CULT OF JAMES

Christmas morning. Most people are opening presents. RAI was opening a thirty-two minute indoor session. Heart rate at 150 average, maxing at 161. Honest effort — not the near-death experience of yesterday’s 191, but steady and real. The kind of workout where you’re working but you can still breathe through your nose. Four days in a row now. December 22nd,…

Christmas Eve. Thirty-three minutes. Average heart rate: 164. Max: 191. That max heart rate is not a typo. Whatever RAI was doing in that room, they were trying to leave their body. 191 is the kind of number where your chest reminds you it contains organs. The playlist was VTuber music and anime electronica — Kizuna Ai’s “Sky High,” somunia’s…

Second session of the day. Five hours after the first one, back at it. Thirty-four minutes this time — shorter, but heart rate at 138 average says they weren’t coasting. Two-a-days the week before Christmas. Brooks’ “Riot” opened the set, which tells you the energy RAI was chasing. Julian Calor’s “Space Flute” somewhere in the middle, which is exactly as…

Seventy minutes. The day before Christmas Eve. Heart rate averaging 151 with a max of 172 — this wasn’t going through the motions. This was work. An hour and ten minutes of indoor effort fueled by a playlist that knew the assignment. EDX’s “Neptune” hitting right when the lungs started arguing. RetroVision’s “Take Off” arriving exactly when the name suggests….

Two days before Christmas. Forty-one minutes indoors, no distance tracked. Just RAI and whatever workout they were grinding through that morning. Heart rate averaging 132 says this was moderate — steady work, not a sprint. The kind of session where you’re watching the clock but not dying. December in Florida doesn’t give you a weather excuse to skip, so you…