Outrunning Age
I used to be really fit, believe it or not. In fact, I was a legit athlete in my teenage years. Between the ages of zero and ten, I oscillated between being really chubby, or really lean - never in between.
By age 15, without really trying, I flew past the regional triple jump record for secondary schools. A record that was previously set by an 18 year old. I should check to make sure, but I think the record still holds till now. I remember the day it happened. I was wearing the wrong shoes and carrying a slight knee injury.
Triple jump is one of those misunderstood sports. Just like Long Jump, you do need speed and leg strength. The most important aspect, however, is rhythm. You need to be able to hit the board perfectly in sync without having to slow down or readjust your stride in order to maximise your distance. That was my secret. I could do it every time.
The actual jump, which is a three-part; hop, step, jump also requires good rhythmic coordination. I had also perfected that from doing it repeatedly from a very young age. I had seen it on TV when I was 6 and for whatever reason, decided to practice it till it became second nature to me. As such, I could out jump boys that were much faster and stronger than I was.
Ironically enough, the day I smashed the record was also the day I terribly exacerbated my knee injury. I was also competing in the High Jump, but I wasn't really a natural high jumper. I had a pretty amazing vertical leap, which is required for the sport, but I didn't have the technique. The reason why I was good at Triple Jump was the same reason why I wasn't actually that good at High Jump.
As long as you have the basic leap strength, the technique far trumps how high you can actually jump, believe it or not. There was this particular kid, Erin, who had the whole Forsbury Flop mastered. That is the technique of the masters. It's the one where you clear the bar by running up and jumping with your back over it. I just could never do it.
My technique was the Scissor Jump for lower heights and the Western Roll for the higher jumps. Western Roll is almost as effective, and has been used by some Olympic champions in history, but the Forsbury Flop is just a superior technique in every way.
The reason why I never mastered it as a young boy was because I didn't actually have access to a proper high jump setup, with the landing foam/bed. I practiced on solid earth, grass or sand. Attempting the Forsbury Flop on grass would have resulted in serious back and neck injury for sure.
Anyway, the other issue with the Western Roll is it's injury prone. I was already injured, so running up and taking off on one leg in a twisting action just wasn't a very good idea. It was also the last time I competed in those sports, sadly.
The years rolled on by and I became increasingly unfit. I did play basketball at university, and that vertical leap did come in handy, but my knee injury just kept coming back. I never really fixed it.
I had seen a few physios over the years that kept giving me "granny" exercises to do, so like a red meat eating, testosterone loaded young man, I didn't do them. I instead tried to "work it off" in the gym by doing squats and leg raises. My quads got stronger, of course, causing even more issues. I developed an imbalance in the muscles (my quads were too strong for my hamstrings), which caused a whole load of new problems.
I found social dancing, which kind of kept me moderately fit and mobile over the years, but did no actual sports. I also never went to the gym after university and basketball days.
Born To Run 🏃🏿♂️
One day I happened upon a book by Christopher McDougall called "Born To Run"
. I got the audiobook version and listened to it on my regular walks home from the City. I enjoyed walking home, a nice 1.5 hour journey, because I hated the London Underground rush hour. It also gave me time to listen to podcasts, do some street photography or just get lost in my thoughts.
The book inspired me to start running home rather than walking. Running had been a pain, literally, for me before then due to my knee problems. The book, however, discussed a natural running technique used by the indigenous inhabitants of Chihuahua, Mexico, called the Rarámuri. Also known as the "Taraumara", they have a culture of running and are known for being nearly superhuman in their athletic ability. Apparently when the Spanish arrived back in the 16th Century, they retreated into the Copper Canyons and Sierra Madre (Reference).
The mountains and canyons of Mexico are treacherous terrains for even really fit people, but the Taraumara natives eat it for lunch. They are able to run ultra-long distances across the planes and over the hills, apparently regardless of age and without injury.
A part of their secret being the way they run. They mostly run barefoot, or wearing thin sandals. As such, they run in the natural posture, much like a child would - like a controlled fall.
Indeed, that is how we all learnt to run as toddlers. As we age, in this modern times, we learn the wrong way to run because we wear bizarre footwear that change the posture of our feet, and consequently our whole body. This new technique, which was pretty much an unwitting invention of shoe companies, make us prone to injury and reduce our running efficiency. Crazy eh?
The human body is the most effective running machine on earth!
Believe it. We can outrun anything; cheetahs, horses, dogs, anything. Yes they can out sprint us, but only for a little while. The human will eventually catch up, and surpass any distance run by a cheetah, horse or dog. No horse has ever run 200 miles in one go. Humans have.
The answer, like so many things, is to return to the natural way - to run like a child.
After running home daily for months, using the child-like controlled fall running technique, I didn't feel any knee pain anymore while running. I initially experienced some soreness in my calves, but that was my body readjusting to the original running posture. I had also lost about 15kg in body weight. I also cut down my time from just over an hour to 35 minutes.
It turns out that Kenyans and Ethiopians run like that too. I watched multiple videos and spotted that chest out, forward leaning posture of theirs. There's definitely something to it.
At that point, I felt like superman. I would sprint the last 2 minutes as fast as I could humanly go, and arrive at my door completely unable to breathe. I could sprint at full speed up a steep hill with a 2KG back pack like it was nothing. It was like I was 15 again.
I do miss those days. I don't know what happened, but I stopped running about 4 years ago. I've probably still got some residual fitness left from those days, which is why I'm not a giant couch potato, but I feel extremely unfit now.
The good news is that I know what it takes, and more importantly, that it is possible to regain that superman feeling again. Which is why I have decided to do just that.
As it happens, I found another inspiring book. This one has nothing to do with running, well, not yet anyway (I'm still listening), but I am so fired up. It challenges ageing all together, and talks about how we have been conditioned to accept it as fate, when there's really no scientific reason to. I'll probably do an entire post about it once I'm done listening to it.
No, it's not a "New Year Resolution" thing. Those fail on average within the first week of the year. It just so happens that I've found inspiration so close to the New Year.
Right, let me put a sock in it here. I've gone on a bit long.
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Peace and Love ✌🏿
Adé
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This is so timely as I recently listened to a podcast where Dr. Peter Attia talked about the Centenarian Olympics The Centenarian Olympics is a personal training concept of what functional fitness level would you want to be able to achieve at 100 years old. His basics were to interact with the little ones (great grandchildren?) in his life at that time. The basics were to get up and down off the floor, lift a small child, put luggage over your head in the overhead compartment of a plane, etc. He then suggested working backwards to what should you be able to do today calculating for expected physical decline as you age to be able to achieve those goals at 100 years old.
I thought it was an interesting concept and creative way to think about longevity and fitness. These are two of the things Peter focuses on in his study/research these days.
Looking forward to following along on your journey a bit and getting your thoughts.
That's really interesting. Yes there's a massive longevity movement right now and a growing "centenarian" community. Apparently the first person that will live to be 1,000 years old is already alive today. A mixture of biomedical breakthroughs and technology will make this possible soon.
Im feeling same way. Have had some UBER fit times in last 15 years.due to a lot of surfing amd yoga but had a tough year so didnt do alot and I am feeling it now. Just started some intense Bikram yoga again... yeah there's controversary over it but long story short I had never been so fit. As soon as you stop you feel it. As my Dad always said, ya gotta keep moving .. good luck.
Thank you. I don't know what Bikram Yoga is, but all my friends that do yoga look fit to me haha.
Very inspirational. You're awesome.
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Thank you.
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