Was I chasing wind?

These days I train in the Olympic lifts but prior to that for 3 years I was a bodyweight-only fitness dude. I did high-volume rep training of traditional calisthenics such as pull-ups and pushups, generally a circuit of multiple sets with minimal rest between sets.

I also experimented with other bodyweight-only training methods such as dynamic visualized resistance, dynamic self-resistance and isometrics, but always gravitated back to calisthenics. I enjoyed anaerobic endurance training because it elevated my heart rate, giving me a good dose of exercise-induced endorphins. As if that wasn’t enough, most of the time I ended my training with a good hard run.

During this fitness era, each year I prepared for the Marine Physical Fitness Test, self-administering it to myself on my birthday. Three times a week karate training was also something I did. And not to be lazy, I found time to train and enter about a half-dozen fun runs during the year, mostly 5k and 10k distances. I took all of my training seriously like a world-class athlete, priding myself on my anaerobic endurance. I had boundless energy, was very lean, ate like a horse and slept like a baby. People constantly told me how fit I was. “Life is great” I told myself. “Yes it is” I replied.

But then one day I didn’t want to train this way any longer. I was ready for a change. Maybe my body was telling me to cool it. I’m not sure. I had no lingering aches and pains beyond the occasional and expected delayed-onset muscle soreness. Looking back, maybe I no longer wanted it really bad whatever it was this training gave me. The answer is still not clear so I’ll blame it on being a middle-age man, a little more tired than before.

So now I train in the Olympic lifts twice a week. The high-volume rep sets are a thing of my past. Karate training is still part of what I do, but that training has tapered to once a week at best. I haven’t run in about a month. Prior to that my running had slowed to once a week. It’s official – I am a retired fun run athlete.

“But when I turned to all the works that my hands had wrought, and to the toil at which I had taken such pains, behold! all was vanity and a chase after wind, with nothing gained under the sun.” This is a verse from Ecclesiastes, one of the biblical books of the Old Testament, a treatise on the vanity of all things.

Reflecting back on my past crazy way of training, I sometimes ask myself “was I chasing wind?”

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum