Lessons On The Run

As you may remember, Fridays are reserved for fitness, and today I want to show you how to run with more speed for longer distances. The key is understanding music and BPM.

BPM stands for beats per minute and you can spice your runs by speeding up the music you listen to while you move. For instance, one of my favorite running tunes is “Footloose” which is about 170 beats per minute. What does this mean? If I put a foot on the ground every time there is a beat of the music, I will hit 170 strides per minute. 170 strides a minute pretty much equals a 7 minute mile for me. It may or not be the same for you because we all have different stride lengths but it will be close. When I hear a strong, regular beat on my music, it helps me greatly in staying with a pace.

How do you figure out the right music to use? First, you can google BPM for your running pace. Do you want to run a 12 minute mile? Google “Bpm for a 12 minute mile”. You will probably not only get what that BPM is, but also places that list songs that will work well for you.

Second, you can get an app where you can figure out what is the bpm for your favorite songs. I use “BEATS”, which allows me to tap the beat while the song plays and then it gives me the bpm, which I put into my database of running tunes.

Third, you can just buy playlists from Itunes which already match up to a BPM that you want to use. Under the itunes store search,  just put a BPM (150 bpm) in the window and see what comes back to you.

Lastly, just experiment with songs to see what works for you and then file them away in your run bank. I have accumulated about 20 songs that I know work for getting me to a particular pace and I just pop them into the ears whenever I want to go for the quick run!

Happy hunting on your BPM search. Get the right music and I guarantee a quicker pace is right around the corner.

gotta run,

steve

Yesterday we talked about getting started with a new goal. Understanding that it starts with an honest look at what needs to change in your life, seeing in your mind what you could become, and then taking the first action step in going after that vision. Now let’s talk about extending your reach.

Every Monday I take on a long run. It takes me two trips to the gym, one at lunch and one after work, but the goal is a minimum of nine miles on that day. I pick Monday on purpose for a couple of reasons. I like to front load my week of running with a good start and I like to push myself on what is normally my most tired day of the week, following Sunday.

Once every couple of months I go a little extreme on these two a day Mondays by running a minimum of what amounts to a half-marathon. Yesterday was that day. I ran 13.5 miles in one hour and 58 minutes and still got my weight work done as well. Why the extreme? Let me explain why I do it and how it can help you reach your goals.

1. It forces me to push through mental barriers. When I go for these extreme days, I must discipline my mind for what is coming. These moments deepen my resolve and force me to face fear head on.

2. It extends my reach. 6 months ago running 13.5 miles in a day at a good pace would have been ridiculous. By slowly extending my reach it is now not only possible, but I can resume regular running the next day.

3. It makes the everyday discipline easier. a 4 mile run is nothing when you can beat down a 13.5 mile grind.

4. It builds my strength and capacity. Yesterday I had some health checks for an insurance policy. My resting heart rate was down to 54 and my blood pressure was 104/65. My body is able to go longer, go faster, and recover quicker because I have continued to slowly build my capacity.

What does this mean for you?

I want to encourage you to occasionally go “over the top” as you pursue your goals. Here are some examples that do not have anything to do with running (aren’t you glad!)

If you are a husband struggling to love and cherish your wife as you should, try giving her an extravagant evening that begins with a nice card and flowers, and ends with a nice dinner and a back rub. Don’t just take a step into romance, leap large into it!

If you are a wife struggling to be what your husband desires physically, give him the night to end all nights. Be the seductress that he has only dreamed of for an evening.

If you are a mom or dad who has not been the parent he/she should be, give your child a whole day of attention. Do the things that they want to do, without grumbling, making them feel like they are the only person on the planet for one day.

If you are a person with a goal of using Facebook less, take a fast from it for a week. I almost guarantee that will begin to break your social networking addiction, and you just might find some real human interaction along the way.

I could go on for hours about the possibilities, but the key is to just try it! Be radical! Be extravagant! Occasionally go for the ridiculous in order to make the ordinary easier. Over time you may just find the extravagant becomes the ordinary, and the once impossible becomes the routine.

Gotta Run

steve

P.S. I want to invite each of you merrily wedded folks to Married Life Live at Shandon Baptist next Friday night. For more details and to register go to www.shandon.org/mll . Cost is $20 per couple, there is free childcare, and dinner is catered by Hudson’s Smokehouse. I will be speaking on harnessing your hungry. We are gonna have a great time so come join us!

First, I am not a big soccer fan. Ok, I am not a soccer fan at all, but I watch a lot of ESPN while I run on the treadmill and Last week I kept seeing this ad for a soccer game where the announcer talks about a team headed for relegation. “What in the world is relegation!?” I said to myself. So it was off to google to find the answer that I am sure many of you already know.

Apparently club soccer is made up of upper and lower divisions. If you do very well you can move from the lower to the upper, but if you are already in the upper and you do poorly you could face relegation, which is the embarrassing and demeaning act of being moved to the lower division.

After seeing the commercial several times I started to wonder if there was anything in my life where I was facing relegation. Was there an area of my life where because of my lack of progress, I was being moved down the ladder or totally put on the shelf? What about you?

I truly believe if you are not moving forward, then you are moving backward. Most of the time we get there by not regularly asking ourselves the hard questions, not looking in the mirror with both honesty and grace, and not getting the lovingly honest opinions of those around us. Before we know we are surprised to find we are facing relegation as spouse, parent, friend, or even a disciple of Christ.

Now don’t get me wrong, by relegation I am not saying God or anyone else is giving up on us. It could be that people just start expecting less of us, excusing our faults, giving us the space we need to continue drifting backwards. Their attitude becomes one of “if they don’t care about moving forward then it is not my role to push them.” It is a deadly dance into mediocrity. It is moving from going for the prize to fitting into the crowd. It is a place of comfort and rest but also a place leading to lack of focus and purpose.

Try something for me today.

Jot down two or three areas where you are headed toward “relegation”. Could it be you are just not trying to be the husband or wife you have been called by God to be. Have your children sent you into relegation as a parent? Does your church look at you as missing in action? Is your body telling you that you have lost focus on your health. Be honest and write them down. It is not condemning to tell the truth, it is the beginning of turning it around. When you face relegation is the time to muscle up the strength to move forward once again.

Today get honest. Tomorrow we will look at some steps to avoid the dreaded relegation or return from it!

gotta run!

Steve

I have a maxim in life that says, “feelings lie!” It is my belief that much of life requires us to allow truth to triumph over our emotions. Let me illustrate this from my time on the treadmill this past Monday.

Mondays are my “gut it out” day. In order to get to my goal of 25 miles or more in a week, I front load my workouts with a “two-a-day” on Mondays. My Monday target is a minimum of 10 miles on the treadmill plus my normal weight routine. This past Monday I went to the gym for lunch, got on the treadmill, put the tv on ESPN, cranked the treadmill up to 7.4 miles per hour, and started running. This is my normal routine. It has never been too much of a struggle for me to put in a solid hour of running at this pace and then grab a shower and head back to work before hitting it again after work. But this Monday was different. Why, I do not know, but around the 3 mile point I just felt tired. My legs were not in that easy stride I have come to expect on my Monday lunch runs. Pretty quickly my mind was telling me something wasn’t right, and my feelings were telling me maybe I should cut it short today. At mile four, I was feeling defeated, downright weary, so I slowed the treadmill a bit but still no relief. At the 4.5 mile point I stopped, wiped down the treadmill, and gave into the feelings of the moment. Oh well, there is always later this afternoon or tomorrow.

After taking a few steps toward the exit something popped into my head from the Word that changed everything. It is from 1 Corinthians 9 and it says, “²⁶ So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. ²⁷ I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.” Paul is speaking of spiritual matters but he uses a running example that hit me like a ton of bricks! I turned around went back to the treadmill and said to my body, “you are not hurt, you are not weak, you will not get off this treadmill until you have completed 7 miles at pace, do you understand?” And with that, I completed, although not without a struggle, my plan for that lunchtime run.

You see, life is about willing yourself to the prize, training your mind and your body to be under the bridle of discipline. It is not fun and it often has to do battle with your feelings, but it is worthwhile and it is what we as Christians have to do if we want to move forward as a follower of Christ. We live in a lazy culture, who expects big results from little to no pain. We are physically and spiritually obese and for those of us in Christ, there is no excuse. For if we are indeed a people made strong with the power of a risen Lord, then we have what it takes to “run with perseverance the race we are called to run” no matter what our feelings tell us.

So next time your feelings start telling you to give in, just tell your feelings who is in control!

gotta run!

steve

Well, it has been a long time!

Life happened and I got too busy to write, too busy to ponder, too busy to even consider coming back to the blogosphere. Much has happened since I last posted anything of significance. I took on a new role at church, I have expanded my creative reach in worship, and I have added some new and needed disciplines in my life. Blogging just did not get to the top of the list. But last week I decided it was time to get back behind the keyboard. There is much to catch up on and much to say, and it all comes from a most unique and some would say curious place.

You see, one of my new disciplines is to run. My goal for the year is 1200 miles, nearly all indoors on the treadmill, at a pace of 8 and 1/2 minutes per mile or less. That means that I am on a treadmill somewhere between 3.5 to 4.5 hours per week, which gives me a lot of time to think. This blog will now exclusively come from my treadmill mental meanderings. Some days it will be about running and the discipline of the body, other days about something I see on the TV or listen to on the ipod as I distract myself from the grind, and sometimes it will be about something I am wrestling with as I drift away in thought. Whatever it is, I trust you will be spurred on in some way, and that my runs will be not only physically profitable but also mentally stimulating for all of us.

Today I just want you to be thinking about something that I will cover tomorrow. Do you have any goals for this year? If so, how are you doing in reaching those goals? If you have no goals, why not? Jot them down on some paper before tomorrow, and I will give you some of mine, why they matter, and what it takes to get to the finish line. I will also talk a little about why so many stay away from them and why it costs them in the end.

until tomorrow, gotta run!

steve