Speed

I know that I follow this advice, without even thinking of it. If you look at my mile splits on the Daily Mile widget at the bottom right, you'll see my last miles tend to be faster than the middle miles. Weirdly, the people in my pace group seem to follow this advice, too. We all speed up the last mile or two, even though we're not running slower than pace up to that point and don't discuss trying to finish early.

Diamond Dallas Page and Yoga

I cannot believe I am writing about Diamond Dallas Page. I grew up watching wrestling from the early days of Mean Gene Okerlund, Hulk Hogan and George "The Animal" Steele. I've even been to a live wrestling event with the more modern cast of characters like The Rock and Triple H. That being said, I haven't watched it in years, and never thought I would find a way to connect professional wrestling to this blog. I should have know better; the professional wrestlers are clearly athletes and work out many hours.

I was looking for inspiration when I found a video of a disabled vet who transformed his life by doing yoga with Diamond Dallas Page.


Watching the video is inspiring, and has me wanting to try yoga again. It's hard to fight the pull of yoga when you're in the fitness world. I don't have a desire to be a proponent of yoga, just someone who can complete 45 minutes without wanting to die or kill the instructor. Despite my prior lack of success with yoga, I really want to conquer it. Yoga is my white whale.

Even if you don't want to buy his yoga program, you should watch this video. The man in the video, Arhtur Boorman, is truly inspiring with his transformation. If he can do that, the rest of us can get up and move.

Power

These are two different ways of saying the same thing; you control your future. You have the power to change what you dislike about your life and make it into something you like. You do have to love yourself to take the necessary steps to improve your life, though. If you love yourself, anything is possible. Try something that scares you. If you accomplish it, you will gain more self-confidence than you can imagine. That will help you to tackle any future obstacle and to stop settling for good enough or easy.

If you long for a different life and are settling for what you have, start taking steps to reach the life you want. Do you want to be healthier? Change your diet and exercise habits. Even small changes can help, and they will lead to larger changes.

Source: Uploaded by user via Shawnee on Pinterest

Your Body

Source: Uploaded by user via Stacey on Pinterest

The millions of things that your body does every day to get you through the day is amazing. Take care of your body and you can make those activities easier for your body and make your life easier.

Claire Squires

She was just a woman who was running a marathon for charity. At the start of the race, she had raised about $800, which is great. Unfortunately, she collapsed near the end of the marathon and died. That is the horrible part of her story. Here is the heartwarming part.

Since her story went viral, people have donated almost $1million in her memory. This was not her first charity event. She had climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, held a car wash and run another marathon previously.

The fundraising company has also agreed to donate all fees to the non-profit Samaritans. That's the group she was raising money for.

I can't put into words why this story has touched so many people, but it clearly resonates as over 60,000 people have donated in her name.

2 years--347 pounds

A couple sets small goals, hits them and keeps setting more goals. Eventually they've lost 347 pounds between the two of them. They started at 692 pounds combined, so they're now down to 345 combined. I love how the picture of them starts out wider than it is tall and eventually it is taller than it is wide.

Hollywood and Fitness

I found a biography of a woman who was teaching health and fitness on TV before others really considered it an option. In the first photo, she's helping Jack E. Leonard do a sit up near the front of the stage while Pearl Bailey assists host Mike Douglas. The man watching this all from the stage is Jordan Christopher, the first to record "Wild Thing" Paige Palmer is the woman leading the sit-up session on the set. She has a health and fitness biography that is astounding, especially considering that is all occurred when women weren't supposed to be active and didn't talk about it. Her health and fashion show debuted in 1948. She encouraged her viewers to get pap smears, when that was something no one mentioned. She also encouraged pregnant women to continue exercise, another thing that was ahead of the curve.

Staying the Course

I love used book stores. Actually, I love all book stores, but the used ones fit my budget better. I was lucky enough to find an autographed copy of Dick Beardsley's memoir recently. I was familiar with his name because of the "Duel in the Sun" which is one of the most exciting marathon finishes I have ever seen. It's like "Hoosiers" Even though I know who wins, I'm still anxious for the outcome. Here's the last two miles for you.



I loved that the book wasn't just about his running. In fact about half the book was about how his life was anything but idyllic after his retirement from racing. It's a good story of overcoming adversity and how running can be a source of strength.

Daphne Selfe

She is an 83-year-old model who is still working. She credits good genes for much of her longevity, but it's all natural. More powerful to me than her beauty is her confidence. She is still proud of her body, even though it's not "perfect." This first photo is in support of The Big Bra Hunt. Unfortunately, this looks to be a UK only charity.

Getting fit

Source: itsfitnessbaby.com via Shelby on Pinterest

If you want your efforts to be long-lasting, you have to be doing it for yourself. If you're doing it for others, it will be harder to stay motivated. Focusing on your health will also yield more success than if you were to focus on how you look in a bikini. If you get strong and healthy, you will look good in a bikini. And you'll have the confidence to wear one.

Women in Boston

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F2--Nina Kuscsik 3:20:26--Winner
F6--Kathrine Switzer 3:29:51--3rd place
F3--Elaine Pederson 3:20:35--2nd place
F5--Ginny Collins
F4--Pat Barrett Shore 3:40:29
F10--Frances Morrison
F1--Sara Mae Berman 3:48:30

The Boston Marathon is one week away and I found this amazing photo of the women who ran Boston in 1972. That was the first year women could run officially. I can't find times beyond the top 5. It's possible the other women didn't finish.

Training Inspiration

I know it's corny and ridiculous. That doesn't mean it doesn't make me want to go and defeat the evil, cheating Russians. When HBO first had the rights to broadcast Rocky IV, they showed it almost back to back that weekend. I probably watched it four times in three days. I was 11 or 12 years old and thought it was awesome. I've since realized that it's cheesy, but I can't watch this montage without wanting to get up and move. I want to do 180 degree decline crunches. I want to break out the boxing game on the Wii again and throw some punches.

This clip also plays right to my issue with lifting weights. I do lift weights for my health and to look fierce, but I want to use my muscles in daily life. Unfortunately, in my daily life in the big city, it's rare that I get to lift anything other than a big bag of dog food or cat litter. That's part of the reason most people are out of shape; there are few opportunities to challenge their bodies. Unless those moments are created, they don't happen.

Technology has made our lives so physically easy that to make our bodies do what they are able and designed to do, we have to create artificial situations to challenge our muscles. We need to lift weights and run races. At first, it seems counter-intuitive to make our lives more physically challenging, but that's what our bodies want and need. The next time you see a labor-saving device, save yourself the money and keep that natural amount of labor in your life.

Training

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Even if you are training for a specific event, you're still training for yourself. I'm currently in pre-training for the marathon and half marathon. I am raising funds, running, and training with a charity group. Those are just motivating factors in training for me. I believe Joey Tribiani from "Friends" when he says, "there is no selfless good deed out there." That doesn't mean the acts aren't good, but they're not selfless.

My training isn't just to run 26.2 miles. My training is also to accomplish a goal. It's to overcome flat feet and injury and do something that most people never even consider. It's not just improving my physical health, either. Every step I take on my journey improves my confidence. I feel better in my skin than I ever have before, even though I weigh more than I have at points in the last decade.

Train for whatever event you choose, but train for yourself. Races will come and go, but you will still be here.

Stubbornness

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This is a great way of saying that being stubborn can be emotionally rewarding. I think stubbornness is an unfairly maligned trait. I think it gets lumped in with being closed-minded. They're not the same thing, though. Stubborn can mean lasting, strong, persistent and justifiably unyielding. Closed-minded means intolerant of others and/or their ideas. For me, one is a trait that is about the self and the other is outwardly directed.

For many athletes, stubbornness is a very valuable trait. It's what keeps runners going in a marathon after mile 20. It's what keeps players in the game when they have the flu and are running a fever. It's the difference between pushing through discomfort and giving up as soon as it gets a little bit difficult.

In "The Tortoise and the Hare" the Tortoise is stubborn. He keeps on going and going, even though all signs show that he has no chance of winning. When kids hear the story, they learn that arrogance is bad and that "slow and steady win the race." That last part is stubbornness. He refused to give up, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

Why-->How

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If you're the first in your group of friends or family to start being active, you may meet resistance. You may even endure some scorn and derision. Part of that is deflection. They may not want to deal with their own health or weight issues. I know I was one of those people; pointing out that the first guy to run a marathon died at the end of it.* I was merely deflecting my feelings of laziness outward into mocking.

Eventually, I was convinced that they were probably right and I was just being a jerk. Your family and friends will do the same thing. They will see how good you look and feel and will want to join you. Fitness nuts are like the Borg, except that assimilation takes a bit longer with fitness.

*What I didn't know until just now is that he ran 150 miles over the two days before the marathon. (It's not part of my blog post, just interesting to me.)

Late Bloomers

The woman wearing #9 in that picture is Kathy Martin, she is running with people less than half her age, but she's the one setting American and world records. They are age group records and she has broken dozens of them.

The linked NY Times article is mostly about Martin, but also mentions other master runners. One of the things linking many of them is that they didn't start running as kids and continue throughout their entire lives. Some of them didn't run at all until they were adults. Some ran as kids, but were derailed by life, or the lack of Title IX.

I remind myself that there are athletes like this repeatedly. It helps when I feel that I started too late, or that I've already missed my prime. That may be true, but that doesn't mean that I can't set some records.

Ideals

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These are actually British, so it's 0-4, 8 and 12 in America. This fights against the argument that men are to blame for the poor body image issues women have. We are setting ourselves up against the impossible. Men tend to like a "little meat on the bones" when compared to what women think is ideal. If women want this to change, it's up to us to change it. Demand that magazines use models who are a healthy weight and not airbrushed to look smaller. If the magazines won't do that, don't buy them.

Beyond that, focus on your health and being strong. If you eat well and exercise, you will eventually reach a healthy weight. It will also make you feel more confident in your body, regardless of what size clothing you're wearing.

Bob Dolphin

This is a picture of Bob Dolphin today. Yes, he's the gentleman sitting in the yellow with the flowers. The sign says "Congratulations on your 500th Marathon" That is not a sign-making error. He has run 500 marathons.

He ran his 400th in April of 2007 when he was 77 years old. He didn't run his first marathon until he was over 50 years old. He became a full-time marathoner at the age of 59

He's not just a late bloomer when it comes to running, either. He earned his BA when he was 29 and had already started his family. He went on to earn a PhD when he was 36.

Focus

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Finally, a perfect summation of my fitness philosophy. The results will come. If you focus on eating a more healthful diet and moving more, weight loss will occur. If you increase your movement and add resistance training, you will gain muscle and lose mass.

Placing the focus on the changes makes it easier to keep on track. You can see goals being reached every day. Sometimes the ultimate result being sought is such a long journey that it can seem unreachable. That can be discouraging and lead to quitting. If achievement is occurring regularly it can encourage greater change and keeping with the new, fit lifestyle.

Criticism

For many of us, self-criticism is a constant companion. We look in the mirror and only see the things that displease us. When we set out to change our lives for the sake of our health, we forget to change our inner voice. In fact, we just give it more opportunity. We allow it to shame us for our food choices, our lack of effort during exercise, or for skipping an exercise session.

For true success, that voice has to be tempered, if not completely silenced. Force yourself to go beyond where your brain says to go. If you think you can only do one more push-up, try for two. You may only do one and a half, but that half is a change in pattern. You have exceeded expectations. Once you've done that, you realize you can do it repeatedly. Eventually, you will think "I can do this," instead of "I can't finish."