Calhoun getting a fitness push, extra support this spring from an unexpected source
Rain started falling at the Surprise Recreation Campus around 5:30 a.m. Thursday morning, which meant that Texas Rangers outfielder Willie Calhoun’s morning run with assistant coach Jayce Tingler would have to be moved indoors.
And it led to a competition with two others who have joined the every-other-day running club – general manager Jon Daniels and assistant GM Mike Daly.
“Our goal is for all our guys to look like me physically,” Daniels said.
It’s not as comical as it might seem. Daly ran the 2017 New York City Marathon, and Daniels is part of the Orangetheory Fitness craze. They, along with others in the front office, work out before sunrise and before the players need the weight room.
There was no running in Thursday’s competition. One team burned 100 calories on an assault bike while the other rowed 3,000 meters, and then they switched.
And the winners were … .
“They sandbagged us,” said Daniels, a member of the losing team.
The big winner in all of this is Calhoun, whose fitness journey has been well-chronicled and is now a way of life. He and Tingler worked out frequently over the off-season and haven’t stopped.
“Ting is a beast,” Calhoun said.
He is also getting friendly competition and support from unlikely sources, two front-office types who are part of the group in charge of charting his career path.
“The first day when they came out it threw me off-guard,” Calhoun said. “I saw JD behind me, and me and Tingler were walking outside. I thought they were going to do their own thing, but JD and Daly were running with us.
“I turned around, and I was like, ‘JD, you’re running with us?’ He was like, ‘You bet your [butt] we are.’ Seeing them do that shows how much they care and they support me. That means a lot.”
The typical run is 2.5 miles, maybe a tick more, and Daniels said that he might lobby to make it as much as a mile longer. Calhoun said that 2.5 miles is not a problem for him, which one year and 24 pounds ago he would have never believed.
Especially at 6 a.m. before his day on the baseball field.
“No chance,” he said.
This story was originally published February 21, 2019 at 11:15 AM.
