I received a text from my old high school classmate and leading commenter of the blog. He informed me he was in town and looking for a workout and a Slyman’s experience…and not necessarily in that order. We’d hooked up last year about this time when he’d come to town and looked me up so he could have a chance to experience the world’s best corned beef sandwich, the Survival Workout and the most amazing running trails anywhere. I called and invited him to meet me for the new and improved Survival Workout.
Randy is almost as unusual as me when it comes to working out. He is a fanatical gym rat and loves the iron. He’s also training to run a sub-21 minute 5K sometime soon and has my 8-week training program to accomplish the feat. I knew he’d keep up on anything I could do…and he did. He seemed to enjoy the nuances of the workout. When I’d taken him through a year ago, I was still using the TRX bands and doing more power moves…bounding, hopping, and sprinting…things I’d put on hold when I’d torn the meniscus. He was suffering a similar injury and so my emphasis on muscular endurance and lifting didn’t bother him at all.
We started with push-ups and as I worked my way to 60, I wondered if I could break my single set pr. Having Randy there inspired me as I squeezed out the final reps and hit 72…breaking my two-day old mark by 1. Every stop was like that…trying to do more than I usually do because I was with someone. I don’t know why it is…but most folks work out better and harder with a good workout partner. We arrived at the Girl Scout cabins and dropped to the ground for more push-ups and abdominal work. While crunching on our abs, Randy asked me if I’d ever tried Yoga. “Yeah…and it was okay…but it was indoors and a routine and structured. I guess I just like being out here…working in the fresh air with leaves falling all around. Heard a couple of Barred Owls calling to each other on my last run. You just can’t get that stuff in a Yoga studio,” I said. He thought about that and said, “so…this is like a crowd for you today.” And that’s not it. I love taking folks through the workout. The more I can introduce to the Survival Workout, the better. It’s got so much going for it that I feel it’s my responsibility to get folks involved.
Randy did everything I did and then some. He seemed to really enjoy the workout and the changes I’d made and I suspect that if he was living up here, we’d be doing it together all the time. He asked me to take him on a 9-minute per mile run before he left and we agreed that a trip to Slyman’s was a must. “How does a corned beef sandwich fit in the cave man’s diet?” he wanted to know. “It fits in the category of 80/20. Twenty percent of the time I eat whatever I want…opportunistic…like Paleolithic men were. If they’d come upon a Slyman’s…they’d have eaten the corned beef sandwich,” I said. Besides…I didn’t get my sandwich on Jim’s birthday this year so I owe myself one…right, bro?
Survival Workout duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100 to 150 bpm.Calories burned during workout: 600.
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