Play ball

1 – MLB All Star 4.4 Miler

Last weekend, my brother and I ran the 2025 MLB All-Star 4.4 Miler, hosted at the old Atlanta Braves stadium (Turner Field). I’m not a big fan of waking up early and driving somewhere just to run, but my brother asked me to join him for this race. He’s been on his own health journey for the past few years—he just hit his 1,000th class at F45, watches what he eats, lost a lot of weight—and it’s really amazing. I knew he wanted to challenge himself, and I was all for supporting that.

The race was a lot of fun—running through downtown Atlanta with a bunch of other baseball fans. But for me, this race wasn’t really about the running. It was about showing up for someone I love. We finished sweaty, with blisters on our toes, grumbling about the number of steep hills, and laughing in a post workout dopamine dump. Totally worth waking up early.

I get to do something similar in a couple of weeks—my wife just asked me to join her for a 5K race in August. She’s slowly getting back into working out after giving birth to our son and navigating a few minor setbacks. That alarm clock will go off way too early again, and I’ll lace up my shoes and run beside her.

2 – Maffetone Method

I am a very average joe runner. I’ve done some 5k’s and a marathon in 2023, but running is not my go to method of exercising. That said when I started training for my marathon back in 2022 (yes, it was a very long training cycle) I learned about the Maffetone method. Very simply it’s a style of running where most of your runs your heart rate should not exceed 180 Minus Your Age. So at 35 most of my running is done below a heart rate of 145. For me it is a great tool in order to build up my running endurance and avoid overuse injuries. If you’re a beginner I recommend looking into this method to help your training.

Understanding the Maffetone Method | 13 Years Experience

3 – GOWOD – Mobility App

Years of bad posture, baseball, & powerlifting have led me to have poor mobility. Back in 2018 around when I started Crossfit I downloaded the GOWOD app. It’s an app that has daily mobility follow along videos. There are all kinds of customization like how long you want to stretch, any muscles groups you want to focus, what kind of gear do you have to help stretch (bands, rollers, etc). Do I need an app to stretch… No, but I like it because it gamifies my stretching to help motivate me. I feel so much better when I consistently do a daily gowod (even if its only 5-10 minutes). As you can see from my score (45%) I still have a long way to go from a mobility perspective, but its definitely better than when I started.      

GOWOD – Personalized Mobility App

And you’re out. Have a great week

Josh