(Sep. 2020) Rick Lovett is one of those all-around talents. He exercises, he writes articles and books, he keeps himself up to date on various scientific fronts ... and, importantly, he coaches. The coaching is really crucial, because severe familial arthritis has put an end to his running days. Instead, he walks. A lot. And up steep hills. Through his many endurance experiences, Lovett, now 67 and living in Portland OR, has learned he's not the "wimp" a certain high school P.E. teacher called him. He has also picked up a deep appreciation for the process. "Enjoy the doing," he tells his runners. "The results are something that simply happen when you do the doing."
Career-profession? I’ve done a number of things, ranging from being a law professor to working with a consulting engineering firm specializing in hazardous waste management, but since 1990, I’ve been a full-time freelance writer. Mostly, I do journalism, these days largely with a science-writing orientation, but I also write science fiction, at which I’ve won a number of awards. I’ve also written books about running, bicycling, and cross-country skiing, and well more than 100 articles about running, coaching, and exercise physiology. Sometime around 2003, I started converting all of this into coaching, starting with running partners, and gradually moving on to become the coach for Portland’s Team Red Lizard club, which I still coach.
When did you start running and why? I took up running for a very simple reason. When I was