In researching a follow-up to Independent Sources critique of Jonathan Chait’s cement-headed LAT op-ed and specifically how much time President Bush spends per day exercising (and it doesn’t seem to be all that much), we came across this article from USA Today published in 2000. The article compared the running traits of Bush and then rival candidate Al Gore.

As of mid-2000, both Bush and Gore ran 5–6 times a week. The difference was that Gore ran longer and slower (averaged 5 mile runs at 9 min. pace) whereas Bush ran shorter and faster (3–4 mile runs averaging 7 minute pace). Thus Bush was about twice as efficient in his training.

Thus for those out there that are still smarting from the “stolen” election of 2000, you may not like the man in the White House but he is spending half of the time that your candidate was to maintain similar fitness. Think about that the next time someone describes Presidential interest in physical fitness as “creepy.”

Addendum: Independent Sources is still waiting to hear from the author of the the Times op-ed so that we can help him find time in his busy day to work-out (something he said that he couldn’t manage to do on his own).

Technorati: al gore bush

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 23rd, 2005 at 8:24 pm by Insider and is filed under Los Angeles Times, Weekend Edition / Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.