Measuring Fitness - Me

You might want to skip this post since it was written really for me. A friend of mine looked at this blog and commented; You've always been narcassistic. Since I've known this guy (DJ) for 30 years and he knows me well, it caused me to think. Why (again) do I blog?
- Do I write for self aggrandizement (ie self-promotion)?
- Do I write to amuse the audience?
- Do I write just as a way of processing (ie thinking through) my ideas?

I believe that I blog to clarify my own thoughts, partially to share thoughts with others, partially as a way to hone my skills for my day job (online education), and not at all, for promotion.

So, this post in particular, is written for me. It's for me to figure out and track how I measure my fitness. It's maybe useful to others as an example of how to think about such things. Maybe not. Maybe this one is just for me.

1. Run times. Before karate, I use to do 5K runs. My best times were at a `6:30 pace. Now, my standard measure is 2 miles. If I'm not under 16 minutes, I'm out of shape. When I am at 15, I'm in good shape. For my black belt, I got to 14:08 but never hit the 14 minute mark. In working back in shape, today I ran 2.8 miles in 23:15. It's surprisingly hard to translate those two numbers into a pace. I think my pace was 8:18 miles (8 minutes, 18 seconds per mile). Since three weeks ago, I was having trouble staying at a jog for two miles, I'm pleased.

2. Waist size (and weight). Now that I'm 50 (actually, for the last two decades), fitness can be measured by my waist size. Starting at 32, my waist size went up an inch a year until at 39, I saw it was becoming a vast problem. I held at 36-38 until the divorce started at the start of 2002. I was 47 then and weighing just over two bills (208). Then, I joined a gym and trained and trained and ran and ran and really watched what I ate. At one point, I was wearing a 32 inch waist and weighing only 180. That was great. I'm now back ~197 and wearing a 34.

3. Pushups (and situps). As I prepared for the black belt, I was regularly doing four sets of 25 pushups and situps. Sometimes, six sets of each. Now, I'm training at three sets of 20. This is maintenance mode.

4. Sparring. On sparring days, we have from four to seven matches each lasting 90 or 120 seconds. At my best, I made it through. Recently, on my first day back, I was useless on matches four and five.

My targets for this year:
- Run under 15 minutes for 2 miles for the entire 2nd half of the year
- Get back to 100 pushups, 10 pullups, 200 situps as maintenance mode
- Weight: no more than 190 (this is hard because it also means strict dieting :-<) but it's important - Stretching. Get my elbows on the ground bending down with legs wide - Sparing: Be in the game every match. Running Progress:
5/17 2.8 miles, 23:15 time, 8:18 pace
5/18 2.8 miles, 22:59 time, 8:12 pace
5/21 2.3 miles, 19:19 time, 8:24 pace (weird, I thought I went faster today)



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Two mile timed run

One of the conditions of earning a black belt is to run 2 miles in under 16 minutes. I thought this would be easy but when I did my first timed run on a brutally hot day after an hour of sparring and having received many body shots, I clocked in at 16:19. I was over by 19 seconds!!!

So I started running and training with some intensity. One week later, on a cool evening, I clocked in at 15:40 :-> Hurrah, no more worries. Let the games begin.

So, I started chasing better times using as my target, Agnes. She was only about 25 seconds ahead of me.....

To make a long story short, my progress has been steady and dramatic. Last night, Sept 21, I did my personal best (again!) on the timed two mile run at 14:09!!! Yes, this is more than two minutes faster than when I started getting timed. I partially got there by deciding to stay next to Jennifer Melrose and then, near the end, seeing a chance to catch and pass young Steve Lavallee (the nephew, great guy).

But Agnes is still nearly 30 seconds ahead of me and her progress remains inexorable. She is fixated on trying to catch up with Kathy. Meanwhile, we are becoming one of the fastest running candidates classes in recent history since ahead of Kathy is some kids (12 years old) who as far as I can tell, is running in untied sneakers and going very fast.

I know that I'm going to beat 14 minutes before I'm done. What else?

I should mention that I'm strong in this one area. For many, maybe most, the sixteen minute two mile run is a huge personal challenge. They struggle hard to get their time down to 16 minutes and for many, with leg and hip problems, it is their waterloo. For others, it's just too fast. I struggle with flexibility, recovery time from classes, pushups, kicks, and situps but all those years of soccer left me with real wheels. It's said that in a soccer game, we use to cover 8 miles and while I was never the quickest, I always built my endurance up to be a source of strength.