Man Verses Nature

Conflict theorists such as Karl Marx see much of life, especially interaction, as a competition. Economically, politically and athletically it certainly holds true with no explanation necessary. Socially, we may attempt to ignore or deny class and lifestyle competition, but we know they thrive. In our culture competition is not threatened or endangered and indisputably does not hang in the balance of extinction.

A movement has made headway in recent years to remove the competitive aspect from sports and other activities for young children. However, few complain about competition in professional sports and a range of other events. These include things from the commonplace like beauty pageants (I added this one intentionally) to the absurd such as eating Madagascar roaches. Last year, Shannan and I witnessed young girls in a pumpkin pie eating contest. What a hoot!

Still some want more, so we compete against nature. Reality TV has survival guru, Bear Grylls, tests his MacGyver-like skills verses worst case scenarios in the most inhospitable places on Earth. Adam Richman pits his stomach in obscene battles against massive amounts of food. Surprisingly, both men win more than they lose.

I, like many, am in an epic battle where I know there are battles to be won, but the overall war is a beyond my means. My quest for good health has the enemies of pizza, bacon, potato chips, peanuts and donuts, some of the most tasty, yet unhealthy stuff on Earth. Isn’t it odd that many of the good things to eat are high in both calories and in fat?

As an adult man I come to the game with a host of natural competitors such as hair loss, beer bellies, double chins, decreased sex drive and an onslaught of disease. Add to that my genetic code is riddled with cancer, obesity, heart disease and diabetes. Those are my natural foes. Years ago I succumbed to the loss of hair, but through The Streak I have kept one chin, managed my gut, have low blood pressure and relative healthy metabolism. I don’t have a goal of living forever, but I do go head to head with nature each day in a competition to live well.

A body in motion tends to stay in motion.

Tom

Interest and Commitment

Do you know the difference between interest and commitment? Tina, my running coach, differentiated between the two in a tag line to her weekly e-mail. It reads as follows: Interest is when you do something at your discretion. Commitment is when you do something with no excuses.

Tina regularly includes some sort of inspirational final word in her weekly e-mails to the athletes she trains. Surely she intends for these pithy words to motivate. This statement weighed heavy on me. I’m interested in many things--hydrology, archeology, mythic memory, collective consciousness and more. I have a true commitment to education, to mine and that of others, and to health and exercise. For me, the areas of my commitment fit together perfectly via The Streak, which for me means there is NO excuse not to exercise every day. Not only am I grateful to have the wherewithal to fully engage in my commitment, I appreciate Tina and others for helping me to articulate it so clearly.

I leave you with another “Tina-ism”: Run with Passion.

Tom

Boy Scout Running

A series of comical circumstances forced Shannan to be in Columbus, GA, on a recent Saturday. We decided to make the best of the situation and stay for the weekend. We count ourselves as seasoned travelers, so we didn’t even make a packing list to get ready for the impromptu trip.

All went perfectly according to plan. Late Saturday afternoon I set out my running gear for the next morning. That’s when I realized I had failed to bring running shorts. Oh, the shame! So I’m not the traveler extraordinaire I thought. No need to panic, though, as at Shannan’s suggestion I have a fully-equipped emergency running bag in all of our vehicles.

Pre-dawn morning arrived and I quietly readied myself for a nice run in Columbus. I stepped outside to a chilly temperature in the low forties with a slight wind. I wasn’t mentally prepared for that, not to mention that I wasn’t physically prepared with gloves. I decided to warm up with a cup of coffee (bad practice) and let the sun come up in hopes of the temperature increasing with it.

Thirty minutes passed as I bemoaned my woefully inadequate planning for the trip. Finally, I cowboyed up and ran for about an hour. I came back to the hotel room and whined about my freezing and slightly numb fingers and hands. Shannan showed no sympathy. I took an important lesson away from this mess. If I’m not going to pack more thoroughly, then I need to add more items to my emergency bags.

Run like a Boy Scout.

Tom

Unbelievable Greenway

Unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable. Saturday morning, as part of the route for the running clinic, our group took a turn down the Alpharetta Greenway. Given that it’s one of the best places to exercise in the metropolitan Atlanta area, I didn’t find it unbelievable the coaches had us run on the course. In fact, I was delighted when I heard it was part of the plan.

We entered the well-shaded and stunningly sublime trail about two and half miles into the six mile course. It had been some time since my last run on the Greenway. I welcomed running through the densely wooded and calming path along Big Creek. As I took in all the wonders around me, I realized something was markedly missing.

Where were all the other people? I ran ahead of my group, but what I was thinking of was the bikers, walkers, in-line skaters and other joggers who generally crowd the trail. Here it was a Saturday morning with the temperature barely reaching 70 degrees. Most people see this as an ideal time to get out and exercise, in terms of both time and weather, yet seven minutes ticked by before I saw another human being. In our mile or so on the trail before we pulled off to head back to the starting point, I passed only one other jogger. I felt like a character in an episode of the Twilight Zone.

It was a grand morning to be outside. Sorry y’all missed it.

**Post script- as the temperatures in the piece above indicate, this blog was written at the beginning of September.

Tom

Customer to Coach

July 19 I posted a blog reflecting on the first thirty days of using Shaun T’s Insanity 60 Day program. I began the entry with a semi-legal preface. It read, “Disclaimer: I have not been compensated in any fashion from anyone affiliated with Shaun T’s Insanity program. I continue to write about the rigorous schedule of workouts because at present they set the pace for my day.”

How true! Insanity took a front seat in my life for those two months, even while on vacation out of the country. Since I completed the program I’ve been so pleased with my fitness level that I created an Insanity and running hybrid and have since repeated the first thirty days of the program, again. My respect for the flexibility, balance and core strength promoted by Insanity and other Beachbody products continues to grow. I must confess that I have now crossed to the other side and have a formal association with Beachbody. Recently, I signed up as a Coach. As a result, I have access to six other exercise programs from Beachbody and can help others get started with any of their fitness products.

As is my custom, I’ll share my experiences with the programs and honestly review the products. That said, this blog will not become a marketplace to sell Beachbody products. I’ll do that at http://teambeachbody.com/socdr (okay so I gave myself one small plug :-). Regardless of my new affiliation with the organization I’ll be forthcoming when I do refer to the Beachbody exercise programs here. As always, my main commitment is toward the end of staying in motion.

Regardless if you workout inside or outside, use rigorous routines or take spontaneous walks, find a way to stay active. It makes life grand.

Tom

Thanksgiving Tour of Atlanta

More than once I have vowed never to run the Atlanta Half Marathon again. Problems have cropped up frequently before or after the race in my twenty-year history with the event, to my great annoyance. This year the Atlanta Track Club changed the route of the race to meander through the city rather than the previous one-way shot down Peachtree Street, Peachtree Road and Industrial Boulevard as it is collectively known along that stretch. The new course did cross over the famed Peachtree Street. And honestly, pray tell, how could it be a run in Atlanta otherwise?

Beginning at Turner Field runners made a pass of all of the following: The Capitol Building, Georgia State University, Five Points MARTA Station, Centennial Olympic Park, West Atlanta, Georgia Tech, Atlantic Station, Midtown, Piedmont Park (we entered from 14th Street--ah…the memories of my very first Peachtree Road Race), downtown hotel district, Sweet Auburn Ave, Martin Luther King Center, Cabbage Town, Oakland Cemetery, Underground Atlanta, Downtown business district, Atlanta City Hall and back through the Olympic Rings to the finish line. Now, tell the truth y’all, ain’t that Atlanta?

Hard core Atlantans may bemoan that we missed the Carter Center, the Varsity, Virginia Highlands and Five Points (the alternative scene). It would have been nice to hit those highlights as well, but there’s only so much ground you can cover in 13.1 miles .

As for the course, it had a few rolling hills, but nothing severe. This Thanksgiving morning served up great running weather. Some probably found it a bit humid; I fancied it perfect. Even though I enjoyed the stroll through the historic, scenic and important areas of my hometown, upon its completion I once again proclaimed to Shannan that I’m finished with the Half Marathon. Only time will tell.

I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving.

Tom

Marathon, Myths and More

Saturday, September 25th marked the 2500th anniversary of the fabled story of Phidippides’ run from Marathon to Athens. The basic tale has all the trappings of legend. However, folklore from Athens to London gives differing accounts for the actual distance Phidippides covered and how our modern marathon race came to be 26.2 miles. I encourage you to read some of the tales, fanciful and more factual, to make your own decision. This is one of the few exceptions where I care less about the precise history; I just love the idea of the run.

Carlos Museum of Emory University commemorated the anniversary with a 2.62 race. No, that is not one of my notorious typos, the museum held a Dolichos (Greek for a running a short race) to be followed by a Greek symposium. I wanted to run the race, but instead logged 7.38 miles with the running clinic. Of course the topic of the Marathon anniversary came up as runners chatted along the course.

While I ran with the group I remembered nostalgically running the same course of the Olympic Marathon held in Atlanta for the 1996 Games in Atlanta. I recalled a couple of years later when in Athens, Greece, I ran portions of the Olympic Marathon track. Today was a fun day to think about the history of running, about Marathon as history and as a race.

Thanks to story tellers, race coordinators and of course a special thank you to Phidippides for this very special event that few experience and even fewer come to love.

Happy Anniversary.

Tom