I decided to run this morning. It was so wonderfully cool and dry out there. I’ve been walking for over a year now and generally follow a route through our neighborhood for 6, 8 or even 10 miles. But I have a dream. I would like to compete in a half-marathon and do it in 12 minute miles.
For the past year I’ve generally walked 16 or 17 minute miles. If you walk around you can usually go three or four miles in an hour. So that’s what I did. I was trying to shed fat. And I did that. But, something else happened as well. About six or seven months ago I was down at the beach doing this on the boardwalk when I saw an older guy doing the same thing. Except that he was jogging. He was several years older than me. Probably he was 70 years old although you can be fooled easily when trying to estimate the ages of some of these oldsters.
He was dressed only in a pair of running shorts and his skin glistened with sweat. He was very thin. And I thought. . . he looks so cool. He looks like something a sixteenth century Renaissance painter would produce. He looks like a saint. And he was jogged a long, long ways.
This guy has been a bright image in my memory for many months now. And I want to do what he is (hopefully) doing. I want to jog a long ways down the road. I want to run a half-marathon in about two and a half hours. I did it in 3.4 hours last November after walking for just a few months. And it took several days to recover. This year should be better. And next year too. I’m not concerned about how long it takes. My major interest is to discover how one can blunt the aging process with daily exercise (walking).
So today I jogged on the flat surfaces or when I was going downhill. I walked pretty fast the rest of the time. And I didn’t push it. It’s all about having a relaxed mind and body. It’s all about allowing this process to happen naturally….in “good time” as the old expression goes. And I finished 8 miles six minutes under 2 hours. That’s almost 8 fourteen minute miles.
I felt great afterwards. It’s important to feel good when you are done for the longevity of the project. I’m not trying to suffer out there. I’m trying to understand my body and teach my mind how to work with it.
This is how I intend to deal with the aging process. This is how I intend to “grow old”.
It makes that process, somehow, a lot more interesting.
A year ago. . .
The post From Walking To Jogging / A Different Perspective On Aging appeared first on Virginia Photos.
Dear David,
You are right on the money with your jogging because I am 74-years-old and I jog, walk and ride a hybrid bicycle for insane distances along a paved path beside a river here – - – the longest completed bike path in the state – - at least 76 miles long and I also work out with light weights, exercise machines and so forth at the local gym where I have a membership.
There is some expert advice that says the exercise benefit from walking and jogging are about equal, so I have begun to do power walking which is a hybrid of walking and jogging – — (Not quite a jog, but no longer a walk.) Be sure and choose proper and well fitting shoes for these adventures in order to avoid a painful condition called “Shin Splints.”
Being a somewhat stubborn old mule, I did manage to pull a muscle in my left thigh the other day by trying to run at too fast a pace, but I am over it now and back at it again.
I have aways said, “To me the quality of life is far more important than the quantity.”
Be proud of what you do and remember this – - – if you are doing most of your jogging out in the vast expanses of nature, you get to see more rabbits and squirrels than most people who spend their time in front of the TV.
Your article is both refreshing and inspiring. I think us seniors ought to be as active as we can be until we can’t anymore and I sincerely enjoyed reading your post this morning.