Rembering better days and Jim Fixx

Ran a slow 10K (58 Minutes) early yesterday and passed the time thinking back on better days (38 Minutes). Jim Fixx came to mind, in 1977 he wrote the bestseller "The Complete Book of Running" and in 1978 I took up jogging. Unfortunately and surprisingly he died of a heart attack in 1984, the year of my first marathon in the Black Forest. 

To read his book now is to see how much he foresaw. Some parts are dated. But much of it reads as visionary. Cut out white flour and sugar? Practice self-care? Find a flow state? Exercise regularly, even for short amounts of time, to live better and longer? It’s like reading 20 years of modern studies 40 years before the fact.

Fixx wrote about the barefoot-running Tarahumara decades before Born to Run.

His homemade mileage counter was basically an early Fitbit. He was right on the big points too. A Stanford study later found jogging is effective in increasing lifespan and mitigating the effects of aging. Running can help ward off all manner of diseases—including lowering the risk of lung, prostate and colon cancer. 

And, in a study the printed this year, “among a generally healthy but sedentary group of adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s, working out lowers levels of depression, hostility and other negative feelings.”