Around this time last year I started the mix tape. The original goal was to post a new mix weekly, but sporadically seems to suit me better. I can’t be confined by a calendar. This week is the best yet. (Like every good reality TV show, I’m going to make this promise every week). Continue reading
Posted in Mixed Tapes, Running Tids & Bits
Tagged animals, celebrity, Garmin, long run, marathon, Olympics, race director, running, winter
A selection of articles from around the Internets that every runner should read. Each one guaranteed* to make you run faster. Continue reading
Posted in Mixed Tapes, Running Tids & Bits
Tagged blog, cookies, exercise, fitness, food, Garmin, gear, health, marathon, running, sport psychology
Most Sundays I end my long run with my run club at a local coffee serving watering hole. It’s a chance to rest, refuel, and avoid the always growing list of errands. The conversation topics are varied and entertaining and I never fail to leave without a hearty laugh. Last weekend the chatter turned, as a chatter is apt to do, to Continue reading
Posted in Running Tids & Bits
Longtime* readers may remember a matrimonial dispute involving a dirt track and a Garmin. Longtime readers may remember giving their two cents Continue reading
Another lazy Friday, except it’s Thursday. Well it’s Friday somewhere. I think. Those international date lines always confuse me. Let’s just say the weekend is starting a day early for the holidays. This week’s mix brings you a few seasonal selections and other cool running tidbits that I read on the Internets in the past week.
Hint: coloured text is a hyper link to an awesome story. Click to enjoy!
127 HOURS is the true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston’s (James Franco) remarkable adventure to save himself after a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon in Utah. Over the next five days Ralston examines his life and survives the elements to finally discover he has the courage and the wherewithal to extricate himself by any means necessary, scale a 65 foot wall and hike over eight miles before he is finally rescued.
A true and inspiring, albeit rather horrifying, story. I’ve read a few articles on this guy, so I went in knowing the ending, and I was still on the edge of my seat. It’s not about running, but mountain climbing is at least a third cousin, once removed. Hiking is definitely a step-sibling. So close enough.
I hate to under-estimate myself, but I’m reasonably certain I do NOT have the courage and wherewithal to extricate myself by any means necessary, scale a 65 foot (19.8 metres) wall and hike over eight miles (12.9 kilometres) to rescue. I would have perished in that canyon. Maybe I should reconsider my anti-cell phone stance. And my spelunking hobby. Secretly I’m convinced my Garmin is Miles IV is a Transformer (an Autobot, of course) and would reveal his alter-identity and save me before …. SPOILER ALERT …. amputation becomes my only option. And by only I mean not an option at all.
Also, watching this movie counts as training under the rules of my Two Runs a Week Five-Week Marathon Training Program. It falls in the 90% of the marathon is mental category. Mental fortitude doesn’t get much stronger than sawing of your own damn arm.
Title: Barenaked Ladies – Falling for the First Time. 2000.
Posted in Reviews on the Run
Tagged exercise, fitness, Garmin, health, hiking, marathon, movie review, movies, running
Because I need training motivation:
National Geographic taught me that “the Bermuda Triangle region has some unusual features. It’s one of only two places on Earth—the other being an area nicknamed the Devil’s Sea off the east coast of Japan, which has a similar mysterious reputation—where true north and magnetic north line up, which could make compass readings dicey”. I’m not sure Miles IV will survive.
Title: Rush - Marathon. 1985.
Posted in Running Tids & Bits
Click to see a close-up of his battle wounds.
After three of his brothers met an untimely death, Miles IV has escaped the family curse. My only explanation is that green running gear is more lasting than black running gear. Ninja-runners have a short life span.
Miles I drowned in a thunderstorm. Miles IV has survived a monsoon and flash flooding. A couple of weeks ago Miles IV became waterlogged and lost his memory, but seems to have suffered no lasting cognitive impairment.
Miles II was difficult from the start. He refused to communicate with his satellite overlord and withheld critical information like my distance and pace. Miles IV keeps in constant contact, even under forest cover.
Miles III acted fine and then one day, poof. He went silent and never rewoke. Miles IV is reliable. Even though he is scraped and chipped and his face is scarred from recent brushes with rocks, roots, and other hard surfaces he soldiers on. He may not be pretty, but he dutifully reports back to me after every run. So far, no poof.
Miles IV is 11 months old. One more month before the warranty expires.
That’s the sound of me knocking on wood.
Title Reference: Hank Snow – I’ve Been Everywhere. 1962.
Why do you need a GPS?
That’s why.
Title Reference: Dion – The Wanderer. 1961.
Posted in Running Tids & Bits
My Running Shorts, noun: brief stories about life on the run.
