I recently remarked in an email to someone that I think any healthy person should be able to walk a couple of miles without breaking much of a sweat - for clarity, I'll stipulate this is on relatively level ground (I mean, not climbing up a mountain, though some slope would be OK), on a comfortably cool day, and not carrying more than, say, a light daypack or purse. In my view, someone who can't do this has some sort of health problem, though of course the specific problem could be anything from heart disease to back trouble to paralyzed legs to bad asthma to just being terribly out of shape.
By that definition, I'm in decent shape. (Of course -- would I make up a test I would fail?) It got me thinking, though, that I might not be in good shape by other people's standards. On any given day (well, any day where it's not too hot) in the shape I'm in this minute, I can go climb Camelback Mountain (about a mile up and a mile down, nearly 1000' elevation gain) or hike around Usury Peak (7 miles, ups and downs). I can row 15 km in a boat (well, I might get blisters, not having been on the water for a week) or erg half a marathon (21,097 meters) or bike 10 miles (on my mountain bike on flattish trail or pavement). But could I run a mile? Maybe. Probably yes, but it would be a slow jog and I wouldn't enjoy it much. I could do the run-walk thing for a couple of miles, I think, but by the end it would be more walk than run. Could I swim a mile? I have no idea. I'm sure I could if I can vary my stroke, by which I mean if things like floating on my back and kicking count as "swimming". I don't think I could crawl-stroke that distance without really hating it. Yet my mother-in-law does 50 laps three times a week. I'm sure there are people for whom a mile in the water is the minimum definition of "fit".
At any rate, my body doesn't keep me from doing the things I want to do, at a reasonable level (meaning, assuming I just want to be in a race, not win one) so I suppose I count as fit enough by the only standard that's important.
Posted by dichroic at July 14, 2004 05:27 PMHmmm. The sweat thing seems like a poor gauge to me, because I know people who naturally don't perspire much and others who sweat like crazy but are otherwise not much affected by the activity in question. My grandmother, for example, needs a sweatband to work in the garden even on a spring day, or she will sweat enough that it runs into her eyes. She isn't breathing heavily or unusually tired by gardening, but she sweats.
Posted by: Mris at July 15, 2004 10:07 AMI concede. I used the phrase "breaking a sweat" more or less metaphorically, to mean working hard, getting tired or out of breath. You're right though, in that I've seen people start sweating 5 minutes into a workout, while still warming up, but not have any trouble completing the next more strenuous hour and a half.