How To Run Farther, Burn More Fat and Get Stronger

Expanding Your Sense Of What Is Possible

By Habib Wicks, PEERtrainer Co-Founder

I love trying new things. I recently attended my first NASCAR race at Talladega and loved it. At the Nationwide race on the first day (which is their quasi-minor league series) I got a chance to walk down to the lower level and see the cars up close, right near the fence. The same one that Carl Edwards would fly into the next day! On one of the laps I watched Dale Jr. drop to the inside of Kyle Busch and take a temporary lead in the race. It was an incredible moment to see this happen right in front of me, at the speed and the proximity. I became an instant fan of NASCAR. I have seen most professional sports live, and NASCAR is hands down the most exciting live sports event I have seen. I lived on an RV for a couple days, even drank moonshine for the first time. But I almost did not go. I was going simply to experience something I had not before. Very glad I did!

Training for a marathon is something that is new to me as well. I was drinking some wine with a local dad, and he mentioned that he was going for a ten mile training run the following Saturday. It might have been the wine talking, but I said that I would join him.  I quickly jumped on PEERtrainer and asked the marathoners how to learn to run ten miles in a week. They told me and I did it!! I am hooked. I got a new pair of New Balance (which I LOVE).   I have been doing this for a month now.

I have a schedule where Saturday is the big run, run about six on Monday and a few miles two other days. Friday is a rest day from running-- and I was looking for something to do. Which brings me to thing point of all this. Running PEERtrainer we get to meet a lot of people. The really interesting people we tell you about. We recently made friends with a woman named Chalene Johnson, who is known to a lot of people as the creator of TurboJam- which is an immensely popular workout DVD.

Talking with her, we quickly understood why she was able to sell 5 million copies of that program. She is not just fun and motivating- she possesses what appears to be the widest range of knowledge about human movement that I have ever come across.

What Chalene Is Now Working On:

So I was looking for a workout for the day and saw the stack of DVD's that her company sent us to review. I was planning on having Jackie take look at them and give me her thoughts- because this is stuff for women, right? Being that I like to try new things, I picked up the first one, called TurboKick, and popped it in the machine. No idea what to expect. What I discovered was incredible, and I am still trying to make sense of it and understand all the influences.

The basic idea behind TurboKick is that it is a series of low impact workouts that focuses on working the abs and obliques in particular, and also helps to stretch out the hips. These two things happen to be exactly what I was focusing on in my marathon training. I did the first workout, which was 30 minutes. It is a combination of martial arts, yoga, tai-chi. I found myself moving in ways that I usually do not. My five year old son wandered into the room as I was doing the workout. He was able to mimic some of the martial arts moves, and it was fun to be able get his interest in this.

I got a great workout, and I am looking forward to learning more forms of movement from her. The best part of the workout was the Yoga-style warm down. If you are looking for a workout to ease into a new form of exercise you will like this. You can get a copy of her new program here.

The Chalene Johnson Interview:

Jackie and Joshua recently interviewed her, and you can click here to listen to it!

Introducing Stu Mittleman:

I had a great run the next day, and ran 13 miles at a very slow and steady pace. I had never run 13 miles before- and I had never run more than 7 before last month.

I was able to do this partly because of another person we met recently, Stu Mittleman. Stu is an, and set a series of records in the 100 mile run. He has worked with Tony Robbins for years in his advanced programs. He also wrote a book about a decade ago called Slow Burn, in which he teaches people his training method. The basic message behind the method is to train and run in ways that alternate burning fat and sugar.

It definitely is helping me run greater distances in an enjoyable way. I am just getting into the details of the program but there is something very special about Stu. Obviously Tony Robbins feels the same way. One observation I have about him and his work is that it is not just about running--Slow Burn might be one of the best weight loss books out there.  We interviewed Stu recently and you can listen to the call here if you are interested in an introduction to his philosophy.

We are going to be doing a lot of work with both Stu and Chalene. We have found them to be people who possess a deep subject matter expertise combined with a true passion for their mission. Please let us know what you think. We are very excited to be working with them. I would not have met Stu in particular if I did not have a mindset of jumping into new things.

The quote from the beginning of this article is from Steven Covey. Many people are familiar with him, but if you have not read his work I highly recommend it. 

-Habib