Health and Fitness

Make The Choice for Fitness – The Monday Mile

I love to run. Yesterday coming out from food shopping with my wife, I saw a lady lose a cucumber and a few tomatoes out of her cart. I left the second cart (I have two teen boys) with my wife, chased down the produce, and then ran to catch up to the woman to return the items, and then jogged back to my wife. She was talking to some other folks who remarking on how nice I was – and she noted that while I AM nice, and that is why I did it, I like to run around…


Why I Don’t Run First Thing in the Morning

Yesterday afternoon we had a surprise softball game for Kev’s youngest at 5:30. We made it to dinner at 7, and we were home by 8. Since I hadn’t yet had time to get my run in, I thought I would go ahead and do it before it got too dark. I was almost to our back gate, a little over two miles into the run, and it was getting pretty dark. I saw a rattlesnake about 15 feet away, stretched out across the middle of the crushed limestone road. There was just enough daylight left that I felt safe getting…


Budd Coates Teaches ‘Running On Air’ – The Monday Mile

I remember being about 20 miles into my first marathon, and the pacer making a very big deal about breathing deeply and in general watching our breathing closely. Even then this was not news – after getting myself into ‘fuel trouble’ on my first half-marathon, I started to pay attention to a whole bunch of running-related things such as nutrition, hydration, tapering, and breathing. Someone had mentioned to me that one of the best ways to manage breathing was to pace it so you are breathing in and out in sync with steps, and that you should spend more time…


Recovery Is Training, too – The Monday Mile

This is one of those things I fear saying out loud, but I have never been sidelines for more than a day or two with a running injury. I recognize that I am not normal – I have a good running posture and form, good joints, and a fast recovery. I tend to bounce back from ‘doing something stupid’ (my wife’s mantra) pretty quickly As a result I avoid giving much advice – because I am always on the edge of stupidity! So when Judie decided to use a RunKeeper 5K training plan – and quickly ended up with an…


R U A MILER? National Run a Mile Days – The Monday Mile

Today marks an important – though totally artificial – milestone: the day Roger Bannister first officially broke the 4 minute mile. It is important because it removed a mental obstacle – and it is artificial because it is an arbitrary round number. That mark remains a goal for all milers and a remarkable achievement for any runner. The American Running Association is using the anniversary to push fitness and running among young people with their ‘R U A MILER’ campaign. The American Running Association is hoping that by pushing the mile in schools they can get more kids involved with…


Early Morning Running Safety Tips – The Monday Mile

For all of the years I lived in Massachusetts and was a morning runner, which I count as 18 or 19 – Patriots Day would mark the time when people would come out of hibernation and either start exercising or take the exercise routines outdoors. As I have noted, I keep running outdoors in pretty much any weather, this winter contending with wind chills around -25. But for those who mark the Boston Marathon as ‘oh crap I made a resolution and we are four months into the year I better get my butt outdoors’ time, there is a bit…


The Right and Wrong Way to Do Post-Disaster Fundraising

Much has been written about all of the amazing people who stepped up after the Boston Marathon bombings, as well as companies in the area that opened their doors for stranded runners and other impacted individuals. We have since seen both good and bad examples of those who claim to want to help. The obvious bad example was the fake Twitter account looking for retweets claiming a donation would be made for each one, and the many fake charities looking to funnel off some of the generosity that has sprung up. One of the best things that happened was the…


What Every Athlete and Weekend Warrior Should Have

One of the aftershocks of the Boston Marathon bombings this week is that racing is going to drastically change. Competitor.com, the organizers of the wildly popular (and often sold-out) “Rock n Roll” marathons has already said they’re working on updated security procedures, and runners at New York Road Runners are being told they can only bag check items in official clear plastic bags, with absolutely no backpacks or other bags placed inside the clear ones for security reasons. Organizing yourself for a race is going to become more than just training and showing up, but there is one item every…


5 Ways to Honor the Boston Marathon Tragedy Victims – A Monday Mile Special Edition

As someone who was born and spent more than forty years in the Boston area, my heart is heavy today. Although I am glad that the numbers didn’t continue climbing through the night in terms of those hurt, I am still having trouble wrapping my head around the horrific events that occurred at yesterday’s Boston Marathon. As I went for my run this morning, my mind was constantly thinking about the situation, and I posted that on my Facebook page. Since then, I have also been thinking about how we can best deal with the feeling of loss that every runner…


My One-Year Runnerversary – The Monday Mile

I have posted several times about running as well as other fitness and health issues over the past year; I have also started a weekly ‘Monday Mile’ feature – and everyone has been amazing and supportive throughout, with loads of great discussions and tons of new stuff I have learned. At this point, I have no hesitation calling myself ‘a runner’ — something I would never have done before last fall. But when I look back to when the moment was that I turned the corner from being a ‘guy who jogged to control weight’ to ‘a runner’, it was Easter…


Tips for Your First 5K – The Monday Mile

Over the past week or so, several folks at Gear Diary have started (or re-started) running as part of training for a 5K road race. We’ve been having a number of discussions, and Carly and I have been recalling running our first races. Since spring has officially started and even in the northeast we’re starting to see temperatures climb to near 50ºF during the day – which means weekend runners! So I thought it would make sense to take a bit and offer up some tips for your First 5K! Here we go: Get an App: Dan & Judie are…


No Scream Cream – Waxing Poetic (and Pain Free) in Jamaica

I’m on vacation in Jamaica with my wife, Elana, her brother Rob and Rob’s girlfriend, Alison. We had a casual breakfast in our villa this morning, after which Rob headed to the beach to read. I lingered a bit too long over my last cup of coffee and, as a result, had the opportunity to hear a FASCINATING conversation on shaving, electrolysis, and waxing. (It made me happier than ever to have been born male.) So why am I sharing this here on Gear Diary? Because Alison told Elana about the “best product ever” in this regard – Relax and…


Your Health is No April Fool’s Joke – The Monday Mile

Today being April 1st, you can expect to spend the day regaled by all sorts of ‘witty’ fake ads, fake ‘news’ items and so on – we have already seen Google out with a ‘YouTube closure’ and others, and it is easy to predict that many others will follow for Apple, Microsoft and more. Over at the Greatist they have a parody article about getting ‘six-pack abs in a day’ – and it is worth reading for a laugh. But as many wind down from a day of excessive ham, bacon and chocolate, it is worth remembering that your health…


Healthy Delicious Lemonade in Seconds

It’s summer, and that means it is time for lemonade. (Actually, I love lemonade, so all year long is lemonade time.) The problem is that lemonade is made with sugar, and more and more studies are suggesting that sugar is not only addictive but is a toxic poison. (Yeah, I know the words “addictive”, “toxic” and “poison” are strong, but I’m just referencing the words used in places such as here and here.) I even spoke about it last fall during the Jewish Holy Days and encouraged my community to begin taking their health more seriously. (Read it.) (According to…


Banish ‘Monkey Mind’ for a Better Run – The Monday Mile

‘Monkey Mind’ is the term used to describe the background chatter that happens in our mind, giving voice to the things that stress or worry or otherwise weigh on our minds. For many, going out for a run or working out in the gym is a time to think about everything – groceries, schedules, priorities, stuff going on at work, school, home and so on. In fact, having ‘monkey mind’ is a part of being human – but it can be counter-productive to getting things done. In fact, while it might seem like the perfect time to let your mind…


Food Is for Fuel – The Monday Mile

Image from Food is for Fuel.com I wrote about eating disorders recently because I was surprised at just how much of an issue it was for runners. There has been a lot of coverage due to the recent Eating Disorder Awareness Week campaign, and I have learned a lot of sobering things. One important thing was a comparison to drug addicts and alcoholics: whereas people dealing with those disorders need to work to avoid using them on a one-day-at-a-time basis, people with eating disorders need to cope with their problem while simultaneously having to use the object of their difficulty…


Your Workout Is Where You Find It – The Monday Mile

I have talked about things that can keep you from working out, such as being sick, very cold or icy weather, or just ‘not feeling it’. But recently I have had to deal with another challenge to getting in my daily run – I have been traveling out of state to work on a major project at one of my company’s other locations. It is a large and important effort, and while it comes with high prestige and visibility it also has the downsides of taking me away from home and sticking me in the normal array of chain hotels….


The Importance of Setting Goals – The Monday Mile

Way back around the start of the New Year, I commented that we should be setting goals, not making resolutions. The reasoning was that resolutions tend to be soft and vague, whereas goals have a number of elements that fall in line with the SMART system – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-based. If you are hoping to do something, the importance of setting goals cannot be overstated. So let’s take a look at how you can do it, and some results you might expect. 1. Pick a goal: It can be to qualify for the Boston Marathon, to compete…


Just Not Feeling It – The Monday Mile

Did I miss the irony that my schedule precluded me getting this done in a timely fashion? Not it did not. When it comes to any runner, athlete, musician, parent, employee, or person in general … we have one thing in common: there are some days when we are ‘just not feeling it’. By that I mean that we don’t want to get out of bed, don’t want to brave the winter cold for that run, make the trek to the gym, head to school or work, or tackle that project. But what triggered the phrase in my head was…


Losing Weight Will Make Me Run Faster – The Monday Mile

Despite running for about 24 years now, it is only in the last year that I have become a ‘RUNNER’. And in doing so I have discovered the nearly obsessive relationship between runners and their weight. Because I was losing weight at the time, I had concerns about running and eating to prepare for half- and full-marathons while losing weight. Searches turned up loads of resources that basically said the same thing – Losing Weight Will Make Me Run Faster. You don’t have to go too far to find these articles – look here, here, here, here, or here. And these…


Merrell Bare Access 2 Review

I sing the praises of minimalist shoes every chance I get. They’re great at strengthening your legs and feet, but it can be harder on your body at first and requires some adjustment. Merrell recognizes this, and their M-Connect line isn’t just for super minimal shoes. The Merrell Bare Access 2 shoes give you the qualities of a minimalist shoe, but it has a slightly thicker sole to make it easier on your feet in the transition. Does it walk that line between just enough shoe and too much shoe? Read on to find out! In many ways, this shoe…