Church Run

555 - 4 miles, 500 reps of core.
830 - 4 miles, 500 reps of core.

More good crowds. The stud factory is rocking.

Parking Deck

We were back at full force this morning. No Snow. No Holiday. No excuses. Just large groups of people happy to be back into their routine.

555 - PRUMC to One Buckhead Plaza Parking deck. We ran 3 ramps then exercised - three times per set (9 ramp parking deck). We did three sets (27 ramps, about a mile and a half of up hill running). As each set was only a half mile climb, we ran a mile cool down to pad our total. 3 miles, 700 reps, all lower body.

830 - Princess Boot Camp did the Buckhead tour. We criss crossed our way around the village until we put together 3 miles and 700 reps, all lower body.

We have been experimenting for years with running streaks. Our definition of a streak is a minimum of 3 miles a day every day. No days off. The most common streak is 10 days. Most folks can make 10 days. The second most common streak is 20 days. Fewer people can make it 20 days. The streak that will transform your fitness is 40 days.

MLK Day Freedom Run for Fitness

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

We were free to roam the city streets this morning. A good crowd enjoyed a quiet loop around Lenox Mall.

"A Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." - Confucius

50 weeks X 20 miles = 1,000 miles. Most of us will do 1,000 in 2011.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." - Hewrews 12:1

"Do you know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." - 1 Corinthians 9:24

"My feeling is that any day I am too busy to run is a day that I am too busy." - John Bryant

Heat Wave

Temperatures will top 40 today. If Frosty the Snow Man doesn't split town now, his laughing and playing days will be over.

We are going to meet at 7:30AM tomorrow morning. We feel it is best to meet after sun rise. Be dress to go out. We are going to run first, then exercise inside the church.

s NO w Boot Camp

Dont freak out. The time off this week may be doing us some good. Most of us are so hard headed. We push so hard. We train so hard. The forced time off is allowing our bodies to rest and repair. We are not going to lose our base fitness by taking a week off.

That being said, many of us have been running every day in the snow. Those of us with an active streak have not taken a day off. We would not recommend running outside today.

The gym at the church is open and the treadmill and exercise room is open. Reply to this message if you want to get in there. Let me know if you want to meet tomorrow morning.

Plan on working out most Saturday mornings for the rest of this session. We will get our 30 days in this six week session.

Urban Boot Camp

The crowd keeps growing. Thanks to all the participants who are inviting folks to join. As always, we allow prospective participants join us as our guest for a few days. This allows folks to get an idea about what they are getting themselves into. It is interesting to listen to the new comer. For those who have been hanging around for a while, its easy to take our fitness for granted. The folks who are meeting us for the first time seem to really enjoy the workout and speak with wonder about the groups advanced fitness. It is important for us to remember to keep an eye on the new guys and gals and make sure to make them feel welcome and part of the group. We seem to do a really good job of welcoming folks and encouraging them. Its fun to watch the group dynamic in the beginning of a new session and especially the beginning of a new year.

The folks who are committed to fitness in January will literally be miles ahead when spring arrives.

We are meeting at Deka at Shops Around Lenox tomorrow morning at 8AM for a run. Deka will have Newtons available for demonstration. We can actually trial run in them. Many of us have made the switch. Most of us would have never dreamed of switching from our favorite shoe. Everyone seems to like them. Newton claims these shoes will make you faster and reduce injury. We are all for that.

Pump and Run

Spring training continued this morning on campus at the world famous Peachtree Road United Methodist Church (PRUMC) Boot Camp. We have had nice crowds for the new year. It appears there are numbers that plan to thrill the crowd when they shed the winter threads.

Toady's discipline targeted upper body. It has come to our attention that the faster we pump our arms, the faster our legs turn over. Faster arms = faster legs. So after running around PRUMC twice for a warm up, we ran around PRUMC three times with 5 pound weights in hand. We stopped about every 300 meters and pumped out 40 repetitions of various shoulder, back and arm exercises. after 400 reps, we dropped the weight and lined up on the street. The neighborhood behind The Church has a natural half mile. The half mile horse shoe runs down hill to the half way then logically, up to the finish. We ran the half mile twice.

Many of our workouts simulate 5k race conditions. Today we wore oursevles out for 2 1/2 miles then practiced keeping good form at 5k race pace for the final mile.

3.5 miles, 400 reps