Two topics to discuss today, both relating to exercise. Let’s get to it!
A HIGH-OCTANE WORKOUT. My buddy Geoffrey is a triathlete, a tri coach, and a group fitness instructor. He extended an offer to me last year to come and take one of his classes. Since I’m finally in town, I was able to take him up on his offer.
I woke up at the crack of dawn and headed into Detroit for Coach Geo’s 6am High Octane class, held at Detroit Body Garage, a new gym that opened a couple months ago. It’s in a beautiful, small building in the West Village that’s reported to be the oldest bank building in the city.
The gym, which offers a variety of classes, is basically one bright, open space with lots of windows and walls lined with various pieces of equipment.
The High Octane class was a HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout based on the Tabata method, where you do 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off. Coach Geo wrote out a long list of everything we’d be doing, and took a few minutes at the start of the class to explain all the moves. Then, when we got started, we didn’t stop.
There was all sorts of challenging exercises, like squat jumps and flutter kicks. A couple exercises involved kettlebells. Occasionally we had a 60-second break, but Geo was diligent with keeping time, and he pushed us. It was a great workout. I was sore the next day. I was sore the day after that, when I competed in the Escape to Belle Isle 10K. And, I got to drive past the Renaissance Center on my way home, venue for the first (and, so far, only) stair race I’ve done in Michigan.
Geoffrey is also an excellent chef, and he founded a food delivery company called Better Woodman (his last name), so athletes and health-minded folks in the Detroit area could get healthy, freshly made meals. Check it out!
A MILESTONE THREE YEARS IN THE MAKING. In 2013, I was sidelined for about six weeks as I recovered from an operation. I came up with a perfect, wonderfully nerdy goal to help get myself back in the swing of exercise: to count the miles I completed doing any kind of cardio, and then rack up 274 miles – the distance from my house to Las Vegas. My Cardio to Vegas challenge was a big success, resulting in some of my all-time favorite blog posts, so I kept counting my cardio miles, even after I “made it” to Vegas.
Over the course of the next two years, I kept counted my miles and “made it” to Utah, then Colorado, then Nebraska, then Illinois. Then, in February of this year, I gave myself a big goal: log 2,500 miles – a little more than what’s needed to make it from coast to coast!
And guess what just happened? I made it!
After my workout on July 19th, I had 2,498.3 miles under my belt. Pretty close!
On July 20th, I logged 5.8 new miles: 1.2 from 27 minutes on the arc trainer, and 4.6 from 21 minutes on a bike. That was enough to take me across the threshold!
2,504.1 miles! WOO-HOO! That’s more than enough to get me from the Santa Monica Pier, extending into the Pacific Ocean, to the Jacksonville Beach Pier, which extends into the Atlantic.
The question is…what’s my next goal? Do I start my way back across the country? Do I head up the Atlantic coast? I actually don’t know yet. I’m going to continue counting my cardio miles (at this point, after three years, it’s second nature), and I’m sure I’ll come up with a good goal soon. You all will be the first to know!
Keep it up, David!
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