A few months ago, my 77 year old dad had to start exercising to help control his blood sugar. From scratch that is, as he was mostly sedentary for the better part of the last three decades. He started with a few minutes of easy stationary bike two times a day to loosen up the hinges. Then, over the course of several weeks, he increased his sessions both in duration and intensity, very slowly and consistently. He has now reached his goal of an hour a day total, and varies the intensity and equipment and as he sees fit. He now craves it and is proud of himself as he should be.

I am a long time runner, and had he asked me how to get started with all this, I could not have improved on his approach. In my mind, he was already following what I like to think of as the Three Pillars of “Sporting” (any sport, really) in your later years: increase slowly, be consistent and most importantly have fun. 

In the past 20 or so years, I have run many full- and half marathons, one ultramarathon, had many, many injuries, and a few canine running companions along the way. I also turned 50 this year. Although I feel like I’m still not too far from my maximum potential, the fact of the matter is my body is aging and, to be true, I am slowly starting to feel the years. I believe exercise really does help slow down the effects of aging, so I intend to keep running for the foreseeable future. I do know, however, that if I want to keep it up in the long term, I have to do it right.

The three pillars mentioned earlier weren’t guidelines I intended to follow, they just made more and more sense over time. I found that sudden increases in distance were the most taxing without much added benefit. Instead, if I keep up a constant, reasonable volume, and change it by say 10-15% at most, I remain injury-free and can gauge myself more accurately. I found that when I stop running for a while, my best bet is to get back into it at a much lower volume, to avoid exhaustion and injuries, then gradually build my mileage back up–which is similar to simply starting running.