Today's Parkrun Effort Promises Compounded Fitness for Endurance Running and Walking

 Melissa and I went down to Gainesville's Depot Park this morning for their Parkrun...or at least my attempt to substantially lengthen my training session walk there.  Today I doubled my distance walked, from a .7-mile lap to two laps totaling 1.55 miles.  It took me 34 minutes in all, and that's all right since I am in no way concerned about how fast I go.  You see, during this half of a Parkrun I listened to my Alachua Public Library Libby audiobook app containing the book I just checked out: Slow AF Run Club by Martinus Evans. His message is informative, humorous and inspirational...in other words, very useful!  Next week I'll try to 'up' it to three laps, and there you have it: a definite feeling of progress doing this resistance walk and letting my daily, consistent training efforts compound in their positive effects on my fitness.  Back in 2007 I could barely run around my home block, the road surface feeling way too rough for my feet.  But in '08 I managed a solid eight-mile neighborhood training run that I have yet to duplicate (or want to).  My effort today wasn't scanned or posted, and I'm not doing any of this for any reason beyond personal betterment. I do want to get to Martinus's level of running softly and slowly...all I care about is covering the distance.  Now we're left with the rest of Saturday, along with any more walk/run training i might see fit to do.  So after this encouraging effort, I intend to continue keeping up with the consistency, resistance and discomfort (and rest & recovery) and let the fitness compound...

Run Club Author Evans Providing Fitness Hope and Workout Information

 I woke up at at little past one this morning.  I had to linger in bed for time to "catch up", but eventually it did and I set out, in the living room, to do some 12 minutes of running-in-place.  The air conditioning in the house was mostly on, but I took some of the "off" time to brew a pot of coffee.  Yesterday I took some time to switch around running-in-place with walking back and forth through the house, using the initial training formula of Slow AF Run Club author Martinus Evans' suggested timed ratios of running to walking at a ratio of one to three, building up to a total of twenty minutes leaving pace out of it...I worked my way up to ten minutes.  Later today my plan is to go a little further with the Slow AF workouts, without going overboard with them...I'm enjoying reading through this funny, helpful book. Melissa earlier gave me a good report on my most recent MRI brain scan.  It's still something I need to be cautious interpreting, since these tests can easily quickly turn toward the worse.  I have to be reasonable about my own medical expectations, especially regarding the detection and growth of cancer in my own brain. Living onward for a multitude of years is something I'd like to be a part of, and being effectively active during that hoped-for span places high on my list of priorities...especially concerning running and walking long distance endurance events.  Completing race events of 5k to half-marathon length, regardless of finishing times, are goals I'd like to attain as 2026 progresses into the spring,summer, and fall months. I've already experienced a severe, seemingly random brain cancer diagnosis bomb dropped on me from last October, with the brain surgery and subsequent chemo and radiation treatment side effects having their own negative effects on my athletic endurance and general fitness level.  Let's see if this morning I can't at least approach the exhortations of Mr. Evans, who believes that factors limiting running and walking distance attainment are more than 90% mental in origin.  I say let's get mental with it all and crush it...