The Miracle Mile
A ways back when I turned 40 I joined Gold's Gym and committed to turning around my badly spiraling physical condition. I had multiple chronic medical conditions the most obvious being my many orthopedic issues that caused chronic pain in my back, hip, knee, feet, wrists and shoulder. I won't go into details, but leave it to say I was a wreck. I Am a wreck as these and my other medical conditions are chronic. They are mine until I die. Psychologically a chronic medical condition can be devastating. For me the worst was the chronic pain. By definition I was going to be in moderate to severe pain for the rest of my life. The question to answer is what to do about it? My answer was to just keep moving. A good friend taught me once while climbing a mountain. He said, "Doesn't matter how slow you go, just never stop. Always Keep your momentum moving."Back then my work outs started with a warm up on a treadmill while watching a movie in the Cardio-Cinenama to help me keep my mind off my pain. It was during these warm ups I descovered the Miricle Mile. 1 mile walked at 4 miles an hour. A 15 minute mile pace, how hard could it be? My calves started cramping, my knee aching, my feet soar, my asthma kicked in a little, I stated huffing and puffing, and my heart rate increased to 122 bpm. Unknowingly I set a baseline I would use to measure my health. 13 years later and I still start my gym workouts with the Miracle Mile. I do a short stepping speed walk, a long stride hiking step and a slow jog all at 4 miles and hour 15 minute mile long warm up. Now days my heart rate rarely goes over 100 bpm, but my blood is flowing and I am ready to pump out dips and pull ups on the Gravitron (post on Gravitron will come soon). And then right into my Max Fat Ritual that has served me so well of the last 14 years of working out.
The Miricle Mile is not just a warm up. It saved me. It got me moving again. It now shows me real time where I stand physically. When I'm walking or hiking now I know my Miricle Mile pace.
Side note: I read a Richard Bachman (S. King) book called The Walk. In some future distopia there is an annual race for boys and the winner receives immeasurable riches all others die trying. They are all forced to keep a 4 mile an hour pace and if they fall behind and off that pace they are put to death. The race goes on for days and in the end the last man standing wins. I think about this nightmare story a lot while I walk my Miracle Mile. Helps me ignore my pain. I wonder sometimes how far I Could go if my life depended on it. Also makes me realize it does.
