Friday, January 13, 2012

Networking Our Promises

A note from Dort Munder:
I was walking into Wellworks today to use the treadmill because it is now rainy and my lovely outdoor walks have to be curtailed for a few days, when I ran into W____, a woman my age who still does karate twice a week. 
She wondered why I hadn’t been in yoga for the last two weeks. 

“I’m training to do a 10K race,” I boasted, and her eyes lit up.
“Really, when?”
I thought a moment, and said, “I’m actually training to run around the block without collapsing, in hopes that I’ll do a 5K this spring, and maybe a 10k in the Fall.”
The good news. She thought that was great too. Dort
Good news indeed. It's great to see a continuing optimism and focus on the ultimate goal of this project. I suppose that it is true, as the t-shirt once claimed, "Obstacles are what we see when we take our eyes off the goal.

I've heard that it is helpful to share your resolutions with friends and family -- I've heard that gaining their support can often sustain a resolution when one's own commitment falters. So, thank you W_____ for your support and encouragement.

Meanwhile, Dort wraps up the end of the hardest two weeks this weekend. He has not, to my knowledge, missed a workout. He has created a space in his life for a sustained consistent effort. I see two things on the very near horizon:

First: I believe, the workouts will begin to get more intense. As a runner myself, I would suggest burst of fifteen-thirty seconds of running -- maybe five or six per workout, for the next couple of weeks. Again, for every body out there performing similar resolutions, I would hazard: don't add on too much too fast. You'd be begging for injury, or risking a debilitating encounter with exhaustion -- either situation can be frustrating and create doubt for your resolution. Most running advice I've ever read or heard or made up says, "Don't increase your workouts (in duration or intensity) by more than 10% per week."

Second: now that the daily routine has been created, it seems like a good time to get to the yoga studio once or twice a week in place of the daily run -- cross training, by all accounts I've ever known, improves one's running (for reasons both physical and psychological). I also believe, for a resolution such as this, it would not be slipping to replace one good workout with another. Slipping on such a resolution would look more like replacing a run with an all-you-can-eat chicken wing special and one of those 100 oz. beers some places offer.

Dort's Running Tally:
As of 011 January 2012
Days Running:12
Minutes Run: 400+
Cross Training: 1 day

Running Tip of the Day: always cross reference my advice with advice from more reputable sources.

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