This year, I’ve been working on running more, mostly because I hate it, in turn because I suck at it.  A few months in, I’ve already racked up more mileage than I managed in the past two full years combined.

I still suck at running, but I definitely suck less.  And though I wouldn’t say I yet love doing it, I now have confidence in my ability to head out the door, start running, and keep running for miles, something I couldn’t have said before.

So I was intrigued recently to find this video, from the NY Times, on W. S. George’s “100 Up” exercise:

George was a chemist’s apprentice in England in the 1870’s, with little time for training.  He developed the exercise so he could train during his lunch break.  In two years, he went from a novice to one of the fastest milers of his time.

I’m only a few days into doing the exercise daily, though I suspect after even two years I’ll be well short of a competitive mile pace.  Still, I can feel the exercise working, and am planning to stick with it.  For other duffer runners, perhaps worth similarly giving it a shot.