New Treadmill at the Gym

The gym I recently joined just upgraded all their treadmills to the Precor C966i Experience. It's a great improvement over the old treadmills, especially with the additional custom routines you can program and a wider selection of predefined routines. My one big complaint is the gym went with the TV screen attached to the console (see picture). Keep in mind there are already TVs hanging from the ceiling all over the place, so these are a tad redundant. My problem is that when I don't want to watch the TV, I still have this screen two feet in front of my face. If you want to know what it is like, try running with someone else's hand directly in front of you. Lest I become a Luddite, I turned on the TV to see if I liked it. It was okay when I was walking on the treadmill, but when I started running the screen obviously does not move with my bouncing up and down, so focusing my eyes on the screen was impossible and I soon had the feeling of motion sickness (which I'm not normally prone to). So I have to give the TV screen a big thumbs down.

(Bias Disclosure: I have an aversion to TVs when running. They cut against what, for me, is a quiet, reflective moment of the day. More on that later...)

Runners for Charity

One of the greatest trends of the running boom has been the number of runners who take to the starting line on behalf of a charity. Often they have donation goals they work hard to meet in addition to all the miles they log on the roads. I've added a link section on the right side of my blog to honor these runners and hopefully help them out. So if you have a charity you want featured, let me know and I'll be happy to give you a link.

(Thanks to Joe for sparking the idea. You can find his story here.)

Running Poetry

"Running" by Death Penguin

Running
Wind in my air
Life in my living
Feeling soul flowing
through my difference
Inside the essence divine
Turning, do you see it? I do.
It is there and it waits for me.
I embrace it with both of my arms
I choke it with that which it is
It struggles to be freeze
Give me the chance and
I will show it to you
Blowing away brisk
Evaporate, bye
Look at it as
it leaves.
gone

Return to Normalcy

This was my first week of regular running since the marathon. I kept the runs pretty easy and the mileage relatively low. Every run felt smooth and comfortable. I didn't feel any real soreness or stiffness the way I did last week. Things feel like they're getting back to normal. My next step is to figure out some kind of training plan for the "off season." (Note: Sunday followed a holiday party. I was really ticked about being so dehydrated and tired because the weather was gorgeous and perfect for a run or hike. Oh well.)

I recently moved to a new office and it doesn't get any better than this for my running. Here's what's going for me:

• The W&OD trail is a couple hundred yards from my desk.
• The gym right next door that has a special price worked out with my company. It also has a shower, which will work out great with the W&OD.
• Difficult Run trail is only a few hundred yards from my desk. This trail goes all the way to the Potomac River and is great for running and biking. All in all, I can put together a 28 mile loop.

Even though my commute is now 15 minutes longer, I more than make up for it with easy access to running trails and the gym.

Marathon Race Pics

I loaded the marathon pictures taken by the race photographers, who charge an arm and a leg if you want to buy them. You can find the pictures here. I'm hoping to collect the pictures from my brother and parents soon. They took much better photos.