Friday Ramble 03/04/22

This week: Running with a friend offers a philosophical quandary, a call for heart rate recs, and a chickpea curry recipe to fuel your training. 

While visiting my parents last week in New Jersey, I went for a run with my best friend. We’ve been close for over 40 years, long enough to consider ourselves brothers in the psychological sense. Running together is one of our prime vehicles for renewing those bonds whenever I’m in town. 

While I was looking forward to his company, this joint effort presented a philosophical conundrum that underlines the difference between training and exercising. 

One of us – me – wanted to establish an easy pace that complimented all the other running I had done previously and would do in the very near future. My friend, meanwhile, simply wanted to go for a run on that day at that time.   

There is absolutely nothing wrong with either approach. Running for fitness is every bit as valid as adopting a rigorous training program depending on your goals and aspirations. Yet, they represent fundamentally different approaches that are worth exploring.