Journey to the East and West: Mei Xiaopai, a once-talented travel writer, weighed 90 kilograms three years ago, drunkenly dreamed of death, lived a decadent life, and after believing in the running god religion a few years ago, he trained hard and completed more than ten marathons around the world. His weight was also reduced to 74 kilograms, and he was reborn and transformed into a sunshine teenager in a year of confusion. How did he do it? His running life is full of thinking about life, feeling about the city, and even practical equipment, which is both practical and interesting, forming a new style of running writing. In order to share this running experience and travel experience, please pay attention to this column "East run west tour"!
One
Eyes struggling to open, half past five, it was already dark, and sometimes I really admired my own biological clock.
Getting up with your hands on your body is like being dragged up. Staggering out of the room, kneeling on the carpet to do some stretching motions, I thought about waking myself up as soon as possible, and I could go out around six o'clock.
Two
Last night I had planned to run today and wanted to go to bed early, but I couldn't sleep at one o'clock. I found a 2010 Norwegian movie "King of Devil's Island King of Alcatraz" to help sleep, and I didn't expect to see it at three o'clock.
The film begins with a dark, oppressive, cold atmosphere, a giant whale with a harpoon stuck in its body injured and struggling in the rough North Sea, you can imagine how the fishermen behind the camera are struggling to control it, and the same shot appears at the end of the film to echo. Based on true events, the story tells the story of a group of troubled teenagers in Norway in the early twentieth century who are imprisoned on a small island to rebel against inhuman treatment. After watching the movie, it is easy to understand the meaning of the giant whale "Leviathan" - the giant beast sea monster recorded in the Old Testament, and in the seventeenth century, the Englishman Thomas Hobbes published the political philosophy masterpiece "Leviathan", which also usually refers to a powerful country or government.
The same metaphor appeared in this year's Shanghai Film Festival's Russian film Leviathan, a "nail household" film that reflects Russian bureaucracy, government power and the collapse of the weak, which won the Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. There are also many scenes of the huge wreckage of the seaside sperm whale in the film, and director Andrei Sarkinsef wants to show that "the 'monster' cannot be stopped, just like the fate in Greek tragedy, it hinders people from obtaining absolute freedom and happiness", but people will not be tied up, "people must face life independently", must be brave, must fight.
Both films end in black, and the people who dare to fight in the film are usually regarded as "fools" in real society.
Three
After the typhoon passed, the temperature in Shanghai rose sharply. At 28 degrees Celsius, humidity is as high as 90%, there are few people on the streets in the early Hours of Saturday morning, steaming steamers on steamers on breakfast stalls, and occasionally early buses whizzing by.
Although I have been using the MAF180 low heart rate training method in recent months, the temperature and humidity are too high, and I have been sweating profusely during the warm-up period of one kilometer before running to the park. I didn't sleep well, my breathing was a little short, and my movements were a little wooden. I don't remember where I saw it, the marathon results have nothing to do with whether I slept well or not, I didn't seem to sleep well before every time I ran a horse, but every time I ran down, except for the injury and the Qinhuangdao Marathon, every time the results have improved.
After the Qinhuangdao Marathon on May 30 this year barely finished at 4:52 under the scorching sun, I have not run more than 30 kilometers in the past three months, and the number of runs has dropped from 200 kilometers per month to less than 150 kilometers. Thinking about the Beijing Marathon, the Chicago Marathon, the Shanghai Marathon, and even the Hangzhou Marathon that I was going to participate in from September to the end of the year, I decided that the goal of today's long-distance jogging was 30 kilometers.
I've lived near the biggest park in Puxi for more than nine years, but after the last two or three years of falling in love with running, I discovered the advantage of the park being close to home. Around the park 3.3 kilometers, known as the most professional jogging track in Shanghai, the road surface is paved with asphalt, the foot feel is harder than the plastic track, but it is much more comfortable than the cement road. Of course, there are lakes, hills, forests, flower beds, fruit groves in the park, through which it is not too boring, three to four times a week, at the end of the year, the four seasons of nature will be very clearly unfolding in front of the eyes.
Six or seven o'clock in the morning is the most noisy moment in the park, the common is the morning exercise of the elderly, pulling erhu, playing pipe music, square dancing, practicing tai chi, dancing sword, I have also seen a group of elderly people fitness methods are particularly magical - constantly stroking their own entire head including the entire head of the face. Usually, most of the runners on the track are also elderly, and there will be some exceptions on weekends, and some organized running groups mainly of office workers will also appear in the park, and they often run in groups. I think running is a very personal act, I have my own rhythm, except for the occasional meeting with friends, I rarely participate in group running activities.
Three laps down, the mobile phone prompt 10 kilometers have passed, it is to my most comfortable stage, the swing of the legs back and forth is natural and relaxed, the face is even grinning because of the peak of endorphin secretion, generally this condition can be maintained until about 15 kilometers. Sure enough, I was able to travel steadily within 6:30 a.m. for the first 17 km, and by 18 km I was down to 6:45 p.m. I had to make up white water and sports drinks every lap, my body was like fished out of the water, and my shorts were soaked, and at first glance I would think I was incontinent.
Knowing that I would have to slow down if I wanted to accomplish my goals, I started to continue the journey at a pace of 7 minutes, and at 20 kilometers I also swallowed two small meat buns to replenish my energy. At 26 kilometers, I slowed down again, my steps became difficult, my smile did not know where to throw me, and it turned into a terrifying grin. I looked at my watch, it had been running for nearly 3 hours, except for drinking water and eating occasionally, I had not stopped, and there were fewer and fewer people practicing in the morning in the park. I was relieved to hear that the running software reported that 27 kilometers, only the last lap was needed, and even if I climbed, I could climb the last three kilometers.
Twenty minutes later, I finally completed my 30-kilometer goal, from early six to nine thirty, a total of 3 hours and 26 minutes. Slimy and slimy, the neck is full of small particles of sweat, stop and feel the iliac band of the left knee is a little faintly painful, the bottom of the right foot is also a little painful, fortunately it is not a big problem. As the sun rose and the park runway had fallen, I walked expressionlessly, suddenly feeling a little dazed, like a sense of emptiness like a lengthy plane. I really want to ask you who love to run: "Fools, what are you torturing yourself for?" ”
Four
After more than two years of official undercover running, accumulating nearly 2500 kilometers of running, and participating in marathons more than ten times, I can finally announce a conclusion out loud: fools love to run!
Isn't it? Every time you put on your running shoes, wave your arms and take a step, run in the park, on the track, on the side of the road, to sacrifice sleep, to sweat, to endure pain, but also to bear the strange eyes of those wise people who have insight into the world. Have you ever wondered what practical benefits running can bring you?
Yes, every time I post the trajectory after running in the circle of friends, there are always friends who praise, "good perseverance, good strength, victory of will." When faced with running, you show determination, tenacity, concentration and hard work, you run more than 150 kilometers a month, and you will spend at least 20 hours a month on running. If you put these qualities and time into work, reading, and family, will you become richer and feel that the world is a better place? If the love of running is exclusive to successful people, as a poor third, why do you want to join, pretending to be very rich? Isn't that silly?
The Great French Philosopher Rousseau Zengyun: "Man is born free, but he is always in chains." Those who think they are masters of everything else are more slaves than everything else. "I used to think that running made me feel free, that there was a good reason to step out of the house, that in an hour or two I could forget about stress, worry, pain, and that the discomfort of the flesh was far easier to endure than psychological torture. But what about this, it is only a short escape, after running, still have to face everything that should have been faced, and put the shackles on again. It turned out that I thought I was the master of running, slow or short, long or short, everything was under my control. When I became addicted to running, it dawned on me that I had long been a slave to running.
Running can lose weight, which is the most utilitarian appeal for many obese people to run. My own practice proves that this is indeed the case, more than two years ago, my weight reached a historical peak of nearly 90 kilograms, and now it is only less than 75 kilograms, and my cholesterol, blood lipid excesses and other phenomena have all disappeared. However, I lost so much weight that my body fat percentage dropped from 14.6% to just 12.8%, which meant that my muscles dissolved a lot. I used to have a B-cup big chest, and I can perform a jump and jump chest muscle shake at any time, and now I am sadly becoming a Taiping Prince. The most pitiful thing is that I have put in so much effort, against the backdrop of slender limbs, my belly is not much smaller, and the size is very close to that of a frog.
Will joining a different running club make you no longer lonely? The answer, of course, is no. What kind of person you were, it will not change because of running, your outlook on life, worldview, and values will become more stable precisely because of running. You are lonely, obedient, unsmiling, destined to be lonely for a lifetime, running makes you suddenly cheerful, enthusiastic and generous, and become a popular person. It's also impossible to think with your toes.
As for running to cure depression, that's even more absurd. Remember Robin Williams, the Hollywood star who brought us a lot of laughter? He's a long-distance runner, a cyclist, and even a triathlon finisher, but last year he committed suicide because of depression. Instead of believing that exercise brings short-lived effects of endorphins, it is more straightforward to eat Prozac directly.
People who love running are really stupid enough, and the most famous image of running fools is "Forrest Gump".
He has an IQ of only 75 points, but he is the embodiment of virtue, honest, trustworthy, serious, brave and emotional, and loves Jenny all his life. He was open-minded and open-minded, "My mother used to say that life is like a box of chocolates, and you can't know what you'll taste before you open it." "He kept running on the road with his intuition, not deliberately pursuing, but ushered in countless peaks in his life."
People who love running are really silly, but silly cute.
Mei Xiaopai is a full-time code word worker for more than 10 years, loves to travel around, and has published his personal monographs "Give Me a Long Way" and "Lonely Planet Shanghai" (one of the authors). He also hosted a WeChat public account "Running Shoe Teaching" that everyone can pay attention to, and pay attention to iWeekly to read his on-site impressions of participating in the Beijing Marathon tomorrow.
Long press the following QR code to pay attention to the "Running Shoe Teaching" public account