"When I talk about being a devoted runner, I always qualify it by saying that I’m slow — just in case the person I’m speaking to decides to look up my race times and call me out for being an impostor.... Over the years I have learned that, like body acceptance, pace acceptance can come from shifting our focus from external metrics and others’ perceived judgments to how we actually feel in our own skin... There are also physical benefits to running at a pace that doesn’t feel punishing.... Running with intensity might build muscle, but running at an easy pace... does a better job of conditioning our heart and lungs and boosting our endurance.... Exercise scientists suggest running at a 'conversational' pace — one at which you can run and talk without feeling winded. The other benefit of the talk test is the talk itself. Jogging and conversing with others forms community — and social bonding releases even more endocannabinoids...."
Writes in "How I Learned to Love Finishing Last/In a sport that rewards speed, sometimes it’s healthier to be the tortoise than to be the hare" (NYT).
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It's great if you run, jog, or walk. To quote Nike, just do it. You can be plenty fit from walking or simple cleaning, yard, and garden work. But, if you do nothing your body will be unhealthy and decay.
Do not ever under any circumstances allow morbidly obese people to delude themselves with "body positivity" or deny their poor health. If a friend for family member, understand that they will die from heart disease. They will die from COVID. They will destroy their knee and hip joints and require wheelchairs. Once the legs go they'll get even heavier and perhaps bed-bound.
"I bathe with a sponge on a stick." - The Simpsons when they pushed the boundaries.
The point is to get your heart rate into the "target zone". If you can do that and talk, fine. If you can't, you need to run faster.
If you are running to finish last, is it a sport or is it exercise?
My distance running philosophy: start slowly....and then ease off.
"____ culture," "the ____ community," "____ acceptance," "inclusivity," "judged," and an excessive amount of the first person "I."
Anyone up for a game of New York Times Bingo?
Unless you are training for a race, the benefits of a moderate pace far outweigh the benefits of going as fast as you can. For one thing, as mentioned in the excerpt, it is much easier to build distance if you slow down a bit. The only real benefit of fast is you're done quicker. Slow down a bit, and you'll go much farther while burning the same calories per mile.
I can relate. I "run" and often put air quotes around the word. Technically, it is running in that I am airborne for a second. But I am 5' tall, have no need for speed, and don't want to ruin my knees with intensive running. A tall person could easily keep up at a fast walk. Who cares? That's the way I like to "run".
When I was in college and a long distance recreational runner, I wondered why no women did running and how cool that would be for a date. They get to do long distance under protection, too.
Alas many years later a gf did in fact like running, but so slowly that it wasn't really possible to jog, just go up and down.
Running ought to be about exertion management, just on the edge for the distance you want to finish. It's not painful, just skillful.
My knees eventually rebelled and since then I'm a bicycle rider. Same management skill though.
The other benefit of the talk test is the talk itself. Jogging and conversing with others forms community — and social bonding releases even more endocannabinoids...."
How about being able to eat a waffle while running?
If you want to run faster you have to push yourself into the painful zone at least part of the time. Back in my running days I'd run a five miler, for example, and push myself hard the last half mile. Better to go hard after you're well warmed up so you don't injure yourself.
Lots of miles at an easy conversational pace is also the key to running faster. Hard running all the time is counterproductive to running fitness. I do NOT like coming in last, and I think it is much more fun to run quickly. That is why I put in at least 70 miles per week of easy pace running, and about 10 - 15 faster miles to keep sharp. Who the hell wants to be slow in a race? I've got great respect for anyone and everyone who actually gets out there and runs or jogs, especially the really slow people who are clearly struggling, but I just cannot understand being content with under-performing relative to your ability.
If you can talk while running, you are not running, but jogging. You might 'go for a run' at a jogging pace, but claiming you are running while having a discussion with someone is really implying something not true (hence the statement about looking up race times).
I also have to wonder whether these are equivalent to the experts that brought us the food pyramid back in the day which has since fallen out of fashion.
You can also go down the rabbit hole of exercising vs training, where the author is clearly exercising and seems to thumb his/her nose at training: "running with intensity". I do question that claim about running at an easy pace does a better job of conditioning heart and lungs and boosting endurance. It may be effective at that, but part of endurance if having sufficient muscle to maintain the pace and conditioned enough to keep the lactic acid cleared out at whatever intensity you are going at. Slow paces will show improvement (eventually) and will be easier on the body, but better in this case is highly subjective. What is better for a 70 year old will likely not be better for a 20 year old.
Not knocking the fact of getting out and going for a jog. That is a good thing to do, no matter how slow. Just knocking the idea presented that slow is better than fast.
Running with intensity might build muscle
Serious body builders avoid aerobic exercise because it can cause you to lose muscle mass. And if they do get aerobic exercise they do so at a low intensity so that it burns fat without sacrificing muscle. Usually they walk and obey the "being able to hold a conversation" rule.
endocannabinoids is a fun word to say out loud
Makes a lot of sense. I had a friend who ran marathons all over the world. On just about all continents. He never told me about times, if he and his friends chatted the whole time.
And when I was in the army we sometimes went for slow runs. In fact, the 82nd is notorious for going for extremely long, but very slow runs. The form used when doing this is called "the airborne shuffle."
If a man came to this conclusion, he would make a mental note, adjust his thinking, and continue on, but she has found a way to monetize her mundane conclusion, so good for her. Of course her competitive impulses require her to finish dead last.
Kids should run as fast as their little legs can carry them. Us older runners need to use some judgement--unless we don't mind setbacks caused by preventable injuries.
I love all of these "How to be a loser" articles coming out.
This ties in perfectly with the "How to be a trophy girlfriend and not have kids or do anything with your life" story below.
These stories tell people to have nothing meaningful in their life and to be happy with nothing meaningful in their life.
This has been my longstanding practice in riding my bike. When I go up hills (fairly steep) I stay seated and set gear at the most difficult level I can and still climb the hill. I have had many decked out in cycling clothes (which I refuse to wear) pass me and tell me to do what they do, which is to stand a gear down to the easiest gear in order to climb the hill. I explain that I ride for exercise and not speed and would rather use the hill to build strength in my leg muscles. It works! Same approach on flats. I ride at the highest gear setting to go steady and reasonably fast but without a goal of speed. It enables me to listen to history podcasts and learn, relax, and enjoy.
I've recently been toying with an idea I'm calling "the fetishization of everything".
Jogging? Totally normal. But no, can't say stuff is normal and encourage people to do normal things anymore. So instead, you have to make a fetish of it. You have to declare that jogging is your kink. Then you have to explain that it's okay to be kinky, and that people shouldn't kink shame.
Like "demisexual", which is just the totally normal behavior of not having sexual interest in someone without an emotional connection. Repackaged as weird, but that's okay because it's okay to be weird and you should be out and proud about your weirdness.
Mostly zone 2 cardiovascular effort. Essentially exercise as hard as you can while carrying on a conversation or only nasal breathing.
To optimize, throw in some sprints and striders with lots of rest.
Over time, your zone 2 speed will increase.
Over clocking your heart for extended periods of time can lead to arrhythmias.
Why bother 'racing'. . . . . .
Umm. Duh?
Facing a sure wipeout in November, the Democrats have moved to the "bargaining" stage of grief.
Sometimes you run, other times you jog, perhaps you will walk, and, finally, you rest per chance to sleep. Context matters.
Ah, the NYT. Me, me, me lore for losers.
This reminds me of the Philip K. Dick story about the game promulgated by aliens that had the point of losing gracefully.
No phys ed teacher ever told me to run as fast as I could, at least in a distance over 100 yards.
Rich Strike begs to differ.
I guess that never getting on the HIIT bandwagon was a wise choice.
Didn't the tortoise win the fabled race? I thought that was a key part of it. It wasn't that the tortoise accepted it was just slow and to be fine with losing, it was the whole slow and steady is better than fast and arrogant.
Sheesh, at least she could use some trendy phrase like "downward mobility" in accepting a lower rank for the sake of more holistic balance.
“… endocannabinoids“- hah!!
I love science. Or, maybe I just love human physiology!
"Blogger Aught Severn said...
Just knocking the idea presented that slow is better than fast."
Slow is not more of a stimulus than fast, that is true. However, going slow allows a runner to accumulate many miles, and this develops cardio fitness and endurance. All top distance runners do the majority of their miles at a comparatively slow pace. That said, if you can run a marathon distance at a 4:50/mile pace, then sub 6:00 miles seems slow. Most of us cannot do that. My marathon pace is about 7:20, and my easy pace is 8:30. If I'm really tired I might "run" a 9:15 pace on a recovery day. That still allows me to get in the miles, and mileage is the best predictor of race times.
about running slower and winning !
this was an interesting sports movie : Remember The Goal
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