combined with the right foods, hydration, stretching, and other such factors, you are basically guaranteed to get better at it and the sky is the limit as far as how much you want to push yourself.

Prior to this year, I never really thought about doing 10k's. Like I mentioned before I always thought this was dumb. I recall a funny line from a fantastic series called "Eastbound and Down" when the main character Kenny Powers meets a triathlete.

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Like it or not, the mentality of someone who wants to stay fit has to evolve with time. Sure, you could always find some sort of football league for people over 30 or over 40, but while I have never engaged in such a thing, I would imagine that it is absolutely filled with horrible injuries; injuries to people that have neither the time nor resources to be out of action for long periods of time.

So for me, running is the answer along with other endurance things like cycling or swimming. Ideally, I would like to get into the sort of cardiovascular shape to do triathlons and that is sort of the aim of what I am doing now. I have done one in the past and while I did finish, I was not really impressed with my times. I barely avoided disqualification but to be fair, this was when I was 30 lbs overweight and was pulling a stubborn, "don't tell me what I can't do" move in my life. I finished, but will admit that I walked a lot of the 10km run at the end.

My 10k runs that I am doing almost daily at this point in my life still involve a lot of walking as I try to figure out what is a comfortable pace for me without stopping. My legs, due to years of lifting as my primary method of fitness, are frankly, too large to keep going for long periods of time and I am faced with an choice that must be made if I am going to continue. I have to either accept that some of my muscle mass is going to have to go, or that I am always going to be slow.

For many, this is not a choice that they really have but it is very unlikely that you are going to be both. You can be ripped sure, but ripped, have mass, AND be able to do endurance runs? Extremely unlikely.

I am starting to realize that the main focus of a man (or a woman) in their 40's or perhaps even earlier, really should be to focus on cardio health and to participate in things like running due to the fact that you are far less likely to suffer a horrible injury by doing this.

For me, the "hump" that I have to get over at the moment is my own mind. I frequently slow to a walk when I am not even breathing hard because it is easier. I also don't run in the heart-rate "sweet spot" because I feel like I look like I am shuffling along like an old man.

perhaps it is best for me to realize that I actually am older, and to just go with it.

So this is my goal in the next few months: I am going to be able to run a full 10k without stopping. The question is, what should my pace be? I think that for each person that this is going to be very different.

I have seen my times in the past week get gradually better but not as fast as I would like it to be. However, I am going to apply what I applied during my weight loss, weight gain, and strength-training portions of my life and accept that this is not something that happens overnight. It is going to take a long time and a lot of persistence.

At the moment I am struggling to do 8km in an hour and I know there are people that can go a lot faster than that, even at my own age. These other people though do not have my past, nor do they have yours. This is where a desire to improve one's self comes in. You don't have to be the best, and in all likelihood you are not going to be. I think that for a normie like me the "best" is being the best you can be...within reason.

For me, I keep my goals reasonable and I never make any sort of stupid and ambiguous promises. Keep your goals withing reach and gradually work towards them. This has always been my mantra since I made life-changing choices in my early 40's. I think it will work for other people as well.

_{From elite athlete, to fatty, to the strongest I have been in my life over the course of 2 decades. Now my next goal is to have fantastic cardio. What's your next step?}