What reduces stress?
Running
What about walking, biking, swimming, playing a musical instrument, petting an animal, hugging a cow, etc?
Fine. There are other ways.
We can beg the question but today we’re here to praise running, not bury it.
Running (jogging?) reduces stress, weight and blood pressure and it is a mood elevator.
My story:
In my early 20's, D.I.s at Lackland got me into shape. It was mandatory, eh?
We ran every day in basic training (at least we were supposed to) and at the end of six weeks we ran 1.5miles in under 15 minutes. 1970 style baseline fitness. Our D.I. didn't run us for a few days and then upped the time and mileage so we'd suffer at the beginning. What can I say? In any case we eventually adapted and got it done.
Thereafter we were (supposedly) running each year to re-qualify that time.
I say (supposedly) because we cheated.
After four years, I mustered out and didn’t need to cheat any more.
In my late 20s, early 30s my weight gradually climbed and my overall health declined while my BP rose.
I was working a stressful job and spent a large part of my day at a desk.
Post military, I had slacked off and gradually became unhealthy.
Once I realized my health was declining, I tried getting up earlier and going out and jogging. Kinda like going back to Basic.
For me, getting up earlier than I had to was unsustainable. I could do it a for a couple days but long term, I just rolled over and reset the clock.
The other alternative, post-work exercise wasn’t much better. By the end of the day, I was exhausted and exercise was not going to happen.
That left the only other free time I had in a nine hour day, that was the noon hour.
I visited the local gym and played pickup basketball. I read about the New Orleans Corporate Cup, a 5K race downtown. I decided to jog. I could run around the gym a few times and then get out of breath. To improve my fitness I quit the basketball, which was half court and began jogging. The Canadian Air Force fitness standards and the understanding of aerobics and target pulse rates were all now basically standards for fitness. I read the books and applied the science and logic. We worked near the Mississippi River levee and I started trying to run the half mile to the levee and then out and back on the levee. In time, after weeks and weeks, my lungs gradually expanded and I could run without stopping for a mile. My initial goal was to unofficially re-qualify for the AF yearly fitness test. It then became a kind of “my time.” Changing out to running shoes and shorts at noon and hitting the road was something I looked forward to. Not just running to relieve stress but running away from it, eh? The Times Picayune began running articles in the sports section about getting in shape, having goals and running in local average joe/jill races. Lots of 5Ks and 10Ks with tee shirts. My kid’s schools had fun runs. It was faddish. I began to lose weight and get a lot more healthy. It took time and effort but like I said, I started looking forward to it. I increased my distance and reduced my time.
Then my goal was to compete in the Corporate Cup with a team of four from our organization. In time, sometimes with friends like Terry and Jerry I ran a half mile to the Mississippi River levee, two miles out and two miles back and then the half mile back to work. We worked up to that over a couple of years so that we could maintain the Air Force standard 10 minute mile and run the five miles in under an hour and then go back to work. The 5K was 3.1 miles so the daily 5 mile run was overkill but we liked doing it anyway. I ran in all kinds of weather. I have a malignant melanoma (excised) to show for my years of running the direct sun without a tee shirt, which I would strip off after leaving work. Over thirty years I ran over 22,000 miles. Never more than 7 miles at a time. When I got a noticeable limp, I bought new shoes.
So that intro leads me a valuable learning experience that I wanted to share.
While all this was progressing I read another book on health and fitness. It was by Dr. Nathan Pritikin. It was in the news in GNO because our local Sheriff Harry Lee was overweight and wanted to improve his health. He enrolled in the Pritikin system fat camp and went away for a few weeks. We all read about Harry’s visit in the local papers. I read the book because reading about aerobics and fitness had really benefited me.
I’ll condense Dr. Pritikin’s book for you. Eat mostly unleavened pita bread and seaweed, avoid potato peelings, drink lots of water and run your ass off and you can lose a ton of weight and throw away your high blood pressure medicine. It was a miracle cure for obesity and type 2 diabetes. Anyway, coterminously, I’m running on the levee everyday. For a while I fluctuated with 12, then 11 minute miles and finally could do consistent 10 minute miles. Early on I couldn’t maintain it for the whole five miles but I was encouraged. 10 minute miles, while not exactly fast was well, respectable, at least for a slub like me. Or so I thought.
Dr. Pritikin relayed the story of a 60-ish fat guy who was on death’s door who visited his camp and ate pita bread and seaweed and drank water and began to jog every day. In a few weeks he was able to run a mile in just under 6 minutes. This obese diabetic: was running 6 minute miles. He’s 60 something. I’m 32. I read it again. I began to realize I wasn’t trying hard enough. I needed to pick up my game or be shamed by fat, old, newly healthy, guys.
I resolved to stop doing distance and concentrate on intervals and to improve my time. My shame was real.
Now for the fun.
On the levee there are 1/5 mile markers but I also got a speedo for my bicycle and over a few days marked off pretty accurate mile markers. I marked a start and finish line for my mile quest which coincided with the levee markers. This was around 1980+, so no gps time and mileage aids, unless you were military and had very expensive equipment.
The weather was decent and I pre-hydrated. I warmed up by jogging the half mile to the levee and spotted myself at the start mark. I got a Timex Ironman (or something like for the time). I took off and went for it. No more aerobics for me. Anaerobics would be the new order of the day. I took a minute off my 10 minute mile. I did 9 minutes. I stared at my time for a long time. Something wasn't computing. I was pushing and running but I was slow. Real slow. The next day I ran harder and so on and so on. Eventually, my time dipped down into the medium 8’s. But hey, I was way, way away from a 6 minute mile. Something was off here. I lived in a different universe from the 60 year old, fat diabetic who casually ran off a 6. I needed more motivation, it seemed. Eat more pita. Something. Did I question Nathan Prinkin’s writing? Well, yes, I did. But looking at what other's achieved, a 6 minute mile wasn’t particularly fast. I could doubt Pritikin but I needed to pick up my game.
Thus began “the quest.” Days of 8:40s, then 8:20s, etc. This was not fun. I lost weight. I worked on exercises. I ran under 8 minutes, into the 7's. Weeks went by. Now reducing my time by 5-10 seconds per mile required pain. That's right, pushing and pushing rewarded me with 5 seconds. I cursed Nathan Pritikin and the old, fat guy. It was really hard in the dead of summer. When it got hot, pushing yourself to limits was well, dangerously stupid. Luckily, I was an all season runner and once summer was over, I could begin to push again.
What worked? The only thing that got me over the hump to push myself beyond the threshold of oxygen debt was fiction. I began to motivate myself that random thieves and murderers were closing in on my wife and kids and their very existence was predicated on me reaching down to rush to their aid. There were many days I rode a bicycle against the wind in the mud and rain on the levee (before it was paved) that I just forced myself to do it. Physically it was very, very hard. Mentally it was harder. The same was true of getting my time down to 6 minutes. I got closer and closer in decent weather and one day, after months and months of trying my times did drop into the 6’s and my best was 5:53. There were weeks when I was in the 7’s. It needed to be a good conditions day. Of course my 5K times dropped based on the interval training. My best 5K was 26 flat. Not great, eh? Runners are special people. I am a jogger. I can run but my times and attitude is that of a jogger. Nowhere in high school did I realize that people who ran track had to build up their lung power over weeks and months of training. I just didn’t know. I know now.
Is there a moral? For me the “exercise” of challenging myself to find a time, place and distance to run changed my life. I wish I could convey to others what I felt like before I started to exercise and what I felt like after a few years of daily running. It requires decent shoes and running on grass or other soft surfaces saves on joint ache. But overall running helps you mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and of course, physically.
Can’t run? Walk. Bicycle. Swim. Skate. Your body is a dynamic system. Made to move. Make it move. It will improve your health and your attitude. You will sleep better (assuming you cut back on caffeine after noon). The chore is to set aside a time to do it and then prioritize it. If you find it isn’t getting done, then adjust what you are doing and when. Keep trying until something sticks. If you need friends to help you get motivated, fine. Ultimately it is up to you. What you do is less important than scheduling it daily and doing it. It is as important as breathing, sleeping, drinking and eating. Exercise, daily exercise, will change and improve you. Count on it. Do it at lunch. Tell the boss your doctor recommended it for your health. Write it down somewhere and keep writing it until it’s done. Then tell others. Advocate for health and wellness.
Be your own hero.
Fail if you must, but fail at trying. Fail at trying...
Every day
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