"The way we approach activities like exercise is often how we live our lives." - in the way we do anything is the way we do everything! Your write-up is so beautiful. I'm amazed by how close our movement philosophies are, and grateful to you for articulating it so much more clearly than I've ever been able to. I feel so inspired after reading this: inspired to bring more presence than usual to yoga tomorrow, inspired to run slowly again, inspired to pay deep attention in my next swim. Thank you
Congrats on your newborn :) He has an amazing father it seems
Thanks Nibras! means a lot coming from you. It's funny, i feel like there are so many topics that you bring to life on Twitter in ways that I relate to but have never been able to articulate myself (like emotions, beauty, friendship, etc).
enjoy your yoga, running, and swimming! we should def compare notes more one of these days
hahaha. that's good. would love a Cow We Doin post that recaps your peak out-of-body moments during your crazy exercise challenges.
the main one that comes to mind for me is the last quarter of our Tough Mudder where the only contact I had with my body was the piercing pain of my feet. I've never been able to look at (and certainly) not wear another pair of Nike Frees.
and re "Embodied Running".... that's why we rebranded it to "Running with Expanded Awareness" in the two years since 😂
#5: With 2-miles to go in the 2023 Tough Ruck Marathon (Heavy Division), when some kid competing in the light division passed me complaining about how heavy the (light) weight was on his back.
#4: 22-hours into the GORUCK GOREV Heavy when the cadre suggested we take a quick Power Nap — after I had just downed a SOFREP Pre-Workout.
#3: The last hour of a 2015 English Channel qualification swim in the Boston Harbor, sans wetsuit and 55 degree water, where I could only think about eating a chocolate donut when I got out.
#3b: When I got out of the water on said swim and there were no more chocolate donuts on the support boat.
#2: The last leg of my North Channel swim where I couldn’t get the first verse of the theme song from Outlander out of my head and it was on repeat for the entirety of the hour.
#1: In the last 1.5 mile run leg of the 2022 Casco Bay SwimRun (a 22-mile race that I went into with about 4 weeks of training) where I was again fantasizing about a chocolate donut from The Holy Donut in Portland at the finish. When we did finish (7th overall — what up!), and Mrs. CWD said they didn’t get to the donut shop before they sold out so I was, again, donutless.
the real takeaway here is if i ever need to get you to come help with some heavy manual labor, i just need to have a hearty supply of chocolate donuts on hand
"The way we approach activities like exercise is often how we live our lives." - in the way we do anything is the way we do everything! Your write-up is so beautiful. I'm amazed by how close our movement philosophies are, and grateful to you for articulating it so much more clearly than I've ever been able to. I feel so inspired after reading this: inspired to bring more presence than usual to yoga tomorrow, inspired to run slowly again, inspired to pay deep attention in my next swim. Thank you
Congrats on your newborn :) He has an amazing father it seems
Thanks Nibras! means a lot coming from you. It's funny, i feel like there are so many topics that you bring to life on Twitter in ways that I relate to but have never been able to articulate myself (like emotions, beauty, friendship, etc).
enjoy your yoga, running, and swimming! we should def compare notes more one of these days
we really should. i'd love to :) let's make it happen when you have more time - i imagine newborn means not much spare time
thank you for the return compliment, touches my heart to read!
Ya embodied exercise is cool, but have you tried out-of-body exercise? The type where you workout so hard you start hallucinated?
In all seriousness, like this piece even more the second time — even if I still think “embodied running” seems kinda lame.
hahaha. that's good. would love a Cow We Doin post that recaps your peak out-of-body moments during your crazy exercise challenges.
the main one that comes to mind for me is the last quarter of our Tough Mudder where the only contact I had with my body was the piercing pain of my feet. I've never been able to look at (and certainly) not wear another pair of Nike Frees.
and re "Embodied Running".... that's why we rebranded it to "Running with Expanded Awareness" in the two years since 😂
#5: With 2-miles to go in the 2023 Tough Ruck Marathon (Heavy Division), when some kid competing in the light division passed me complaining about how heavy the (light) weight was on his back.
#4: 22-hours into the GORUCK GOREV Heavy when the cadre suggested we take a quick Power Nap — after I had just downed a SOFREP Pre-Workout.
#3: The last hour of a 2015 English Channel qualification swim in the Boston Harbor, sans wetsuit and 55 degree water, where I could only think about eating a chocolate donut when I got out.
#3b: When I got out of the water on said swim and there were no more chocolate donuts on the support boat.
#2: The last leg of my North Channel swim where I couldn’t get the first verse of the theme song from Outlander out of my head and it was on repeat for the entirety of the hour.
#1: In the last 1.5 mile run leg of the 2022 Casco Bay SwimRun (a 22-mile race that I went into with about 4 weeks of training) where I was again fantasizing about a chocolate donut from The Holy Donut in Portland at the finish. When we did finish (7th overall — what up!), and Mrs. CWD said they didn’t get to the donut shop before they sold out so I was, again, donutless.
the real takeaway here is if i ever need to get you to come help with some heavy manual labor, i just need to have a hearty supply of chocolate donuts on hand
Snickers bars work, too.
Guilty as charged.
This is awesome Sam! I see a lot of parallels between this piece and one I wrote a while back on Ritual vs. Discipline https://domfrancks.substack.com/p/ritual-vs-discipline
How can we make our movement an offering & a joy, rather than a chore?