Embrace Crazy

7.3

One of my go-to YouTube channels is The Ginger Runner (Ethan Newberry, who happens to be a red head, and his wife Kim.) Ethan has a great outlook on life, and as a filmmaker, musician and runner, he likes to combine his passions to encourage regular people to pursue endurance goals that others may see as crazy.

A recent post from Ethan was about a 100 mile week that he ran late last year. To many, running 100 miles in a week is certainly crazy. In the endurance community, that's kind of a normal week... Ethan considers himself a regular, middle-of-the-pack runner, and had put off attempting the 100 mile week for a long time. But then 2019 was his year.

As it turned out, he did just fine, breaking up his runs between some shorter (7-8 mile) days and longer ones (15 miles). He successfully completed the 100 miles in 7 days, and can add that to his other regular-guy endurance exploits.

This year I've been embracing my own crazy, with a goal of running a 1,000 mile year in 2020. In 2019 I logged 700 miles, just with my regular, semi-intentional running schedule. I realized that with a bit of focus and intention, I could probably hit the 1,000 mile mark without too much trouble.

Realize though, that the only way to log big goals (especially ones requiring endurance athletics) is to maintain a great pantry, and to intimately know your own metabolism and recovery patterns. As I've invested years getting to know my health and nutrition needs, it has yielded a baseline of wellness that keeps me injury-free, and running strong.

So far, I have logged 80 miles in January, and I'm right on track. As winter wanes and Spartan training ramps up, I look forward to consistently building toward the 1k goal. 

Maybe 2020 is a year for you to embrace a goal that's a bit crazy. Maybe it's the year to finally get nerdy about your food, and see if you can overcome those aches and pains simply by eating nutrient-dense, real food. Find your tribe, and dig into a goal that gets you out of bed, keeps you out of trouble, and brings life and vigor to you and the world around you.

By the Way

I think I'll add my own 100 mile week to my 2020 schedule. It's about 15 miles a day for 7 days. That can be broken up numerous ways (2 or even 3 runs a day of varying lengths), and you have to figure out your calories and active recovery in between. Then there's the demands of family and work, and life continuing in the background... Sounds like a great challenge!

Add Life to Our Years

7.1

I'm now in my 10th year of my wellness journey, and it's encouraging to see how the benefits and return on my investment are compounding. I'll probably run 5 Spartan races this year, and I'll complete my third Spartan trifecta (a combo of a short mid-range and long Spartan race, in the same calendar year.)

As our kids grow up and move on with their own lives, it's interesting to see them choosing sushi as a take-out food of choice, instead of the box of deep-fried stuff from the convenience store, or anything from a fast food place. And our older daughter is trying out being a vegetarian, just to see how it goes.

Around work, I end up having wellness conversations weekly. Some folks are starting their own wellness journey, and I'm honored and grateful that I might be able to speak into that. Others are refining a certain aspect of their physical activity, or following up on doctors orders to overcome a recently revealed health challenge.

I crossed paths with a good friend the other day who happens to be a runner and cyclist. He's turning 60, and looks like he's in his late 40's. To celebrate his big year, he's working through what he can give, what he can get, and where he can go. And his wellness pursuits will include an 'extreme' race or two (think 24 hour trail run, etc.) I appreciate friends like him who give me a vision of what's possible.

Yesterday, while it was snowy and slushy in PA, I did my Saturday morning sandbag run, and then went to our local climbing and obstacle course gym with two of my kids. We're thinking about a Spartan Stadion race for late spring, so now is the time to get training and develop our work outs for the next four months.

That's what a wellness journey looks like... It has some adventure, some friends, many unknowns, and pulls us to what's possible. How about your journey? Are you grasping a vision for your health that will stretch what's possible, grow your capacity and likely add years to your life and life to your years?

By the Way

Wherever you are in your journey, start there. Two business friends are starting a new phase of wellness to lose weight or find some more energy. Those goals send us back to the fundamentals of clean eating, great choices, and finding our own wellness groove. Then,  as we build our own wellness tribe around ourselves, we gain momentum, accomplish goals, and set new ones. At some point, we live into being our best selves, and taking others along with us.

A Cool Smartwatch

7.1

I have benefited from a fitness tracker for about a decade. Back in the early days it was simply step counters and basic pedometers. They didn't have Bluetooth, so they didn't communicate with anything, and you actually had to write your steps down.

Fast forward to today's offering of innumerable smart watches, wellness trackers and wearable technology. Now we can capture every minute detail of our waking and sleeping hours simply by keeping a watch or wearable on our wrist. They measure and notify us of everything our body is doing and experiencing.

I got my first Fitbit about about 6 years ago. It was a Zip, and met my needs at the time. Then I moved up to a Fitbit Blaze around 2016, and that was the jump in technology and tracking I really needed. Next up was a Garmin Forerunner 235. It was a step into the world of GPS enabled devices, so I didn't need to carry my phone on my runs or races.

My Forerunner served me well for almost 2 years. Unfortunately, the face got a small crack on it during the Spartan Ultra last year. It was still water tight and I didn't lose any functionality. That was until a sandbag workout back in December when the crack ran across the rest of the face on the watch, and it was no longer water tight, and totally fritzed out.

I probably stretched the Forerunner past its design intent - it is really a running watch, not an adventure and obstacle course watch. Enter the Garmin Instinct. It was one of my Christmas presents a couple weeks ago. What a cool smart watch!

The Instinct is water, shock and thermal resistant, built to military standards and has everything I could want or use built into it. Yes, the screen is a bit small, and it only has a two-tone display (not full color). But I am fine with that, given the incredible functionality of the device.

It is very responsive to picking up satellites in all situations where I have used it, and the Bluetooth is quick to connect and respond. It has made me excited to log miles and watch the data gather in the background.

I think our wellness journey benefits when we see the progress we make. Days quickly turn to weeks and before we know it months and years roll by. Having some form of wearable tracker makes our efforts more objective. If we measure it, we can better manage it.

So, if you aren't tracking your wellness journey, maybe now is a time to start. If you already collect data about your journey, maybe now is a time to dig into it a bit further and look for the wins and weaknesses that are apparent.

By the Way 

I logged 700 miles of running for 2019. Without the Forerunner or Instinct, I wouldn't have been able to track my runs or progress. With the help of these wearable devices, I know where, when, and how much I ran, and can better decide how my 2020 training will progress.