The fact is, compared to other people, I'm not much of an athlete. However, athleticism isn't always about being better than the next guy, but rather being your personal best, and that's what I strive for. Back in 1999 (I think) I was looking for the magic fix to make me big and strong and skinny and I found Myoplex protein shakes. They didn't promise to be a miracle, but they were better than nothing and they didn't have deadly warnings. I picked up a box and found a "Body For Life" pamphlet. Inside was a guy saying, basically, "just give exercise 12 weeks and it will change your life." He wasn't offering a summer body or a quick 3 week fix, but he was offering what the name was, a "Body For Life". I decided to give the whole exercise thing a shot, and it worked out great. I've been in my best health ever. While I'm not huge and macho like the people in the ads, I feel great.
I would highly recommend exercise to those considering it and those who want to feel better. Note, I have to include the full disclaimer that you should consult your doctor before you start an exercise program. I don't know you, and maybe exercise will explode your heart and make your eyes melt. But call your doctor now, I don't care if his/her office is closed. Leave a message! But don't exercise for the wrong reasons. If you exercise to "lose weight", you may find that you've lost 5 pounds of water and you feel junky all the time and you don't look any better (which is the point of losing weight, anyway, right?). Exercise for better health and everything will fall into place. Utilize both weight training and aerobic training. Weight training burns more calories than most people suspect (so the weight loss crowd spends all their time on the treadmills). Aerobic training allows for amazing lung and heart strength (and trust me, you want a set of good lungs and a good heart).
While my athletic "accomplishments" are few, some of them are entertaining, and therefore it might be fun to read. Note: I'm not trying to show off. You'll notice that most of my accomplishments are pretty lame and mainly involve me failing or doing something dumb.
#1: 100-mile bike ride with a long sprint. Every year, a group of people from my church ride their bikes to New Hampshire from Connecticut to a church retreat center. The ride is just a little bit above 100 miles. A few years ago, I decided to ride along. I have a friend who is my age, Ted, who was also riding. Sadly, he was riding with his brakes rubbing for the first 10-20 miles, so that wiped him out pretty good. The group decided to split into a fast group and a slow group. I decided to go with the fast group. Of course, the fast group was made of up riders who had nice road bikes and big, strong legs. I had a mountain bike without a seat (funny story in itself) and little baby legs. Also, I was carrying Ted's backpack, if I remember right. Well, pretty soon I was falling back from the fast group, and the slow group was far enough behind that I couldn't see them. Soon, the fast group pulled out of sight and the slow group was still far behind and out of sight. Finally, I decided to do a "sprint" until I caught up. I found myself sprinting for a very long time. That fast group must have been really fast. Before I knew it, I was in New Hampshire. I decided to stop at a pay phone and call to see where people were (also, I wanted to make sure I was taking the right road. The whole trip is 3 roads: a road to route 10, route 10, and a road off route 10). Well, I found out that the fast group had pulled off for a break and waited for the slow group and that I blown by them. If I remember right, I was the first person to make it up that year. So, without even meaning to, I had sprinted up nearly the entire state of Massachusetts.
#2: A marathon and famous people (kinda). I decided to run the 2001 Greater Hartford Marathon. A Marathon is a 26 mile run, so it's not too easy. The race started, and I was going fine, until about mile 10, where I busted my knee in a pothole I didn't see (my leg fell down further than I had expected, and I landed hard on my locked knee). So, I couldn't run well. I took off my shirt and tied it around my leg and started limping along. 16 miles is a long way to run, it's a much longer way to limp. But since I wouldn't quit, I limped on (I had told people I was doing a marathon, and I didn't want to make myself a liar). Well, about mile 23 near a turn-around, I saw someone coming back limping along the other direction. We yelled back and forth about out afflictions, but we were going opposite directions, so the conversation was short. I decided to speed up my limp a few notches, because misery loves company. Finally, I caught up, and she (the other limper) and I struck up various bits of conversation. Her name was Katherine and she was running the marathon for charity. There are a bunch of other stuff mentioned, but I won't bore you with all the details. Anyhow, at one point in the conversation, she managed to mention that she was a motivational speaker/writer and that she would probably write an article about how I had limped so far (I think she limped from about mile 18) and she said it would be on her website, missnh.com. It took me until later that day to realize that missnh.com was for Miss New Hampshire, and that I was speaking with Miss New Hampshire herself, Katherine Pike (I might add that she was a very nice person, and that the Miss State people look much better in person without the fancy dresses and tons of makeup, and she wasn't at all stuck-up, or any such non-sense. And just a note to all you guys reading this, no, I do not have her number, so don't ask, and her fiancee was also running the marathon, so I think she is now married).
#3: A longer bike ride and a crash. Well, one day Ted (a great friend and bike rider) and I decide to do a longer bike ride than the 100 mile ride to New Hampshire. We decide that we're going to ride there and back in one day. The ride would have been well over 200 miles long. Well, we had ridden a long distance and were on our way back. We were crusing fast, as we had just come out of a long down hill and we wanted to make good time. Anyway, Ted was behind me and his tire slipped in some sand and hit a curb and his bike and he were flung off the road, and Ted landed right in a telephone poll. There was an Australian couple walking by, and Ted later recalled what they said "When I saw you hit that telephone, I said 'that can't be good!'" ("Of course that couldn't have been good" says Ted "I just hit a telephone pole!"). Anyway, the bike wasn't too injured (a bottle holder held its last bottle, and a toe clip broke), but Ted's wrist was broken, so, we had to wait outside a little grocerie store for a few hours while we waited to be picked up by Ted's father. It was a sad end to what would have been a very long day of bike riding.
No comments:
Post a Comment