One of my goals is to write 50 poems this year so here is one about joggling. Previously I’ve done haikus. I’m going to try something new today.

The Drop

Bean bags on the window sill
Bunched in a triangle
And cold

Bean bags in my hands
Rising
Falling
Catching
Clawing
Hypnotic p-orbital pattern
Warming the worn leather

Bean bags on the ground
An inadvertent mistake
A misunderstanding
Prompting a sharp tongue
Never to be juggled again

Every time I find information that convinces me I’m not killing myself by drinking diet soda every day, I find some new study that says maybe I am.

According to this research, scientists have found a potential link between daily consumption of diet soda and risk of vascular events.

This means all that soda I drink could lead to a stroke, heart attack or vascular death. Geez!!

I read through the study though and it’s pretty weak. People who drank 1 soda a day were 43% more likely to have one of these events. But they said there was no noticeable difference between people who drank between 1 soda a month and 6 a week.

How could they tell a difference between someone who drank 6 a week and someone who drank 7? That doesn’t seem reasonable to me.

I’ll keep drinking my diet soda but I will certainly keep an eye on future research.

I was just tipped off to this video about a joggler who will be competing in the London Olympics.

Very cool! My favorite part of this video is when he talks about his German competition. I hope they film the event.

Six ball juggling is about my limit. I’ve flashed 7 before but haven’t put much time into it. I have put some time into juggling six and when I go to Florida in a couple weeks, I will be putting some serious 6 ball juggling practice time in.

When I do that, I’m going to follow some of the tips in this excellent 6-ball tutorial by Steve.

How awesome is this?!!!

Joggler Joe Salter said he was going to juggle all three legs of a triathlon and now he’s actually going to do it. So cool.

He’s showing off how to juggle on a bike, juggle while swimming, and of course juggling while running.

Not only is Joe juggling all three legs of the triathlon, he is raising money for charity too.

To donate go to Joe’s charity donation page.

While playing euchre last night and trying to build my credentials to be called the greatest euchre player ever, the subject of running came up. The subject of running often comes up during euchre games. 

Anyway, my opponent said that she was running down North Avenue and realized that she was taking in a lot of pollution. This made her wonder whether the pollution was actually bad for her lungs.

I wondered the same. Then I thought about it in a more general sense.

Is running in a polluted city worse for your health than not running? That is to say are the negatives of pollution worse for your health than the positives of exercise?

This article about the effects of pollution on athletes suggests that there can be some problems.

They say that athletes breate 10 to 20 times as much air as sedentary people and thus have that much extra exposure. They also say that low levels of pollution affect athletes as much as high levels affect non-athletes.

But every expert asked said that despite these problems, people should continue to exercise outside.

The benefits of outdoor exercise significantly outweight the risks.

They did caution that you should exercise away from high traffic areas. It is the small particulate matter that is most damaging to lungs and these are found in highest concentration near busy roads.

So if you’re an urban joggler like me stick to joggling on side roads away from polluting cars.

At the start of every year I put together this 2012 goal list which articulates all I want to accomplish for the year. I’ve been doing this since 2003 accomplishing many of the things I list but not accomplishing many more.

So, I thought it would be helpful to do monthly updates to keep me honest and on track. Here is how I did in January 2012.

Overall

Janurary is always a productive month for me. I’m inspired by my new goals and refreshed by the start of a new year. This month was no exception and I made significant progress on a number of my goals. Here are the ones as they related to joggling.

Joggling goals

Health
These goals are done to improve (or maintain) my health which will increase my chances of living until 107 years old.

7000 pushups
7000 situps
Yoga 50 times
300 miles on bike
1500 miles running
Lose weight – 180 lbs
Drink less – 365 beers
Drink less soda – 365
Fasting 12 times
Vegetarian 75 days
Floss every day

I’ve made progress on nearly all of these goals. Some of my biggest success include pushups (1141) and situps (1161). I’m also down to 192 lbs from a starting point of 198 lbs. I did my monthly fast, was vegetarian for 6 days and kept up with daily flossing. I’ve also drank less soda than I’m allowing myself (24 this month).

Areas where I haven’t done as well include.

1. Yoga – should have done it 4 times only done 2. I get bored with it & don’t have a great space for doing it.

2. Running – Only 71.5 miles. About 50 miles short of my goal. But I’m working off an injury and will make up the miles later in the year when I’m feeling better.

3. Bike riding – Weather hasn’t permitted it. More of a spring/summer goal

Overall, not too bad.

Accomplishments

Run 4 marathons
Run 100 mile ultra
2 Half Marathons
4 additional races
Joggling streak – 1 year
Joggler blog streak – 1 year
Hold handstand for 2 min
Juggling – Learn hat balance while juggling
Juggle 6 balls for over 1 min

In this area, I haven’t made much progress. On the plus side, I have kept the joggling streak alive (1170 days) and have also kept my joggling blog streak alive (139 days in a row). But I’ve made no progress on any of my other goals.

The reason I haven’t accomplished these goals are varied.

1. Running 4 marathons – Haven’t picked the marathons yet. Need to do that.

2. 100 mile ultra – Haven’t picked this either. Need to.

3. Other races – Signed up for Shamrock Shuffle (8K) and Nike 10 miler. Will no doubt run 2 more so this shouldn’t be a problem.

4. Half marathons – Just need to find ones to do. Probably in the summer / fall

5. Hold hand stand – Forgot about this one. I have been building my upper body strength with pushups but need to start practicing. The problem is that I don’t have a good indoor space for practice.

6. Juggling – Just haven’t made the time to practice. Will work on 6 ball juggling while in Florida in Feb / March.

Ok, how are you doing on your 2012 goals? Leave a comment below.

I had mentioned the other day that I was interviewed for a podcast.  Well, it looks like the podcast has been posted.  You can listen here.

Walk Jog Run podcast interview

It was great fun and I was happy to have the opportunity to do it.

I should also mention that I was a guest host on another podcast the week before.  This one was Geeks in Running Shoes.

You can listen here.

Geeks in Running Shoes podcast

There are a number of gum products over the year that have claimed they can help you lose weight. In fact, there has even been some research hinting that gum chewing can help you lose weight. And this article from WebMD concludes the same about gum chewing and weight loss.

Gum and weight loss

Anyway, here is an interesting study published in the November 2011 issue of the peer reviewed journal Obesity.

Researchers did a randomized controllwed trial of chewing gum for weight loss. It was an 8-week study that aimed to determine whether there would be any significant weight loss in people who chewed gum for a minimum of 90 min a day would lead to greater weight loss.

Unfortunately, the researchers end the study saying “We conclude that chewing gum on a regular schedule for 8 weeks did not facilitate weight loss in these overweight and obese adults.”

Bottom line as Obesity Panacea points out, can gum chewing help you lose weight? No.

Joggling and chewing

Incidentally, I personally love to chew gum. Once I chewed a piece of gum for 13 days straight because I was curious to see how long I could do it. How I did it is the story for another time.

Also, as a joggler one of the most frequent comments you’ll hear is the question, “Are you chewing gum too?” Joggler Michal Kapral was prompted by these comments to chew gum the entire time he was joggling the Toronto marathon en route to breaking the world marathon joggling record.

While reading through my latest issue of Juggle magazine, I saw that it was the last one they planned on producing. It seems membership has been dwindling and costs have been getting too high.

Too bad but it makes sense. Magazines are just becoming really expensive and ad revenues aren’t keeping up with costs.

On the plus side, this may prompt the IJA to do something about improving their web presence. Here is their first attempt.

Juggle Ezine

I hope it succeeds. Although, the fact that it hasn’t been updated in a month is a little disconcerting.