What’s your time?
As seasoned athletes, we are always looking at our watches to see how we’re doing. After all, when we compete, we are usually competing against ourselves. AND as a seasoned athlete you’ve probably noticed that things are slowing down a bit. Well, according to a recent article published in the Chicago Tribune by Jeff Strickler, you may not be alone. The author looked at a study by a statistician at the Copenhagen Business School. The conclusion of the study? “The average American runner has never been slower.” The author says there could be a number of reasons for this. Higher obesity rates, a jump in diabetes and hypertension and a decrease in overall health being a few. My conclusion to the study? Who cares? This study points out that the elite competitive runner is NOT included in this. That means the rest of us are the ones that are slowing down The average, weekend warrior. We are the runners who do it for the fun of it. Who cares if we are starting to take a little bit longer to finish that marathon, half marathon, 10k,or 5k?
Another article that appeared on Triathlete.com pointed out a couple of myths about the aging athlete. One common misconception is that exercise may cause strain or injury, so its better to take it easy on yourself. Another popular one is that your body’s fitness peaks in your 20’s, so you’ll never be as fit as you once were. These two myths are very popular but not true! That’s my point, with both of these articles, we are told we (as seasoned athletes) are slowing down and we need to take it easy or we will hurt ourselves. Running is one of the only sports that you can do (and compete in) for your whole life. I would hope that this blog, along with articles like the one on Triathlete.com will counteract the other ones filling runners heads with falsehoods.
What about you? Do you think you are slowing down? Do you care? George Burns was credited with being the first person to say “Age is mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” My point being we all know that neither the Cubs nor the Sox are going to be scouting any of us for their pennant push this season. We are doing this because we enjoy it and it keeps us healthy and in pretty decent shape. I just started writing this blog about a month ago but I would like to hear what YOU think of this topic. It is actually the big reason and my motivation for doing this. Go to the Contact Me page and leave your thoughts.
Whats my conclusion about these two contradictory articles? I don’t know, I have to go for a run…