Beautiful Moments - Part 1
Friday was my last day in Chattanooga, Tennessee, after being down there for two weeks taking a required training course for work. Chattanooga is an incredibly fun and vibrant city, so I always try to take advantage of all it has to offer when I get to go down there for work. This two weeks was full of training, climbing, hiking, eating good food, and even having a drink or two.
For a period of several years, my training was completely focused on powerlifting and devoid of any movements that required me to move fast or be explosive. In the past year and a half, I’ve been adding more of these movements back into my training, and the results have been remarkable in how I look and feel. My body feels like it’s reverse aging or something, as my flexibility and ease of doing basic tasks like getting up and down off the floor and sitting in varying positions has drastically improved. Some of my favorite exercises in this explosive movement realm are kettlebell swings, kettlebell snatches, box jumps, sprints, medicine ball throws, and intervals on the fan bike. I am planning to eventually start mixing barbell power cleans into my training, but I have some wrist flexibility and front squat goals that I want to reach before doing so. Sprinting has really been on my mind lately after listening to the RAW with Marty Gallagher podcast and hearing Marty talk about the book “Speed Trap” by Charlie Francis. I picked up a copy and found it to be a very entertaining book that is both historical and autobiographical with respect to the author. The rise and fall of sprinter Ben Johnson is covered in intimate detail in storybook fashion, and the reader gets a portrait of Johnson and his rival, American Carl Lewis.
My beautiful moment came on Friday morning right on the shore of the Tennessee River in downtown Chattanooga. I rolled out of bed at 3:50 AM, put on some sweats to protect me from the 25 F temperature, and headed out the front door of my hotel to make the short trek down to the river. When I finally got down to the river, I found an absolutely perfect slope for running sprints that was straight and covered a total length of about 80 yards. I started out jogging 40-50 yards, slowly ramping up the pace and distance with each rep. By the end of the workout, I was running full out, not looking like Ben Johnson by an stretch, but still giving it everything I had. I have no idea how many sprints I ran nor my total time and/or distance. I was lost in the moment as I stood there under the dark sky with the stars and sliver moon shining, my body heaving up and down as I gasped for air and tried to keep my legs from shaking. In this moment, I felt an overwhelming gratefulness for my health, my job, my wife, and my spot in this world. It made me want to be better, do better, and treat other people with more love and kindness. Looking up and downstream of the river, the two vehicle bridges had an odd car going over now and then. The pedestrian bridge a little further upstream had snowflake Christmas lights on the side that blinked intermittently. Across the street towards downtown stood the beautiful aquarium and the brightly lit city Christmas tree. The one thing I didn’t see was other people, like this moment was for me and I wasn’t supposed to share it with anyone.
When I’m getting towards the end of my life, I hope I can look back on beautiful moments like this and be certain that I recognized them at the time and savored each breath. Lifting weights and training have provided me with countless beautiful moments over the years, and I have no doubt they will continue to do so for years to come. In fact, if this stops happening, feel free to put me out to pasture because if I can’t find a way to train, I don’t know if I want to stick around. I know that probably sounds morbid, but I really believe it’s the truth for me.
Did you have a beautiful moment today? Or this week? Or even this year? I’d love to hear about a time where you looked around and just savored the moment for you, not for Instagram or Facebook or some other social media. Just a moment for you, that made you smile a bit and goosebumps form on your skin. Thanks for reading.
I left this in Room 306 at the Residence Inn in downtown in Chattanooga. Hopefully someone gets a chance to finish this bottle for me.