Just after I started running (and before I lost about 20kg) I set out running from work at lunchtime with some colleagues. We ran past some guys on the street and one of them made a comment to his mate that included an audible phrase “run, fat boy, run” (the movie of the same name had been released recently, but it was obvious he was talking about me, being the fat one in the group). I wish I had been able to shoot back “I’ll get thin running, but you’ll be stupid for the rest of your life”, but I didn’t have enough breath to talk and I couldn’t run fast enough to guarantee escape.
I am still running and I am thinner, but I still look stupid and slow. I don’t care, I am entered in the Hellrunner this weekend and I will probably pass people that have a better running style and look good doing it, and I will be passed by flappy, sloppy runners with more pace than I will ever be able to dream of having. And I won’t care as long as I cross the finish line on my own two feet before it gets dark.
Thanks MsWhatsit, the photos are generally ok but I have spent several months hacking into the computers of everyone at the event to delete any and all video files off their computers from that day
I do not run with grace, style or efficiency - lumbering is being kind. I could never do the indian “walk silently over twigs” or the kung fu “ricepaper” gig. I stomp. I thump. I crack asphalt. It is the same when I swim. Some people slide through the water like a dolphin. I batter the water away with my arms ahead of me and fall forward into the hole I just made.
But I still do it. Cause I enjoy it, even if no-one else does.
Oh, god, every time I run a race my mom wants to buy the pictures. I never let her. She might do it in secret. I look like a very angry praying mantis when I run.
I’ll only get photos if someone from my family does not bother to come along with the camera. They do complain about the boredom (particularly when it is a once through course), but I would like some support.
Just to clarify, I’m female, and the running group I lead is volunteer (it’s actually with my place of business - I have a full time job apart from being a fitness instructor and started a running group at work because I was asked to).
In reply, I’ll point out that your attitude is why you would make a horrible PT or fitness leader, and also why some people don’t want to work out in a group setting or with a PT.
People have different goals and people make improvements in their fitness ability at different paces. I have a 50 year old woman in my group with osteoperosis and I have to take into account that fact when we decide what pace and time she is going to run, but often she’s around what she did last time - her progress is very slow, if any. Another member is a guy in his mid-20’s. The first run he did the typical - he ran way too fast for way too long. He was hurting by the end of the session, however, he’s goal oriented and made quick improvements in speed and time. He first had to learn to slow down and build his pace up. All members of my running group certainly make improvements (in fact, I have a huge spreadsheet on their progress that I chart out for them so they can see the improvements), but some much slower then others.
As another example, I also teach indoor cycling. Every 6 or 8 weeks I do a test on the bike called the Functional Threshold Power test. Our bikes have computers (Keisers) and the test is based on Watts. About 85% of the class performs this test every time I offer it (I send out their results and do progress report for them) and love to see the progress they’ve made. The other 15% participates in the class, but doesn’t bother recording their test results for me to dicipher. Why? Because they’re just there to maintain their fitness. They don’t care about progress, they just want to sweat it up a bit.
You view fitness as competitive and goal oriented. Not everyone does, and it really shouldn’t matter if they do as long as they’re out there.
Re-reading, I just want to reply to this quote in particular.
I agree, there are some PTs out there that do this. But their client is paying them. If the client is ok with doing less exercise and more social, great, it’s their money.
It’s hard to teach group fitness classes that aren’t registered (as in, you must be at this fitness level to participate in this class because it’s hard) because you get such a variety of people. A good fitness instructor should have modifications, but you can’t please everyone. This is why people need to understand that fitness classes, especially if they aren’t registered, are self-paced. Not working hard enough? Grab heavier weights, take the resistence up, run faster. Working too hard? Take it down a notch. Quit depending on the instructor and take control of your own fitness. And just because YOU find it easy doesn’t mean the guy beside you does.
I do a couple of circuit classes at my gym, where (for some of us, at least) the intensity is really ramped up - I am face-dripping shirt-wringing sweaty by the midpoint of the class, and there is more to come. But not everyone achieves the same level of intensity. Can’t shuttle run the length of the gym - power walk. Can’t do a scorpion pressup - do ordinary pressups, or half pressups. People can tailor their level to their ability. Everyone feels the burn by the end, just at a different intensity level.
Wait a second, you’re sitting at a computer, asking questions on an internet message board to your ‘friends’ that you’ve never met in real life, and you’re worried that jogging is going to make you geeky? Really?
[By which I mean, I believe in the “fuck 'em” theory of witnesses to your running. ]
I don’t run or jog but if it makes you feel any better, I never think joggers look dumb. I mean, I don’t really care what other people do anyway, but I’ve never laughed at or thought somebody who was exercising looked stupid. I think it’s admirable, even if they’re not the most graceful.
