Grandma's Ninja Training Diary: Some Things I Learned about Walking and Running -- As a Grandmother and Otherwise
Ninja work requires strength, especially upper body strength. That is obvious to any who watch Ninja Warrior games, and I concentrated on upper body strength at every session with my trainer. But there is something else. When I began my ninja training, my bone tests showed mild osteoporosis, not atypical for my age. After a couple of years of strength training as part of my "ninja training, my bone density tested normal. The strength training added to the density of my leg and upper body bones. Walking took care of the spine.
I used to think that walking was boring, and that walking was simple. You just put one step in front of the other over and over again, and soon you are striding along, losing weight and gaining health. Then, I learned about High-Intensity Interval Training, varying speed over time. My cup of tea. I could mis things up on an outdoor walk and distract myself from boredom by playing with the controls on the treadmill at the gym: fast, slow, almost-running, steep incline, low incline, flat, downhill...and the results seemed better, anyway, for weight control and maintenance. (Of course, there are too many variables associated with weight, especially my weight, to point a finger at any one good thing or any one bad thing. I just know that walking in intervals, especially those periods of fast walking, give me an endorphin lift and get me through a longer walking period in a happier mood. I suppose that the amount of time spent walking could be lowered with HIIT replacing a normal-paced, steady walk, but with HIIT, I have no trouble putting in all the time as before but getting better benefits from the same amount of time.
Running was a difficulty for me. Nothing new in that -- it was a difficulty for me when I was in the Army. At less than five feet (just barely reaching Army minimal standards for height), I was among the hobbit officers (not many of us little ones running, literally around). Making two miles at the 10-miute mile level and usually have to take the 2-minute grace period (so, really, an 11-minute mile) proved an energy-requiring-and-producing task. With time, I was able to keep up the mileage and timing, after learning how to acquire a "second wind," and could run like the wind alongside my long-legged buddies. Decades later, it was like starting all over -- and, I suppose, the reality is that no grandmothers I know, including me, can run like the wind. But I can maintain the equivalent of a 10-minute mile for more than a minute...hey, take what you can in your seventh decade, I say. I had to work up to it, and it took a lot longer than it did in the Army 6-week course. I started at an embarrassingly low max of five seconds and added 1-2 seconds every few weeks. Yep, not hours, not days. Weeks. That seems to be the reality (supported by research -- it is such a come-down to bow to reality) of septaguanarian life. But my sights (curtailed by life) are definitely set on ten minutes and that full mile. The "gold ring" to a 10-minute mile beckons. Barring more pandemics, deaths, and unpredictable nasties, I plan to grasp it some day!
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The book, Grandma's Ninja Training Diary is in progress, being written together by trainee, Betty Lou Leaver, age 74, author of over two dozen books, and trainer, Brittany Renz, owner of B-Tan gym and author of Girl, You Got This. Originally planned as a single-authored book, Grandma's Ninja Warrior Diary, when plans were to actually tryout for the games (hey, someone over 70 has to make a stab at it sometime, right?), the book (and life) took a different turn when struck with a two-blow whammy: (1) Covid-19 hit and all the gyms closed and training stopped and (2) Betty Lou had to use all her ninja strength and flexibility 24/7 to care for 300-pound Carl as he died from Cancer of Unknown Primary over half a year of rapid deterioration, including near-immobility, when other caregivers (coming out of the pandemic) were not available. Nonetheless, the lessons learned deserve to be shared, both those related to preparation for the games and those that are just plain important for a good life continuing into "big-number" decades after assumed-retirement age. Hence, the book title change. The collaboration was just a stroke of good fortune (after all, something good did come from the pandemic).
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