Exercise Theory of Relativity

Had a great (and challenging) run this morning.  It's part of a series of runs I'll call the Hill Maxes that I've been looking forward to doing, but really hadn't been able to put in the schedule to date, due to the locations of the hills relative to my usual starting points, the distances I needed to run (often too short to incorporate a ton of hills), and the fact I needed pace more than hill training.  But they are a perfect fit for me now, and I've been having fun putting them together.  Today's run was especially nasty (and even while doing it, I though of a few ways to make it even nastier) - about seven miles of hills and then off through the woods. 

While running I got into this pensive mood (doesn't always happen - more often than not I don't think of anything at all in particular when I run).  It stuck me how relative exercise and effort are, one person to another.  I was thinking, here I was doing what I call a seriously hilly run, and someone from someplace that is considerably hillier than southern NJ, oh, a TON of places, would probably find my run not all that challenging.  I do think I am making the best use I can of what I'd call limited resources, but they are just that - limited resources.  And still, for me I'm able to come up with challenging runs, hopefully runs that will get me through this trail race, which will take place in actual hills.

So, as flat vs. hills vs. Hills goes, so, generally, does exercise duration and intensity and difficulty.  My normal day is another person's overtraining is another person's walk in the park.  Your light is my heavy is another person's impossible.  My average running pace is someone's fast and someone else's pathetically slow.  I've heard it said that you really can only compare yourself to yourself, and sometimes I think every exercising person should have that plastered somewhere that they'll see it often because really?  Those are the only measurements that count. 

Another thing which has brought this to mind is watching people going through the Insanity program.  (Incidentally, I'm glad I took a pass on this for now - I'm really enjoying what I've been doing, otherwise, and it would be too much on top of that.  Still might try it sometime in future.)  I've heard a ton of criticisms of the program and also a lot of praise, the latter in particular from people who really seem to enjoy effort (as I do). In fact my general impressions of the program was that it was geared toward in-shape people who wanted to get ripped, and no one else need apply.  The only reason I was even considering doing the program was because I heard people saying it was the hardest thing they'd ever done.  So, I had to know, you know?

Of course, my impression is based on the takes/experience of people who have been doing exercise videos for a long time, often more than a decade, who have their own expectations of the program based on the hype, the infomercials, the perceptions of like-minded individuals, Beachbody's reputation, and so on.  And yet the people who I see doing the program 1) by and large, are not advanced exercisers, by any common measure, 2) are not vidiots, 3) have heard none of the hype, 4) haven't seen the infomercial, and 5) didn't come into this knowing anything about Shaun T. (or any of the other BB trainers, for that matter).  And guess what?  So far, no one has dropped out, and they're all improving relative to their individual starting points. 

To which I say, go group!  Are they working at the same level as the in-shape person who wants to get ripped?  How should I know?  But relatively speaking, it's working for them. 

I'm sure there's a much shorter way of saying all of that, something along the lines of Tony Horton's  "Do your best and forget the rest," but when you're running 10+ miles, trains of thought, when they do stay intact, tend to expand, not contract.

And now, back to my Psych paper. 

Junior and Grif, facing off.  Both are preferentially jiu jitsu fighters, and this one is going to the ground in 3... 2... 1...