Reason #2: Running away

OK, so we talked about possibly having to fight off a bad guy and how a higher level of fitness would greatly improve your chances of survival in the first few seconds of an altercation. But here's the thing, once you initiate (and I mean initiate) your fight (5 kicks to the groin ought to do the trick), that may get him off of you for a few seconds. That will give you only a slight head start (all of this is best case scenario, of course).... and then, you have to run like hell!! You will need explosive, out of the box, power to get you off to a good start. Even being two steps ahead will at least put you out of arm's reach right? Now, answer this question, once this is done, taking your current level of fitness into consideration, how long will you be able to run (not a nice leisurely jog, but RUN) to get away? I'm no criminal, but I'm pretty sure that someone who is out to rob people and take what doesn't belong to them, doesn't have the work ethic that it takes to gain a high level of fitness, like the kind it would take to apprehend some victim who has mometarily escaped their grasp due to a swift kick in the nether regions! It stands to reason that they do not consider fitness as part of the regimen for honing their craft of lazy criminal activity. You will not only need the intial explosive starting power, you will also need some serious speed. This can easily be developed by following a 5K running program that calls for speed work as little as one time per week. If you use a beginner program, it will progress you from sedentary to hauling freight in a matter of a few months. Now, not only did you get a jump on the bad guy, you are now either as fast as, or faster than he is. Is that going to be enough? NO!! Applying this critical situation to movies like "Friday the 13th parts 1 through, oh I don't know what is it 18?" Jason seems able to walk and apprehend his victims. His walking pace must be incredinly fast!! So not only will you need explosive power and speed, you are going to need some serious endurance! That's right, getting the jump on the Jason's of your life and then pulling a few feet in front of him is good, but not good enough. You will have to maintain that pace until you run out of the forest, or parking garage and reach safety. When the bad guy gets tired and wants to quit, that's when you need to be feeling strong and extend the distance between you and him. In order to facilitate this, you'll need to throw in a long run on the weekends. Pretty much all training programs that prepare you for any distance call for a long run. You can start out with a short distance and only increase that distance slowly, over time. Not only will this allow you to endure and run longer, it will hone your mental acuity, making your senses sharper in your time of need. If you're fit, you will have faster reflexes too. This is where the final ingredients in getting away from a bad guy come in handy: quickness and agility. Just as that frustrating scene always seems to happen in the movies, you do not want to become "that" victim who has successfully mounted an escape from Jason and, just as she is getting away, falls down! If you have quickness and agility, in addition to the explosive power, speed and endurance, then you will be able to make those evasion moves that require quick cuts to the right and left that will throw Jason off your tracks. You will be able to quickly duck under, rather than get clothes-lined by that tree branch hanging low in the woods. You will be able to jump over and not get tripped by that big tree root that always seems to twist the victim's ankle in these movies.

Taking the entire scenario I just described and what it would require to successfully mount an escape from all of the "Jason's" out there, ask yourself whether you could do any of this with your current level of fitness. A person who is sedentary makes the perfect victim. A person who is dedicated to themselves goes from being a victim of Jason's, to an adversary, the thing we all want to be known as to a criminal with evil intentions...the wrong tree! This is why reason #2 for staying fit is: running away from a bad guy.