Why are some guys jocks and some not. What makes the difference?
Why do some boys and men seem to have such natural interest in all things athletic, and are good at them, and then there are men like me, I was never coordinated, never fast, never graceful. Do you just need to have a natural aptitude? Can you learn to do athletic things and enjoy them? Is a matter of how you were raised from a young age, you were pushed you into it as a young boy? When I was a kid, if someone said let's play baseball, I said, no I've got a book. That was me.
And most of all, what is it about the competitive thing that makes some guys love sports like football or hockey or baseball to the point they seem obsessed? If I saw a bunch of guys running at me trying to take me down and knock the crap out of me over a football I don't think I'd do it more than once. I'm just not competitive that way.
I was never a jock. Hated it in school, in fact. I've had a few times in my life when I got into solitary forms of exercise for a while, to lose weight or just to gain endurance, just walking, biking, once I briefly, oh so briefly, entertained the fantasy I would become a runner until I found out how much it hurts. I never stuck with any of it long term, I had a couple of years I walked regularly back in the 80s or maybe the 90s. I had one incredible spring/summer of biking, said I was going to get into that, bought myself a really nice Cannondale, and went into like a madman. I spent all of my free time biking. My crowning achievement was taking a whole day long trip of around 100 miles round trip. I left at 4:30 in the morning and didn't make it back until after sunset, so like 9:00 at night. It was kind of rough getting back, but I did it. Thank god there were good paths/trails/roads where I went. And then November came, it got dark, it got cold, it got icy, biking got dangerous, and the Cannondale got hung in the garage. It's been there like 21 years and 9 months on the same hook now, never touched again -- great way to spend $700-$800 bucks, huh?
But I just walked 8.6 miles, and I really do feel good. Tired but good. And I feel kind of pumped up, psyched.
Is that what it all boils down to, endorphins?
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There probably are a lot of reasons for that, from the personal to the families and other social support systems.
I remember the jocks and the brains in school--although many of the brains I knew also were very capable in athletics.
I certainly wasn't a jock, but I was outgoing and sociable so I had friendships that cut across all of the cliques in school.
In HS I was enrolled in gymnastics, but that was only to give me a class to cut to work on the HS newspaper I edited. Still, that experience impressed me with all of the hard work and effort my fellow students were putting in to excel in athletics.
I loved watching the Olympics this year, and especially the gymnastics. I was rooting for both foreign and U.S athletes, but the U.S. Women's gymnastics team was really the highlight for me. They were AMAZING!
Endorphins aren't the answer, but more power to you for your walking.
My little brother loved biking, but ill health late in life kept him from doing that--until he had some medical procedures done that allowed him to go back to doing his half-centuries and centuries.
Not long after he began bicycling again, he dropped dead on a ride. But he was doing what he loved doing.
8.6 is good, and good for you.
While I was captain of our track team, I also won our schools art award.
