Made To Do This
Mar. 26th, 2012 12:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyspriteI've always worked under the assumption that different types of exercise are just right for different people - that some people and some bodies are just made for yoga, for instance, and others do better with endurance work, or speed. It just seemed to make sense to me, though I'll admit I was working with an extremely limited amount of data.
The more I practice running, the more I believe that this is true. I took on the challenge of running a 5K mostly just to see if I could - to see if I could get over my asthmatic fat-kid past and do something that intimidated the heck out of me. And I was torn between equally strong and conflicting beliefs, both that I was in darn good shape and could probably do it easily, and that running was Holy Cow Scary Bad Hard and that there was no way in heck that I could ever do something like that.
I'm halfway through the training program now; I've been taking it slowly both because of occasional illnesses leading to backsliding and because I've learned that slow progress is better than pushing, injuring, and backsliding. And I've realized that neither one of my beliefs were quite right.
Running is harder than any exercise I've ever done before. I can do it, but it just seems... not quite alien, but not natural to my body. It's tiring and it leaves me worn out and short of breath and it pushes me to the edge of my ability and endurance more than anything else I've ever done. And that's an odd feeling, because on the one hand it feels good to challenge myself, but on the other hand it's frustrating as heck to feel that years of consistent working out have done nothing to improve my actual condition, and that something this simple should be this hard.
I'm going to stick with it, mostly because I'm stubborn and I refuse to give up, and because the Run For Your Life still sounds like crazy fun. But I'm pretty sure that, when it's done, I'll be happy to sit content in my knowledge that I did it once, and go back to yoga and circuit-training, and never run again....
The more I practice running, the more I believe that this is true. I took on the challenge of running a 5K mostly just to see if I could - to see if I could get over my asthmatic fat-kid past and do something that intimidated the heck out of me. And I was torn between equally strong and conflicting beliefs, both that I was in darn good shape and could probably do it easily, and that running was Holy Cow Scary Bad Hard and that there was no way in heck that I could ever do something like that.
I'm halfway through the training program now; I've been taking it slowly both because of occasional illnesses leading to backsliding and because I've learned that slow progress is better than pushing, injuring, and backsliding. And I've realized that neither one of my beliefs were quite right.
Running is harder than any exercise I've ever done before. I can do it, but it just seems... not quite alien, but not natural to my body. It's tiring and it leaves me worn out and short of breath and it pushes me to the edge of my ability and endurance more than anything else I've ever done. And that's an odd feeling, because on the one hand it feels good to challenge myself, but on the other hand it's frustrating as heck to feel that years of consistent working out have done nothing to improve my actual condition, and that something this simple should be this hard.
I'm going to stick with it, mostly because I'm stubborn and I refuse to give up, and because the Run For Your Life still sounds like crazy fun. But I'm pretty sure that, when it's done, I'll be happy to sit content in my knowledge that I did it once, and go back to yoga and circuit-training, and never run again....
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no subject
Date: 2012-03-26 05:09 pm (UTC)Well, that's not entirely true. "Condition" is not a single, easily measured thing. Condition is task-dependent. As a demonstrative example - the conditioning one needs to run a fast sprint is not much like the conditioning needed to run a marathon.
You worked out for years - you conditioned your body for activity that's like those workouts you did. You did see improvement in muscle strength and cardiovascular health. I'd say you saw a decrease in the incidence and severity of upper respiratory infections.