Unlike many middle-aged people, my fitness story is not about having gained weight over the years and now trying to lose it. My story is about maintaining the same weight over a life time.
When I gained my “freshman 15″ in college, I started running as it was the quickest way to lose the weight. I was content to run two miles several days a week to reach this goal. Then my brother’s best friend, who ran cross-country at my high school, talked me into running a race. Back then (1977), few women ran and I found myself winning a trophy! I was hooked and haven’t stopped running since.
Around age 40, I found that I couldn’t run every day and remain injury free, so I started cross-training. In addition to the weight training I have always done three times a week, I took up rowing which I still do a couple of times a week in season. I also do some biking and use the elliptical machine at the YMCA.
Today at age 51 I am the same weight that I was at age 18.
This week’s workouts so far: Monday, jogged over to the YMCA and did 25 minutes of weights, ran outside for 40 minutes (5 miles); Tuesday, did an hour spinning class at the YMCA; Wednesday, ran 7 miles; and Thursday, ran over to the Monroe street overpass and ran up it 8 times hard, total running 5 and 1/2 miles.
