Seeing genuine progress in my endurance

It's been a long journey that had a lot of planning involved in it but just to catch any new readers up I decided in about mid 2024 that I was going to transition from bodybuilding and strength training to a nearly entirely dedicated cardio workout program.

I liked having big muscles but over time it was becoming more and more difficult to maintain and once my doctor and other older bodybuilders started saying that I would have to start taking HGH, testosterone injections or worse, steroids, in order to maintain my muscle mass, I decided that it is time for me to throw the proverbial towel in on that part of my life. This didn't mean that it was time for me to start sitting on the sofa and doing nothing though.

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When I first started training in cardio with running I realized what a lot of bodybuilders do when they do this sort of thing: I realized that I have basically zero cardio endurance levels. My first couple of runs were really bad as I struggled to run even a single km without getting seriously winded and my heart rate was through the damn roof.

I looked at this information and for the first time in my adult life I was actually kind of worried. I looked great in the mirror because of all the lifting for many years, but my strength didn't mean squat when it came to doing practical things like moving around at a jog.

While my plan of attack has changed with the months going by I finally settled into a routine that is working for me, and I think will work for a lot of other people because it wasn't my idea to begin with.

For the scientists out there that discovered this, I am grateful but basically it consisted of the best way to improve one's endurance is to find an exercise level that puts your heart rate in zone 3 or perhaps just the start of zone 4. There are 5 heart zone rates by modern simpleton standards, with 1 being nearly at rest, and the upper end of 5 being something like sprinting which is using all of your energy all at once.

The idea for me was to not just run faster to get stronger, but to improve my overall cardio by pushing the limits of my heart rate zones with the idea being that over time, my heart rate wouldn't need to be as high for me to maintain the same speed for a long period of time.

I've been working at this for months and yesterday was one of the only times in my life that I have felt like my long-term plan is actually totally working.

I never really head out of the house with any particular distance in mind but I always do at least a 5k these days. The idea isn't to complete these distances as quickly as possible, this is not what I am training for. The idea here is for me to be able to maintain a rather consistent pace without my heart rate getting to such a level where I am winded, tired, and potentially hurting myself. According to scientists and researchers, this is the "ideal zone" for one to train in and I went ahead and took their word for it because they probably went to school for a long time.

When running, I NEVER pay any attention to how fast I am moving. I used to, and this was a bad approach because I would gas myself out, dehydrate myself, or in really bad mistake situations, I would injure myself.

Instead, I am focused exclusively on keeping my heart rate in zone 3 or just barely in zone 4. When the squiggly line is just barely in the orange, this is exactly where I want it to be. I check my watch while running in order to ensure that is where I am. If it is too high, I slow down, if it is too low I speed up. Simple, right?

This pace is not going to impress the more grizzled runners out there but this is one thing I enjoy about running: I am not in competition with anyone other than my greatest enemy, which is myself.

The thing that made me so happy about this 10k was that I hadn't set out to do a 10k, I never do. My objective on this particular day was just to do at least 5k and keep my heart rate steady for the entire thing. Before I began I had already decided that I was going to do 5k then just carry on for as long as I felt capable of doing so after that.

The thing is that I wasn't tired after the 10k either and only stopped because I was out of water. This bodes well for me and makes me happy because I really believe I could have done another 5k or even 10k if I had access to more water. This hasn't really ever happened for me before and it makes me so happy that it is that way now.

I have done a lot of sports in my life, but endurance running was never one of them. This is a very new addition to my life and even though it has been tough, I am happy that I am seeing genuine progress.

I am entering an organized run in the next couple of weeks where water stations are provided all the way through and now the thing I need to focus on between now and then is stretching, not injuring myself in the interim, and also making sure to replicate my nutrition that must have lead to me being so able to continually do this 10k without ever feeling like I was super tired.

Anyone who runs knows that feeling of how the last 500 meters of a particular length run feels like it is the longest 500 meters ever but in my situation I never felt that. I felt like I probably could have gone a lot longer and this has never been the case at any other point in my life.

I know that most of you out there are better at this than I am, but seeing as how I have only been doing this for around 6 months, I feel like I am making great progress, especially when you consider that I am in my late 40's and have never participated in endurance running of any sort at any other point in my life.

I am losing a lot of my muscle mass in my upper body and that makes me a bit sad... However, my heart is getting to be in much better shape than it used to be, as are my lungs, and I think this is probably a bit more important than having chiseled veined biceps.