The older I get, the more interested I have become in putting the conditioning into my strength and conditioning program. The reasons are twofold. First, I find conditioning has really helped me with my body composition. Second, I'd like to spend as much healthy time on the right side of the grass as I can.
So over the years I have undertaken a number of challenges. I have done metabolic conditioning circuits, pull up challenges, strongman training, and the like. The problem is, I don't really train for them and I don't have much interest in doing so.
I'm a powerlifter at heart. I want to squat, deadlift, and bench press. When I start devoting too much effort into the aforementioned activities, bad things happen. I usually end up with some kind of stupid nagging injury from overuse or attempting unfamiliar movements. Even if I'm lucky enough not to hurt something, I'm often left overtrained which screws up the lifting I actually care about doing.
So what am I to do? I recently ran a 5k and enjoyed it, but I don't want to be a regular runner. That's not going to help my powerlifting. But running did make me feel conditioned. How about a compromise?
I started looking into what would be a good standard to just go out and run a mile. Various trainers have put their ideas out there regarding what time a mile should be run in. What I really want to know is what is the standard as it relates to health.
This led me to an article on The New York Times Website "On Your Marks, Get Set, Measure Heart Health." In the article, Dr. Jarett D. Berry, assistant professor of internal medicine and cardiology at Southwestern Medical School, states "How fast you can run in midlife is very strongly associated with heart disease risk when you’re old. The exercise you do in your 40s is highly relevant to your heart disease risk in your 80s.”
The article basically boiled down to men in their 50's who can run under an eight minute mile and women in under nine minutes show high levels of fitness. He also went on to say a 10 minute mile for middle aged men and 12 minutes for a middle aged women suggest a good level of fitness. Heart disease basically increases for every minute longer it takes. As I'm rapidly approaching 50, this resonated with me.
What I like most about this test is, I don't have to practice to run a mile. Also, getting out and running a mile once a month shouldn't adversely affect my training at all. So this Sunday I'm going to put myself to the test. I'll let you all know how it turns out.