Sam’s age age and her fitness age are finally the same! Success! – FIT IS A FEMINIST ISSUE

I think most runners have this thought. I know I did back when I ran.

You look at the Boston qualifying times, for example, and think, wow, I’d have to be 75 to qualify. (That’s me. You might be much speedier.) But then you think of the upside. I don’t need to get faster. I just need to get older and stay the same speed.

I’m no longer a runner, but it’s finally happened.

This week, while riding my bike on the trainer, I got a notification from Garmin. Thanks to all of your hard work, your fitness age has just lowered. Your fitness age is now 62.

This week, thanks to the ticking of the clock, I actually turned 62.

Finally, I match my fitness age!

(Why isn’t my fitness age lower than my actual age given how much physical activity I do? That’s a story for another time. We’ve blogged about it in the past. See The world is changing its perception of larger active bodies but not Garmin and also here, Sam’s Fitness Age. Basically, weight has a huge impact on your Garmin fitness age.)

Garmin suggests I aim for 56 as my fitness age. I know their metrics aren’t perfect–see the discussion of weight above–but I like the idea of getting younger fitness-wise, as I get older age-wise.

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Published by Sam B

Philosopher, feminist, parent, and cyclist! Co-founder of Fit Is a Feminist Issue, co-author of Fit at Mid-Life: A Feminist Fitness Journey, published by Greystone Books.
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