Home is where the heart is

For hundreds of years, platoon style Boot Camp basic training has worked out groups of people to elite level fitness. The combination of running and exercise allow folks to run to recover from exercise, then exercise to recover from running. Switching from running to exercise then back to running breaks up the workout. The workout becomes more interesting and more manageable.

Our heart rate during running typically averages 160 beats per minute. Our heart rate during exercise averages 120 beats per minute. Our average resting heart rate is 60 beats per minute. During Boot Camp, exercise after running is also called "active recovery." This is a time when we give our legs a rest but our hearts keep beating at an elevated rate. Keeping our heart rates up during exercise is key to developing overall fitness and burning fat. After 35 minutes of elevated heart rate, the body switches from burning sugar to burning fat. The final 25 minutes of Boot Camp are the fat burning minutes.

An elevated heart rate lifts our spirits as well. When we are scared or mad, our hearts race. When we are attracted to someone or something, our hearts race. We may say, "he/she takes my breath away." While exercise is a significantly less desirable stimulus, the effect is the same. During exercise our hearts race and we may feel good or even euphoric. This feeling is often shared with the folks in the workout. Our hearts race, our spirits our lifted and we share the experience.

Many of us have shared this experience with each other for a very long time. Others are newly enjoying the experience. The fellowship we have created in fitness is not for the faint of heart. We live and move at a rate that's elevated. We call it "Elite."

We live in the workout and visit the world the other 23 hours a day. We are grounded in the daily discipline. The other 23 hours can be quite variable, but the workout is a home we have come to depend on. It is the home where the heart is.

Mutual Responsibility

We only have a moment. For the NON- fitness types who live to seek comfort, pleasure, entertainment and intellectual significance, life may sound like this:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And to all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Shakespeare didn't do Boot Camp. See, every tomorrow is another opportunity. We do not set a petty pace from day to day. We are not a walking shadow or a poor player. We may strut and fret to break the monotony of the daily discipline. But a tale told by and for another is not a tale Told by an idiot, signifying nothing.

Another Englishman from another script said it like this:

"We've always been proud of our athletic prowess. We believe, we've always believed, that our games are indispensable in helping to complete the education of an Englishman. They create character,  they foster courage, honesty and leadership. But most of all, an unassailable spirit of loyalty, comradeship, and mutual responsibility."

The Oregon Project

Bill Squires started a training group in Boston almost 50 years ago. Many of the worlds greatest marathoners emerged from The Greater Boston Track Club. Kirk Pfrange trained and raced with these world class athletes. At that time, he met 15 year old Alberto Salazar. He invited Alberto to the GBTC workouts and a another brilliant running career began.

Kirk moved to Atlanta and started an elite youth club called the Athlete's Foot Juniors. County, Region, State & National champions emerged from this group.

Years later, Alberto started The Oregon Project. Saturday and Sunday the Oregon Project Athletes won two Golds and a Bronze in the Olympics.

These groups have remained in contact through the decades. Kirk calls me weekly and still talks to Squires and Alberto.

Much of the training methods we use come straight from the top. The Oregon Project figured out long ago that an American can not out run an East African. But an American can out work an East African and win with superior fitness. Many of the training methods used by the Oregon Project are done daily at Boot Camp. Superior Fitness combined with precise running  produces speed with endurance.

JOY FOUND IN EFFORT

OLYMPISM IS A PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, EXALTING AND COMBINING IN A BALANCED WHOLE THE QUALITIES OF BODY, WILL AND MIND. BLENDING SPORT WITH CULTURE AND EDUCATION, OLYMPISM SEEKS TO CREATE A WAY OF LIFE BASED ON THE JOY FOUND IN EFFORT, THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF GOOD EXAMPLE AND RESPECT FOR UNIVERSAL FUNDAMENTAL ETHICAL PRINCIPLES.

The goal of the Olympic Movement is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practiced without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.

Together, Peachtree Road Boot Camp shares the Joy found in effort every week day and We share our passion without discrimination but with a spirit of friendship once a year through the MLK Day 5K Drum Run.

Sweet Caroline

Nolens

Atlanta has the most beautiful women in the world. N.Y., L.A. & Dallas do well but Hot 'Lanta is home to the finest. Atlanta's beauties are not so on looks alone. There is a style and a subtle air of royalty that's modest and inclusive. There is a way about Atlanta Women that bring out the best in everyone around them. Southern charm combines grace and dignity with the strength and fortitude that demand respect.

Sweet Caroline is an Atlanta girl. She embodies the essence of Southern Charm. Like all of the ladies we have the privilege to work out with, Caroline makes laying face down on asphalt classy. 

Caroline has always been known as a pretty lady. Over the last decade, she submitted herself to the demands of Peachtree Road Boot Camp. She started Boot Camp when she turned 30 years old (+10). She has a big birthday coming up this year. 

Caroline is skinny ripped. Skinny Ripped is the prototype for an elite middle distance runner. It is a very popular body shape and wears well with most clothes. Caroline has tried foot racing but, that is not her thing. She is comfortable in her own skin and doesn't feel compelled to beat anyone. We know she can fly. This past New Years Eve she out ran the young Track Star John Owens in violent lightning storm that frightened her. She is Elite.

Caroline is a heavy hitter in the Atlanta Business Community. She is very busy with her husband Nelson, her family, friends and doing volunteer work. Despite high demands on her time and activities, she makes the workouts. No excuses.

Everyone in boot camp will agree what a pleasure it is to spend our mornings in her company. Sweet Caroline, good times never seemed so good.

Kwithee

Kristin a.k.a. Kwithee is the blonde baby of the Princess Boot Camp Core Four. The Core Four are the beautiful ladies pictured above with the creepy old guy. These young sweethearts came together in Boot Camp and have stayed together over the years. They spend at least one hour a day together and often more. They Love each other dearly and are together growing younger through the years gracefully.

Kwithee is the unofficial social chairwoman of Princess Boot Camp (PBC). She likes to dress up, dance and can entertain hundreds at a time. If laughter is the best medicine, Kwith is one of the best self medicated people we know. She has an infectious smile and even more so laugh. I often say "when I come back in the next life, I want to be Kwithee." She is very grateful for a charmed life and has fun.

Kwithee has been hammering on the streets of Buckhead for 10 straight years in Boot Camp. Anyone that works out with her knows, she can go. Kwith has raced often with us over the years but spends more time now on the tennis courts. Boot Camp fitness serves her well in tennis. Boot Camp fitness also gives her the energy and stamina to be able to raise 3 active boys.

Kwithee has been in Boot Camp for a quarter of her life. I would bet that of all the benefits daily exercise offers, the friendships she has made are the most important to her.

Inspire one another

Runner philosophers are a dime a dozen. Any fitness instructor with a blog can play himself off as a seer. Running writers get attention because people want to be inspired. Running is a universal sport we can all share. Running has great rewards and most anyone can do it.

Every year, racing heats up with the temperature. This is an Olympic year in Rio in August. That's Hot! So the philosophical question is why. Why do we race?

This months Runners World quotes German philosopher George Hegel: "one characteristic that makes mankind unique is our ability to overcome our desire for self-preservation and fight to the death over nothing more than a symbolic idea." In the Owens family, it is fear. We say "we are more afraid of losing than we are afraid of dying." Pre says "somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it." While ego, self satisfaction and self accomplishment can produce results, there is more.

It is true that everyone loves a winner and to the victor goes the spoils. But, to run truly inspired, to run outside of our capabilities and over our heads, it requires motivation toward something other than ourselves. While we may pay a high price for personal glory, we will kill ourselves for someone else.

Eric Liddel quotes "He who honors Me, I will honor." He also says "where does The Power come from? It comes from within."

Every runner inspires. Every runner expires. While we do not all win races or die trying, the root meanings of inspire/expire are breath-in/breath-out. Our breath is the fuel that fires the engine. The lungs pull it in, the heart pumps it to the muscles and the muscles fire. The maximum volume of oxygen we can inspire (VO2 max) determines how quickly we can run. The people running on our right and left shoulders inspire with us at our similar volume of oxygen use. We breath together. We inspire each other. This inspiration connects us at a higher level than other mundane non-running material world experiences.

 Spirit originates from Latin meaning "breath." An inspired runner may have a spirited race. The inspiration that lifts our spirits transcends the physical act of running. It binds our true selves to those we race. The closer we get to death racing, the greater the bind. Racing does that. It lifts our spirits and allows us to relate and connect soulfully.