Tomorrow is June 1. Holy crap, that's blowing my mind. Where is this year going?
Lately I've been perplexed with some inner thoughts based on a few different triggers and cataysts. As I approach 40, I seem to be doing a lot of "looking back" and "looking forward." Where have I been, what have I done, what have I accomplished and what have I learned? As I look forward I'm asking myself what is it that I want, why do I want that and what is my objective(s)?
As I get older I seem to focus less on competition with others and more on accomplishments within myself. What someone else or others are doing isn't as important as why I want to do for my own reasons. Don't get me wrong, I've been a non-conformist for most of my adult life and I don't see that trend discontinuing anytime soon.
I also seem to be thinking more about my own health and fitness. Combine that with some conversations with my friend Paul Carriere and my brain has been busy. I've come to the point where I'm asking myself, "What is fit? What is fitness? What is health?" I don't think I've done a particularly good job of defining this in my own terms. Rather, I sort of got to where I am somewhat by accident I guess (I call this "arrival by default"). I love training, I love working out, and I love pushing myself physically. That's part of my "big 3" in life; wealth, health and happiness.
Back to my question, "What is fit?" Does "fit" mean "healthy?" I was shocked to consider that perhaps "fit" does not automatically mean "healthy." And then I started thinking about different sports and different athletes at the top of those sports. Let me explain further with some pictures and additional thoughts;
This is a picture of the most elite long distance runners in the world right now. It's the sport where I've been placing most of my emphasis; marathoning. Are these guys "fit?" Yeah, I think so. They are fit and they have fitness. Are they healthy? I'm not sure. Health comprises a lot of components, mainly physical, mental and emotional. I would have no idea if any one or all of these athletes are healthy or not. From what I've heard, most of them spend their days shelled to smithereens from the most extreme run training that humans can withstand.
Very few people realize that these elite runners are very small in stature; less than average height and a body weight less than 55 kg's (121 lbs.) In sports like football, one test for all players across the board regardless of position is how many times they could benchpress 225 lbs. All of these guys would score 0 (zero).
So that leads me to an interesting question about being "fit". What is fit? Is it speed? Is it endurance? Is it strength? Is it agility? Is it coordination? Is it power? And in the scope of all athletics (or general health), is being an elite marathoner the pinnacle of "fit" or "health?"
I'd argue that triathletes are more generally fit than single sport runners. They are stronger, more coordinated, have even more endurance (a top marathoner is done in about 2:10, a top iron distance guy is done in 8 hours...who has better endurance and strength?)
Above is the guy at the top of the food chain in all of triathlon; Chris McCormack. A guy who once dominated short course as a world champion and then reigned supreme as the king of Kona as ironman world champion. Chris is also the largest guy to ever win Kona (at approximately 79 kg's or 175 lbs). That's per Chris but I also can't remember anybody being larger than Chris to win Kona to my knowledge.
Who is more fit; Chris or the elite marathoners? Who is more healthy?
If I challenge my thoughts (and perhaps challenge your's too) I ask you to recall what the average iron distance athlete looks like on game day (and maybe even what they look like in the off-season). What does a middle of the packer (MOP) look like? How about a back of packer (BOP), what do they look like? Are even iron distance athletes experts on body composition? How about overall strength? How about flexibility? (Oh gosh, I can honestly say that if I am anywhere close to game day during the season, I could barely bend over to tie my shoes I'm so knotted up and inflexible).
And now I question overall "health." Do I feel like I have tons of energy when I'm in full blown training? (Usually not). Do I feel powerful (sometimes - especially when I'm pulling a pack of cyclist's on the Polish freight train during a local century ride). Am I flexible? Do I have agility? Am I strong?
Above is "GSP" - Georges St. Pierre, the guy at the top of the foodchain in the welterweight division of mixed martial arts. Is he "fit?" Is he strong? Is he agile, or flexible? Does he have stamina and endurance?
So many times we participate and work so hard to move up the food chain within a particular sport or endeavor. Have we ever really questioned if got our wish and got to the top of the food chain, would we be happy with the end result with our bodies?
That's sort of blowing my mind right now because out of the three pictures above which represent sports, I have spent the most time pursuing the middle option (long distance triathlon). But now I'm spending all of my time pursuing the first option. Now the interesting thing to acknowledge is that to be the best in a sport, you're probably are going to have to be physically similar to those at the top of the sport. And that's when it hit me. If I had to choose between picture #1, picture #2 or picture #3, which would I chose and why?
Further, if we make "health and fitness" our objective to assist in leading a long and active life, a vibrant life, a full life, what does that mean? What does that mean? What does that require? What is our objective? And once we identify that, what should our training, eating and daily habits be?
Above is a picture of Mark Sisson at age 56 over at Mark's Daily Apple He's looking more like picture #3 above. Based on the picture alone, I'd describe him as strong, agile, flexible, fast, etc. I guess I'd call him "fit and healthy." Right now, I'm thinking I want to look like Mark when I'm 56 (ok, I'd like to look like Mark when I turn 40 in two months too).
Now, does that mean we should all throw away our carbon bikes and treadmills? No, I don't think so (at least I'm not.) But I am giving a lot more thought to how I am spending my next 60 years being "fit" and "healthy" which after placing a lot of emphasis on training will not result in me looking like picture #1.
I guess what I'm saying is that I don't want to end up with "arms of spaghetti" even if that allowed me to run a 3:00 hour marathon (which by no means is considered "elite" but rather "pretty darn good." I'd still be almost an hour off the world record and the top of the marathoning food chain.)
What do you want to look like? What do you want to feel like? How do you define health and fitness? And once you've wrapped your arms around that image, are you doing what it takes to get there?
Special shout out to Nat Fischer and Steph Bachman who were down at the river doing some bike training. Fortunately they came up on me after I did my walk of shame back to the car when Angela dropped me, I bonked out, and legs gave up on my long run today. I intentionally have been going a bit low on carbs but apparently went a little too low. Nat came up to me and said, "Are you Paul" and of course I couldn't recognize her in her bike gear. But you can't blame me, she was wearing a bike helmet and these super huge black Hollywood sunglasses like Angelina Jolie would wear on vacation. All I saw was a little tiny nose and a chin, the rest was all sunglasses. Where was my camera when I needed it?!?! (actually it was in the car only 100 feet away. I should have done my paparazzi duties!)
I now know Bachmans flower bike so that was a gimme. But they were looking good and training hard. It was our first hot day of the year as the temperatures got into the high 80's for sure. Good job ladies!!!
As an aside, every time I see the marathon picture up above (picture #1) I keep imagining a caption coming out of Ryan Hall's mouth that would scream, "HOLY SHIT! I'M UP HERE WITH THE BLACK GUYS!" (He seems to be quite shocked with himself?) And the caption that reads above all the rest of the runners would read, "Why is that crazy cracker running on the other side of the double yellow by himself?"
By the numbers;
- 183.4 - today's weight (January 1, 2009 weight was 184.2) Goal weight for 10/25/09 is 165
- 148 - Days until the Marine Corp Marathon
- 141 - Total days trained in 2009
- 9 - Missed days of running in 2009
- 13.00 - miles run today
- 29.00 - miles on current pair of shoes
- 845.25 - Miles run in 2009
Here's something for you to shoot for over the next 27 years (the guy in the picture is 67)
http://ettaclarkphotography.com/
Posted by: Matt | June 01, 2009 at 12:46 AM