RUNNING EVERY DAY? This week, I came across an online article from Runner’s World discussing the benefits of running every day. Given the source—a publication focused on running—it’s no surprise they would advocate for hitting the pavement seven days a week. While I do enjoy running (or more accurately, jogging), I don’t especially agree with that idea. Rather, I bike or swim for a day or two in between my regular 5K – 10k jaunts. That said, I can see the appeal of running daily—it could help establish a consistent routine and potentially speed up your progress toward longer distances....
ARE YOUR RUNNING OR JOGGING? When I say, “I’m going out for a run,” I realize that I’ll actually be jogging. Even then, I break up my jog with fast walking; 5 minutes of jogging followed by a minute of walking. This way I can keep moving for a good hour or two. But if I actually ran, I’d probably poop out after 10 minutes. Thus, I can certainly feel the difference. Still, I wanted to find out a bit more of how running compares to jogging. I searched for a while and found this comprehensive online article from Asics,...
TRY RUNNING—YOU JUST MAY LEARN TO LIKE IT I personally enjoy running—or should I say jogging. But most older adults I talk to, say that running or jogging isn’t for them with answers such as: I never enjoyed it when I was younger, why would I now?; it looks too physically exerting; I’m afraid I might hurt myself; I don’t have the time. I realized I wasn’t going to convince any of them—and perhaps you—just by smiling and saying running’s fun. But then I thought, maybe they’d listen to an “authority.” So I searched online and found this short April...
TIME TO RUN A VIRTUAL RACE? Little did I know when I ran the Carlsbad Half Marathon last January that it would be my only event of the year. During this pandemic—for good reason—every race or triathlon I would have participated in has been cancelled. Yet, some of the races have instead offered a virtual run. Almost daily I receive email invitations to “compete” in events I’ve done in the past. I haven’t bothered opening most of them—I couldn’t see any point in joining an “unreal” run. Still, this year I jumped into producing a virtual art fair. I had...
DO RUNNERS LIVE LONGER? You’ve heard about all the studies that point to regular exercise as the best way to help prevent many of the major conditions—strokes, diabetes, some cancers, osteoporosis, even dementia—that most expect to come along with aging. But in the past few years researchers are finding that one exercise—running—can actually add years to your life. I love to run—actually to jog is more accurate. Usually I’m getting ready for a half marathon or a triathlon. I ran in the Carlsbad Half Marathon way back in January little knowing that would be my only event this year—everything else...
SHOULD YOU RUN BY THE MILE OR BY THE MINUTE? One of the elementary questions of running is should you train for so many miles or for so many minutes? (Of course, if you’re not a runner you’re probably asking yourself “Why should I even read this post?”) Running for Time I usually train by “running” for time. (There are men and women my age who still actually run—but over the years I’ve become more of a jogger than a runner.) I perform repetitions of jogging for 10 minutes followed by walking rapidly for 2 minutes. I do a minimum...
MY TERRIFIC CHIRUNNING WORKSHOP I wrote about the ChiRunning method in my post Run Longer & Injury Free. I discovered its techniques last summer in the book “Chi Running, A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-Free Running” by Danny Dreyer. Ever since, I’ve been trying to put its several focuses into my running practice. Yet, I felt I wasn’t really combining the elements correctly. To actually find out how to put it all together I signed up and participated in a 6-hour ChiRunning workshop two Saturdays ago. Lisa Holloway, a ChiRunning Certified Instructor, gave the class at a park in Temecula...
MARATHON MAN? Happy New Year! I finally did a marathon. On Tuesday, the day after Christmas. I can’t say I trained as much as I would have liked or that I was excited to do it this week, but an unforeseen happening called for doing it now. Just before midnight on December 4 we were awakened by a neighbor pounding on our front door and shouting, “Wake up! Fire! We all need to evacuate!” We jumped out of bed, looked out our bedroom window to a wall of fire coming down the hillside in back of our development—it was the...
RUN FOR JOY—LONGER & INJURY FREE Senior Couple Jogging In Park If you’re a runner, you should enjoy this article. If you’re not presently a runner and determined not to be (perhaps from bad experiences in your youth or past injuries) you’ll probably skip reading it. Perhaps, you’re considering adding running to your physical training schedule? You should find tips here to help you run injury free. I took up running again back in 2000. I found it enjoyable and over the years slowly increased my distance from 3 miles up to 13 miles and then up to 26 miles....
