Running and Lessons Learned

I have learned many things about getting back in shape and myself this year. I have listed a few of them, in no particular order.

Establishing a running goal which was formidable and required several months to achieve served to create a very structured summer due to the planning necessary to facilitate reaching the goal. I was never at a loss for something to do in my spare time this summer as training was a perpetual responsibility.

Setting goals is the most important takeaway I will retain from this summer. My wife and I have set goals for our family which will take two to four years to complete. All of our decisions now must be congruent with these goals.

Getting back in shape is no easy task. In the absence of a challenging and personally meaningful purpose for resurrecting yourself, you are doomed for failure.

If you haven't exercised for eight years as I had, it will take longer than eight weeks to get back in shape. You must develop your patience threshold to accommodate a reasonable time frame for reincarnating yourself physically.

There are no shortcuts and overtime when it comes to training is not good. If you plan to train four hours in a given week, trying to do two workouts of two hours is not as effective as four one hour workouts for the week.

You will have setbacks in the form of injuries. To minimize injuries proceed weekly on an incremental basis. I decided in the first few weeks of my training this year to see how long it would take me to run three miles as a baseline run. I wasn't ready to run three miles at the time and it cost me two weeks of training due to very sore knees.

Buying the Garmin Forerunner GPS watch and using the http://connect.garmin.com website served to enable myself to record and chart my progress of my runs throughout the year. Analyzing your past performances aids in developing training plans for yourself.

I had to remind myself several times this year I am not an elite athlete and nor should I stress over times or performances which were not as good as I had hoped. The important issue is to be a part of life, not a spectator of life.

I lost thirty pounds this summer, by accident. I had no specific weight loss goals. Getting back in shape results in many beneficial unintended consequences. I would like to think my wife is appreciative of my new vim, vigor and vitality levels.

When you exercise your personal engine needs to run on high grade fuel. Vegetables and fruits are important components in a healthy diet. Portion control is where most people fail with dieting. A scoop or two of ice cream after dinner is fine. Having four to six scoops of ice cream after lunch is a portion size not conducive to losing weight.

There are varying degrees of 'in shape'. You have to decide how far you want to go with yourself to feel comfortable about your own fitness level. I frequently get passed by men much older than I at running races who are in better shape than I. You need to feel comfortable about your own current fitness level, not where you could be or other people's levels.

Last but not least, you need to make your training as fun as possible. Enlisting a partner to get back in shape helps serve to challenge you during training sessions as well as motivating you when your spirits are down. ( I ran alone this summer, but would have welcomed having a friend train with me were I able to find someone interested in running.)