Run to Win

This week last year I was fighting off an infection that kept me away from the computer for extended periods.

• Scott continued our series on books by writing about health and fitness books.
• I pointed out that lifting weights is a means to an end and not an end in and of itself.
• In doping news, Dick Pound laughed off an IOC reprimand over his slander of Lance Armstrong. (It turns out that he was right to laugh it off, since it didn’t affect the IOC’s view on his character at all. He has since been nominated for President of the Court for Arbitration of Sport.)
• This week two years ago, I demonstrated how to do pullups and also explained how to do negative pullups. I learned that thirsty people feel more pain. I wrote up a recipe for cooking shark steaks and I wrote a review on The New Rules of Lifting.

A couple of years ago, I reviewed The New Rules of Lifting by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove. It is one of my favorite exercise books and I have tailored quite a few of my lifting routines after ones that were provided in that book over the past couple of years. A common question that a lot of people were asking the authors, though, was how to adjust the workouts so that they would be appropriate for women.

Now, there is a New Rules of Lifting for Women. I have not read the book yet, so I do not know how different that it is from the original book. According to Lou Schuler, most workouts that would work for men will also work for women, except that instead of gaining bulk they would just get in shape and look better as women do not have as much testosterone as men do.

Ryan Lee interviewed Lou Schuler last week about writing the book, and they discussed why he wrote it and some of the influences that Schuler had. You can listen to the 12 minute interview at Ryan’s site or by clicking play here:
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2007 has been a really busy year here at Run to Win. The website has really grown. I wrote more this year than I did last year, and received about half again as many comments and trackbacks. More than twice as many people visited me this year than did in 2006, and there are about 4 times as many people subscribing to this website this year than there were towards the end of last year.

I am really happy with those numbers.

The popular content on the site this year was not quite as surprising as last year. First, I have been paying a lot more attention to what has been going on this year than I did in years past, so I had a good idea about what was popular. Second, I predicted last year what would be the most popular content this year, because the articles had not had enough time to gain traction and take the top spots last year.

My Marathon Preparation Series article list was viewed more times than any other page besides my home page last year. I knew that it would be. More people actually visited the article about what to do the week before the marathon than the series page, but the series page was viewed multiple times as people jumped around within the series.

A few of the other articles from the marathon preparation series made the top 10 in both people reading the article and unique visitors over the past year. Almost all of the articles made the top 25. The popularity of this series is a big reason why I am writing a more in-depth book about the subject which will be available in less than a month.

The one big surprise on the list this year was a random article that I wrote about Tom Brady’s NFL Contract, which had a lot of people come to visit it. It was the only popular article that was more sports than running related, and I did not promote it at all.

The articles that dealt with running shoe frequently asked questions and tempo running were also quite popular and made it into the top 10. The environmental impact of running and describing the difference between running on a track and running on a treadmill were close to making that top 10 but just missed it.

Some of last year’s favorite articles are still really popular, though. My video about how to tie your shoes so that they don’t come untied has been bringing in a steady stream of traffic. The New Rules of Lifting is also just as popular, being the 11^th most viewed page on the site (including the home page!) I highly recommend the book if you are considering cross training.

A second surprise, although not as large of one since I did promote the page a little, was an article that I published this month. Just over two weeks ago, I began offering a free special report, The 3 Components of an Effective Workout. I started publishing a running tips newsletter, and you can download the report when you sign up. It is pretty amazing to me that it was the 15^th most popular page when it has had so little time or exposure. This must mean that if you haven’t signed up for my newsletter yet, you better hurry up and do so! (I’ll be releasing some new goodies in the near future to people that are on the list.)

Since 2007 has shown nothing but improvements to both the website and my satisfaction with it, I see no reason that this trend won’t continue into the new year. I believe that 2008 will see even more and faster growth, especially since I formed a company a few months ago and will be opening the doors to my new business, Run to Win LLC, in January. I hope that you stick around for another exciting year!

2006 has been a really busy year here at Run to Win. The website has really grown. I have written a total of about 750 articles so far, with around 900 comments and trackbacks on those articles. I have been taking a look at some of the most popular content over the past year, and some of it surprises me a little bit.

Based on total traffic throughout the year, my most popular topic that I wrote about is Dean Karnazes and his announcement to run 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. His announcement back in April and the coverage this Autumn as he ran it drove quite a bit of traffic through the site, as did Sam Thompson’s 50 marathon feat which finished up as Dean was starting.

The next most popular article was just a one off workout tip that I wrote about eating before and after working out last March. I have touched on diet quite a few times this years, giving my views and offering advice; I even hit on some zany ideas like intuitive eating. None of those articles were nearly as popular, though, or had as much time to be popular.

My series of articles on The New Rules of Lifting was also extremely popular. I hope that a few people decided to pick up a copy of the book, because I have been using workouts from it all year and have been very happy with my results. It probably did not hurt that one of the book’s authors, Alwyn Cosgrove, responded to the review. I shared my thoughts on all 20 new rules of lifting for those that wanted a preview of the first half of the book. The best part was definately the workout plans, though.

The series of articles that I wrote about Marathon Preparation this Autumn did not really have time to get enough eyeballs on it to make it to my official list, but I have no doubt it will be one of my most popular topics over the coming year. The past 2 or 3 months have shown that the tips in this 9 article series is very much in demand.

After reviewing Coast to Coast, I held a contest for a free copy of the book. I was rooting for a friend of mine to win the free copy, but I didn’t rig the system so somebody that I did not know wound up winning. By coincidence, it was somebody that is currently going to RIT. I also discovered that a current teammate of mine had also done a relay from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean about 20 years ago. That was when I discovered that transcontinental relay record.

I was a little bit surprised that my series about shoe maintenance was not more popular. I wrote all 12 articles ahead of time and had them appear on this site while I was on my honeymoon. My video about how to keep your shoes tied, however, was also very popular. It was helped in part by being a part of a group writing project over at ProBlogger, as is this article, for that matter!

I am looking forward to 2007, and have a lot of plans on ways to improve this website and provide even more valuable content for you. Until then, enjoy your holidays, and check out a few more retrospectives and looks ahead over at the ProBlogger group writing project.

When I wrote my review a few days ago of The New Rules of Lifting, I forgot to mention that the book seemed as though it were aimed at men and barely mentioned the differences between men and women in regards to the workouts. Most of the studies that are mentioned in the book are about men. In my correspondance with one of the authors, Alwyn Cosgrove, I asked him whether there really was a bias and how to account for gender differences. This is his response (reprinted with permission):
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I emailed the authors to let them know about the review I wrote yesterday about The New Rules of Lifting, and both of them have been very friendly and appreciative of my having put it up. As such, I’m appreciative that they wrote it.

Alwyn Cosgrove had this to say in response (reprinted with permission):
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The New Rules of Lifting is a recently published book from Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove. The New Rules of Lifting’s basic premise is that it is not which muscles you work out at the gym that makes a real difference in your body, but how you move those muscles. The New Rules of Lifting are based upon using muscles in tandem and in very natural ways, rather than isolating your muscles and working your muscles in a way that your body will never need outside of a gym. The authors recommend six basic movements with which to base your workouts. From the back cover:
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Chris over at Strength News has a book review up of The New Rules of Lifting. He gives a brief description of the book and comes to this conclusion:

For the more advanced lifters that frequent this blog I wouldn’t bother picking up the book, but if you’ve got the money you may pick up a few things by reading through it. If you are new to fairly new to lifting, and looking for a book that will get you pointed in the right direction this one will do it.