Run to Win

This week last year, I looked back at both my training, my health, and my writing. I think that this has helped me improve all three areas this year.

• I looked at the final numbers for 2006. Last year, I ran less than 1400 miles, held a pretty steady weight and wrote 560 articles. This year, I ran over 1800 miles and my weight had even less swing than last year. I wrote more this year, and I’ll talk about this year’s final numbers a little more in a couple of days.
• The first snow run finally came by this week last year. This year, the first snow run was weeks ago. Snow is great for building strength; this year, rather than dealing with traffic I have been seeking out the snow and taking to the trails.
• I finished the workout locations series of articles by explaining how planning workouts around vacations can be accomplished.
• One of the Coast to Coast runners, Chris Schauerman, made news thanks to his undergraduate research in nanotechnology and physics at RIT.
• I continued my animated series by showinghow to do a crooked arm lateral raise. I also suggested that you loosen your watch band when lifting weights to prevent cutting off your circulation.

Chris Schauerman, one of the Coast to Coast runners, recently made his way into the news because of the undergraduate research that he has been doing. The experience of running across the country with the team really brought home to Chris how important teamwork is in accomplishing a goal.

“How hard do you want to work, and how much do you want to put into it? That will really determine what you get out of it.”

Other applications for this philosophy are not lost on Schauerman, and it very much drives his academic pursuits. The fifth-year physics major in the College of Science commits a lot of his “energy” to projects within RIT’s NanoPower Research Laboratories. Much of his focus centers on incorporating nanomaterials into the development of hydrogen fuel cells and lithium ion batteries.

“One of the things I find really cool is two of the most prominent areas of research going on in the country and in the world right now are renewable energy and nanotechnology.” Adds Schauerman, “To be at the forefront of that - trying new things and exploring new things - is something that is very exciting to me.”

It is very important to find the right school and the right educational opportunity for kids. I am glad that Chris is making the most of his experiences at RIT in both the college of science and on the cross country/track teams.

Thanks to Todd Spivak for bringing the article to my attention.