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My fitness goals
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As a teenager, I have always enjoyed the peacefulness of walking and running track. I was never the fastest sprinter; yet, I qualified in a few Cross-Country Canada races. Today, I still choose to walk to and from school, though I did stop running. What did running provide for myself? Why was this insufficient?
I’ve decided to run again. As an alternative to racing, I ran on an incline. Some things are done for its own sake and others for something else (Ross, 1999). I ran on an incline to achieve a satisfied, self confidence in my body’s appearance. This is one of many ends, the immediate end. The end to which the potentiality of my body matches that of my mind. My mind is the result of vigorous cultivation via experience, decisions, knowledge, awareness, etc. The end to which I may feel beautiful, a physical virtue attributed by my psyche; a psychê that yearns to develop.
During the first day of running, I was cautioned to limit the length of the run. According to Aristotle, souls are comprised of two portions, the rational and the irrational part (Ross, 1999). Experience permitte...
to keep running and never stop.” This mission statement is to motivate past and future runners in
At the Gym, written by Mark Doty, dramatizes the conflict within the mind of a bodybuilder and his desire to change who and what he is. The speaker observes the routines of the bodybuilder bench-pressing at a local gym, and attempts to explain the driving force that compels him to change his appearance. The speaker illustrates the physical use of inanimate objects as the tools used for the “desired” transformation: “and hoist nothing that need be lifted” (5,6). However, coupled with “but some burden they’ve chosen this time” (7), the speaker takes the illustration beyond the physical use of the tools of transformation and delves into the bodybuilder’s mental state. The speaker ends by portraying the bodybuilder as an arrogant, muscular being with fragile feelings of insecurity.
“A trancelike state settles over your efforts; the climb becomes a clear-eyed dream. The lapses of conscience, the unpaid bills, the bungled opportunities, the dust under the couch, the inescapable prison of your genes—all of it is temporarily forgotten, crowded from your thoughts by an overpowering clarity of purpose and by the seriousness of the task at hand.”
One sport you may not have considered for your High School activities is track. Track is a sport with an array of benefits for your body. People from all over the world participate in many running events including sprinting, middle distances, long distances, relay races, hurdles, steeple chasing, and race walking. I will go into more detail under the subject of sprinting a bit later. First, I will speak to you about the preparation it takes in order to get into track sprinting shape.
The time is 5:30 AM; all is dark and hushed. My weary body feels completely drained of energy. While straining to open my eyes, still warm and snug in my comfortable bed, I am overcome with a feeling of lethargy. "Perhaps I should call in sick." Despite all my musing, and my bed's magnetic pull, I still manage to rise each morning at this ungodly hour to join the cross-country running team in rigorous training.
Bertrand Russell expressed his belief on knowing other minds, in an article based primarily around the notion of ‘analogy’, meaning similar to or likeness of. His belief is that, "We are convinced that other people have thoughts and feelings that are qualitatively fairly similar to our own. We are not content to think that we know only the space-time structure of our friends’ minds, or their capacity for initiating causal chains that end in sensations of our own" (Russell 89). Russell speaks of the inner awareness, such as being able to observe the occurrences of such things as remembering, feeling pleasure and feeling pain from within our own minds’. This would then allow us to presume that other beings that have these abilities would then be that of having minds.
Of the more than twenty million Americans who are running today, most who start do so for the wrong reasons, with the wrong attitude, and tend to lose interest after a few weeks or months. Many quit. This is usually because they become concerned with superficial goals such as time and distance and never discover the more profound mental benefits that running offers. (Lilliefors 15)
Running can improve your mood, as well as physical health, “Running reduces stress by boosting levels of serotonin in your brain and creating a more positive mood. Self-esteem is improved and goals are achieved through running. Runners realize a greater sense of self-reliance and accomplishment… Cardiovascular health is greatly improved through running by increasing your heart rate and working the heart muscles on a regular basis” (RunAddicts). Running is similar to a drug, however without the withdrawal effects. Similar to MDMA (ecstasy), running releases serotonin. After running one feels tired but refreshed and energized due to the serotonin released, which is referred to as the “runner’s high”. This runner’s high, somewhat similar to a drug intoxication, causes a euphoria and creates a positive and energized mood, which temporarily regulates anxiety, improves sleep quality, and constructs a better self-image. As well as being mentally advantageous, running is also physically constructive. Like running and swimming, through working the heart muscles and increasing your heart rate running can also improve endurance and cardiovascular health by allowing the blood to pump more powerfully. Furthermore, running can drastically improve one’s
Running has always been that sport that I took advantage of to let everything go and to use it to express my anger and to strengthen my mind to keep fighting through the hard times. I wasn’t confident in who I was and when someone asked me who I am, it would take me awhile to really analyze who I really was, what makes me, me. But, the problem wasn’t that I did not know, the problem was that I was not confident in who I am, I had a negative mindset of myself since no one expected anything good from me and I took it to heart. Realizing that I had to heal from the feelings that I was feeling, it was as if I hated and loved myself, I would lift myself up and at the same time put myself down. I was experiencing many things that I just wrote them down, and soon I wrote lyrics everytime I felt sad or happy I sang, improvised and just wrote them down on paper. I also started to use art as a form to express myself through those feelings specifically
Running is not easy, but most Saturday mornings in the summer, I convince myself to step outside and test the strength of my heart by running a few miles. Half-Marathon US Champion Julia Stamps once stated, “Running away, can also be running toward something.” That is exactly what I do. When I start running away from my house, I end up running towards a specific destination. Two miles in, I stop at my destination to enjoy the view of Ted Grinter’s
The relationship of the human soul and physical body is a topic that has mystified philosophers, scholars, scientists, and mankind as a whole for centuries. Human beings, who are always concerned about their place as individuals in this world, have attempted to determine the precise nature or state of the physical form. They are concerned for their well-being in this earthly environment, as well as their spiritual well-being; and most have been perturbed by the suggestion that they cannot escape the wrongs they have committed while in their physical bodies.
I enjoy running but I am definitely not a runner. I’m the girl that’s loudly gasping for air after running just 1 lap around the track in gym class. So why did I decide to run cross-country? Honestly, I just wanted to get in shape. I wanted to feel like an athlete. I am always up for a challenge and this was definitely one. Running 5 miles a day became the new normal for me. It was agonizing. I was used to running 1 slow mile and nothing
Through discovering my senses of self, I have reaffirmed the most important parts of my life, validating them on what seems like a value-scale. Because my bonds with God, my family, and friends are so strong and crucial, I know not a day could go by without consulting each of those elements. However, in considering my role as an athlete and student, I have noticed that while sports and my growing knowledge base give me great pleasure, my life would certainly hold many of the same core values, even if those elements dwindled or even escaped my everyday life.
My sophomore year had begun and I wasn't sure whether or not I was going to do track this year. Last year I played football in the fall and soccer in the spring. Not really enjoying it, the decision was made to play " real futbol" (soccer) in the fall, leaving the spring sports season open. My friend kept telling me how fun track was, so I decided to give it a try.
We finish what we start. This was the motto that kept me going during the strenuous training period for a marathon. But prior to that, I must confess, I wasn’t an athlete. I was never interested in playing sports, except for recreational badminton. During gym class, I would walk three quarters of the time when it time for the dreaded mile run. I preferred staying indoors and sitting on the couch and watch movies. The first time I had heard about a marathon training program, called Dreamfar, in my school, I thought to myself, what kind of crazy person would want to run a marathon? Never did I realize, eight months later, I would be that crazy person.