Category Archives: Mixed Tapes

The 13th edition of running stuff from The Internets that is more interesting than my hypochondria injuries, complaints about spring, and barn raisings:

• Interview with an Angry Runner.  Learn how she got her running start by failing skipping.
• The Manly Runner is looking for a mate date.   Disclaimer: this link is not an endorsement, i.e. don’t sue me if it doesn’t work out.
• Rate your run, not with stars or smiley faces, but piles.  Of poop.  Example: this was a two-crap run.  It works for in the literal and the figurative.
• Dear parents, thank you for giving me butt chafe resistant genes.  No long run lube required.
• Does anybody really know what time it is?  The guy who fixed the finish line clock. 
• The big bad Boston Marathon list.  I’m checking it twice.  And I’ll probably still forget something critical.  Like my shoes.
• Injured and constipated?  Blame your antibiotics.  And get some taco bell.
• Reason #48 I don’t like treadmills: the guess who farted game.  I haven’t mastered my “you’re disgusting” look.
• As I drag Husband to another country to watch me run a marathon he’s narrowly missed qualifying for a zillion times Shelby reminds me how lucky I am for this and a million other favours.  I don’t make him wake up early on his day off, but I do make him watch for thugs during my midnight runs.
• Hallelujah, syrup is good for me.  Move over blueberries.
• It may be called Heartbreak Hill, but it won’t break your heart.  Unless you are 1 in 374,000.  What are the odds?  Oh, right, 1 in 374,000.
• If you were a robot you could talk to your treadmill.  Asking about the last time it was greased sounds kind of dirty …
• Drew Carey, Price is Right host replacement, is running the Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon.  This is only news worthy because he’s a celebrity.  His level of fame is related to his placement on this list.

This week you get both sides of the tape.  You are welcome.

• One of my favourite run bloggers discovers that running is as serious as a heart attack.  And that running saved his life.
• The training menu.  An 8 mile appetizer and 16 mile main course.  What’s for dessert?
• Bad news for runners.  The earth is now a windier place.
• A 33 mile run around Manhattan.  Around, in this instance, is literal.
• Dear Race Director, your course is long.  Dear runner, no it is not.
• A health and wellness junkie hooks up with Lululemon.  Was it a one night stand or the start of a long-term relationship?
• One runner’s goal: to run fast enough to get her name on the front of her shirt.  That would be cool.
• The M word.  Seem like everyone is doing it.  Some people are still thinking about doing it.  No longer for folks so serious they will poop their pants. 
• It starts with running through a race (side note: this is one of my favourite excerpts from Once a Runner), moves to the Runner’s Code of Conduct in talking about training, and ends with intellectual property rights. 
• Sometimes even smart runners **** up.  Seriously, I rarely swear.  It’s weird to even swear-write.  That explains the ****.
• The rise of the gimmick runners.  What about media attention for the rest of us?
• Science! Of bears!  They are so much more evolved than us non-bear mammals.  If I was a bear I probably never would have had those three stress fractures back in 2005 and 2006. 
• All those things that go inevitably go wrong before your tune-up run … it’s training for all the things that will inevitably go wrong before your A race.
• The 10% rule explained.  I won’t spoil the ending, but it involves sissies.
• I typically leave world events and other not running stuff out of this blog.  But a long run is a long time to think about such things, like the joy of a spring run backdropped by a disaster half a world away.
• The NYC Half Marathon, through the eyes of a course marshal.  I’ve done my share of volunteering.  Indeed, I think all runners should volunteer.  As a bonus, it will make you feel AWESOME. 

The 11th edition of the weekend mix tape.  I have a strange affinity for numbers that are prime, palindrome, or repeating patterns.  A palindromic prime, 11 is high on my list of likes.  For you, 11 links from around the webs that will shock, amuse, or stimulate conversation on your next group run.

1. Menacing Thug come out in favour of running with music.  You’ll be fine.  Trust him. 
2. RunningUSA announced that over half a million Americans ran 42.2K 26.2 miles last year.  Five nifty factoids you may have missed if you only read the catchy headline.
3. A playlist after my own heart.  The Radical 80s Running Mix.  I was in elementary school, but I was definitely rad.  Admittedly, around 90% of the titles are already on my iPod.
4. Less is less – a lesson in fast running or running faster.  No more bemoaning your lack of Kenyaness.
5. Do you listen to your body?  Is your body a needy, greedy, lazy little bitch that should probably be ignored?
6. A marathon … at night?  One runner’s brain considers the lure of the moonlit Las Vegas Marathon. 
7. If you’ve been reading my blog or following my twitter feed you know I can relate to this $600 quest for a pair of decent running shoes.
8. Guelph wants to be Canada’s track down.  Seriously.
9. How do you run faster (than your run partners)?  Race alligators.
10. After your youth and good looks fade, where will your running be in 30 years?
11. Awesome things #286? Seeing a dog or cat chase its own tail.
12. Bonus Track:  My new favourite Ode to Marathon Pace.

All running and no reading makes a runner fast dull.  Enjoy.

A car deliberately tries to run down a group of cyclists.  Like everything these days, it was caught on tape.  Mais amore, menos motor.  #Notanaccident

Found, one famous waffle iron.  Or an old rusty hoax.   Waffles.   Now I want #pancakes.

Mark Remy scores an exclusive interview with the robot marathon winner.  Thanks to keen programmers, no walls were hit in the running of this marathon.  #tigerblood

A recent study found that Americans are fatter than Canadians.   Canadians are quite fat.  Americans are fatter than Canadians.  Therefore Americans are fatter than quite fat?  #weightwars

Do it yourself gear for when you just can’t get what you want in the store.  Like FuelBelt banana holders.  #thingsnooneneeds

Is any mile ever a junk mile?  What if your poop is high and your rudder deep?  #oxfordvswebster

The Canadian men announce their fall marathon plans and a 36 year record holder gets worried.  #youngguns

Anyone can run with their dog, but your cat may have untapped marathon potential.  #stupidpettricks

Man runs Toyko Marathon while streaming the 6.5 hour odyssey on an assortment of Apple made gadgets, including on iPad monitor strapped to his back.  Oh, and that guy from the Chilean mine ran it too, 30 minutes fast than in New York.   But he didn’t live tweet along the way.  #luddite.

Man will attempt to solve 100 Rubik’s cubes will running the London Marathon.   It takes him 31 seconds to solve one cube.  That’s less than an hour of puzzle solving time for a four hour marathoner.  His potential is at least 400.  #underachiever.

Ron Hill’s road to the London Olympics.  First step, a sub 60-minute 10K.  #longshot

Comfortable is in, over/under/neutral is out.  Someday our shoeless descendants will curiously look at those over-structured shoes on display in a local museum and say no wonder it took them hours to run -or win- a marathon.  #winningwarlock

The first Friday of 2011.  Technically Saturday, but I forgot to press publish yesterday.  Even though no one seems to read these posts or follow the links, I feel fulfilled having shared with you the best of running on the world wide webs.  If you choose to remain unfulfilled and uninformed I will still fall asleep at night knowing I have done my small part.

• The latest fitness trend?  How she stopped breathing air and lost 5 pounds.  Another year, another bandwagon.
• Woman goes all out with 30,000 calorie Christmas Feast.  At 600 pounds she will need to run over 120K to break even.  I would need to run almost 700K.  Running is so unfair to the skinny.
• 7 tips for aspiring crazy runners.  Or current runners who enjoy helpful illustrations aimed at resolution runners.
• The New York Times single-handedly triples alcohol sales with the powerful suggestion that exercising makes you drink more.  It’s a cause and effect relationship.  So start drinking more.  Assuming you are a rat in a cage.  Literally.  I’m not referring to your cubicle.
• A holiday themed race report with bloody knees and an x-rated bib number. 
• Because I have no motivation to write my own summary of 2010, I’m piggy-backing on Chasing the Kenyan’s fine recap.  The best year end summary of 2010.   I want to get it printed on a mug.  
• National Geographic shatters the 8 cups of a water a day myth.  Finally, pee gets its long-awaited accolades.
• Power Balance admits to the obvious:  The power balance bracelets are useless not substantiated by scientific evidence.  Quelle shock.
• How did she not know this already?  FYI, she called dibs on Khalid AND Geb.  Greedy.

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It’s Friday!  It’s New Year’s Eve!  Why are you reading a blog?  Is it because NYE is a money pit filled with too-high expectations and long taxi queue and you’d rather stay home with Husband snuggled in your PJs, eating fondue and watching movies? 

Another year is winding down but the runners do not rest, so this week’s mixed tape is double-sided.  Enjoy these stories tonight as you wait for the clock to strike 12 or tomorrow as you recover from too much of whatever it is you do. 

1. Ten things marathon organizers won’t tell you.  Like bigger isn’t always better.
2. Kenyan Olympic Marathon gold-medalist Samuel Wanjiru is charged with threatening to kill his wife.  Isn’t running supposed to relieve stress?
3. The other side of the barefoot running craze.  Unnaturally natural?  Naturally unnatural?
4. The world’s first calorie burning soda!  I mean ?.  Raises your metabolism by 12% for three hours.  Just don’t read the ingredient list.
5. Weight loss DURING the marathon improves running time.  Step away from the Gatorade.
6. Louie Zamperini.  During the 1936 Olympics he finished eighth in the 5000m, but impressed the German leader enough to earn a handshake.  Instead of running again in 1940 he went to war.  His remarkable life story is chronicled in the best seller Unbroken.
7. New year’s math.  How many pounds of fat did you burn while running in 2010?  Maybe calculate this one after NYE. 
8. Found: the secret to running faster. Je tiens l’affaire!  That’s right, the secret is in French.
9. The Track and Field Blog makes a few fearless predictions for 2011.  I’m not a track and field super-expert, but this one seems really unlikely: Someone on a message board will become enraged over a trivial occurrence, perceiving it as an insult.
10. Do you dress the way you run? I dress the way I’d like to run.  Like Paula.  Tall socks and all.  From the same vault of humour, Men in Tights, the male runner’s progression from sweat pants to tight pants.
11. A year-end post that isn’t filled with accomplishments and resolutions.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  Things that pissed off this New Jersey -but not the Jersey Shore part- runner in 2010.
12. So you got a fancy Garmin gadget for Christmas.  Now what?
13. 4 Miles on the track on a windy day.  The inside story.  I have a similar story, except it’s told in kilometres.