Run to Win

Eating well while traveling can be difficult.

Hours on the roads, quick stops at restaurants, and bad hotel food served to captive audiences can easily lend itself to a “not quite right” feeling in your gut even a week after you get home and back to your normal diet.

There are a few tactics you can follow to improve matters, though.
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It was a light week this week last year.

• I began the week by discussing how effective body weight exercises are when traveling. This was the final article of the month on training and travel in collaboration with Scott.
• I collected my best tips as well as what other people with the article about what to do when a dog wants to chase you. Once you use these tips and are safely away, I really recommend that you call animal services or your local warden. It may seem like a harsh thing to do and it will definitely upset the owner, but it is in the dog’s best interest for their owner to be aware of what they are doing and making sure that the animal stays safe and doesn’t put itself or anybody else in danger.
• This week last year, the marathon world record was broken by Haile Gebrselassie with a time of 2:04:26. That ain’t walkin’…
• In local racing news, Kay West finished the Eliot 5k in 1:28:53, which was below the USATF age group guidelines for the distance. She was 97 years old! I wonder if she’ll be running again later this morning?
• This week 2 years ago, I made the front page of the local newspaper. The story didn’t have a whole lot to do with me, but it involved a giant picture so I won’t complain! I pointed out how easy it is to make new friends while you are running, and discussed how important a flexible training schedule can be.
• This week 3 years ago, I discussed DNA tests that determine what sports you may have better success at than others. I also spoke about running through illnesses and a good swiss ball routine.

This week last year ranged from humorous to serious as I discussed topics ranging from cartoons to hospitals.

• In the training tips department, I wrote about training options while on the road. There are a lot of different ways to stay in shape even if you travel regularly, and this article pointed at some different ways to stay fit in your hotel room, the hotel fitness center or a local gym, or by heading outside.
• I make no bones about my abhorrence to caffeine, but I can still joke about it. I found a great webcomic strip that helps you to learn how to quit drinking caffeine. It gave me a good chuckle.
• In local news, cyclists received the protection of some new laws here in Maine by allowing motor vehicles to cross a solid yellow line when passing a cyclist, requiring at least 3 feet of clearance before passing, and by not allowing teenagers to use their cell phones while driving. I haven’t really noticed much of a difference on the streets over the past year, however. In other local news, Team competition returned to the Eliot 5k. Eliot used to be the largest 5k in Maine, and annually draws an extremely competitive local field. This year’s race (which is a week from today) should be no different.
• Also in the news, John L Parker, Jr had a heart attack and spent the next few months recovering. His health has since improved and he is doing quite well as of the last that I heard some months ago.
• This week 2 years ago, I created a video demonstration of how to tie your shoes with a runner’s knot so that they do not come untied. I also listed a few exercise related How-To articles and also reviewed Chariots of Fire, which must be the most well known running movie ever made. Dean Karnazes began the Endurance 50 and ran his first of 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. I began to mix up my pushups with medicine balls to give myself a little extra challenge, and I also offered a race tip about running first thing the morning before a race to properly loosen up your body.
• This week 3 years ago, I climbed Mount Washington and I wrote about proper gym etiquette.

This week last year I gave a lot of good advice about how to find a place to work out, how to choose a race plan (including a case study) and explaiend how your racing problems are all (quite literally) in your head.

• The week began with a new series with Scott, this time focusing on travel. I offered advice on finding a track to work out on when you are traveling. My favorite tip is to just look at Google Maps or some other aerial or satellite photography of the area you will be visiting, because running tracks are very distinctive and easy to pick out on a map.
• I created a case study on developing a race plan so that you could follow my thought processes on how I decided what to do during a specific race. I then followed that case study up with the actual results of the race after all was said and done.
• One of the reasons that I needed such a detailed race plan was because a few days after the 5k race, I ran a 50k. It was my first time racing beyond the distance of a marathon.
• Some of the latest research in muscle performance found that most racing problems are probably mental rather than physical. There is a chemical influence in the body relating to muscle damage, but there aren’t any actual problems with the muscles themselves that would inhibit performance.
• This week 2 years ago, I shared the 2^nd best way to avoid hangovers (the best obviously being to avoid drinking to excess.) I also suggested that you check your gym or race bag before you leave in the morning. It is much more convenient to remember something before you leave than after.
• This week 3 years ago, I wrote about the best marathon training run…ever! Not only did I get in a good 17 miles, but my girlfriend also agreed to marry me along the way. We’ve now been happily married for a little over 2 years. A little less exciting but more useful to everyone else, I also wrote about losing weight by cutting out sugar water by drinking more water and less soda or sports drinks.

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:

http://marathoning.org/checklist

In a continuing collaboration with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we will be writing about training and travel throughout the month of September. Scott finishes up this month by asking, “Does bodyweight training carry over to free-weight work?”

Scott has at times done a lot of traveling, and rather than cart around heavy objects or lift random things that he can find he tends to opt for body weight work. He has not had a lot of success translating that body weight work into free weight work such as squats and bench presses, however.

Personally, I do not see a problem with that. Body weight exercises tend to work your body in more natural ways than most free weight exercises anyway.

My brother and one of his best friends always wrestle when they meet, to see whether weight room strength (my brother) or farm strength (his friend) will win out. My brother always gets beat, because his friend’s muscles are used to doing real work, and not just simulated work.

Body weight exercises are not quite as good as working on a farm for most of your life, but they are still better than nothing. I recommend a balanced program that incorporates both, along with running and other sports.

So, how has body weight training worked for you?

In a continuing collaboration with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we will be writing about training and travel throughout the month of September. This week I would like to talk about evaluating the available training options when you travel.

Keeping up with your training while you are on the road can be very difficult. You basically have three options available to you:

• Exercise in your room
• Exercise in a hotel fitness center (or a local gym)
• Exercise outside

General Advice

The key to maintaining your fitness while you travel is to be flexible.
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In a continuing collaboration with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we will be writing about training and travel throughout the month of September. This week, Scott discusses traveling with bands. What is a band?

Although there are several types of bands, here I’m referring to the heavier variety that can be used with barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells or just on their own. If you’ve never seen them, think of an incredibly large (several feet across) rubber band.

Scott explains what bands are, why you should travel with them, and provides some sample exercises that you can do with them. He also includes a video of doing band sprints, which are as effective as they are humorous to watch! You can check out his article at Straight to the Bar.