[at-l] Bone Mass

[sloetoe at yahoo.com (Sloetoe)]

--- Jim Bullard <jbullar1@twcny.rr.com> wrote:
> Unfortunately my genes were a big part of it. I was told when
I started that I wasn't 'built' to be a runner add to that a
total lack of knowledge of how to do it properly without
damaging my knees (until it was too late). 

###
1) Not "built" for it? Phooey. SHAME on whomever told you that
(and tells others, to be sure). Go to an ultra (hit the Wakely
Dam ultra, or up in CN), and see all the fireplugs go by who
leave me *shaking* in my widdle booties when the terrain tips
up. Take a look at Our Man Mags -- self-described NON-ectomorph
-- who just attempted *Leadville* in his second(?) year of
running ultras? In his third(?) year of distance running?
Re-watch LOTR-The Two Towers, as Gimli gamely gimbols over hill
and dale, dashing Orc and Uruk-Hai in high fashion. (Oh,
alright.) THE POINT IS: we evolved to move, ectomorph,
mesomorph, endomorph. To deny that is to exercise an AWFULLY
short biological, anthropological telescope (unless you're in
Kansas: http://www.venganza.org R'Amen!), AND to *discourage*
whomever you're speaking to from a normal, *healthful* activity.

(Sounds like that other hiking thread, doesn't it?)

2) IT'S NEVER TOO LATE. You might guess, Saunterer, how much I
would wish for you to gain all that "right" information/training
not-so-easily come by before. EVERYTHING matters -- I know cuz I
LIVE it: I don't train even *close* to what I "should"
(according to conventional wisdom), yet I finish either more
often or higher up than others that run far more miles than I. I
try to train *smart*. I don't run *ever* without acute focus on
every little niggling anal-retentive detail, on myself, the
route, the weather, what I ate, what's my weight, and everything
else. I'm out there to use the run for as much as I can suck out
of it. The people who say "it doesn't matter.." with regard to
nutrition, hydration, clothing, whatEVer.... crack me up, cuz if
I missed ANY of it EVER, I'd be a sodden aching mess waiting for
an aid station worker to truck my sorry a$$ back to the
Start/Finish. (Come to think of it, more than one at-l-er has
seen me as a sodden aching mess ANYWAY, on my way to lessons
well learnt.) And for the record, being "expert" doesn't matter,
*learning* does. POINT IS: there are ways to keep, to build, and
to recover -- CHEAP ways, I might add.

3) We get one shot at this life of which we're guaranteed.
WhereEVER your potential is, I hope you use it.


L'Chiamtoe

Spatior! Nitor! Nitor! Tempero!
   Pro Pondera Et Meliora.