Running Habits:

Just like any activity that a person spends a lot of time and effort on you form certain habits or pet peeves. Though I am not a superstitious person, I like to think that all of my thoughts are grounded in logic, I do have certain habits that I do follow during my runs. Here are some of the habits or pet peeves that I have when I run.

1. I avoid stepping on manhole covers. I don't know why, but I feel that just one time one of them will be lose and I step on it and break my legs. No matter what training or during a race I avoid manholes or drainage cutters at all costs.

2. I do not believe that running on the grass or dirt next to a tar or pavement path will save my knees. I do believe that if the dirt or grass is rough there is a higher likely hood that you will slip and twist your ankle.

3. I always carry things in my left hand, water bottles, gels, shirt or food. Unless my left hand if full anything that I carry goes in my left hand and rarely will I switch hands. This has always been the case since running down the track in high school with a baton, it just feels more comfortable.

Post a comment of any running habits that you have.

Joshua Klein on the intelligence of crows | Video on TED.com

Ok, a somewhat non-running related post here so bare with me. As any distance runner will tell you one of the major obstacles that you need to over come is the mental aspect of running. No matter how fast a person runs when he or she is running numerous miles at a time there is always plenty of time to think. Often we think about the pain we are in, how many miles we have left, or simply try and numb our brains with ipods. One thing that I have found is that you can use this time to slip into almost a meditative state, to a degree, but not when you are doing 400m repeats or hills repeats then you are pretty much focused on the pain. So unless you have a very structured workout you really only have to think about running and after the first few steps most of us get the hang of it.

I often listen to audio books or podcasts while out on my long easier runs and one of my favorite sources to listen to are the Ted Talks. Ted Talks is a conference put on by a nonprofit devoted to ideas worth spreading. I posted an speech from Mike Rowe the host of Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel and I'm posting another speech from Joshua Klein.

Joshua Klein is a fervent hacker of all things, including wet, pulpy systems like animals and people and the way they behave. Joshua talks about how he has developed a box that actually can train a crow to gather money for you. No the idea isn't to train an army of lose change seeking crows but to look at the "problem" of animals that we consider pests in a whole new light. Ok...yes now we have clearly left the running realm, however, I do believe that if we constantly challenge ourselves mentally and physically it will result in making us better people and better runners.

By constantly challenging yourself physically and mentally you can continue to redefine what is possible for yourself.

Enjoy!
Joshua Klein on the intelligence of crows | Video on TED.com

Running Times Podcast: Your Muscles, Long Runs

Here is a good podcast from Running Times that helps to explain what happens to your legs and muscles on a long run. They also go through the benefits of long runs and how to help maximize the benefits of these types of runs.

Enjoy!
http://runningtimes.blip.tv/rss/itunes

Running Abroad: China

Above:China Pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai

Above: Me eating a chicken leg. It was like chewing on a piece of picked rubber.

Goose, Chicken leg, some sort of nut, and dried fish. Not exactly the best food for running, but I actually liked most of it.

Pu dong Skyline Shanghai

Another shot of at the World Expo

Here are a few pictures of my trip to China. I was in Shanghai for about 3 weeks for work and it was a great trip, but not so great for my running. Shanghai is 13 hour different than Minnesota so it took about a week to get used to the time change. Shanghai is also a city of about 20 million people and is constantly growing, their main object is economic growth not designing a city that is run friendly. This along with a crazy work schedule really limited my running, when I did get the ambition to run it was generally on the treadmill or out in the 90+ degree weather with 90+% humidity and lot of pollution. I have posted a few links to some of the outdoor runs that I did do, but had to really keep them short due to the heat.

China is a fascinating country and Shanghai is the crown jewel of the country. There is certainly a lot of western influence in the city and the culture, but it is still very different that the US. One particular difference is the communist government who does control a lot of things that we really take for granted and don't notice. For example this blog, I was not able to access it and there are not many blogs in China, legal ones anyways. All of the news is government run and so you guessed it approval ratings for the government just don't exist out in public anyways.

All that being aside it was another great trip to China and I look forward to going back. I will just have to plan to not have to run too much while there.

Quote of the Day:

Life is short... running makes it
seem longer.

By Baron Hansen