Four Sizes Down and a Flashback to 1 Year Ago

Today, I bought a new pair of shorts and they were three sizes smaller than my last, and four sizes smaller than my largest size (of about a year and a half ago.) Today was a good day. Maybe a good day to reflect, too.

Saturdays are my in between gym jogs. I jog at a slow, comfortable rate. My heart rate doesn't rise beyond a moderate level, and my breathing is full and steady, but nowhere near laboured or heavy. I jog for a couple minutes less than the gym, all just to keep those muscles strong, and to burn a few extra calories than walking.

Two days a week, I'll jog at the gym, bringing my heart rate up to the top end of 'aerobic' and spend a minute or two, or several, doing a wind sprint up to just under 90% of max HR to improve my fitness (it really, really works, kids.)

So tonight was a warm, humid night, very quiet and still. No people around and a full moon shone through the clouds. I was able to go out in shorts and a t-shirt for the first time this year at night and it brought me back to a moment one year ago.

I was getting more fit, having gone for longer walks the previous month or two, and decided I would slowly test out jogging. I'd do my half hour walks, but every second night I'd jog as slow as I could for 20 seconds. That's about all I could handle. My heart was nearly maxed out by the end.

Of course I was still uncomfortable exercising in public. Most very large people are self-conscious of how they look when exercising, especially when they're pushing their limits. Well, at the end of 20 seconds I happened to be in front of a group of people standing in front of their house. I decided to keep going for another 10 seconds (utill I got past them) to save face.

My heart probably reached 100% of it's capable rate. My chest tightened and I got worried that I had gone too far. I was gasping for breath. It's never happened again. Nothing even close. But I could have thrown in the towel and got discouraged that night, thinking it would take way too long to improve my body.

I asked my doctor about it and he confirmed my theory. My heart probably had reached its maximum rate or close to it. He then got me to buy a $50 heart rate monitor for my fitness quest and keep my heart below 85% most of the time.

Your maximum heart rate is generally considered 220 minus your age. I'm 45, so 220-45=175.  A good exercise (aerobic) zone is 70-85% (for those losing weight, although there are different opinions.) So 149 is generally the pulse rate that I try to keep below most of the time. And I like to do things like walking that keep it above 120, but it's hard these days without a raised incline on a treadmill (some people carry weights with them when they walk to get their heart working.)

Lately I sometimes have trouble getting my heart going fast enough, which is a big difference from that night one year ago when I went a bit too far in just thirty seconds. I'm not even sure there's anything I can possibly do now in thirty seconds to max out my heart, short of jumping out of an airplane naked.

Of all the things that have changed for me--my self-image, the profound energy increase, my ease at exercising in public, all the new things I can do with my kids, the reduction in size, the new waistline, THE FUN!--the most remarkable is the very measurable changes in my heart. Doing one activity that used to be, say, 150 beats per minute may now be only 120. It's the difference between gasping for oxygen and breathing normally.

Tonight my legs felt like strong pillars, more than capable of carrying me as I jogged through the night.

This night, this year, cycling is not a dream, as it was a year ago. It's a fitness pursuit I am fully immersed in. The jogging's a side-hobby. I can't get enough of cycling. Already, this early, I'm dreading winter.

Two different activities cross-training the body--one group of muscles aids the other on their day off.

The James of a year ago is gone. It's important to try to remember him, but may he rest in peace and not be seen again.