This week last year I celebrated the first anniversary of owning my first house. Which means that this year I’d be celebrating the 2nd anniversary, except that I’m down here in Atlanta taking a class (and running a marathon tomorrow) instead.
This week last year I pondered whether elite athletes should drop out of races. Basically, I figure that unless they are actually sick or injured, they should complete the race if they are being paid an appearance fee. If they need to actually win in order to cash, then I have no problems with them dropping out.
Some friends of mine attempted to raise $1500 to fund research on multiple sclerosis by participating in a 50 mile walk called the MS Challenge. They made their goal and then some.
This week 2 years ago, I described how much Bulgarian split squats burn, and continued the New Rules series by offering up some thoughts on the sixth and seventh rules. (I was moving into a new house, after all.)
A little over a week ago, I was offered the opportunity to review one of Nike’s new workout mixes that you can load on your iPod and use to guide you through a workout. There was only one problem with this…I don’t have a working mp3 player, and never wear headphones when I’m working out. This actually worked out pretty well, though, because I was able to convince the guy at Nike to let me give it to a few people that belong to my email newsletter to review. Within a few minutes of sending the email out, I had a dozen people asking for a review copy.
The workout is 40 minutes long and consists of 13 popular songs. Throughout the entire time, Kara Goucher coaches you through a timed fartlek run. Whether this is appropriate for you is an individual decision, as evidenced by the two very different reviews that I received and that you can read below.
First, I’d like to remind you that if you listen to any sort of music while you are out running to remember to pay attention to your surroundings, especially when you are running with traffic.
Second, if you are interested in purchasing the workout you can do some through the iTunes store for $12.99. (That link will open iTunes directly on your computer if it is installed.)
If you would like more information about it, you can stream the entire workout over your computer by visiting the Nike+ Music site and clicking on Kara Goucher’s album cover. You can listen to the entire workout through the website, but you will not be able to download it. There is an option where you can download a short sample that you can put onto your iPod.
If all is going according to plan, then I am on my way down to Atlanta right now for the RRCA Coaching Clinic and for the ING Georgia Marathon. I have a review scheduled to appear on the site tomorrow morning thanks to a couple of excellent readers from my newsletter, and if I can get some online access over the weekend then I’ll provide some thoughts on the race after I get done running. If not, then you’ll have to wait until I get home!
I am expecting good things out of the marathon this weekend. Based on the reviews that I read last year, everybody really liked the race except for a few major problems with it, such as not providing enough water. The race directors seem to have learned from their mistakes based on their preparations, so I am expecting things to go pretty well as long as they get the route cleaned up from the recent tornado that attacked Atlanta.
If you are going to be in the area, then keep an eye out for me at the expo on Friday night. The expo is free of charge both Friday and Saturday, although it has been moved to the Georgia Dome due to the storm damage downtown. If you are at the race as either a runner or a spectator, then feel free to come up and say hi if you spot me. I will be wearing bib #129 and expect to be running at a pretty even 6:50-6:52 pace throughout the entire race.
My goals for this marathon are pretty simple; it’s going to be a long tempo run. The idea is to get in 28-30 good miles, with 26 of them taking me to the finish line in about 3 hours. I want to be able to recover quickly from the race so that I can get back to my normal training next week as I prepare for my goal marathon on May 4th in Rhode Island.
If you are running and want to run a sub-3 hour race, then I’m more than happy to provide the pace for you. I’ll warn you that I sometimes don’t shut up when I’m running, especially when running marathons, so I might talk your ear off. Of course, that could provide you with the motivation to stay ahead of me and meet your goals, since you’ll hear me coming up behind you!
The L.L. Bean 4th of July 10k is worth registering early for this year. The race is always competitive, is usually quite warm, and is a good way to spend the morning on our Nation’s birthday.
Plus, you might get free shoes. The first 500 runners to pre-register before May 15th at noon get a free pair of New Balance 1062 running shoes. They also get a free technical running shirt, along with another 300 people who preregister.
I have run the race before, and I like it, but for the past few years have been making my way up to Bridgton for the 4 on the 4th race. I like 4 milers. This year, though, I am planning on making my way back to Freeport for the L.L. Bean 10k. There is also a 1 mile fun run if you have children that is always a hoot to watch.
The race benefits the Casco Bay YMCA so that they can continue meeting their mission of never turning anyone away because of inability to pay.
You can register online at Active.com. If you are interested in volunteering on race day, you can contact Stephen Wells or leave a comment here and I’ll see that he gets it. He’s offering a volunteer’s technical t-shirt to anybody that helps set up.
This weekend, I will be traveling down to the Atlanta, Georgia area. The main focus for the weekend will be taking the RRCA coaching certification course, which will then be followed by the second running of the ING Georgia Marathon. In order to get ready for the race, I started out by using my Checklist Generator that I developed a few months ago.
This was the first time that I really used the checklist generator, since I haven’t done any destination trips for a race since I’ve developed it. And you know what, it worked great! The default list had quite a few items that I wasn’t going to need, so I cleared those items out. There were a couple of items that I needed to include in the pre- and post- race bags that weren’t already on the list, but not many.
Mostly I just changed the items to be more specific. The luggage list, though, I highly customized. Since I’m going down to Georgia for 4 or 5 days, rather than just making a weekend trip of it, and since I am taking a class, I needed to add quite a few non-running related items onto the list. I then printed the list, interrupted my wife while she was studying so that she could tell me what I’d missed, and now I have an easy checklist that I can use to make sure that I don’t forget anything.
There are a few things that I think are worth changing in the default list, so when I get home next week I will probably do that. I just checked my database, and it looks like over 600 people have used the application to create a checklist, which is pretty cool! I haven’t actually checked that number since shortly after I created it, so that’s over 500 people in the last 2 or 3 months. Hopefully that number expands a bit now that the marathon season is coming upon us!
I had originally created the following video for Complete Running, but around the time I created it I was also busy getting ready to sell my book, and Mark was busy with the redesign over at Complete Running, so it never made its way over there. I’ve got the original video on my hard drive somewhere, so I’ll try to upload it to a better service than YouTube at some point, but if you want to see how the checklist generator works then you can watch this 5 minute introduction to it.
The checklist generator is a very simple tool, it only does one thing, but it does that one thing really well. And now that I’ve used it in a real situation as opposed to a theoretical testing situation, I’m glad I finally got around to creating it! It was on the back burner as a project for at least 2 years. Next time you are going to be traveling to a race, give it a whirl:
Sue asked last week, “How difficult is eating healthy for an individual? Exercise is not as difficult, it’s just being motivated enough to do it. In my honest opinion, I think eating healthy is really difficult because a lot of us are busy people, and eating the right foods are not as convenient as eating the foods that are readily available. Also, if there are healthy foods readily available, it’s hard to come by and costs a lot more.”
I do not believe that eating healthy is all that difficult, nor does it have to be very inconvenient or expensive. With a little planning ahead, you can easily provide yourself with plenty of healthy snacks, meals and leftovers with which to fuel yourself.
I actually think that eating healthy can be easier when you are busy because a small amount of time up front can prevent you from wasting a lot of time throughout the week.
You will not have to worry about going out to a restaurant or fast food establishment for your lunches, you will not have to go to the grocery store every day or two to get the staples that you need to prepare dinner, and you won’t have to waste time by going out to eat when you don’t have anything to cook.
In my household, we are the definition of being busy. I work full time, run part time, and am trying to start a home business. My wife goes to law school full time, works part time and spends almost all of her free time studying. My cat, well she mostly just alternates between sleeping and running around like a mad-woman, although she does her best to help my wife study (as long as the books are not in my wife’s lap that is.)
My wife constantly tells me that we need to eat healthier, and every time I have to remind her that I am perfectly content with the healthy content of my diet. The difference between our two diets are that I have more of an opportunity to snack throughout the day. Our dinners are the same, our lunches are usually similar, and if anything she eats a healthier breakfast than I do. (Click here to continue reading…)
This week last year, I concentrated on the Eastern States 20 Miler. The night before the race, I published my race plan, which I followed up with a report card on how well I followed the plan. It is a good case study for those interested in doing such things themselves.
Continuing with this month’s theme on audio, I offered up some podcasts for runners. As far as I know, most of them are still going, although I don’t listen to them very often.
The movie 300 involved a lot of actors who had to get into really good shape. Before shooting for the film started, they had a workout that was a “right of passage” of sorts for folks working the film, called the 300 workout. It is pretty tough, and I haven’t managed to do it yet. I also haven’t really tried.
Once again, I seemed to miss a week for looking back. Last week last year was busy, with quite a few news notes, training tips, and discussions on research findings.
I discussed some research on the merits of tempo workouts vs. interval workouts. Personally, I prefer a good mix of different types of workouts in my regimen.
I recommended that you should watch for falling objects when you run, especially at this time of year. As ice melts in the trees or off of power lines, it can come crashing down quite forcefully. It also helps to spot any tree limbs that might be coming down or anything that the breeze picks up and throws towards you.
After a close call in poor visibility, I reminded you to never play chicken with a car, mostly because a car is much more massive and will usually win. It just isn’t worth the bother. Having been hit by a car before, I actively take steps to avoid getting hit by car again.
In response to an article at Complete Running, I disputed 7 sleeping myths and facts that were presented with my own thoughts on the matter. There were a few points that I agreed with up to a point, so they weren’t all wrong (from my point of view.)
I pointed out an article at Free Money Finance that described how the author improved his life through exercise. Having never not exercised, one reason that I keep it up is to keep from degrading my life.
In racing news, the men’s 8k championship was in Central Park, which had a few hitches but still provided some good entertainment for spectators. A couple of my college teammates were competing. I also began preparations for the Boston Marathon, spending the weekend shoveling snow and getting in a fast long run.
