Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Rob McCann is a fit machine...

Monday, January 2, 2012
Rob McCann is a man after my own heart.  He’s one of the eight folks I’ve tested and written training programs for, though he’s already in damn good shape.  Rob works for the Downtown Cleveland Alliance as a Safety Ambassador where he assists downtown residents and visitors in making their time in Cleveland safe and rewarding.  He works a foot or bike patrol and often walks 15 miles during a shift.  As a former Marine, Rob was completely familiar with staying fit and running regularly.  When he left active duty over ten years ago, he stopped running.  After an 8-year hiatus, he returned to running, giving up drinking and finally, smoking.  He was looking for something to keep him on task when he noticed the invitation to run the Rite Aid Marathon.  “I responded to the ad because I wanted something to keep me from having an excuse not to run,” he wrote.  He doesn’t drive..using his bike and his feet as his primary forms of transportation...and is already running over forty miles a week.  He’s a lean 6.8% body fat and ripped off 60 push-ups.  He scorched the fitness test, scoring 815 points out of a possible 1,000.  Anything over 800 is in the elite category.  He’s got excellent discipline and I believe he will have no trouble meeting his marathon goals.

I hit the park as dark was setting in and found that, with the new snow, I had the place practically to myself.  We’d received about four inches, but it was soft and fluffy and provided good traction.  I started thinking I’d do about 30 minutes…or less if my calf troubled me…but I knew by the 20-minute mark that it would be one of those days I could run as long as I wanted.  Maybe it was the forgiving, soft nature of a trail covered in snow…I don’t know…but I went 45 minutes quite effortlessly.  I decided not to push my luck since I’d run only two days earlier, and stopped then.  I’m starting to regain my confidence in my running…and just in time since it could ease some of the time I need to spend indoors on the trainer.    I’ll have to be careful to not go overboard and hold the runs to this range.  I don’t need much more than that to keep my winter fitness and I really wouldn’t mind staying healthy for a spell.

Run Duration:  45 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 140 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 750.

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