I love nature. Fun Lexie fact – I spent two summers in high school living out of a backpack in the wilderness. One summer in rural Costa Rica and one in the backcountry of Hawaii. It is particularly special to find a sanctuary in the middle of the urban jungle and last week I was lucky enough to have such an experience.
I had been emailing back and forth with Graham King, the founder of Roam Fitness for over a month before I finally got Roam’s featured OutRun workout on my calendar. He was patient with me as I floundered with scheduling. Lucky for me, Roam is located 2 blocks from my new office in Glover Park. In the spirit of total honesty, I was slightly intimidated by what was waiting for me when I joined the OutRun crowd.
Social media photos and comments were both encouraging and nerve-wracking. Regardless, I laced up my running shoes and headed up the block to Roam. Graham greeted me and the evening’s leader, Chris, gave me a quick rundown of what the next hour had in store. After the final few folks joined our group we headed out for the run. Every ½ mile or so we would stop and do some resistance or body weight exercises. Pushups, tricep dips, calf raises, Roam burpees, bear crawls, bungee bicep curls, and squats were all on the roster.
To be honest, my favorite part of the workout was the run. I was floored that this was my reaction. The route we took was through the woods of Glover Park. A cool evening and great music coming from Chris’s backpack speakers made the winding path up and down the forest trail incredibly enjoyable. Although I would have liked to have gone at a slightly quicker pace, once we got to bear crawls at mile marker 2, I was glad that we maintained a moderate jog.
Once we ended, Chris was conferring with an OutRun regular about whether or not we should do resistance band work. Not sure if it was my brain’s lack of oxygen, but I felt the need to strongly suggest we add one final set of exercises to our workout. As if jump lunges, squats, and running uphill for 3 miles weren’t enough, resistance band lateral slides and high knees (forward and backwards) were just what I needed. Without expressing anger or staging a mutiny, all participants agreed and we commandeered the sidewalk for one final push.
With two remaining sprints and a solid foam-rolling session back at Roam headquarters, I walked to my bus and managed to make it home in one piece. Aside from a few bug bites, I woke up the following morning feeling pretty awesome.
As I was walking from Adams Morgan to Dupont to teach yoga last night, I heard some Daft Punk blasting from down the block. Before I could identify where the music was coming from, Chris came breezing past with a group of a dozen or so OutRun participants. Caught slightly off guard and a little jealous, I remembered that I had a blog post pending. Looking forward to scheduling my next OutRun workout. Although I think I prefer the woods of Glover Park to the noise of Connecticut Avenue and strolling pedestrians.
Bottom line – if you like nature, enjoy running (or don’t enjoy running, but tolerate it) and are looking for a dynamic workout with great tunes, check out Roam’s OutRun. Wonk approved, no question about it!
-Lexie
Workout Wonks 