Chris thinks Harry's exercise regimen is lunatic? He probably doesn't know any ultra runners!

This entry began on another page. Since it was so long and I wanted to emphasize the book in the original essay, I chose to put the more personal information about Jim and me on this page and provide only one link to it. This is a continuation of my introductory comments about the different paths that Jim and I took to running and fitness. It shows that we did some things "right" and some things "wrong" along the way, but finally found the real athletes within! We hope there are some applicable lessons in here somewhere for other folks . . .

ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER WORLD

My parents and siblings and I were all thin when we were young. Part of that was genetics and part of it was good, old-fashioned physical farm work as each generation was growing up. Our diet on the farm and in the years after we sold it left a lot to be desired -- lots of animal fats -- but fast foods and processed foods weren't the norm back then and none of us dropped dead from heart attacks. I think it was mostly because of all the physical work we did.

Back: my sister Nancy, niece Laura, brother Bill
Front: my mom and cousin Barbara (photo from early 1990s)

It wasn't until we were all older and less active that we all started gaining weight. My parents and siblings were not/are not athletic. My brother played basketball in high school and has kept fairly physically active throughout his adult life but I'm the only adult "athlete" in my nuclear family.

The same can be said for Jim and his family, where he is one of six siblings. He's shown below in a photo taken a couple years ago with his sisters and brothers:

Back row, L-R: Bernie, Jim, Bruce; front, L-R: Janet, Doris, Bonnie

His four sons, who are in their 30s and busy with their careers and families, are pretty active in the little spare time they have. Jim is a good role model for them regarding fitness. I'll show photos of them throughout this entry.

I don't remember more than one or two overweight kids in my small-town classes from elementary through high school. Jim concurs, and he was in larger schools. There just weren't nearly as many overweight children or adults back in the 1950s and 1960s as there are today. The "fat" kids were teased unmercifully, of course. Kids are cruel. I was teased because I was tall and skinny. I wasn't real happy about being the tallest girl in my class in junior high school, but I liked being thin.

I was very active physically then -- walking, running here and there (not track or distance running), cycling, skating, softball, gardening, yard work -- and I could eat anything I wanted without putting on weight. My mom was a home economist with a background in nutrition so I probably ate better than some of my peers. I never developed a fondness for hot dogs, burgers, fries, or soft drinks, for example. But I sure didn't eat nearly as well as I have the last 25 years, either.

The next two photos show the Corps of Engineer lake covering the 80-acre farm where I grew up. I used to run all over those hills, pretending I was riding a horse! My brother and cousin are in the photo with me on the left. That's where the bridge crossing Clover Lick Creek stood. Our long driveway back to the house was near where we are standing. Our old house was in the center back of the photo on the right, somewhere under all that water (It burned down after we moved away and before the lake was formed). These photos were taken in the early 2000s:

 

Jim and his brothers were very active kids but they didn't run track or cross-country or get involved in organized sports in high school. Jim's diet left a lot to be desired for most of his youth and adult life -- until he met me when he was about 50, in fact! Unlike me, he often indulged in junk and fast foods. McDonalds and other fast-food joints were already becoming popular in the late 1960s and early '70s.

We were both still physically active after high school. Jim joined the Army and went to Viet Nam. He stayed fit with all the physical training required of young soldiers. The only running he did then was to pass the physicals. His diet wasn't much better than when he was in high school. He told me about a medical study done on the young soldiers that showed most of them already had seriously high cholesterol levels. Wow. That was in the early 1970s. I'd guess the same results or even worse would be found today.

While Jim was serving our country and starting to raise a family, I went to Ohio State University for my undergraduate degree. OSU has a huge campus, even 'way back in the late 1960s. I lugged heavy text books and walked a lot of miles every week from my dorm to classes strung out across campus. I could still eat anything I wanted and not gain weight. I don't remember very many overweight students there, either, despite the increasing popularity of pizza and fast food in that era. I  guess we were all getting enough physical exercise to burn the calories. Age had a lot to do with it, too.

UH, OH

Reality and a slowing metabolism hit me in my mid-twenties. After working a couple of years, then going back to graduate school and beginning a different career, I suddenly wasn't getting nearly as much exercise. I must have kept eating the same or more, however, because I gained about twenty-five pounds from age 22 to 30. Because of my height, it didn't show that much but my clothes were getting tighter and I had to start making and buying them in a larger size. I felt "fat" for the first time in my life, and it was a shocker after being a string bean for so long. I didn't even have the excuse of gaining weight during pregnancy! (I'm child-free by choice.)

I finally realized I could no longer eat whatever I wanted. I, too, had nutrition training in college, but we didn't know some of the things then that we know now about good nutrition -- or the importance of exercise.

L-R: Jim, Jr. (Jim's oldest son), Spencer (Jim, Jr.'s oldest son), and Grandpa Jim
(photo taken several years ago)

After Jim got out of the service he was busy working up to three jobs at a time to support his growing family of four boys and didn't have either the time, energy, or motivation to exercise regularly. However, a combination of genetics, being active (but not in a sport), and smoking kept his weight at a fairly consistent 160 pounds, great for a medium- to heavy-boned male who's 5'11" tall.

Fast-forward about eight years to 1978. Jim was pushing thirty and wanted to quit smoking. He knew if he quit smoking he'd swap one oral fixation for another -- he'd literally regain his appetite for FOOD and he'd gain weight if he didn't start exercising. He simultaneously stopped smoking and began running. Although he did start eating more (still rather poorly, by today's standards), his weight remained about the same because the calories burned about equaled the calories consumed.

It's a pretty simple equation, after all.

LOSE TO WIN

Jim started running so he wouldn't GAIN weight when he stopped smoking. I started running because I'd already gained too much weight and wanted to LOSE weight. Our motives were essentially the same: use what was to soon become our favorite aerobic activity -- running! -- to stay slim. I doubt either of us was thinking at the time that we'd stay functionally younger longer this way, too. When you're thirty you just sort of assume you'll be young forever!

It was fortunate that two of my friends at work were avid runners -- not ultra marathoners or even marathoners, but I was impressed as all get out that they could run six miles! They convinced me to try running to lose the weight that had snuck up on me. I bravely took my first running steps on January 1, 1980. I was getting close to 31. I'm proud to say I haven't looked back since. Having the courage to take my health seriously and begin running is one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life -- Jim's, too. But we still weren't eating properly.

Jim with his second-oldest son, Mike (photo taken May, 2007)

It took the shock four years later of popular running author Jim Fixx's sudden heart attack while running to make me finally get my nutrition act together. No more daily glass crammed full of ice cream with a little milk stirred in! That was the very first change I made. I went from ice cream addict and chocoholic to a very strict "food combining" program in a few weeks. Between that and the running, I never felt (or ran) better than during the mid-1980s when I was in my mid- to late 30s and my weight was back down to that of my college days (125-130 pounds on a 5'9" small- to medium-boned frame)..

The food-combining regimen lasted only a couple years for me. Although it gave me increased energy and I dropped weight like a rock, it was tough to follow. One of the principles was to never eat proteins and carbohydrates in the same meal, so everything would digest better. That may be true, but most American meals combine carbs and proteins. Like I said, it was tough to follow, especially away from home. That's the closest thing to a "diet" that I've ever been on. I soon learned that the best "diet" is simply choosing a variety of healthy foods and eating them in moderation.

For the last 25 years I've emphasized eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low-fat and fat-free dairy foods, chicken, fish, and only a little pork and red meat. Every day I try to eat several "nutrient dense" foods that pack a lot of vitamins and minerals into as few calories as possible -- stuff like cantaloupe, blueberries, sweet potatoes, broccoli, spinach, yogurt, skim milk. I rarely eat fast foods, snack and junk foods, ice cream, or soft drinks. I lost my taste for sweets a long time ago, so I'm not usually tempted by them. I do buy some processed foods because I'm a lazy cook some days. But even then, I try to find ones that are low-fat and don't have a lot of chemicals in them.

You wanna know when I eat the very "worst" foods? After a really long training run or an ultra! That's about the only time I crave either sweets or salty foods. I consume good carbs, fats, and proteins in my Hammer Nutrition energy drinks and gels while I'm running, but afterwards I easily justify a mini-binge on foods I'd ordinarily shun. I know a lot of runners who do this. Sometimes ya just gotta let go! (In moderation, of course.)

Grandpa Jim with Mike's two sons, Lane and Tyler  (May, 2007)

Anything I know is "bad" for me I eat only occasionally or in very small amounts -- like the ONE chocolate kiss I have for dessert each day after lunch and dinner (all right, all right . . . that's a total of TWO each day). I let it melt in my mouth so I can savor it for several minutes. That always amuses Jim, who can chomp down a handful of kisses and still want more  Although I can't eat as many calories or snack foods as Jim does, I don't feel like I'm depriving myself of food. But it is a bit of a nuisance because I always have to think about what I eat and balance the calories with the exercise I'm getting, especially as I get older -- it's a choice we can all make every day.

Jim's nutritional epiphany didn't begin until we met around age 50. He's been a mostly-willing subject because he wants to maximize his health -- and running. Although he still eats more fast food and other junk than I do, he's doing much better than he used to. By now he's accustomed to spinach salads several times a week, frequent servings of broccoli and other nutrient-dense veggies and fruits, nutritious lower-fat home-made pizzas, grilled salmon and chicken, skim milk, brown rice, whole wheat bread and pasta, even the occasional quinoa and cous cous.

He has his limits, though. He'll make the pumpkin-sweet potato soup I love to eat for breakfast, but he still refuses to eat any of it!

IT SNEAKS UP ON YOU

Since our peak running years in our late 30s, both Jim and I have gradually put on some pounds -- the insidious weight creep I mentioned earlier. It's inevitable as you get older unless you're pro-active and constantly fight it. Jim's weight is his highest ever right now after not running or working out as much the last five months. He's around 170-171 pounds but still looks trim and fit. I'm not at my highest weight (150 pounds at age 30) but getting close at about 144-145 pounds right now.

Both of us are still OK according to the "ideal weight" charts -- here's one from Met Life -- but our weights, or at least our current levels of fat, are not OK for running as fast and far as we want to run in races! We've both got some fat to lose and muscle to gain, about a five-pound net loss for me and ten for Jim before ATY in December (and preferably before Hinson Lake in late September). We've done it before and we can do it again. This is a cyclical thing with us as we train and rest and train again, but fortunately we've never yo-yo'd back and forth with significant weight gains and losses. That's hard on your body and not recommended by doctors.

Jim with his two younger sons, Chris (left) and Garrett (center). Photo taken two years ago.

I'm eagerly waiting for the day during a run in a couple months when I'll "suddenly" feel lighter and faster, and I'll know I'm on my way to being really fit again. It happens every training cycle. It's like when I "suddenly" found my "trail legs" about three weeks into my Appalachian Trail Adventure Run in 2005 -- it's the epitome of running when I can  reach an almost "effortless" state. It happens in other sports, too. Man, it feels good!

Bottom line: even though we're endurance runners, we still have to work diligently every day at this exercise-nutrition thing to keep fit as we get older. And that's what Younger Next Year is all about.

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy seeing a few of our family photos. To return to the original entry about the book, hit either "previous" or "next."

Sue
"Runtrails & Company" - Sue Norwood, Jim O'Neil, Cody, and Tater

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© 2008 Sue Norwood and Jim O'Neil