Here is a story about weight research showing the people who logged on an Internet site frequently to track their weight were significantly more likely to actually lose weight.

I think it goes without saying that losing weight is a healthy thing for almost anyone to do.  Sure there are a few lightweights out there but they are definitely the minority.  If your BMI is in the overweight range (strangely mine is at the moment), then you might benefit from tracking your weight online.  You can check yours using this BMI Calculator.

Here is a free resource Fitday.com to do just that.  You can set up your profile, then start recording your weight.  I’m going to try but I’ve found just using a spreadsheet is the most effective thing for me.

Anyway, one of my Facebook friends said she was meeting at a local running store (Running Away Multisport) and leading a group for a speed workout. It sounded fun for me so I went. I’m glad I did. Here are 10 good reasons for running with a group.

Makes you go faster

- When you run with a group you can’t slack off or you’ll be left behind. If you pick the right pace group, they’ll make you stay on pace.

Makes you work harder

- I’ve been doing sprint workouts on my own but there is nothing like chasing someone or having someone chase you to inspire you to put out more effort. I felt physically ill from being winded for the first time since doing a race. My lone workouts rarely hurt that much.

Gives you someone to talk to

- While I usually like to listen to a book or podcast while joggling, it was nice to be able to talk to other runners about this and that while easily pacing away. I didn’t know I missed connecting with people but apparently I do.

Makes you part of a community

- In the Chicago running scene people have heard of the Joggler or the running juggling guy. It’s nice to hear people say that they saw you joggling and found you inspiring. It’s also nice to be part of a group. Somehow it makes you feel more important.

You get free stuff

- After the run yesterday, they had a keg of beer and were giving free drinks to runners. That was cool! Other times I’ve run with a group, there was a pasta dinner at the end or they gave away free runner’s gear. It is an excellent deal.

You can meet famous people

- Often a running store will have famous runners come out and give a talk and even do a light workout with you. This is great. You get to meet people who you’ve only read about on the pages of Runner’s World.

You can participate in group races

- When you run with a group you get tipped off to all the best races in the area. You can find out who is doing what race and what they liked about it. You can also occasionally get free entry into a race.

Extra motivation to run

- Running alone can easily be replaced by doing something else with your time (like going out with your friends). But when you’ve got a group run planned, you are extra inspired to keep your appointment and do your run.

Meet interesting people

- Runners are an interesting bunch. They are always quite friendly (especially the 8+ min milers) and you can have some great conversations. You can also meet new friends and future running companions. If I ever moved to a new city and wanted to meet people, the first thing I’d do is find a weekly running group.

Inspire more people to joggle

- People are naturally curious about joggling. If you want to get more people to do it, it’s much easier for a runner to start juggling than for a juggler to start running.

I doubt that I will change my habits much since I’ve been a solo runner for so long. However, I will certainly make it a point to run with a group more often. And if you want to help improve your running, you might consider it too.

Do you run with a group? Do you like it? Leave a comment below.

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The joggler starts

The 70 miles consisted of a small 3.5 mile lap followed by 7 big 9.5 mile laps. It was around the estate of a country castle and was 1/2 on roads and 1/2 on grass tracks and through fields.

The race started at 10:00 am and lasted 27 hours (if necessary) to complete the 70 miles. I was planning to use normal thud balls for the daytime and LED balls for the night joggling.

Being Prepared

The thud balls are a lot lighter so my aim was to complete 50 ish miles before dark and then just have 2 laps with the heavier LED balls. After each lap I had a 15-20 minute food break and change of t-shirt etc.

During the race we had to carry our own water and any treats to last us for the 10 miles, so I wore a belt pack with a hydration system and full of cake and energy bars / gels – though I kept having to stop every time I wanted a drink.

First half

The first 30 miles of joggling were fine – about 10-11 min mile pace, but I soon realised that it is better to walk up the hills and difficult parts of the lap – by this stage I’d developed a walking joggling pattern (I’m calling it a woggle) – like a forced march – that was easier than running but still kept a synchronised joggling pattern – found it easier to really stomp my feet for some reason but you can manage a good 4mph pace doing this.

Lap 4 (30-40 miles) was about 60% run & 40% woggle.

Like I said I wanted to get 50 miles out of the way before I used the heavier LED balls so set out for lap 5 with standard thuds and just a head torch at 8:30pm hoping to get back before the sun went down at about 10:30. Unfortunately I was doing a lot more woggling than joggling so by the time I got to the last 2 miles it was completely dark, and to make it worse this was all off road through fields and a wood. The head torch either lit up the joggling balls or the path but not both so I had to stop every 20 metres to point in the right direction. I’ve never dropped so many juggling balls as well – about every 10 foot – and they always rolled under a bush so it took me ages to find them. It took about 40 minutes to finish the last 2 miles.

For lap 6 I got the LED balls out and attached a couple of led torches to my belt pack pointing downwards to light the route. Also had the head torch on but this just lights up the LED balls even more so you just see a mass of colour in front of your eyes (looks good for the cameras though . Managed to do a little bit of joggling on the road sections but couldn’t see well enough off-road so had to woggle this bit.

Lap 7 was just a big woggle – everything was aching at this stage and it was just a concentrated stomp to the finish at 06:30am.

The joggling finale

In total it took 20.5 hours from start to finish with about 10 hours joggling and 7.5 hours woggling, and the remainder eating and resting.

Injuries / aches – Legs were ok but feet started hurting after about 40 miles. They swell up so took a voltarol (anti-inflammatory) tablet every few hours. No blisters though thanks to new 1000 mile socks. Arms were ok but had big bruises on the back of each hand.

Advice for aspiring ultra jogglers

My tips – don’t use energy gels / caffeine / chocolate / music etc for the first half of the race. I promised myself the MP3 player and a chocolate bar after lap 4 and it gave me something to look forward. Used flat coke and energy gels etc for last two laps to keep going. Also drink plenty of electrolyte – filled the bladder pack with electrolyte and just had an energy drink after each lap.

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Great job Tim! We look forward to hearing about more races in the future.  You can read more about Tim at his excellent joggler blog, Joggling.co.uk

Anyway, here is their suggestions.

1. Heel Raise – Essentially you stand lift yourself up on your toes.  Their description isn’t great but this video shows you what to do. I’m going to add some of these to my workouts but I’ll probably use a stair.

2. Hip Joint Flexion – This one requires a band where you wrap one end around a stationary object and the other around your ankle. Kick your leg out slowly and stretch your muscle. This video shows what they mean.

3. Hip Joint Extension – Not sure I understand this one but it seems like the yoga move called the airplane. This hip join stretch video helps make it make sense.

4. Lunge – This one is supposed to help improve your sprinting form. Here’s a good video showing you the right way. According to the article, 10 of these at a time is the way to go.

I’m always looking for a way to increase my speed so I’m going to add these exercises to my regular routine. Hopefully, they’ll help me shave off those extra 39 seconds so I can qualify for the Boston Marathon.

Running can hurt

And it even hurts for jogglers.

However, there are different kinds of pains and none of them have been shown to cause long-term damage.  Consider these types of pains and how long they might last.

Pains caused by running

1.  Chafing - This is my most frequent pain and it is the result of things like wet clothes, electronic gadgets, or chords rubbing against your skin.  The chafing is a red mark on your skin that stings when you touch it.  It especially stings when you put hot water on it (like during a shower).  Fortunately, it will go away after a day or so.  No long-term trouble but it hurts.

Using something like body glide or Vaseline at the spots you might experience rubbing will take care of the problem.

2.  Sore joints – All the pounding of running on your joints just makes them start to hurt.  Some people will tell you that this could lead to osteoarthritis when you get older but there is no science to back this up.  In fact, a study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine (Aug 2008; 35(2): 133-8) demonstrated that long distance running was not associated with development of osteoarthritis.

Your joints will feel sore for a few days however, resting up will do wonders for your recovery.

3.  Sore muscles – Exercise like joggling or running stresses your muscles and leads to damage.  Fortunately, when the muscle builds back up you’ll be stronger and better able to run farther the next time.  But during that break-down time you’ll feel some pain.  Expect these pains to last at least a day or a couple days if you haven’t worked out in a while.

Ice can make it feel better.

Of course, this list doesn’t include more serious injuries like stress fractures, twisted ankles, or tendonitis.   These can lead to more permanent conditions if left untreated.

If you have any pain that lasts more than a couple days, go get it checked out by a doctor!

It’s a fact that running hurts.  The more distance you run, the more pain you’ll experience.  Fortunately, the pain is both tolerable and temporary.  The health benefits you gain from running far outweigh these minor pains so in my opinion, the pain is worth it.

This is a bit surprising to me, however, according to this article in the New York Times about exercise and weight loss, it shouldn’t be. It turns out that “an overwhelming body of research shows (few people) achieve significant weight loss with exercise alone, not without changing their eating habits.”

In their study, they tested athletes for the “afterburn” effect. This is a phenomena that people commonly believe helps athletes burn calories even after they stop exercising. The exercising supposedly revs up their bodies making them bun additional body fat throughout the day.

But the “afterburn” effect doesn’t exist.

They could find no evidence of fat burning on days when they exercised.

So, the reason I didn’t lose weight after running and juggling 1400+ miles is because I ate enough calories to replace all the ones I burned.

However, my joggling hasn’t been in vain. Even if it doesn’t lead directly to weight loss, it does have benefits on my heart, blood pressure, and overall mood. And of course, it should help in my goal to live until I’m 107.

Advertisement: Gballz.com - custom joggling equipment

It turns out the Library of Congress has allowed Google to post the Harry Houdini Collection.

Here you can find some excellent, free books like…

Ventrilogquism Explained.

Tricks for Amateurs

I love the Internet more when I find stuff like this.

But my wife suggested that it might be a good idea to run in the morning before the sun made it too hot. She just couldn’t understand why I was continuing to do my workouts at 3pm. “Don’t you get hot?” she asks.

Upon reflection, I guess I do get hot. My runs have been a little slower and I’m sweating profusely.

Since I wake up between 5 and 5:30 am, there is some logic in running earlier rather than later. So, for the last week I’ve been joggling in the morning.

Observations

1. It is generally cooler in the morning and that feels good.
2. I’m not running much faster
3. It is more peaceful in the morning
4. I like running with the sun to my back
5. You find more money in the morning
6. It’s a little harder to motivate myself in the morning than in the afternoon

I’m not sure if I’ll stick with the morning joggling routine, but for this hot weather it does make sense.

When is your favorite time to run? Leave a comment below.

Of course, joggling & juggling made the list but there were some others that sound interesting. For example…

7. Walking on water
9. Playing video games
23. Tricking (check out the video)
74. Bouldering
83. Poll dancing
84. Street luge

I think Running Ukulele playing would be a pretty good one. Wonder what it should be called?

Do you have any ideas for odd-ball exercises? Leave a comment below.

So, I’ll write down my starting stats to see how well I’ve progressed during the training.

Here are some of key measurable things.  Body weight, mileage, typical speed, and race performance.

Marathon training starting stats

Body weight = 199 pounds

Distance run in the last month = 109.8 miles

Fastest workout in the last month = 7:10 per mile

Average speed in the last month = 8:00 min per mile

Recent fastest workout speeds

2 miles = 14:20 (7:10 per mile)
3 miles = 23:11 (7:44 per mile)
3.5 miles = 26:49 (7:40 per mile)
4.0 miles = 32:42 (8:08 per mile)
5.8 miles = 45:44 (7:53 per mile)
7.0 miles = 56:38 (8:05 per mile)
8.0 miles = 64:04 (8:01 per mile)

Recent fastest races

Marathon = 3:48:25
10 miler = 1:17:50

Non specific goals

The only specific goal I have is to joggle the marathon in less than 3:20:00. Ideally, I would also like to set a PR in the half marathon, 10K and 5K distances. Then finally, I’d like to weigh under 180.

I’ll update these stats over the next few weeks to see what kind of progress I’m making.