Exercise and Fitness Blog

I’ve talked to a lot of people about what makes a pair of shoes the Best Running Shoes possible.  There are several elements that consistently stand out, but perhaps more importantly, there isn’t a single right answer.  The right answer is the pair of running shoes that best match your foot.

So, what will give me an indication of the best running shoes for my feet?  There are a few things that you need to know before you start shopping.

1. How high (of flat) are your arches?
2. What type of surface will you be running on?
3. What do your old shoes look like?
4. Do you pronate or supinate?

Answer those questions and you’re more than half way there!  For example, if you know that you have flat arches, that can eliminate a lot of wrong choices very quickly.  If you know that you pronate or supinate, there are shoes that can help with motion control.

The tip to bring in your old running shoes is a sure fire success, but only if someone with experience is looking at them.  For example, you can tell what your stride is, where to you usually land, what are the pressure points.  Someone with a lot of experience can examine the wear pattern and observe the foam breakdown and tell get you amazingly close to the best running shoes for you.

A terrific resource for choosing the best running shoes is the website http://www.bestrunningshoes.com.  There are blog posts and many tips and tricks to give you the upper hand.

One thing to remember is that even the best pair of running shoes will wear out over time.  A general rule of thumb is to replace your running shoes every 400-600 miles or every six months, whichever comes first.  Always be aware of your body and joints.  If you start to feel heavily beaten at the end of a run, then you might think about trying a new pair of running shoes.

That’s it for now.  Good luck finding your best running shoes.

I read an article today about running to live longer.  The Standford school of medicine study followed 538 runners over age 50 and a comparison group.  What they found was absolutely terrific and is great news for all runners everywhere.

Mortality rates were pushed out, injuries were less freqeunt and other diseases were less prevalent.  HEre are a few quick figures:

After 19 years, 34% of the non-runners had died, where only 15% of runners had died.

“Runners’ initial disability was 16 years later than nonrunners’…By and large, the runners have stayed healthy.” - James F. Fries

They even found that runners required FEWER total knee replacements than runners!  They actually found that the natural motion of running, as compared to some other unnatural physical activities, like football and standing en pointe in ballet, was not as damaging to the joints.

Of course the expected slowing in cardiovascular deaths was observed among runners, but that’s not all.  Researchers also observed fewer deaths from cancer, neurological disease, infections and other causes.

Running slows the aging clock

A common question about weight loss is, “how much exercise to lose weight”.  It is almost universally understood that there is a calorie equation, and so long as you burn more calories than you take in, you’ll produce a deficit that will result in weight loss.  Everyone burns calories at a different rate and that rate will change as your body mass to muscle ratio changes, among other things.

One study mentioned on the BBC website today suggests that one hour a day is the magic number to lose weight and keep it off.  They suggested that less than one our a day would not be sufficient to keep the weight off.  One thing that they didn’t mention was the type of exercise or how intense the exercise needed to be.  Here is the original article.  While they seem to answer the question “how much exercise to lose weight”, they didn’t tell the whole story.

Now I have to admit that I haven’t read the entire study, which was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine journal.  But, I would say much less than an hour of exercise would answer the question how much exercise to lose weight.  For example, in September of 2007 I accepted a challenge at work with a few other guys to see which of us could lose 10% of his body weight in the shortest amount of time.  I decided to eat mostly normal, although I watched my portions a little.  I also didn’t eat so that I got stuffed.  I also started running again.

Keep in mind that I wasn’t running a lot, but I was running two or three days a week and anywhere from two miles to three miles.  This would average out to about 10 minutes a day, but on the days that I exercised I didn’t run for less than 18 minutes.  The result was a loss of 10% body weight in about a month, and now a year later I’ve kept it all off with moderate exercise.  Also note that some weeks I didn’t run more than once, and others I ran four times.

So, How much exercise to lose weight?  Apparently some research suggests an hour a day, but I would suggest that you start with whatever you can do.  If that’s 20 minutes a couple times a week, then start there.  In my opinion, the best exercise routine to build is the one that you can comfortably maintain.

I suppose that one question remains: what is the “Best exercise to lose weight”?  Without any handy statistics, I’ll suggest that Running would be the winner, but I’ll leave that for another post another day.  The best exercise to lose weight is the exercise that you feel comfortable with and that you can maintain.

So go do something right now, and then do it again tomorrow or the next day.  Stop planning!  Start doing!

Hey, I finally have the full running speakers package ready to go and so I snapped a shot of it.  This is the one I’m sending off to the winner of the contest.  Here’s what will be included for the running speakers.

- Speakers
- Running Harness
- Quick Start DVD

With the following bonuses for everyone:

- Rich Harris running shoes video (30 minutes)
- Rich Harris web conference (1 hour video)
- Jim Mishler triathlon teleconference (1 hour mp3)

LAST MINUTE BONUSES

The first 6 people only will receive a free upgrade to
overnight shipping.  That’s worth $30.00.

And, the first 25 people will get a bonus DVD with the
Rich Harris running shoe video in high quality.

Here’s the page where you’ll go tomorrow at 2:00 PM EST.

http://www.maintainfit.com/get-running-speakers.php

I’ve gotten such a positive response from people that are using and even just seeing the running speakers for the first time that I’ve decided to give a pair away for free.

The race director of the Fit for Life half marathon liked the running speakers and he even asked if he could post the video I made to his website.  Do you remember Jeremy, you know, the guy that made the biking helmet cam video on my blog?  He let his fiance run in them for the same 10K race on Saturday and she loved them.

Some guy even came and asked me about them after the race and tried them on.  He mentioned a lot of the same frustrations about headphones, training and races that I heard during the survey about running with music, and was really impressed with how light they are and how they sound.

So, while I’m still working with the inventor to let Maintain Fit members have a first shot at them, I decided to GIVE AWAY a pair for FREE.

Here’s how it will work.  I want you to tell me about the biggest benefit that you get from running with music and how the running speakers would enhance that benefit.  The trick is that you have to be able to say it in 150 - 300 words.  I’ll go through the responses and choose the best one and send him or her a pair of running speakers, for FREE.

Here’s how to submit your entry.  To enter your short essay, simply post it as a comment on this blog post, and make sure to leave your e-mail address (I have my blog configured to never show your e-mail address, but if you win I need to contact you to get your address and ship you the speakers).

Just come up with the biggest benefit to running with music and explain how the running speakers would enhance that benefit, then explain it in 150-300 words as a comment on this post.  That’s it!

Some contest rules:

1. I am the sole judge and jury.

2. Entries must be posted by 7:00 PM EST eastern time on July 17th to be considered.

3. I reserve the right to changes the rules if there’s something I haven’t thought of.

That’s it for now so get busy!

So last week someone told me about the Fit for Life Half Marathon, 5K, and 10K in Boise this weekend.  Even through I haven’t been formally training for it, I thought it would be fun to run in it, but I wanted to make sure that I could wear the running speakers.  So I sent an e-mail to the race director and he said it would be OK for me to wear them.

Now, I’m not sure that all race directors will have the same opinion, but the speakers do alleviate most of the safety concerns and still don’t get in anyone’s way, so it seemed like a win win situation.  Fit for Life, here come the safe running speakers!

I made a short video about the race, including a short interview with the winner of the half marathon.  Of course I got several shots of the safe running speakers in there, so take a look (video below).

 

 Fit for Life half marathon with safe Running Speakers: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I got a lot of questions about the Running Speakers, so I went to the home office of Jeff Streeter, the inventor, for a late evening interview last Friday.  He took time to show us the speakers, but there’s more than that.

He talked to us about the speakers and even what motivated him to get started.  It’s fun to hear his story about what prompted him to come up with the running speakers.

I’ll leave the rest of the story to the video, so click play and enjoy!  I think you’ll really enjoy the comment about my wife listening to them while doing the dishes.

 

 Late evening interview with Jeff Streeter [24:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

My interview with the inventor of the running speakers will be tonight at his home office.  I’ve gotten a few questions submitted for the interview, but remember that you can submit more questions if you have them.  Here’s the survey:

http://www.maintainfit.com/runningspeakers_questions.html

One of the questions so far have to do with how heavy, bothersome they are to wear.  I have to admit that I was really worried about that too, since I can’t even stand wearing a watch when I run, let alone a backpack.  I was so surprised that I didn’t even notice that the running speakers were on.  I’m not sure if the music was a distraction too, but it didn’t bother me.

I should also mention that the speakers have been around for a while.  The conversation I’ll be having tonight is about his vision and desire to make them truly useful for runners.  He’ll tell a little bit of his story and how he built the first prototype.

I’ll try to be quick and get the video up for you to look at.  Keep your eye on the blog…

When I first tried on the running speakers, I noticed that there wasn’t any way to attach my iPod.  I tried a couple of things, like this picture with it being held on with clothespins.  Ultimately I came up with a few ideas as I was running and listening to my music.

Well, the follow up for this story is that I just got of the phone with the inventor and discussed a small diagram I had sent him with my idea for a universal strap that would let me attach my MP3 player to the harness and have an all-in-one running music gadget.

Well, he actually liked my idea and is looking at incorporating the change into the harness before mass producing them.  I mentioned the idea of doing an interview with him and he said he sure would, but needs to make sure he can work it into his schedule.  I’ll call him tomorrow and see what his schedule looks like later this week.

Jeremy should have some video for us to look at with him using it on his bike today or tomorrow, so keep checking the blog.

And, in the meantime, keep running!

What brand of running shoes do you run in?

The first morning of my life that I ran over a mile, all I had to run in was an old pair of Adidas cross trainers.  Shortly after that first run I found a running partner and we quickly built up some miles.

Well, after a couple months of running, I had developed awful shin splints.  They were so bad in fact that I thought I would have to quit running.  I went to a massage therapist and a tried a few other things, but nothing seemed to work.

One day I finally told my running partner that I would have to stop running.  I explained that I had horrible shin splints and that they were just getting worse with each run.

As you can guess I was extremely disappointed.  I had really come to enjoy running and how I felt each time I went running.

I didn’t want to quit running forever!

My running partner told me to go and buy up a pair of real running shoes and give them a try before I gave up running.  I asked him if he really thought that a pair of shoes could make that big of a difference and he said “absolutely”.

So I went to the mall and picked up the cheapest pair of Nike running shoes I could find.  I think they were $50 or so. I met him that evening for a quick 3 1/2 mile run, and you won’t believe what happened.

After those 3 1/2 miles my shin splints were gone! GONE!

So motivated by that experience I tracked down and expert in running shoes and convinced him to do a teleconference for Maintain Fit.  But it gets even better than that.

You see he actually ran professionally for the Nike team for a number of years all over the world and now he owns an uptown specialty running store in Boise ID.  His name is Rich Harris.

When I mentioned to him that I wanted to do a teleconference he agreed pretty quick.  So I pushed my luck and asked him if he would be willing to let me come to his store and make a video about running shoes.

And…

He let me come to his store and make the video.  It turned out to be 27 minutes and we cover a ton of stuff.  We talked about how you can choose the shoe that’s best for you, and how many miles you can expect to get out of a shoe. There’s a lot more in there too.

To see the full video and be invited to join the teleconference go to this URL between Friday, May 30th at 9:00 PM EST and Monday evening, June 2nd.   The first 15 people to register will actually get a high quality DVD mailed to their home address.

Running Shoe Video and Teleconference with Rich Harris

 

 Running Shoe Video Teaser: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download