Race-Ready In One Week (Or, Runnerly Butt-Covering 101)

Say you go to a cool running store and get all revved up and decide to wing it at a 5k about a week away. Or, say you get a glass of something in your system and pop off with some sort of “pssh, of course I can run that race in a week”-ism (I’m [...]

How To Get A Badass Finish Line Photo

Don’t:
Don’t look down. Don’t bork around with your watch as your cross the finish line. Don’t obscure your bib number. Don’t drag your feet. Don’t make the “shoot me, shoot me now” face. Don’t whack others runners with wild arms. Don’t, whatever you do, don’t cross the finish line with a cartwheel or by walking [...]

Fight The Bonk: Head Trip

It’s true that a good portion of any race is mental. And, it’s true that our minds are capable of very weird things in a race, as well as very awesome things. Here are a few tips to keep your monkeys in check when the mind starts to fall in a hole:
1. Fake it. Pretend [...]

Bonkfighters: The Marshall King Interview

I’d like everyone to meet Marshall King.
King started racewalking with Team In Training in 2003, having never previously run or racewalked. He walked the Virginia Beach Half-Marathon for Team in Training and was gung-ho for both walking and athleticism. In 2004, he won the men’s half-marathon racewalk division at the Mardi Gras Marathon, and later [...]

Quick Bonkfighting Tip: Chasing Dubya

If you find yourself unable to find time to run, remind yourself that President George W. Bush runs everyday. From there, ask yourself if your tasks are more plentiful or greater than the President of the Frakkin’ United States (granted, he has “people” and such, but let’s forget that for the moment). Then, depending upon [...]

Fight The Bonk: Endurance Athletes and Fasting

A friend of mine, who is Muslim, is a runner, and has said before that she plans her running year around religious fasting holidays. Ditto my friend who is Greek Orthodox. I’ve never specifically made a point to not be in training during Yom Kippur (a major Jewish holiday involving 25 hours of abstaining from [...]

Bonkless Lovefest

You know what I really like? Raising money for a great cause while training for an event. In fact, I feel like I don’t really pick my next race, but that life has a way of picking my next race for me. By that I mean, sometimes issues appear in our lives and we’re made [...]

On The Road: The Running Hub of Santa Fe

Just today, as I was running along the edge of Lake Michigan, I was daydreaming about the Big Tesuque (“tuh-SOO-kay”) Trail Run in Santa Fe, which took place this morning, and remembered how beautiful it is to run trails in Northern New Mexico (I’ve lived all over the place). The run starts at the Aspen [...]

Fight The Bonk: Fitness In A Not-Great Economy

This afternoon, I overheard a woman say into her phone, “…well, with the economy what it is now, I can’t afford any fitness…” and I cringed. Yes, with recent headlines like the New York Times’ “Wall Street, RIP”, “Bad economy, bad diet? Stress takes toll on fitness” and Newsweek’s piece which points out that being [...]