Max Riffner

The Parlor

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Addictive Walker?

The other night after yoga, I was expressing my thanks for the fresh bag of ground espresso my mother bought me, having become quite accustomed to espresso now. My mother said that I seem to have an addictive personality. I reminded her that I could go back to smoking which of course shuts her up.

However, in some cases it is true. I do have somewhat of an addictive personality. That was one of the reasons I kept running for several years despite numerous injuries. I loved how I felt, both from the endorphin rush and the stature. Running is an activity that most people don’t want to do, and I was proud of myself for not only doing it but enjoying it. Plus, rapid and visible weight loss will make one love anything.

Where I would run into trouble though was the injuries, the constant i pain. The final injury, the Achilles tendon popper, sent me into a debilitating funk of which I am finally out of, a year and 15 pounds later. Which brought up a whole new slew of depressing aspects: now that I was exercising again, nothing was burning as much calories or giving me that endorphin rush like running did. I enjoy cycling, but it was kind of like methadone for me. Which caused me not to want to do it (besides the costs involved). Not only that, but it seemed like I have to put in twice as much effort biking to get anything close to the results of running. I literally could drop 15 pounds in about 6 weeks, especially coming off of winter. Running was the only thing that gave me any sort of visible results.

Not that yoga hasn’t been great. I can bend, twist, and launch my body up into space which I never would have thought possible (especially as a runner – man you get tight). I’ve also added weight training back into my exercise regime, which enhances my other activities, but even when I was in high school, weight training never made my body change visibly much. Sure, I’d get a bit more toned, and I definitely felt better, but I didn’t look that much better. I’m committed to it now because I know from running that I should have been doing it for all those years; I may have been less prone to injury. What I’m having a hard time with is completing my exercise trifecta, yoga is for flexibility, weight training for strength, and I have no activity for aerobic exercise, arguably the most important one for me in order to lose fat.

Then the other night, with the weather being so nice (60s in January), I went for a walk.

Let me remind you that runners hate walkers. No logic there, just that walking is considered weak. Well, that is about all I have now, so I broke down and went out hard for 40 minutes of brisk walking.

Holy crap. I got a rush of endorphins at the end.

It also felt like I had been running! My hips were sore, my feet hurt, and my knees were a bit tender… what the hell?

I’m soooooooo going walking again tonight.

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