Merry Christmas

1 - This Christmas enjoy the holiday trains from South Station:



2 - follow this link to a great Christmas story (be patient for the first commercial, the story is worth waiting for)

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4003490&affil=wpvi

3 - and to recognize our countrymen and women serving in the military:



Merry Christmas to one and all!


PS - thanks to Joan at Songs of Experience for the link to ABC News

5 miles today

I had a good run today. Weather was a little warmer, into the 30's F. Overcast, with a little fog as the melting snow tried to rise. Went out on the hilly King-Summer-Mount-Upper Union-King loop I like.

This is a good course to run particularly on the comeback route. There are three hills. The first one, a good half to 3/4 mile long incline with almost a one mile downhill to follow. The second hill is shorter (about half mile) but steeper and followed by another approximately one mile decline. The third hill is both shorter and more of a slope which leads to a flat stretch for the finish.

Why are hills good for the comeback route?
The hill provide resistance so you are working harder for the distance. The best part of running the route in this direction is the combination of the downhills after the inclines. Especially during the comeback, you can let gravity do the work on the downhills. Simply concentrating on form, getting a good stride and rhythm, letting the hill do the work, stretch your legs out and down you go.

I'll expand upon this idea in a future podcast. One of the good things about the run was that I came up with three podcast topics: (1) hills, (2) curse of the splots, and (3) the practicality of glittens.

Pause for the train crossing

Out running a couple of weeks ago, before the snow came, I was carrying my camera to enforce a slow run and capture some local scenes. As I came along Union St, the train signals started. Good timing.



Enjoy!

Best Buddies finish made the paper!

Thanks to a family friend for catching the photo in the Milford Daily News. I read the paper online and not all the printed content makes it to the web version.

Shadow running

Shadow running, originally uploaded by shersteve.

I went out running this morning as Sunday's forecast is for some real messy winter weather. I will likely still go out tomorrow for a short one but wanted to go longer in the good weather.

Long today was 4. A comfortable four.

Running after my shadow in the early morning sunlight (above) and finally leaving it behind me as I came in the last half mile (below).

MapMyRun comes through on the road

MapMyRun came through for me again on the road this weekend. As mentioned elsewhere, I was in the northern VA area and ready to run 3 miles Sunday morning. Driving into the hotel parking lot late Saturday night, it was too dark to get a good look at what the area was like and where I might be able to run.

Rather than just throwing on the running gear and going for a real "explore", I typed in the address of the hotel and scoped out where I could go for three miles. It worked very nicely. I chose not to add the route to my saved favorites but I could have if I wanted to. I don't when or if, I'd be back to this area (not that I wouldn't want to, it was a nice visit).

If you are doing some traveling, check out your travel destination (domestic USA) on MapMyRun!

Passionate Runner: Birthday Run

Another in a series of podcasts on running, this one talking about the celebration run you should make on your birthday. You can run a mile per year, or a tenth of a mile or a minute per year of life to celebrate your birthday. The important thing is to celebrate!

Time: 5 minutes, 10 seconds



MP3 File

My birthday run posting for this year.

Passionate Runner: Cold, dark recap

another in a series of podcasts on running, this one referring back to two podcasts earlier in the series. One on running in winter, how to layer your clothes to stay warm. The second on running in the dark, avoiding the blacker black to be safe.

Time: 5 minutes, 0 seconds



MP3 File

Session 5 - Layers for the winter
Session 7 - Running in the dark

My additional podcasts on running can be found here

Joan Nesbit Mabe can be found blogging about running at Songs of Experience
The Carrboro Athletic Club blog can be found here

Birthday run - 5.4 miles

In my younger days, I would run a mile for each year of life to celebrate my birthday. Since I am neither a marathoner nor an ultra-marathoner, I have adjusted my target this year to be a tenth of a mile for each year, hence 5.4 miles.

This was a doable goal. With my recovery, the longest I have gone thus far was three but I felt it would be ok without pushing it too much to go 5.4. It was fine. I had a really good run. An easy pace: running between 9 and 9:30 per mile. It was cold, 18 degrees F with little wind.

Next year, avoiding injury, I should be able to go a minute for each year.

On your birthday, do something special. Choose a mile, tenth of mile, or minute per year to celebrate and mark your birthday.

Enjoy!

Passionate Runner: Happy Feet

another in a series of podcasts on running, this one focusing on happy feet or quiet feet.

The simple tip is to listen to your foot strike; if you don't hear it, you are probably doing well.

If you can hear your feet pounding or slapping the pavement, you are probably in line for some problems.

Time: 4 minutes, 20 seconds



MP3 File

Boston Volvo Village - Best Buddies 5K

Carolyn and I joined over 700 other runners for a good 5K early this morning. As this was my fourth time running 3 miles in my recovery process, I was quite pleased with being able to complete the 5K with a continuous run. I started easy and gradually picked some folks off while running comfortably. I averaged about 8:33 per mile finishing in 26:29.

Here are some photos from the race.

(yes, I ran with my camera to help keep me from attempting to try and run this as a race)

Thanksgiving Fund Raising

I am raising funds for the Boston Volvo Village 5K Road Race to benefit Best Buddies on Thanksgiving Day.

You can view my page here and if you can contribute, it would be greatly appreciated!

The 5K is a good excuse to get out on the roads before sitting to have a good turkey dinner. It is also an opportunity to benefit an organization doing worthwhile work, Best Buddies!

Passionate Runner: Feed Logistics

another in a series of podcasts on running, this one more on the logistics of the recent feed issue. A desktop somewhere hit the podcast 18,000 times for only 45 seconds a time and thereby triggered other things that interrupted the feed. Hopefully those are resolved now.

Time: 3 minutes, 25 seconds



MP3 File

Passionate Runner: Personalized Plans

another in a series of podcasts on running this one responding to a runner from Atlanta looking for a 10K plan to use for 8 weeks.

Time: 5 minutes, 11 seconds



MP3 File

Runners Beware: ATT USATF Survey

Interesting survey in the email today from USATF for AT&T. The instructions for the survey provide a password which after you make the input with your email address thanks you for subscribing to updates from AT&T.

Excuse me! I was doing them a favor to complete a survey. I was not subscribing to AT&T for updates.

I answer a few more questions and then get a "Thank you for participating, there are no further questions, your profile does not match the interests of our client." or something like that.

Thank you! I appreciate the shortness of the questions but not the shortness of the response.

Passionate Runner: Reader Response - HS Pressure

another in a series of podcasts on running, this one responding to a mother of a high school freshman. He had completed cross country with some success and wants to play basketball. His cross country coach is pressuring him to run indoor track. What to do?

Time: 8 minutes, 4 seconds



MP3 File

Hipcast - feed problems

For readers/listeners of Passionate Runner, apparently Hipcast, the podcast service I use is having a problem with the feed for this series. iTunes has the 10/7/07 posting but nothing since then and is returning an 8006 error when I try to update the podcast.

I have queries into them and am hopeful to get this resolved soon. In the meantime, the posts here can still be downloaded and listened to.

thanks for your patience!


Note: Feedburner is reporting this when I use the troubleshooter

Server returned HTTP Error 500: There was a problem retrieving the feed:
com.burningdoor.rsspp.resource.impl.HttpConnectionException: Error getting URL: 404 - Not Found

If anyone has any advice on how to resolve this, your help will be appreciated greatly!

Passionate Runner: John L Parker

another in a series of podcasts on running this one reflecting on an article in the December issue of Runner's World with an interview of John L Parker, Jr. author of "Once a Runner" and the long awaited sequel "Again to Carthage".

Time: 3 minutes, 54 seconds



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Ryan Shay - 1979-2007

The autopsy results remain outstanding to explain why such a runner, such a winner, just collapses and leaves us all so suddenly.

Passionate Runner: Life Long Running

another in a series of podcasts this one reflecting on an article in the December issue of Runner's World covering the 5 secrets of life long running.

Time: 7 minutes 3 seconds



MP3 File

Note: has anyone else had trouble finding an article on Runner's World? It seems they don't put all the print issue online.