One of the best parts about building fitness is that you never quite know when you are going to use it.
For Invictus member Andy, it happened on a recent two-week trip back East. What started as a visit to see family and attend his cousin’s wedding turned into a 66-mile adventure through Philadelphia and New York City, much of it powered by his own two feet.
Andy has been training at Invictus for just over two years. He is not someone who follows a high-volume running program. In fact, between the running that shows up in our regular Invictus workouts, he probably averages less than three miles per week. But when the opportunity came to spend hours exploring two major cities on foot, his fitness was more than ready for the challenge.
And if you know Andy, the way he went about it probably won't surprise you.
After spending nearly a week with his family outside Washington, D.C., Andy traveled to Delaware for his cousin’s wedding before deciding to extend the trip to visit friends in Philadelphia and New York City. His friends were working during the day, many of the museums he wanted to visit were closed, and sitting around a hotel room wasn't exactly appealing.
So Andy started running.
“I’m a bit of a crazy person where I kind of just let curiosity take me wherever,” he said. “I like the freedom that comes with it, because you’re not locked in with a tour group and can make your own adventure at your own speed.”
Philadelphia started as a simple game of “what’s that over there?” One landmark led to another. Andy visited the Liberty Bell, toured Independence Hall, ran the famous Rocky steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (way easier than he thought they would be), and then, importantly, actually went inside to enjoy the art.
New York became even more ambitious.
Andy improvised a route that took him from the West Village to the World Trade Center, Battery Park, across the Brooklyn Bridge, through Chinatown and Midtown, into Central Park, and eventually back to the West Village. He ran when he felt like running, walked when he wanted to walk, explored whatever caught his attention, and occasionally stopped for pizza to refuel.
By the end of the trip, he had covered 66 miles.
That number caught my attention because Andy doesn't specifically train to run 66 miles. He doesn't need to.
This is one of the things I love most about general physical preparedness and the way we train at Invictus. We aren't simply preparing members to perform better during the hour they spend inside the gym. We are trying to build strength, endurance, durability, movement quality, and an understanding of your own body that carries over into the rest of your life.
Andy credits his Invictus training with giving him both the physical capacity and the awareness to handle the trip.
“I sincerely credit how much strength training and cardio classes have benefited my endurance and speed,” he said. “I love challenges, because it makes me want to go just a bit further. That’s what I love about this place. Your peers motivate you to try harder and the coaches make you more cognizant of what you’re doing.”
That last piece is important to me. Us coaches love to hear this type of feedback, and see our members living better lives, powered by their training at Invictus.
Fitness isn't only about developing a bigger engine. It's also learning how to use that engine. Andy admits that he has historically been a little too ambitious when he trains. In his words, he has the “my weights are bigger than my muscles problem.” Over his time at Invictus, however, he has gotten better at pacing himself, recognizing when he needs to back off, and understanding when taking a break will allow him to keep going longer.
Those lessons translated directly to his trip. Run for a while. Explore. Take a break. Eat some pizza. Keep moving.
There is also a deeper reason Andy appreciates the ability to do something like this.
At one point in his life, Andy lost much of his mobility for roughly six months after trying to stomp out a tick and instead fractured his heel and tore a ligament in his foot. That experience changed his perspective on something many of us take for granted: the ability to simply get up and move pain-free.
“Having mobility taken away from you, even temporarily, makes you appreciate being able to just use your own two feet so much more,” he said. “So while I have my legs I might as well put them through their paces.”
I think Andy’s trip is a great example of what fitness can look like outside the walls of a gym.
He didn't spend months preparing for a 66-mile East Coast running tour. There wasn't a training plan taped to his refrigerator telling him that he needed to run from the West Village across the Brooklyn Bridge and eventually make his way to Central Park. He simply found himself somewhere interesting, had the curiosity to explore it, and had enough fitness to say, “Why not?”
That is a useful kind of fitness to have.
We talk a lot at Invictus about preparing our members for whatever life throws at them. Sometimes that means being strong enough to move something heavy around the house. Sometimes it means having the stamina to keep up with your kids. Sometimes it means staying healthy and capable as you get older.
And sometimes it means putting on your running shoes, heading out the hotel door, and seeing how much of New York City you can explore before your next slice of pizza.
Andy’s story is uniquely Andy. But the fitness that allowed him to have that adventure is exactly what we hope to build in every member who walks through our doors.
Train hard. Develop capacity. Continually learn and expand your body’s limits. And of course, stay healthy.
Then go use your fitness for something exciting, whether it’s planned, or completely spontaneous!