Running

Woebot

Well-known member
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Woebot

Well-known member
Re: counter culture aversion to exercise. I suspect this may come from the horrors of PE at school, combined of course with the aggressive testosterone fest that is sport in general. I was scared off sports at about the age of 13 and coevally became interested in things like Warhammer and Rawkus records instead.

also PE teachers were always extremely stupid. seeing this again more clearly in my children's PE teachers.

yeah and it's a tribal thing isn't it. i was smoking fags at the art dept and it was incompatible with taking exercise. that still left taking long "derrives" on my bicycle open to me. smoking in the distant meadows etc.

I read a good book about this subject. Part of a series curated by Alain "De Bloody" Botton, but don't let that put you off. Also the book on running by Murukami is very interesting. I think I read these books and then ran and it wasnt as refined as I'd imagined, more sweaty and sickening.

my wife read that murakami book - in fact it's sitting across the room from me now - but she didn't have much good to say about it.

just saw that "four lions" film for the first time - and there's a completely ridiculous character in that who runs and that's all he talks about to extremely boring lengths. chris morris' attitude to that guy just about sums up the (quasi-)counter-culture's attitude to exercise...
 

Woebot

Well-known member
i suppose with regards to the blackbyrds/roy ayers/pharcyde songs that there is a strong historic dimension to them - vis a vis 12 years a slave - of being a fugitive - literally running away from the establishment.

and then - of course there's the detournement of running - using that same athletic prowess as a symbol of superiority/defiance

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good profile of the runner john carlos here
 

Woebot

Well-known member
whilst there doesn't appear to be much in the way of basis for fears about osteoporosis - injuries are clearly an issue - has slightly blunted my enthusiasm :slanted:

seems like:

1) the further one runs the more liable one is to injure oneself
2) there's a consensus on stretches/yoga ones

i wonder if one keeps a really low mileage that helps?
 

luka

Well-known member
My feeling is that if you enjoy it then suck up the injuries



Pay the piper... I like drinking so I accept the hangover, the obesity, the ravaged liver...
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
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you

Well-known member
2 miles - well to be exact 1.91 miles (according to mapometer.com) is my top distance so far. i don't have a particular aim - but i'd like to get to tate modern and back next year - that's 3 miles - should be nice running over the thames. got some proper trainers.

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such a thing was dismantled a long time ago - but i guess it still exists in ghost form - the counter-culture. it's always had an antipathy to exercise and healthiness. the strain that comes from baudelaire and huysmans is all about sickliness isn't it? sickliness is a major thread throughout the avant-garde of pop: from people getting "red eye" in the studio making drum and bass, blunted listening to hip-hop - i always think about PIL in their squat on the kings road... even the strands of this culture which promise some faint healthiness - disco and dance music - they frequently end up with people suffering dehydration, overdoing it on chemicals - lol.

there is an interesting thing in that flawed bob marley documentary though - marley's big thing was "lively up yourself" - which meant that they played masses of football and would take long runs to the local waterfalls and THEN get stoned - and then to fight off the inertia induced by the weed - they'd go out and "lively up" again - more football, more running, more swimming. anyway it struck me as an interesting possible future for avant/pop culture. perhaps without the dope... though of course they say it was the exercise that did him in (the football injury) but i'm inclined to lay the blame for that elsewhere.

and why shouldn't being fit and healthy be anti-establishment? i'm inclined to believe, what with the internet sucking people out of their bodies - reclaiming them is the most radical thing one can do

I think one of the most fascinating registers of modern life is exercise. For example, offices (in particular industries geared towards young people) are generally awash with fitness. There are exercisers or dieters or body builders*. But what all these aspects point to, for me, is that the body is the last frontier of control and agency. You can't reclaim your attention or focus. You can't reclaim your social life. You can't reclaim your personality - because these have always got to be, consecutively 1-always on, 2-your work, 3-positive team yadadada. BUT you can at least attempt to claim you body.

Of course, this is sniffed at in the most aspirational middle-class way. The drive being a yearn to live in a comfortable enough manner to not require a self conscious attempt at exercise or fitness - "playing polo is just another activity on the social calendar".




*there is a striking gender difference here that plays into how the fallacies heteronormativity modulate the body.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I think one of the most fascinating registers of modern life is exercise. For example, offices (in particular industries geared towards young people) are generally awash with fitness. There are exercisers or dieters or body builders*. But what all these aspects point to, for me, is that the body is the last frontier of control and agency. You can't reclaim your attention or focus. You can't reclaim your social life. You can't reclaim your personality - because these have always got to be, consecutively 1-always on, 2-your work, 3-positive team yadadada. BUT you can at least attempt to claim you body.

At first I wondered if this was a bit of a reach but actually I think you might be right. I mean, the whole phenomenon of exercise as a modern obsession seems to be about something more than just good health, perhaps even something more than just sex (though of course pure animal competition can't be ruled out). I suppose the general criticism of gyms/gym-rats is that its all just one big narcissistic indulgence, what with people scoping themselves out in the mirror as they lift weights, but I think there IS something less superficial going on beneath/besides that (though that is certainly going on). After all, you're not really admiring yourself as you NATURALLY are when you look at yourself in the mirror during or after a work-out - you're admiring a goal that you're working towards. Perhaps also loathing whatever falls short of that goal!

Anyway, I think there is an element of - as you say - taking control over an area of your life. For a lot of men my age, going to the gym is really about the only thing other than watching TV and drinking that occupies them outside of work. And of course its obvious that you don't need the physique of a body builder to do administrative office work.

Of course there's also the fact that modern life is ''unnaturally'' sedentary. The chemical rush we get from exercise would presumably have been much more regularly experienced in prior ages, whereas now we spend so much time sitting down, watching, reading, thinking, that to go on a run or lift some weights is one of the few experiences that can give us that rush and that awareness of our own PHYSICAL reality.
 

Lichen

Well-known member
whilst there doesn't appear to be much in the way of basis for fears about osteoporosis - injuries are clearly an issue - has slightly blunted my enthusiasm :slanted:

seems like:

1) the further one runs the more liable one is to injure oneself
2) there's a consensus on stretches/yoga ones

i wonder if one keeps a really low mileage that helps?

I've done 3-5 miles, a couple of times a week over a couple of months, not a whiff of injury, upside all the way.

Keep on runnin'🏃
 

comelately

Wild Horses
Lots of great points, but people who are trying to be healthy make great consumers. Hempseed trail mix bars, electrolyte tablets, kewl techy running clothes etc.

People posting the runs they've just done on facebook seems to have been a new horror for my timeline this year; I can't quite pretend it's as bad as the clickbait, positivity fascism quotes etc etc, but still.

I have bought a pair of running shoes, but some life events (good ones) kind of got in the way. With a bit of organisation I could run to/from work (about 2.5 miles) a few times a week in the new year, I guess I will try. Eep.
 

Woebot

Well-known member
Lots of great points, but people who are trying to be healthy make great consumers. Hempseed trail mix bars, electrolyte tablets, kewl techy running clothes etc.

People posting the runs they've just done on facebook seems to have been a new horror for my timeline this year; I can't quite pretend it's as bad as the clickbait, positivity fascism quotes etc etc, but still.

all this is true. but it seems like the antidote is simple. don't go to a gym to run. don't accessorise. and, i suppose, keep it to oneself (thread death).

i have a problem too with this instinct to use those trackers to measure one's performance. that seems like playing the man's game.

i don't get the need to improve one's distance/speed/performance. and the competitive angle. surely this is just bs? i'm a shit runner. i run slowly and not very far in an old pair of tracksuit bottoms and a faded T.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
On running: buy decent running shoes & make sure you have good form. Those 2 simple things cut WAY down on injury risk. As well as, of course, stretching before & after (altho, when stretching pre-run, or pre-anything, make sure your body is warmed up, never ever wanna stretch cold). It's still gonna be tough on some people's knees, backs, etc, at which point you can switch to an alternative like rowing (!) or cycling, altho nothing can really duplicate running.

The primary reason to improve is to get more out of running, as with any physical activity, or nearly any pursuit, really. If you run consistently it's also just a natural consequence altho, again as w/any exercise, you'll initially make huge improvements that then diminish as you go on.
 

Woebot

Well-known member
I guess it very much depends where you run. I fail to see how running your lungs wide open in an urban, smog laden environment is beneficial in any way. I never understood those who do, really.

well my legs are fine - but i did start to get chest pains - so have to admit you may have a point here.

it might just be the seasonal contrast between heated indoors and cold outdoors but now when cycling i've switched to wearing a mask with great benefits (can actually smell things!)

when i get back to working out of my studio (as in when i'm running again - can't do it on top of commuting) - will try running with a mask.
 
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