My first book, “Project Full Circle Squared: One Lap Under One Minute”, is available for purchase at Amazon.com.
This all started in the 8th grade, when I received the class award for creative writing. As a young person, I had a great interest in communicating with the written, as well as the spoken, word. Delivering a message that was readable, understandable, and actionable, was and is a major focus for me. I have found this pursuit to be one of those areas in life where I can certainly improve as time goes on, but I can never reach the ultimate level. I can’t say for sure why it’s taken me nearly 40 years to write my first book, but I’m glad it’s finally happened.
“Project Full Circle Squared” is one of three titles I’ll be getting out this year. As products of The Lifetime Body, these writings are allowing me to combine my passion for human performance and longevity with my love of writing and presenting. Under the tagline of “Make Your Body Last a Lifetime”, I’ve found my niche at the crossroads of health/fitness and empowering, inspiring communication.
This first book is one of my “Projects” in which I served as a guinea pig or test subject for a case study. I subjected myself to the training and lifestyle program that was geared toward producing a specific outcome. In this case it was applying the science of conditioning, nutrition, and recovery to an average middle-aged human in the quest to run 400 meters under one minute. I found the process to be intriguing, challenging, humbling, and gratifying. My goal with this particular Project was to show how one could safely pursue a sports goal, with some amount of reasonable perspective, at any age or ability level. As I state in the book description, this Project was not about denying or rejecting middle age, but embracing it and working with the human body in its current state.
Let’s briefly consider the subject of running. One might look at this book and immediately think that this is a book about running written by a runner intended to be read by runners. I guess I have to say that may be true on a very limited level, but there is more to this book than just that, dare I say, superficial viewpoint. I don’t even consider myself to be a runner. Yes, I was a runner for many years and that was a part of my identity. In my physical therapy practice and coaching business I specialized in running performance. I used to love running. Then things changed. Some injuries, some surgery, some changing scientific data, and some different perspectives all led me to become not a runner, but a dude who runs a little.
Running is one of those natural functions that virtually all of us humans are born with the capacity in which to engage. This works better for some than others and such things as body type, physiology, personality, and many other factors are potentially determinant. And, unfortunately for some, the ability to run is either nonexistent due to physical challenge or lost secondary to injury, disease, or obesity. But if we look back at our ancestral movement patterns, you can make the case that a small amount of running was probably part of the evolutionary history for most humans, and that is where my focus lies. For those who cannot run, for any reason, I’m not advocating that they take to the tracks or trails. There are plenty of ways to be healthy and fit without ever running a step. But for anyone for whom even a small amount of purposeful locomotion is possible, I encourage you to maintain this ancestral trait. It is naturally programmed into our DNA and we can’t let society, with all its sitting, sedentarism, and opportunities for sloth, take this from us.
How much is enough? That’s totally up to each individual. I mostly prefer walking and hiking as my method of ambulation. However, I incorporate a very small volume of running, at different speeds, into my fitness endeavors 2-3 times per week. This only amounts to a couple miles, total, and it is both as much as I want to do and about as much as is right for my body at this stage in its journey. Your mileage may of course vary. If you had a negative running experience in 7th grade gym class, and have not run a step for 30 years, use a little caution. But consider, if you have medical clearance to do so, trotting just a few steps while walking down the street and see if that draws out any primitive instincts or sensations.
And if you are into marathons, or ultramarathons, I want you to make your own determination regarding how much is enough, or too much. But because I sincerely care about your long-term systemic health and orthopedic longevity, I encourage you to consider at least the occasional training cycle in which you focus less on endurance and more on running form and speed mechanics.
Running has a place in the exercise scheme for most of us. And if you can, don’t wait until you can’t. But also, being a functional human requires many other characteristics. Posture, mobility, agility, balance, strength, endurance, stamina, power, flexibility, coordination, and many other components make up our Lifetime Bodies, and it’s my goal to not only encourage you to pursue all those traits, but to show you how to do it safely and effectively.
I hope you enjoy Project Full Circle Squared as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks in advance for reading and sharing, and I look forward to bringing you more interesting material that can Help You Make Your Body Last a Lifetime.