Exercise Archives - LearningMore

Middle-Aged Men in Lycra

Things seemed to be much more noticeable when I rode. I enjoyed the feel of my wheels on creamy smooth asphalt and the sound resembling an expensive fan. Riding to college class, little kids looked at me from the back seat of their cars, waving as they drove by.

I had become, to use a phrase devised by the marketing consultancy Mintel, a Middle-Aged Man in Lycra (or MAMIL). It was an identifiable psychographic (broadsheet readers, Waitrose shoppers) and a reductive caricature brimming with condescension (we were vain, we were hopeless, we should just grow up already and get a BMW). Not all of that is untrue. -Tom Vanderbilt, The Long and Winding Road

I haven’t clocked a century (100 miles) or even a half-century on a bike, but I’ve experienced running ten miles during a cross-country training session twenty one years ago. I still remember it. Normally a busy brain, my mind slowly focused on the task a hand: struggling to keep myself upright as lactic acid starts to flow into my muscles on the run.

DIY wooden kayak class

Watch 5-night class construct wooden stitch and glue kayaks on YouTube. More info on the class at Guillemot Kayaks.

The kits were supplied by Chesapeake Light Craft. The class was held at The Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking in Manchester, CT. Nick Schade (http://www.Guillemot-Kayaks.com) was the instructor.

Fear of Working Out

man using a kettlebell — One arm snatch with kettlebell from Mike Mahler's Aggressive Strength.

For the first time in 4? months, I worked out:
6x reps 90 lbs benchpress
5x reps One-Arm Kettlebell swing to Shoulder Press
6 min on treadmill at full incline, alternating run/walk.
6 Burpees
10 min on treadmill at full incline, alternating run/walk

I keep thinking about how much I want to train in Jiu-Jitsu, but running (and walking!) on the treadmill I realized how much I want to die and didn’t want to continue. I have so much respect for people who workout consistently, but I keep thinking that they are different than me.

“Oh, people like that are just super dedicated. They aren’t mere mortals like me.”

But is that really true? Can it be that everyone else that exercises regularly is a super dedicated person? There has to be people like me with weak self control that were able to break through and begin working out consistently.