My buddy, Jim Smith, and I ran 15 miles this morning at Highbanks Metropark here in Columbus, Ohio. It was 9 degrees F when we started. And that is F as in Fahrenheit and not an expletive. Although that would be warranted too. It was COLD but the sun stayed out the whole time. ALLELUIA! It really felt good when the sun would hit you as you could feel yourself warm up.
We started by doing one loop of the entire upper loop where we saw three deer. We joked that they said to themselves "What the hell are those furless idiots doing out here"? We then did two loops of the entire rest of the park. We did see more people than we thought we would, gladly. It's always comforting to know there are others out there with us.
The best part about running with someone that you are good friends with is that you can talk the whole way or choose to not talk at all. Jim and I have some great talks while we run. We come up with some great ideas, and some fun ones that might not make too much business sense but are fun none the less. We are working on a really good one right now so stayed tuned here for more details soon.
INSPIRATION
As we were running we talked about MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) and the UFC (Ulitmate Fighting Championship) and some of the intense, insane workouts that some of it's fighters do. One in particular is B.J. Penn, who is the lightweight champion. He lives in Hawaii and is known for his amazing stamina and conditioning. One training technique that Jim told me about is that he and his training partners swim out in the ocean to where the bottom is about 12'-15' down and they swim down to the bottom. While there they roll or pick up and throw heavy rocks, swim back to the surface, and do it over again. I tried to find a video of this but could not. Anyway, it inspired me. We had to stop for a "pee break" and as Jim was finishing up I found a log about 4' long and about 10-12" in diameter. It weighted about 25-30 pounds. I picked it up, hoisted it over my right shoulder, and continued running. At first I thought, "I'll probably won't be able to keep this up too long". Well, I ran along and felt pretty good. I did switch shoulders once and as we got to an intersection that we would run past again, I put the log down. As we got back to that intersection about 1/2 mile later, I picked it up again and ran with it again for a while and dumped it off back close to where we parked. I have to say that it was not easy at times but I got a great workout. I probably ran with it for about 1 mile all together.
The reason I relay this is not to impress but to share with you the fun and challenge that I got from thinking outside of the training box that I find myself in sometimes. Challenge yourself. Do things differently. You never know when you will find something that works for you and that you really like doing. Jim challenged me to run the entire Burning River 100 mile race this July with that same log, carrying it the whole way. At first I thought, "You must be crazy". I'm re-thinking my position. Stay tuned...
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