We have a cousin—for the sake of this post, we’ll call him “Max.”  Today is Max’s birthday—Happy Birthday Max!!

What makes his/this birthday so special is the “numerology” of it.  Max was born on February 3, 1945.  In numbers terms, that is 2-3-45.  Today, Max turns 67.  So, now the number string reads: 2-3-45 67.  Wow!

That got me thinking.  If Max can hit a six consecutive number string today, what other combination of birthdates and ages can achieve the same length, or longer, of consecutive numbers?

Here is the answer—in calendar order:

BIRTH DATE           “STRING DAY” AGE     NUMBER STRING      STRING DAY YEAR

January  2, 1934                      56                                   1-2-34  56                              1980

January 23, 1945                    67                                   1-23-45 67*                          2012

February 3, 1945                    67                                   2-3-45   67                             2012**

March 4, 1956                          78                                   3-4-56   78                             2034

April 5, 1967                            89                                    4-5-67    89                            2056

December, 3, 1945                67                                  12-3-45  67                              2012

*Seven consecutive numbers

**Happy Birthday Max

As you can see, the year 1945 produced the most 6, or more, number-string birthdays—three.

Max, there are many reasons why you are so wonderfully special.  Today, add “numerology” to the “special” list.  Happy Birthday!!

Well worth the wait (and wait, and wait)…as captured by Dr. Bruce

Good  Greens bars — a “hit” with fitness industry professionals at the 2011 Athletic Business Conference and Expo!

I’m sold on Good Greens bars as being the most tasty and nutritious energy bar on the market.  So, I thought I’d put the bars to the test at last week’s Athletic Business Show, in Orlando, FL.

It didn’t take long…0ne bite, and the word, “Delicious” (or a synonym of the word delicious) seemed to come out of everyone’s mouth!  At a fitness industry trade show, attendees are exposed to a myriad of nutrition products–especially nutrition bars.  Fitness professionals are a very discriminating bunch; they have their self-interest (they consume a lot of bars) and their business-interest (they both recommend bars to their members/clients, and frequently sell bars in their facility’s nutrition area)  at stake. For the Good Greens bar to pass their rigorous testing says something very positive about the product.

Don’t take my word for it.  Check out this testimonial–it speaks volumes.

Keep an eye out.  I expect to be selling Good Greens bars, and other interesting products from the Good Greens product-line in the very near future through the GymValet web site.  Then, you will only be a few clicks away from having the best tasting bar in the business for your professional and personal use!

Stay tuned!

Tasty, nutritious, and reasonably-priced nutrition bars hit the market!

Shout out to anyone and everyone who is looking for a good tasting, highly nutritious, and reasonable priced nutrition bar!  I found it.  Good Greens bars! If you are tired of insufferable medicine tasting, Sahara Desert dry and/or raw cookie dough consistency bars—go Good Greens.

Good Greens bars are chock full of every important nutrient known to man, and check in at about 195 Calories per bar.  To be a little more specific, each bar contains thoughtful amounts of antioxidants, probiotics, vitamins, trace minerals, phytochemicals, Omega 3’s, dietary fiber, green tea and acai berry extracts, and much more.  They also have a very interesting proportional (percentage) balance of carbohydrate, fat and protein:  40%-36%-24%.  This energy “footprint” obviously contributes to the bars’ low glycemic index—eat a bar and feel full, and fully satisfied!  And, have I mentioned that they taste really good—you can really taste the berries in the Wildberry bar–and are very reasonably priced.

Why am I so interested in nutrition bars?  As a 50-something year old endurance athlete—currently logging 60+ weekly running miles on the road, 2-3 miles in the water, and another hour or so of assorted cross training—I am always on the look out for new post-exercise “recovery” foods, as well as healthy, and tasty, grab-and-go energy boosters.  As I’m writing, I just had a bar about 20 minutes ago.  I’m full, I’m satisfied, and I’m confident that I’ve consumed a VERY nutritious bar—a great way to replenish/refresh myself after just finishing 10 (running) miles about 30 minutes ago.

Good Greens bars have caught my attention, my taste buds, and my professional “seal of approval”—Dr. Bruce endorsed and recommended!  Bon appétit.

Based on the fact that I had THREE “close encounters of the automobile-runner kind” yesterday morning–during a 10 minute period, I am now in favor of putting up more of these signs on the roads of America!

There I was minding my own business running, in the crosswalks, across intersections with the light in my favor and the little white “cross now” man brightly illuminated on the crosswalk signs when unthinking, non-observing, pedestrian-oblivious, gotta-get-to-work-at-all-costs, drivers came zooming into my intersection–causing me to jump out of the way to prevent getting hit and provoking me to express my “upset” by banging on the passenger windows of one car and banging on the trunk of another car to get the drivers’ attention and possibly get them to think about the proper way to turn right on red that they learned in drivers’ education class if they were paying attention and not texting and driving with the instructor in the passenger seat oblivious to the instructor’s instructions, and then to top it off a few minutes later I was inches from being splattered by a driver taking the hypotenuse of a left hand turn into a parking lot I was exiting (not squaring off the turn) and he was so close that when I put my left hand out to wave him over to his right my hand whacked his driver’s side mirror causing me to follow him back in to the parking lot and politely remind him to not cut his turns so tightly.

So there…to hell with the periods.  I just had to get it off my chest!!

Let’s all share the roads–safely–folks.  Turn right on red exercising proper caution.  Run/walk across intersections respecting the traffic signals.  Square off left hand turns.  And, don’t bang on cars or chase drivers into parking lots–the drivers may have something in their cars that goes BANG!, too.

My consecutive day running streak passed one third of a century on Thursday, September 14, 2011.  That’s 33 years, 122 days.

Something about that “number” has been quite intriguing to me.  One third of a century sounds powerful and long.  One third of a century is more digestible than 12,175 days, or 1,051,920,000 seconds; although passing the one billion second mark, last year, was a “cool” landmark for me–celebrated in an earlier post.

So, to honor the  “1/3″ day, I decided to capture a few video moments–on the run–when the run was official.  I also decided to capture the moment when my GPS registered 3.33 miles!  Then, I couldn’t help but get a little nostalgic by evoking memories of my 40+ years of running.  You’ll also notice that I had a little brain cramp when I was documenting the big moment.  My bad!

Check out my video documentation of the big run.  As you’ll see in parts of the video, it’s the words and thoughts that have the most meaning; the hand-held videography has a lot to be desired.

Here’s to hoping that there are many more milestone runs in my future!  See you on the roads.

Cleveland Hosts the 2011 USA Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships:

July 28-31, 2011.  The George Finnie Stadium, Baldwin Wallace College – Berea, Ohio

Just a quick note on the USA Masters Track and Field Meet that was held over the past four days–to my good fortune just on the other side of town!  I signed up to volunteer/work at the meet as a “Blockhead”–one of the people who hold the starting blocks for the sprinters–so the blocks don’t slip out from under the sprinters as they blast into their race.  I’m no dummy; I pick the easiest job that gives me the most up close and personal contact with the athletes and the meet. Watching from the stands isn’t close enough; I like to soak up the sights, sounds, and smells (from the starter’s pistol) of the meet at track level!!

Having been a high school track coach for almost 20 years, I noticed something very interesting and refreshing immediately upon walking towards (even before I walked into) the stadium.  The competitors looked and dressed like the track athletes I’ve coached for two decades, but on closer inspection there were a few major differences:  Gray hair and wrinkled skin!  WOW!!  These weren’t baby-faced kids; these were MY peers.  “Welcome home, Coach Sherman.”  To be specific, this meet drew athletes from 30 – (almost) 100 years old; let’s call it my peers, plus or minus 2-4 decades.

Once inside the stadium, there was no doubt I was at a track meet.  Spikes flashing, the grunts and groans of all-out effort, the gamesmanship of the athletes before their races, and the camaraderie of the athletes AFTER their races.  And, the added bonus was that this meet was for all the marbles–bragging rights to be called National Champion!

What was fun for me was that in the course of being a block holder for the sprinters, I was able to offer a few specific coaching tips, and, in general, interact with many of the athletes on a coach-athlete basis.  What a thrill and honor to be called “Coach” by a 60-something National Champion!

In retrospect, it might have been fun to actually participate in the Meet.  Looking at the times/results in some of the (distance) events I may have participated in, in the 55’s age group, (based on my current level of conditioning) I probably could have snuck in to the top three, or so, in the events.  But, I have been a very limited racer over the past 10 years–so it’s just fun to know, with some level of accuracy that I could have been up there–in front of the home town fans, no less.

Enough about the track meet for the moment; let’s look at the bigger picture:  We live in an overfed, overweight, and under exercised society.  What we witnessed this weekend, was a positively enormous aberration of our American society in general; 30-90+ year olds racing their “brains” out in a track meet!  And, we can’t overlook the hours, days, and years of practice/training, self-discipline, and sacrifice and dedication that brought everyone together for this glorious celebration of health and athletics.  Just my opinion:  95% of our society would get exhausted just thinking about the events of this past weekend–even though the competitors are the 95%’s societal peers. If only even a little bit of what we witnessed could rub off on the majority of our society…    “Cheers” to the athletes; role models for us all.

Congratulations again to everyone who competed this weekend.  Time for the athletes to get back to the drawing/training board…probably for almost all of then, that’s tomorrow.

Dr. Bruce never passes up a chance to meet and chat with Biggest Loser contestants. 

Freemotion 100 Kilometer Challenge.  Sixty two miles of fun?

“A video is worth 100 Kilometers.”  My first goal was to get the video up on my Blog.  Comments to follow.  Enjoy!