What is Fitness?

by Jason Jaksetic

Is fitness the ability to lift up heavy objects and put them back down again?  Some would think so, I suppose.  There are quite a few individuals I see in the weight room who, in between looking at their biceps in the floor-to-ceiling mirrors, hoist some weights up and down.

Or is fitness about 30 hours of cardio a week?  Sure, your body fat is way down, but you are about as strong as a 12-year-old video game junky and you need to ask your neighbor to carry your grocery bags from the car to the house for you.

Let’s get literal for a minute.  The New Oxford American Dictionary defines fitness as:  The quality of being able to fulfill a particular role or task.

But what task?  Lifting up heavy objects is a task.  So is running a marathon in 2:08:00.

Obviously the merits of both can be argued.  That is not my point in here.  I’m going to suggest a task that acts as a good criteria for fitness.

Fitness should allow for you to fulfill the role of living.  Fitness should allow you to function and survive.

Now if your life revolves around bench-pressing 400 pounds, then by all means, focus just on that.  And if you are a pro marathoner, well, you know what you should be doing in order to get paid and eat.

But what about the rest of us?

In terms of functional fitness, survival suggests itself as our goal.  We need to be strong and fast in life.  Why not bench press 180lbs for multiple reps and run a 3.15.00 marathon?  Why not keep yourself solidly entrenched in cardio and muscular training?

These are the things that are going to offer the best benefits on all levels of, well, not dying.  Things like blood pressure, body fat, bone density, muscle and tendon strength, mental health, immune function, and heart vitality are proven to depend on both.

And also, in the ‘not die’ category, let’s step back 300 or 500 years. Before then, who would be most likely to pass on their genes to the next generation:  the body builder or the pro marathoner?  Maybe one, maybe both?  Maybe neither?

For sure, my money is on the person who is functionally fit.  He’s able to both run and scramble from wild animals and hostile people as well as wrestle them down and pound them to death.

This the holistic fitness that Spartans needed to have.  This is what they still need to have.  This primitive understanding of fitness is what Spartan Races cultivates.

In times of crisis, you won’t find yourself on a treadmill with a bottle of Fiji water watching Dr. Phil on a TV hanging from the wall.  You also won’t find yourself doing a bench press.

You are going to be on your feet, moving fast, and doing what needs to be done to survive.  You are going to have to be able to dig deep and push your limits of endurance.

So what is fitness?  I really don’t know.  What do you think?

Until a clear answers gets spelled out for me, I’m going to be fast and strong, full of both endurance and explosive power.  I’ll leave the extremes for the specialists.  I’ll take lean, cut, strong, and fast any day.

Anyway, this meets the alternative definition of fitness my dictionary describes:  the condition of being physically fit and healthy.

A Racer’s Guide to a Hangover

by Jason Jaksetic

photo credit The New Yorker

 

Happy New Year Folks!  How are you feeling today?

Maybe this would be an opportune time to share with you one of my favorite articles of all time, written by Joan Acocella for the New Yorker entitled A Few Too Many.

It is a detailed and in-depth examination of the history, science, and culture of the hangover.  Acocella notes that writer Kingsley Amis “…described the opening of Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” with the hero discovering that he has been changed into a bug, as the best literary representation of a hangover.”

In my mind this piece pretty much will answer any question you have about the phenomenon of being hung-over.  I was just hoping to add a bit of Spartan wisdom on the matter.  Consider this the Racer’s Guide to the Hangover.

Whatever your race, if it’s tough enough, you are going to go through some trying times.  In my history of Ironman Triathlon and ultra running/cycling racing, I’ve NEVER gotten through an event without having to battle severe nausea. It’s just par for the course.

So is hitting the wall at some point.  That dead feeling where you can’t imagine going on another step but it just so happens you have miles and miles and miles ahead of you.

It’s all about coping with the adversity at hand and moving forward.

I keep this in mind when waking up dehydrated, puking, and feeling like I fell down the stairs a few times, and have a day of workouts planned.

Rising to a difficult challenge is required in extreme racing.  So, practice makes perfect, I rationalize.

When I wake up after a night of too much fun and feel like death, I know that this feeling is a great simulation of how I’ll probably feel in the midst of my next big race when I have to dig deep and pull myself through hell one step at a time.

Also, when training ramps up, even if I’m 100% sober, I’m going to want to stay in bed many mornings.  I’ve found a 25-hour training week can produce mornings of suffering far worse than any binge drinking.

So, as a racer, as an athlete, and as a person who’s going to achieve so much this year:  Suck it up and get your workout in!

If you puke a few times, just be discreet enough to not get arrested.

 

Jason Jaksetic is a writer/athlete/Spartan who can be found racing all over the country.  Contact him at http://www.facebook.com/jasonjaksetic or www.JasonJaksetic.com.

Freeform Fridays: Get younger in 2011

Jennifer Hudson

 

These celebs look younger today than they did a few years ago, says the Daily Beast.

You too can look younger in 2011 than you did in 2010.  Take your before photo today, then register for a 2011 Spartan Race and start your training.

You’ll be shocked at how quickly the Spartan Spirit of courage and fortitude will take years off of your age and pounds off of your body.

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand

See Gillibrand’s weight-loss strategy (she went from a size 16 down to a size 4/6) here.

 

 

Resolute

by Jason Jaksetic

Statistics on the matter vary.  I’ve read that 4 out of 5 individuals fail to keep their New Year’s resolutions long term.  I’ve read that 97% of people actually don’t.  There seems to be a consensus that 1 out of 4 people blow their resolutions in the first week.

Whatever the case, according to statistics, YOU WILL FAIL.

That’s not being vicious.  It’s just a reality.  If I were a betting man, I’d be a fool to put my money on your keeping your resolution this year.

But, however, I must consider a variable.  A wild card.

You are reading The Spartan Race blog.  You are a fan of Spartan Races.  You might already be a Spartan.

That certainly throws a wrench into my odds – for you just might understand taking up a challenge.  You wouldn’t be here unless you believed that personal betterment and, ultimately, greatness, is within your own reach.

In short, you just might not be AVERAGE.

Are you?

Because there go my averages.

Only time will tell.  Spartan Races wants to see your resolutions achieved.  We hope to see it in your resolute face at the starting line, confident that you’ve done your training.  Confident because you took 2011’s start as an opportunity to get less apathetic and more aggressive in your fitness goals.

Here at Spartan Races we are tired of average.  We strive to be the best we can be at everything we do.  Modesty does not keep one from saying “I want to be great.”  Fear does.

So put yourself on the line.  Say that you’re going to do something this year.

And do it.

Be resolute.

 

Thoughtful Thursdays: Young at Heart

by Jason Jaksetic

The British Department for Work and Pensions announced today that more than 10 million people currently living in Britain will live to see their 100^th birthdays.  Half of this population on track to reach the century mark is currently between the ages of 16 and 50.

We guess that the British government has gotten word of Spartan Races’ presence in the UK.  The increased vitality achieved through the fitness demands of our races is starting to ripple through the social fabric of England.

They are currently adjusting their fiscal plans to accommodate pensions that will need to cover individuals who will spend as much as one third of their lives in retirement.

Interestingly, there is a “Centenarian Clerk” at the Department for Work and Pensions whose job it is to make sure 100-year old birthday boys and girls receive a card from the Queen.

We are planning on offering any centenarian Spartan complimentary entry into their next Spartan event.

It’s not a joke.  We fully except it to happen one day.

We all should take a moment to acknowledge the incredible feats of fitness that have been achieved by our respected elders.

Bob McKeague finished the Ironman World Championships in Kona with a time of 16:21:55 at age 80.  Plenty of younger folk finished after him in the race that included a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and a 26.2 mile run.

In 2003 Fauja Singh set the marathon record for over 90-year-olds with a time of 5:40:00. He did his first marathon at age 90 and finished one in 2005 at 94.  He’s still running strong at 98.

The current record for 70+ marathon is held by Ed Whitlock at 2:59:10.  A pace that most of the population can’t come close to doing a 5k in.

So, don’t ever think it’s too late to start training!  It’s just not a viable excuse.

A Nation of Wussies? Not Spartans!

A member of the United States government finally called us all out.

“We’ve become a nation of wussies,” Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell said on Philadelphia’s 97.5 radio in response to Sunday night’s cancellation of the scheduled NFL game due to predictions of snow.

He clarified his comments in an op-ed piece published in the Washington Times website Monday evening.  He wrote,

Unbelievably, the game was canceled Sunday morning before one flake of snow had fallen, based on forecasts of a significant snowstorm. An hour before game time, the city had less than six inches on the ground. The western suburbs had less than three inches, and Wilmington, Del., to our South, less than two inches. Canceling a game because of that amount of snow is unthinkable. Vince Lombardi must have been rolling over in his grave. Americans in Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota – heck, even fans in Chicago, Boston and Pittsburgh – must have been astounded. Have we all become wimps?…

…to call off this game because of snow is further evidence of the “wussification” of America. We seem to have lost our boldness, our courage, our sense of adventure and that frontier spirit that made this country the greatest nation in the world.

Sadly, Gov. Rendell is right.  We have become a nation of wussies. In our climate-controlled lives, we forget what it means to be braving the elements.  Reality isn’t a comfortable 72 degrees.  It’s 42 and raining, or 20 and snowing twenty inches at a time.

If we are no longer able to confront that reality, what are we truly able to do?  Dependence on convenience creates a kind of slavery, a devotion to comfort.

Ancient Spartans were devoted to fitness, to toughness, but never to comfort.  They laughed at comfort.  They spurned luxury.

Gov. Rendell’s lament that we’ve lost the “our sense of adventure and the frontier spirit that made this nation the greatest nation in the world” rings true.  What courage it must have taken for our ancestors to pack what little they could into a covered wagon and journey west into uncharted wilderness.  Each day on the trail was a surprise, a new discovery.  When they arrived at their plot of land, there were no 7-11s where they could grab a few supplies and a 32-oz soda before they ran back in time to watch the end of Glee.  They arrived, weary and exhausted, and they set out to build a home and hunt and forage for food.

The spirit that America was built on, the spirit of adventure, is not too far from the Spartan Spirit of courage, resilience, and loyalty that made Ancient Sparta a revered warrior nation.  But we Americans have forgotten our roots as the Spartans never did.  They never let success trick them into diminishing their training.  Even when reaped material success, they continued to live without because it made them stronger, as individuals and as a nation.

Wild Wednesdays: What Blizzard?

New York may be digging itself out of the sixth worst snowstorm on record…check out a timelapse video below:

…but elsewhere in the world, the water is clear and warm and inviting for some radical jumping:

Check out more photos at http://www.taketheday.com

Training Tuesday: Six-Pack Abs

Women’s Health is offering you perfect Six-Pack Abs in just seven simple moves and a few weeks.  Can you do it?

Meet Mike Morris

“Anyone can get off the couch tomorrow and do a Spartan race,” says Spartan Race Director Mike Morris.  “Sure, you might suffer, but the feeling you get when you cross the finish line is going to bring you back again and again.”

Morris, who selects venues and designs Spartan Race’s unique courses, knows what it feels like to cross the finish line after an arduous race.  He’s a competitive adventure racer who has competed in multi-day races around the world.  Adventure racing, for those who don’t know, is a sport in which teams of two to four people hike, run, mountain bike, and paddle for upwards of nine days across hundreds of miles.  They navigate their own way through forest and wilderness, from checkpoint to checkpoint, eating and sleeping when necessary.

Since 2003, Morris has competed in Adventure Races in Vermont, Florida, Missouri, California, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Canada, Georgia, and Costa Rica, and has raced in the yearly United States Adventure Racing Championships three times.  He’s no stranger to adversity on the trail.  In one memorable instance, he developed knee tendonitis eight hours into a three-day race through the mountainous terrain of Vermont and New Hampshire.  Every time he bent his leg, pain shot through his body.

Did he consider quitting?

“Of course,” he says.  “The pain was really bad.  But I knew I couldn’t let my team down, even though we had to go a lot slower because of my injury.”

Adventure racing can involve getting soaked in 40-degree pouring rainstorms, meeting up with alligators while paddling through Florida swamps, and at times even falling asleep while hiking or biking due to sheer exhaustion.  You rely utterly on your teammates for support and guidance, which is why it’s important to compete with people you know well, according to Morris.

Morris knows that not everyone can afford the commitment of thousands of dollars it takes to buy a mountain bike and travel to compete in adventure races.  He sees Spartan Race as an alternative that is accessible to everyone.  “Spartan Races are an opportunity for people to experience something different that might intimidate them, but ultimately will be that much more rewarding if they finish,” he says.

Morris believes that absolutely everyone can benefit from racing.  “I enjoy the challenges of endurance racing,” he says.  “It all comes down to mindset, which in more challenging and longer races is equally, if not more important than physical abilities.  I always say, ‘If I can do it, anyone can do it.'”

Monday Motivation: Start your Resolution Planning NOW

Today is the last Monday of 2010.  Did you have a great year?  Did you achieve your goals?  Did you stick with your New Year’s Resolutions for 2010?  Where were you one year ago?

Whether or not you stayed committed, you’ve definitely come a long way in the past 365 days.  The question is, did you come closer to where you want to be?

As Jason pointed out in the last post, “Why be a Spartan?”, achieving your goals is not about talk.  It’s about taking action now.

You could register for the next Spartan Race right now.  You’d have 2 months to train and get in shape, and you can make sure that you don’t forget about your New Year’s Resolution to get in shape and stretch your comfort zone after the first week of January.

Why not make 2011 the year you achieve your goals?