It was 88 degrees out today, and with the smell of firework gunpowder still with me, I ran gentle hills on asphalt in the hot summer sun. I put in two sprint intervals, both uphill. I loaded enough water before starting.
I love our country.
Happy Fourth of July!
Three minutes can make a difference, fuel some inner heat, and force better breathing to keep on…
If you do this get cleared by your personal physician for it and get a tutorial on wrapping your hands. Have fun!
Note, the round timer has a clip on the back, suggesting it can accompany and time you at whatever kind of interval training effort you would like, except underwater:
and it says something really important for all of us, now matter who we are or what we’re training for. I took a close-up and made it the Header photo so you could read it!
wanna feel cold before your hot chocolate brew?
An hour hike yesterday…
starting out
bit further along
curious about that hilly ridge south of me
where the hike went off trail uphill to the south
gained a hill shoulder, looking west into the storm…
and east toward the plains
found a snow dune
and a volcanic rock, a bomb from some ancient eruption or a meteorite or a foreign rock brought in by an old rancher as a joke on passers-by
and the contrasting west
the curious ridge is edge of a flattop hill
storm views, a frozen lake from the top
Enjoyed this Veterans Day and celebrated with much communing and attempted silence on this trail:
high and far away…tree at left flies kite better than blogger; as did child Kite Master and a small dog.
art of kite flying exhibited by tree holding spool, kite in background obeying. A tree.
The wind was right Friday for the Kite Master to show herself.
Effortlessly handling the loyal dog-kite, she flew it on the swing; dancing twirls; and even tied it to her dog who also flew it flawlessly.
Dad crashed it three times.
Once, the wind was too strong, even for the Kite Master, pulling the spool and string from her hands.
The spool rose and fell, flying at about 15 knots in an easterly direction. Dad sprinted after it. It crossed a street. Then the kite pulled the spool high and stuck it firmly into the crook of a branch about 25 feet above the driveway of a home where no one was home. The tree flew the kite flawlessly, never losing it, never crashing it.
Using an extension rod fetched from home, I whacked the spool loose from the tree. Fail: could not wrap the string around the extension. Off went the spool again, dipping low, but moving at a clip across another street. I got a break. The kite pulled the string over a garage roof. The spool hung within my reach for about five seconds as I chased it down. As I reached for it, the kite jumped and the spool lifted steadily out of my reach, skittered across the roof and launched off the other side of this house into the adjoining yard on the next block.
Another sprint to locate it. There was the kite, flying true, bobbing and weaving and using all the string. But I could not see where the string was on the ground. Finally we saw the little shrub in a back yard that was now flying the kite. Flawlessly.
After knocking and ringing, there was no one home. We finally seized the spool, and walked the kite home. On the way, the Kite Master handed me the spool. I crashed the kite into a yard. We spent ten more minutes extricating the string and kite from a small spruce tree.
We were all smiling ear-to-ear. It was a kite adventure to remember. And it was a running kite adventure, with sprint intervals, timing, and of course, learning from the Kite Master.
..and you believe it will help others bridge gaps to a self-led, dauntless, consistent training life within their busy-tiring schedules…
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Whether earthen or architectural the Mountain dimension awaits your training life to let it in.
Inclines are everywhere to be found, and in death valley is there not a heat mountain to scale as some try their constitution and thermostat in that crucible of temperatures?
Mountains too, are icons of your goals. Each has a higher purpose than its own summit. Have a look at this pilgrim’s training incline called the Manitou Incline highlighted in Military Times:
From the website of the Army Wellness Center-Fort Carson at Forrest Resiliency Center:
We assist in the facilitation of healthy lifestyle programs for all ARMY component Soldiers and their families, retirees, and civilians. The clientele spans all ages from young adult to retirees. Â The way ahead involves working directly with units at unit locations as well as with individuals and group classes at the Wellness Center. Â Expansion of services includes sports medicine care, which will focus attention to readiness and rehabilitation.
Federal Executive Institute Alumni Association
The Federal Executive Institute Alumni Association (FEIAA) consists of graduates of professional education programs of the Federal Executive Institute, serving federal government executives building on their talents, skills, and abilities for public service. It’s area alumni are gathering in Denver for a reunion and refresher tomorrow.
As part of those FEIAA proceedings I’ve been privileged to facilitate a conversation about my book Farm Your Training Day: An American Dream of Sustainable Personal Fitness. I will also sign-off on copies of the book for those in attendance who add it to their training libraries. I am looking forward to learning more about the adaptive training needs of these busy professionals.
I have Michael Anderson to thank for the privilege of meeting with his fellow alumni, and hope that everyone in attendance will come away with something permanent on which to build and improve as leaders of their own training lives.
After the event I’d like to post what I learned from a discussion of adaptive training with a group of dedicated professionals whose lives are quite busy. Public service can be an intense challenge, and work-life balance will figure into our conversation. More soon!
You awaken with enough time one morning to run a short run but want to run longer. Your calendar balks.
Should you run 2-runs today? One early, and one later to experience that longer endurance experience, and add some mileage to your body’s training base?
If you are cleared to run for fitness and sport, why not, so long as you are not over-training in the larger context of your training days.
This piece at Runner’s World goes into some detail about the benefits of “doubling.” And Jeff Galloway chimes in here.
And this is not only true for running. Other training modes may be mixed, matched, and doubled. Again, don’t over-train, but do adapt and excel. The experience boosts training and performance confidence, in part because few people make room to train twice in a day, or few seize the intervals as discussed in the ‘Interval Farming’ chapter in Farm Your Training Day.
Write in, comment, or, write a guest piece for my blog about how you leverage a “daily double” into your training life from time to time. Thanks for dropping in!
Early
and
Later on…
Loneliness does not discriminate. Probably everyone knows what kind of life events, states of being, and physical burdens correlate with it. Whatever isolation and loneliness comes from, those who suffer from it know why solitary confinement is one of the worst punishments prisons dole out.
A training life can move you out of the lonely place into a new life.
Growing your own training life from the ground up will lead you into short, manageable social interactions that begin slowly and gently to drain away the loneliness with each outing. You’ll have time to think, to hold problems up to the sun in your mind and heart, and to subject them to the light that dawns as you move.
The sunshine can boost you up some more.
Start simple: a walk or hike. Go to a nearby running track, a trail you know, or a park with long sidewalk pathways along a lake or river. Or just make the city blocks in a familiar area your training scape.
It is training, and retraining your brain, nerves, muscles, and body chemistry simply to get out and move in the outdoors. So much happens when you do this, there is an automatic element to outdoor outings.
Dress in what’s comfortable, do what you need to do to feel comfortable to get out the door. Then soak up the world’s outdoor riches as you journey.
 
Peace.
At launch, I was driven. I’d made the twisty-turning, detoured road to the trail head at about 10,600 feet. I started briskly, moving with intent to make a fast outing of it. I felt good. I was mildly irritated with the many distractions that had me coming out for an afternoon interval hike and run. Time is scarce these days.
I slipped, caught myself, and hurt my foot. See my previous post for that story and what it did externally.
Afterward, I was exasperated, scorning the decisions of fate.
Then I asked myself: what am I so attached to that I am upset about this?
As I tenderly hiked and occasionally ran along another six miles, I thought about that.
Is being “driven” healthy? Slaves are driven. Oxen are driven. Unloved horses are driven.
And yet, I’d been driving myself.
The injury stopped that with punctuation.
I was attached to ownership of myself, my day, my training, my business, my goals, my aspirations, and my expectations. All mine in Me-Myself-and-I-Ville. Forget my context, my purposes, what I was doing all of this for, and what I have dedicated myself to that is beyond me.
Yes. Subtly through growing impatience with delay after delay getting out there, I became more the slave driver. The Owner of everything. The hard-to-please judge of every little thing and how it was going. I allowed frustration to turn my day into a driven drought.
Then I hurt my foot and arrived at what I needed to do.
Let go and move, hike, and run free.
With this guide, you can take ownership of your physical training life and leave behind co-dependence on unsustainable, packaged dieting and fitness hype.
Here you will learn ten principles to help you rewire yourself to train adaptively, more consistently, and thoroughly. Seven training dimensions encourage you to train often, in more places, with more choices.
Introduction ………………………………………………………………………. vii
Organization, Content, and Safety Notice ………………………………..ix
Part I. Principles of Adaptive Training ………………… 1
Chapter 1. The Training Day Principle ……………………………………3
Chapter 2. Interval Farming Principle ……………………………………..7
Chapter 3. Adaptive Journal Principle ……………………………………40
Chapter 4. The Working Principle ………………………………………..45
Chapter 5. The Gradualism Principle …………………………………….60
Chapter 6. Windfall Principle ………………………………………………71
Chapter 7. Attunement Principle …………………………………………. 74
Chapter 8. Adaptive Eating, Drinking, and Sleeping Principles….90
Chapter 9. Objective Principle: Identify & Excel in Your Sport,
Art, and Work …………………………………………………. 107
Chapter 10. Navigation Principle …………………………………………. 111
Part II. The Seven Dimensions of Adaptive Training …127
Chapter 11. Dimension One: Muscle …………………………………….130
Chapter 12. Mileage ………………………………………………………….. 155
Chapter 13. Mobility …………………………………………………………. 173
Chapter 14. Midsection + Core …………………………………………… 183
Chapter 15. Mountain ……………………………………………………….. 192
Chapter 16. Movement with Forces (MWF) …………………………..206
Chapter 17. The Seventh Dimension: Mind-Body Training via
Sport, Art, Work ………………………………………………254
Acknowledgements
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Twilight Running in the Forest
Fitting In
Setting
Terrain: Mountain
Elevation: 10,000 Feet
Distance: 3.6 Miles
Time: Twilight after Sundown
Conditions: Rainy
Temps: 40’s Fahrenheit.
Priority: Last. Family-firsts came first, and therein, this writer’s personal, adaptive training purpose-growth.
Special Occasions: First family camp-out with our girl, first-time fishing with her, first-time rainy camp-out, first-time camp-out for dog, and first tent construction and fire build with my daughter, and first tent take down in the rain with my better half. Joyous experiences.
Tag-Team Family Training Principle: Covered for my spouse, enabling her time to hike and run without distraction, a rarity for her. In a setting away from home (absent the familiar rationales) one who writes about accessible training for others, for self, and tests these principles, faces own selfishness. The practice emerges with greater focus away from home, evangelized by reflection in a tent, and by a fire, symbolizing the burning away of my rationales.
Team Member Check: Ceded nutrition lead to spouse, whose professional vocational training, research, and intrinsic discipline better fills the nutritional knowledge role between us, as I pursue the adaptive personal fitness focus. Teams and their members share ownership. A family must choose teamwork, every member contributing, and every member respecting the others’ contributions. A dedicated zone of listening to the expertise and role, an area that calls us to expand this mutuality, and harmony.
All in all, a wonderful weekend, a wonderful place, and joy in the rain.
Force of Heat
Yesterday I did not hydrate to prepare for a run.
Yesterday I did not eat much at all.
Yesterday was not a running training day. And although I ran, I did not run.
At the height of the late day heat in the 90’s, in full sun, underfed for the day, and poorly hydrated, I strapped on a hydration system, downed a Gu (Trademarked name) and took off running. I had no distance or pace in mind. It wound up at 4.21 miles.
My sole goal was to encounter heat and full sun while feeling unprepared for my run. I had planned with the Gu shot, and the hydration system, for my own safety net after the halfway point. The Gu shot would kick in after about 20-30 minutes, and I would feel lousy for over half the exercise period.
During the run I purposely ran on several different surfaces, regular and irregular, to do something against my expectations. I ran on river rock, broken granite, asphalt, dirt, deep grass, groomed grass, concrete, and on a few mulch areas. The route was mostly flat with some subtle rises, but it was all in the open sun with no shade until the end stretch.
In the first 30 minutes of this run, I felt very hot. My skin felt hot, my head felt hot, the air felt hot, I was thirsty, and there was very little or no breeze. When I felt a little lightheaded at one point, I recognized it coinciding with that hollowed-out feeling of stomach emptiness during exertion without blood sugar. I slowed down to adapt to the energy drain, reduce heat build-up, yet still keep running by a purely technical definition, no matter how slowly. I began sipping water when I felt lightheaded to make this a training interval, not self-immolation.
When the Gu finally found my bloodstream I felt the boost and picked up my pace. My stomach emptiness eased, and IÂ found some tree cover for the last half-mile of my encounter with the heat and my own deprivation. I could have become a treehugger for shade.
Did I train? By someone else’s definition, perhaps not. But the definitions I set had to do with addressing obstacles I have run into before in my training life, not adopting someone else’s focus, but my own, in the present moment. By encountering and adapting to:
Heat
Hunger
Thirst
Finishing determination
and
my thoughts and feelings about it all…
..the goal was to train my mind to adapt to all factors and conditions to continue, not quit, and not fall to a heat injury. You see, long ago, I did reach dangerous temperatures while running hills in a 100 degrees-plus, humid, still forests of Virginia wearing pack, boots, helmet, and carrying a rifle. My temperature was 106.4 degrees Fahrenheit before a pugnacious young Staff Sergeant from San Diego pulled me down, and started pouring gallons of water over my head. He saved my life and I’ll always be indebted.
I do not recommend anyone else do this particular heat / hunger / thirst forces session. Perhaps you would never feel the need. I recommend training on full hydration; after adequate nutrition; being judicious about training times and types given your own personal, physical history, profile, needs, and objectives. In other words, a run is a run, a training run is a training run, but your intention in training, your focus can change the interval into something else.
For me, this was voluntarily facing a convergence of forces to train to adapt to them despite having fallen to them in the past. The purpose? To gradually increase capacity to deal should unexpectedly arduous conditions be imposed on me at some future time. Next time, I’ll go slightly further, and so on under similar conditions. This also trains mind and body to appreciate and stay aware of hydration, nutrition, and preparation. It also helps train my mind to adapt and function when those elements are lacking — to push the envelope back and retrain my body’s capacity to adapt, endure, and do so functionally.
Had I wanted to enjoy the feelings of a “run in the heat” I would have prepared properly for it and billed it as a run. A run it was not. A forces training day it was. So if you are a runner, always prepare. Always adapt with as much preparation as possible. You will train longer, with fewer interruptions, and less wear and tear on the body with excellent preparation.
Think of the many times you have said or read about someone having a “bad day” training. A low energy day. Preparation would likely solve a healthy percentage of those days. Adaptation, a survival and enhancement skill, is the follow-up to preparation when unpredictable things happen.
Train prepared friends!
the ascents…
How do athletes deal with aging? Answer may differ for each of us.
Something helps me. Remembering what I’m training for besides the immediate feel, look, and function. Or besides the next race, competition, game, event, or expedition. I wanted to share this:
If I find myself running one day with a gait that looks like my knees and ankles have been tenderized with hammers, what will I then be training for? I will be training with the goal that every person who looks into my eyes finds the peaceful warrior’s ageless resolve.
Click on Image for WSJ photos with full article…
Mind and body thrive on early-to-bed, early-to-rise sleep schedules. This should help!
Another club, says the article, offers dance parties in the daytime. What a great way to be physical without losing sleep, and to encourage family bonding in a healthy, moving activity. It’s encouraging to see a few businesses wise-up and introduce the notion of family friendly dance venues. This was once a routine rural family and community bonding event in small town America.In Australia I know they have “sports clubs” which are recreation centers really, with social gathering opportunities for all ages too.
Now imagine dance rooms with direct sunlight, fans, cool mist machines, and electrolytic drinks for healthy Vitamin D, good hydration, and a tan.
The French gave us the statue of Liberty. Maybe they’re liberating an industry that has become too jaded, opening our memory to the dance halls of old.
On Walker Loop Trail, he whose laziness left his i-Phone in that little top pocket of his Camelback(TM) found rescue in Hiking-to-Healthy’s blog, who is one of you: the diligent, the excellers, the mountain movers who visit this blog and make it real…
We worked in some boulder scrambles, and each used a fallen pine tree trunk as a power lifting prop. We counted ourselves successful just to budge it several inches off the slope. The oxygen debt from sprinting on a mountain grade was humbling in a way that made one-minute’s recovery seem to slow down in time.
Here’s one of several shots from Hiking-to-Healthy’s earlier and thorough photo-journal capture of Walker Loop Trail:
Click on this and you’ll hyperspace to Hiking-to-Healthy’s blog, the illustrious Rocky Mountain hiking team whose trail and summit journals are some of the highest quality on the net.
G2G Fit 