I’d like to invite you to join my team. I’m running at least two races this summer and I want to run them with a purpose. You see I’ve already completed half marathons, I’ve even done a few full marathons. I’ve already put myself out there with a challenge that I’ll run a half marathon faster than I’ve ever run before – and I’ll do it this summer.

Now I want to add another challenge to the equation. I want to form a team of supporters who are willing to give their money to a great cause. Joining my team will allow you to do a few things. First, it will allow you to support an organization that you may not otherwise support but needs your dollars all the same. Secondly it will allow you to track my progress this summer as I train with a purpose. I believe lives are changed through the work of many non-profit organizations and if I’m running because my team is supporting those organization with money in response to my training efforts, well then that’s a WIN.

Please consider joining my team. You don’t need to comment, train, or even tell others. Of course the experience will be richer if you do. All I’m asking for is a small donation to join my team.

None of the money donated will go to any of my training costs or cost associated with running this blog. Every dollar will go directly to the the organization.

Which organization? Good question. I don’t know yet. But make a decision next week.

Are you willing to match your weekly spending at Starbucks to join my team? I promise we will create some great stories this summer.

Today, April 6, is World Physical Activity Day.  Unfortunately I don’t think it will do much for the health of this country or our communities.  But that’s why I write here – to challenge you in tangible ways to improve your health.

Raising awareness for increasing people’s levels of physical activity is certainly step one.  Here’s what I’ve observed in my 18+ years focusing on exercise and health: physically active people are stronger in most aspect of life than those who are less physically active.  Don’t push back on this just because it’s a strong and possibly offensive statement.  People who are physically active are physically stronger, have healthier hearts, and I believe they have better perspective in other areas of life.

This isn’t an elitist observation.  I’m not talking about running a marathon or completing an Ironman.  But I can say with 100% confidence that you would benefit from more physical activity.  It’s my goal to find ways to challenge you to be more physically active and to create some community around those efforts.  I’ve consulted with many people over the years in this area and I really enjoy these conversations that often involve serious life change.

Today, on World Physical Activity Day please consider two challenges:

1. take three of the next seven days and add some intentional physical activity to those days
2. engage with this blog, leave a comment, or email it to someone who could benefit

I was at the doctor for my yearly physical last week and the nurse made my day.  She was taking my vital signs and after she did my blood pressure and heart rate, she said “are you a runner?”  I told her yes.  She said she could tell from my low blood pressure and resting heart rate.

It wasn’t really a surprise to me.  I know my vital signs are good because I am very physically active at my job and I run half and full marathons.  But to have a complete stranger be able to guess my physical activity hobby based on my vital signs was a pretty good feeling.  Of course I partly get geeked out by this because I’m an exercise specialist who knows the science behind good health and what it should look like.  And when the nurse saw it in me, that’s a sense of accomplishment.

Outwards appearance, including waist circumference, is telling of a person’s health.  But more importantly we need to know what’s going on inside the body.

• How strong is the heart?  Is it able to pump essential blood throughout the body?
• How much resistance (cholesterol and plaque build-up in the arteries) does the heart have to overcome to circulate blood?

Don’t ignore your vital signs.  This is something the general population is uneducated about.  Healthy blood pressure and a low resting heart rate means your heart can sufficiently and efficiently pump blood (and thus nutrients) easily throughout your body.  When we build up that resistance, the pump (“heart”) wears out.
How’s your blood pressure?  What about your resting heart rate?

In my last post, I challenged you to improve your fitness in 2011 – just improve from last year.  If you didn’t do *anything* last year, this should be easy.  My ambition for this comes from a common motivation we all have inside which is to improve in what we do, in all aspects of life.  While we spend 40+ hours at work each week and are constantly trying to improve as an employee or as a business owner, what about our fitness?  Shouldn’t we bring the same initiative to improve to our fitness life?

I’ve been a runner for quite a few years now.  I’m not fast.  But I have gotten faster. Or am I just more experienced?  My marathon finish times (in chronological order) are: 4:06, 3:59, 3:47.  Looking at the raw numbers you might think I’ve gotten faster, but if we got into the details you’d see that the last time was in the fall after I had done the 3:59 earlier that spring.  So I had a huge advantage.  Why do I mention this?  Because there is so much room for improvement – and that’s the name of the game today, right?

I would never challenge my readers without being willing to take my own advice. I want to improve my races in 2011.  I’m still unsure of what the fall will hold for a race.  But I know the spring I’m doing the Madison Half Marathon.  Here’s how my challenge will work for that: My fastest half marathon time is 1:47.  The problem is that this was the first split as I was doing Madison full marathon.  So my cardiovascular system was trained for 26.2 – how easy is 13.1?  Very.

But I’m still going to beat that time.  In 2011, I’m going to run the fastest 13.1 miles I’ve ever run.

Remember, the challenge is only to improve. For me that means running faster.  For you, it could mean many things:

• running more days per week
• running your fastest 5K
• lifting weights 3 times per week all year
• doing 50 pushups per day for a month

The beauty of training is that it is so personal.  You are where you are; I am where I am.  But part of my motivation is to challenge you to take the next step towards improvement.  As Will Rogers said, “Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.”

Imagine the last five years or so.  Can you think of an area of life where you got better from one year to the next?  I mean, really…  Isn’t everyone looking to improve at life?

Well in that conversation of improvement, what if you improved this year in the area of fitness?  How fit have you been over the last five years?  What would it take – what one step would it take – for you to improve by December 31 of this year?

Go put it on your bulletin board or send it my way and we’ll work together towards improvement.  I’ll post mine next week.

Isn’t that simple?  “This year I will be better than I was last year.”