It's all Uphill


(Hi folks. Must have received another nice plug in a well-placed spot to have drawn so many hits to the website and new subscribers. Thanks to whomever is responsible for that, whatever you did.)

Well, I did it again. I managed to find another vacation spot well off the Internet grid, making high-speed hook-up a challenge. I'm trolling coastal islands in Maine this week, running hills, sucking fog, and enjoying lobster and crab and haddock rather more than usual. If you're in Ann Arbor, and wonder where the hippies went, you need to come to Ellsworth, where you can find your friends and the lovely folks at downeast.net, who have hooked me up for the moment. It's a little over an hour from where I'm actually staying, but I'm not really complaining.

On the plane, I finally read John "The Penguin" Bingham's "No Need for Speed," a book recommended by Elizabeth-the-running-niece, about reclaiming your health. Some would call it a beginning guide to running and walking. But really this book, whose price is worth the first four chapters, is for any adult whose body suffers from neglect.

If you're trying to find a way to ease into movement after a long hiatus, this is the book for you.

If you've burned your body out through exhuberant over-training on your weight loss/fitness kick, this is the book for you.

If you're an ex-jock who just can't go out there and look a little awkward for awhile while trying to get back in the groove, pick up this book.

If you have never moved your body in any direction ever, but realize you had better get to it or die early, then get the book.

I like this book because it gives us a way to find our own systems (my favorite theme) for reasonable, livable, sustainable, exercise and eating.

I like this book because the author lost 80 lbs. himself, pulled his blood pressure under control, quit smoking, reduced his drinking, all reluctantly. Crabbily. Inevitably. Revelation by revelation.

The only way to go, brothers and sisters.

John started with a few changes, mastered them, and then added a few more, slowly, over years. Years of incremental changes. And now? Well, he's moved from couch potato to one of the most celebrated writers about running and running organizers in the world.

Not bad.

And just in time for me, this book. I've been training for my first half-marathon at the end of September, and struggling with the long runs. Bingham's ingenious walk/run system gave me an option just in the nick of time for these Maine hills.

(Hint: It's all about the recovery, friends.)

These hills are not like the hills where I come from. Where I live there's a downhill for every uphill, but here the hills seem to go up and then up some more. At least when I'm running. How very odd.

There's a metaphor in there somewhere, but it's a little too alarming to explore.

Read this book. Really. Please.

JuJu

John's site

The
Book

The nicest café
in the universe

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