Running, Part 3:

Adaptability.  If i had to choose a word, which describes an area of the human race, which no other species has in quite the same magnitude as humans.  The one word which is the reason we live in the most remote corners of the globe, the reason we are the dominant species on the planet, the core of what gives humans an edge over not just every living thing alive today, but every living thing that has EVER lived.  it's adaptability.  God gave this to humans in spades, no question.  Yet, even when we have gobs and gobs of this lying dorment inside each and every one of us, we are all so very afraid of change.  It's really quite a dichotomy.  I have found the incredible adaptability of our bodies through Ironman training, but that's really only the tip of the iceberg.

The couch to Ironman idea, the foundation of it, is that our bodies, minds, and hearts are far and away more adaptable than we give them credit for.  Look at the show biggest loser for a moment.  Some of those contestants lose 2x, 3x, and even 4x their final body weight over the course of the competition.  Holly smokes batman!  Adaptable bodies.  I would never be able to finish this ironman were it not for the designed in adaptability of our muscles, ligaments, bones, tissues and everything!  Thank God for that!  Furthermore, I am trusting in the adaptability of mind, even more so than that of our bodies.  Truthfully, three months ago, if you had asked if I could ever do a marathon, i would have said no way,  and swimming 2.4 miles was strictly impossible for all but the elite.  Say NOTHING about riding over 100 miles!  To be sure, changing the way you think is MORE important than changing the way your body functions.  Get this, three months ago I was having trouble getting my mind around 26.4 miles, now I have a friend who is this very weekend going to run one-hundred miles!  RUN!  You are a total STUD Haslam!

The question of how to get started running keeps coming up.  So let me tell you what i think a good way to get going is, from zero, in order to avoid injury and still have a fairly quick ramp up to good runs.  For starters, just run for 15 minutes.  Don't worry so much about distance, pace, or anything, just run for 15 minutes.  this should be challenging if you just got off the couch, but if you've been doing the chalenges throughout the running entries, you'll be able to do it.  Stretch well, rest the next day, then do it again.  Keep doing this for about two weeks, then double the time.  Keep that up for about two or three more weeks, then double the time again.  Keep your runs easy, don't push too hard, remember the cardio wall isn't going to make it easy on you no matter how much you want it to.  And breaking through it will feel amazing!!  Pay attention to your body and focus on form.  Watch the video on running I posted in running part 2.  You can do this!!  by the time your up to running an hour, you'll have done enough reading and studying of your body to keep going without my help i am sure.  Remember, your body is adaptable, but so is your mind!  Start spending time and talking with runners, they will broaden your perception of what you are capable of.  Beware the neg-head and find some great people who believe in you.  Have faith in the one who designed you, He did a good job!

I think that you are build for greatness.  Honestly, there is no other explanation for why we are capable of so much more than what we need just go scrape by.  Seriously i think most people could live their whole lives and never even need any more than 5% of their total potential.  Most of us can be respected and admired just by living up to 20% of who we are truly, the true master that lives inside each of us.  Just imagine what would happen if you were 50% of your true self.  Just take off the boundaries on yourself for 2 minutes and think of what you would be if you were just you.  the real you, no masks, no limitations.  What would you do tomorrow if you knew that you could not fail?  Guess what, even if you do get injured, you think that's the end?  Your incredible body will recover from that too!!!!  You are designed, cell by cell, for incredible astonishing awesomeness!  The reason this feels so foreign is because that awesomeness is not realized all at once, it is built day by day, step by step, run by run, phone call by phone call.  It never feels glorious in the moment, but you wake up one day, having lived from your true strength for years, and it hits you.  You need to be yourself, because the real you is exactly what the world needs.

Link to Running Part 1: Running Part 1

Link to Running Part 2: Running Part 2


“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
- Howard Thurman.