Fighting back against obesity

Today I was reading that there are currently some 14 million Australians who are now being classed as being overweight or obese. This is an incredibly scary statistic to comprehend in a country of only about 22 million people this means that over half the population of Australia are overweight or obese.

We like most of the western world are eating ourselves literally to death.

All is not lost though - I know this because I fought my way back from sure obesity to lose 40kgs and get back my life. Making smarter nutrition choices and eating smaller portions is the key. Our bodies were not made to process copious amounts of processed and sugar laden junk foods. Remember it is very tough to overeat in terms of vegetables. The body simply will stop when it has had enough.

Get an hour of exercise each day - do something, anything - but move! Encourage the youth to and your kids to exercise and play sport. These are all simple things we can control, despite the fact that governments in their infinite wisdom are cutting finance to school sports programs while we face this epidemic.

Running together (while fighting back against obesity), stride for stride on a life changing ride! -- Sean Muller

Spin to win

We have all often heard about the benefits of cross training to improve our running, keep us strong and to ensure one is keeping fit while not over training  Doing something else obviously also keeps one mentally sane and looking forward to again venturing out on the run. The growth in biathlon and triathlon and multisport combination events is testament to the fact that we as humans crave that variety in exercise in life.

Although I am a runner at heart, it makes no difference to me if you run, bike or power walk - merely that you are doing something to ward off obesity.

Spinning on a stationary bike for hours on end has not really held much of an attraction to me until very recently when a friend ran a very successful fast 14KM race off of only spinning training. How was he able to do this?

My belief is that the spinning was keeping him fit and that the race was not long enough to have warranted any longer conditioning runs. Other runners (far quicker than me) have also commented that a once a week spin hard spin session has significantly improved their leg turnover and many of them now build in a session on a spin bike post a long run much in the manner of triathlon brick session.

I started to do the same recently and although my longer runs in the week are only at about 22-24K at the moment, I am moving significantly quicker than I have in the past. The only change being that of the spin sessions.

I would love to hear from others their experiences with increased turnover.

Running together (while increasing leg turnover on the bike), stride for stride on a life changing ride! -- Sean Muller

Age shall not wither them - 81 year old runners

Into my final couple of days in the old hood, I made my way up to the track which I love so much. Many miles have been run around that oval in the past couple of years and many new friends have been made through meeting other runners and boot campers.

This morning there appeared to be an older chap doing some laps and curious to find out just how old he might be, I ran with him as he moved along. Turns out that he is 81 years old. I almost fell over when he told me.

He wouldn’t have won any contests, but then again who cares - he is 81 years old and living proof that running at an old age (or any age for that matter) is by no means bad for you. To top things off he was running in a pair of shoes that looked like they had come straight out of the 1970s. Proof that it is really all marketing spin with regards to changing shoes every couple of hundred KMs.

What will we be doing at age 81? I sincerely hope that as many people as possible will be running and running well.

Running together (while observing some amazing older athletes), stride for stride on a life changing ride! -- Sean Muller

Simple things on the run

This morning out on my normal 8K run I encountered a young boy out running with his father. Now the young bloke could not have been more than five and admittedly many five year olds in the west today would struggle to run long distances, but not this young chap. He had the biggest smile on his face and even his dad looked as proud as punch of him. And why wouldn't he be.

Nothing more simple, natural and healthy than a father spending quality time with his son out on the run. The young man was unconcerned about anything else bar having a good time with his father. Not a care in the world - just one foot in front of the other and happy days really.

Running together (while appreciating the simple things in life) - stride for stride on a life changing ride. -- Sean Muller