Right around two years ago, I started writing HIIT’N50 to share my fitness journey from the standpoint of my own approach and experiences. That approach has served me well over the course of the past several years, as I’ve continued to run, bike and strength train on a regular basis and maintain what I consider to be a high level of fitness. It hasn’t always been easy as I’ve struggled at times to maintain my motivation, especially after suffering an injury last summer that knocked me out of the game for a couple of months. Coming back from that injury was incredibly difficult, because I had worked so hard, especially on my running, to achieve a high level of fitness. Less than 2 weeks prior to crashing my bike, I had completed a half marathon in just under 1 hour and 45 minutes which was a personal best time for me. Now, I was laid up with a surgically repaired collarbone, 5 broken ribs and a fractured scapula. I was given the all clear for all activities around 9 weeks later and while I knew it was going to be hard work to get back to where I was, I underestimated just how hard it would be to return to the level I was at before the injury. In fact, I’ve only just (over the past month) started feeling like I could run “fast” again. It was, to say the least, incredibly humbling.
In my past writing, I’ve shared my approach to fitness as a suggested framework, rather than telling you, the reader, what you should be doing. I did this because people have different goals (weight loss, health, doctors orders) that they are looking to achieve through their fitness and I felt that providing a framework for how to approach fitness would provide a place to start, regardless of one’s fitness and health goals.
I think overall, this was the correct approach and I even came up with a simple acronym to describe my approach called MIME (Motivation, Intent, Mindset and Execution). It was very much focused on the process of developing a fitness habit and while I’ve touched on nutrition, sleep and mental well-being in some of my previous writing, I probably didn’t go far enough in terms of the importance of taking a more holistic approach to fitness. Over the course of the past several months, I’ve become extremely interested in the concept of longevity from the standpoint of the things I can be doing (e.g., the things I can actually control) to impact my quality of life in my later years.
So while I’ll continue to reiterate the basics, I also want to share more about my personal journey, the decisions I’ve made and how those decisions have impacted how I feel as well as being more specific about the kinds of results I’ve seen. I’ve spent a lot of time tinkering with all aspects of my health journey and while my results may not necessarily be your results, I do think that being more prescriptive from time to time can be helpful. I also think it’s important to form an understanding of how sleep, nutrition and mental well-being impact the ability to maintain a consistent fitness habit, so look for my future writings to bring in perspectives and ideas about taking a more holistic approach to your fitness.
Finally, I think it’s important to reiterate what I am and what I am not. I am not a doctor, a fitness expert or a nutritionist. What I am is somebody who has incorporated a lot of input from friends and experts to build a holistic program that has allowed me to maintain a solid level of fitness and well-being. I think it’s important to share more personally what has worked and what hasn’t and why, so that you can make more informed decisions about your own fitness journey.
Look for new HIIT’N50 posts each Friday and I look forward to helping you achieve your fitness goals!