Round Man Running

Photo by Jana Bitton (my gorgeous wife)
I had my wife shoot this photo of me today after I finished my hour-long run/walk training in the gravel pit near my house. I asked her to get down low, which resulted in a vivid view of all my chins. This will definately be my "before" photo after I become fit through adventure racing!

I spent an hour building up my running base today. There's a perfect spot for improvised trail running a few minutes walk from my house. My neighborhood sits on the edge of the Columbia Tech Center. The entire developement used to be an operating gravel mine. It is massive. I think it's at least a mile long, and about a half-mile wide. As only about a tenth of the gravely depths are now developed, there's still lots of room for running on uneven terrain, with unlimited obstacles -- boulders mostly -- to dodge.

There's no way I can run for an hour yet, so I decided to take the advice of Runner's World Magazine columnist John Bingham and mix walking breaks in with my attempts at running. Mr. Bingham is a wise man. He wrote a book for beginning runners called "No Need For Speed," and if you have not read it, you should. It's filled with practical advice about how to transform yourself from a couch potato to a runner ready to complete a 5K race (about 3 miles) in 12 weeks.

I left my house with the intention of walking for five minutes, then running at low intensity for five minutes, then taking some deep hits of water off my CamelBack hydration system while I walked for five more minutes. I was a little surprised how easy it was to start running again after the walking breaks. In fact, I thought of shortening the walking breaks, or making my running sections longer. But Bingham warns against intensity increases on the fly, as do most of my adventure racing friends. So I kept doing my five running, five walking, and in an hour, I was jogging up my driveway with a gigantic smile on my face.

I did it! I ran (and walked) for an hour! I had never done that before. The sense of accomplishment is tough to describe. I took on a challenge that I wasn't sure I could meet, and I met it. What's more, I am confident I can do it again. Today's success was just one of many "baby steps" that will lead me to the adventure racing life I long to live.