Campfires and running

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Good things happen when you build campfires. I’d put on the first one Friday night after spending an hour cleaning up the yard and piling twigs and wood into burn piles. I went to the neighbors house and found Mike…the dad…playing video games with his 10-year old daughter. “I’ve got a fire going in the back yard so drop the controls and come on over,” I said. He was more than willing and was soon in an easy chair in front of the fire…with two ‘Mike’s Hard Lemonade’ and his kids in tow. Some other neighbors joined us and we were soon talking, laughing and throwing combustibles onto the fire. Somehow the conversation got around to the book “Last Child in the Woods” and I got on my soapbox about letting kids go outside and play…even in places where we can’t see them. “They’re in greater danger of developing Type II diabetes and becoming obese and suffering from all of the maladies that entails than they are from being abducted,” I said. Mike agreed, but his wife Jen was not in attendance. The kids were nodding along like that made sense, but when Mike said I could tell Jen when we built a fire at his place the following night, no one suspected it would go well.

We had the fire the next night and it never came up, but it was good to see all the kids just enjoying the fire and the conversation instead of being glued to the video games where they would have been otherwise. I don’t know why I think it’s better for them...and for the adults. Any time you’re talking to your kids around a campfire is a good thing.

I ran 30 minutes on my favorite hiking trail first thing in the morning. I monitored the time I was running at the various checkpoints I have on the course and found that, without really trying, I was running as fast as I had ever run the course. Now…this is with very little running over the last three months. All my conditioning has been coming from the Survival Workout and the bike. I wasn’t pushing either, but instead was running comfortably with the only intention to get through it without the knee hurting. I know I’m faster because I feel like I should be faster…which comes from the knowledge that I’ve lost so much weight. I keep telling myself everything should be easier…and it is. Partially because of the weight loss and the rest because of my attitude shift. I expect to do better…and I do. It’s a rather refreshing change and one I intend to continue.

Run workout: 30 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 140 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 500.