hree years after the bomb went off, Mills exercises at least five days per week—doing adaptive CrossFit workouts and running intervals every other day on his blades.
“I can probably run a mile and half continuously right now,” he said. “I love intervals—I can do 10 to 16 100-meter sprints.”
Mills takes weekends off from regimented workouts to spend time at his home in Maine with his wife, Kelsey, and 4-year-old daughter, Chloe.
“When we’re on the trampoline in our backyard, I’ll take my legs off and do some backflips,” he said. “I want to stay as active as I can to stay healthy and show Chloe that I’m going to be around until I’m at least 150.”
Mills extends his message of health and tenacity to the veteran community through his new book, Tough as They Come, and through the Travis Mills Foundation, an organization that assists wounded and injured soldiers. For the past five years, he’s hosted a Memorial Day road race, the Miles for Mills 5K in Augusta, Maine, to benefit his cause. In May, 257 runners crossed the finish line.
This year, Mills plans to run the entire distance. “I’d like to complete the 5K,” he said. “Right now I’m physically not there. But I think it can be done. I’m working every day towards it.
“To run, I need help putting my legs on, but once they’re on straight and not crooked, there’s nothing hard about it at all,” he said. “It’s just putting one foot in front of the other. I’m wheezing, but I tell myself to stay tough.”
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