I am a long distance runner, but those middle distance runs are so tough

I was asked recently by a few runners on my thoughts on why middle distances for long distance runners seem so tough compared to the short and long distance runs. So, I thought about this for a while, checked my personal running logs, and checked out running forums to see what other people were saying.

For the sake of this article, long distance is classified as half marathon (13.1 miles) distance or greater, mid distance is 5 miles to 10 miles, and short is anything under 5 miles. Personally, I lump 5 miles and under as short distance, and anything over 5 miles to 10 miles as mid, and anything over 10 as long. I found that many distance runners lump 10 miles and up as long distance.

There are two factors to analyze here; mental and physical. I will summarize each in the sections below from my personal logs and my research.

After consulting my logs, I noticed that I actually had a much better time with either short or long distances, and had more trouble with the mid distances. This was surprising because I thought my long distance runs were generally a lot tougher. Surprisingly, I found this to be a pretty consistent scenario for a lot of distance runners.

Short Distance Runs
The physical factor is very interesting topic to tackle. With the conditioning, my body barely gets fully warmed up on short runs. This means my heart rate stays a bit lower, even when I am going at a good pace (for myself). Even with my PR races for short distances, my heart rate never really climbed above the lower end of my average heart rate. For most people however, I found that race heart rate for their short distance races were much more elevated than their average heart rate. But across the board, everyone felt the same after the short distance race...not very tired and their bodies were saying "Hey, when does the race start?"

The mental factor is fun to analyze, because a person's training has a lot to do with this piece. For me, the distance is so short that it doesn't seem daunting to me in any way, and mentally seems more like an easy day run, so I have no issue focusing on the run and before I know it, the race is over. This is completely due to my training. I don't listen to music on short runs, and focus on my form and obstructions in the road. For other runners, I found a similar feeling with the short distances; it was over so quickly, there wasn't really enough time for the runner to get psyched out in any way.

Middle Distance Runs
The physical factor here depends a lot on how a person trains and conditions. If you are a seasoned distance runner, then middle distances are typically a little more taxing on your body, but not enough to really cause any real fatigue. For me, I find that I run my fastest times in my mid distances races. I am sure this is due to some flaw in my training...or maybe I am doing the wrong training. But when I finish a mid distance race, or even training run, I find myself tired but I still feel fine physically. This was the same feeling from most distance runners as well.

The mental factor is the key here. For some odd reason, I found from my logs that I had trouble focusing on my mid distance runs, mainly training runs. Basically, my mind was in the "short distance" mode and I was running without music, but when my mind thought I was supposed to be done, I still had a way to go. This kind of psyched me out and my performance at that point saw a huge slide in pace, as well as somewhat large fluctuations for my heart rate. I wouldn't regain my calm until about 85-90% of the run was completed. In researching this, I found that many runners have the same results I encounter, although it appears most of the runners are able to mentally recover a lot quicker than me.

Long Distance Runs
Physically, long distance runs are rough. You train your body to handle the beating it takes both from the impact of running, as well as the depletion of your energy stores. Therefore, a longer run should feel a lot tougher physically. What's interesting from my logs, is that I found that aside from days where I ran in the heat of the day in hottest part of the summer (oops), my body felt pretty good as long as I was staying hydrated and had proper nutrition before, during, and after my race or my run. I had expected that, even on the nicer weather days, my logs would show the runs were extremely tough; this was not the case. In my research, I found that this was pretty consistent for seasoned distance runners as well.

Mentally, this is a different beast. For me, I go into a distance run (not race) knowing I will be running a long time. I usually try and listen to music, or depending on where I am running, I'll take in the scenery and do lots of thinking about things non-related to running, food, or fitness. For races, I go in with a specific goal and focus on that goal the whole race (I also have a plan B in case something unexpectedly bad happens). Therefore, aside from making sure I keep properly hydrated and energized nutritionally, I don't mentally have any issues with long distances. However, my findings for seasoned distance runners was a little more split than I expected. I honestly expected the results to be similar to mine. Although the majority was similar to my experience, there was an overwhelming amount of people who said that the "middle miles" of their long runs or races they fell into a similar mental trap that they did for the mid distance runs. This would result in a lot of mental fatigue and a lot of people said it would take a long time to mentally recover from it.

Conclusion & Suggestions
So, it appears that most seasoned distance runners don't have any mental or physical issues with short distances. For mid distances, no physical issues, but mental issues are pretty common, but most people recover quickly from them. For long distances, there are always physical issues just because it's a high impact activity for a long period of time, and the mental issues are somewhat split between no problem at all and similar issues with the mid distance runs.

There were tons of comments on how people dealt with the mental aspects of mid and long distances runs and races. However, I will just list the top ones.

1. If you listen to music, have your music playlist have really upbeat, fun, or "whatever really motivates you" songs play during the period you usually would get psyched out
2. If you don't listen to music, keep your mind occupied with anything other than the race or the run
3. DO NOT set notifications, timers, or anything similar before you would usually hit that mental wall, as it will usually trigger that mental wall sooner and cause it to take longer to overcome
4. A good one, and one that I like using, is to take a race in blocks
1. This means 1 mile at a time, or for really long distances, maybe a few miles at a time
2. For each "block", mentally set goals and work to achieve them
5. The best method, however, is to improve the quality of your training runs
1. This could mean training you mind to look at mid distance runs like short distance runs
2. Or you could focus more on timed runs, where you are more focused on running for a certain period of time and not the worrying about the total distance (of course you will want to make sure you are getting certain distances, but that should not be the focus)

I do want to note that there are more technical aspects in regards to changes in the body during the course of longer durations of running, but without being able to interview the hundreds of people I read posts from, I figured trying to bring that in to this would not be very accurate.

Runner's World Half & Festival 2013 Review

The Runner's World Half & Festival for 2013 was held in Bethlehem, PA, October 18th-20th. What a beautiful venue; the town has been going through constant revitalization, but you still get to soak in all of the history. Based on the location of race events, I found the Sands Casino Resort and Hotel to be the most convenient place to stay. It was definitely not the cheapest, but staying there you could basically walk to everything, plus the starting line for the half was there.

As a recommendation for new and seasoned runners, don't make the noob mistake I did. I figured the hills wouldn't be any worse than what I trained on near my house, and I didn't really study the course or the grading. That hurt me big time, as I trained on hills a lot less steep than what I ran on, and the super hill in the Half killed me.

Shake Out 3 Mile Run

The Shake Out 3 Mile Run was free to anyone...you just had to show up and sign a waiver. It was held on Friday by the Runner's World staff. It was really fun and we did just over a 3 mile trail run. If I had realized it was so close, I would have ran over instead of driving. However, I knew I would be doing enough walking with the expo and for the non-racing stuff, so it was probably smart I drove over...plus parking was free for this.

5k Race

The 5k race started out right on schedule, 8am. The National Anthem is my absolute favorite pre-race "thing" that really gets me going. Sorry if that seems cheesy, but it motivates me like crazy. And then followed by some older dance music right before the gun. The course itself was fun. There was 1 decent uphill, with an equally steep downhill. The bridge was a very gradual uphill / downhill, so I don't count it.

Personally, I had set a goal of coming in under 23 minutes. I got 23:20, which was still a PR for me, but not what I was aiming for. The uphill was a little more challenging than I had originally thought it would be, which based on my TomTom info, is where I lost the 20+ seconds.

10k Race

The 10k race also started on time, 9:30am. Since the National Anthem had already been done for the 5k, they didn't do it again. I am embarrassed to say I wasn't paying much attention and I forget what song they did; I think it was God Bless America. Anyway, the course included the same starting leg and finishing leg of the 5k. This was really nice, as I visually knew when to kick at the last mile. The course had 1 extra uphill and downhill, both of which were fairly steep, but nothing too crazy. The first uphill started at 0.3 miles in and was 2/3 of a mile long, but 100 ft. elevation gain. The second uphill was around 1.8 miles in and was about 0.9 miles long, but had a slight downhill half way through, with a total elevation gain of 134 ft.

I was prepared for the first hill, however, and the second wasn't too bad since I expected it after dealing with the 1st hill and knowing there were 2 uphills. My goal was 9:30 min/mile since I figured I would be dead from the 5k and wanted to make sure I would be good for the half the following day. I was energized like crazy and I ended up getting a 50:54, or an 8:11 min/mile pace and destroying my previous best. So, 2/2 on PR's for Saturday.

Half Marathon Race

The Half Marathon started at the entrance to the Sands Casino. This was nice because I literally rolled out of bed less than an hour before start, got my free continental breakfast, and walked through the heated casino and was at the starting line. This was nice because Sunday morning was a good 8 degrees colder than Saturday.

There were 4 uphills for the half. The first one was around mile 1 and was about 0.5 miles long with an elevation gain of 74 ft; not too bad. The next uphill was around mile 2.2, and was even shorter. The next 2 uphills were technically part of 1 super long gradual uphill, with a few mini and short downhills before continuing the climb. This started around mile 3.8 and went until about mile 7.7, with a total elevation gain of about 172 ft. After that is was basically downhill until the end.

My goal was to beat my Philly Half Marathon time, which meant doing better than an 8:30 min/mile pace. I was kind of on track until mile 6, which was the start of the worst part of the super long hill. I was able to regain my pace a little miles 7-9, but my legs were completely shot and my mile times exponentially jumped up after mile 9, causing me to finish with a time of 1:53:12, or an 8:38 min/mile pace. Still not bad mind you, but I wanted to not only complete the Runner's World Hat Trick, but I wanted to get a Hat Trick with PR's. Nice dice; so 2 out of 3 PR's for the weekend.

Expo

The expo was pretty good. I am used to the gigantic expos for the largely publicized races, like the Rock 'n' Roll series races for example. So the expo was mini comparatively. However, for a smaller venue expo it was really good. The best part was really the seminars. Having the runner's world staff and other pro's giving advice was priceless. To add insult to injury (for my half race), I had gone to a seminar on proper fueling, and what did I NOT do for my half race...properly fuel of course. Hah! Oh well, lesson learned and kind of funny looking back. The pictures are of the ArtsQuest building where the expo was held and the 3 story spiral stair climb for swag pick-up (the blown glass sculpture was AMAZING!). The start and finish lines (except for the half start), were here as well.

Other Info

There was also a kids fun run and the Eukanuba Dog Run. Both were great and entertaining. The beer tent was awesome...nothing like some free beer after a race. Overall an awesome event, a great time, and I am hoping to do this again. 

Distance Races: Tips and Tricks for the First Timers

Are you about to run your first 10k, 10 miler, half marathon, or even marathon? I want to share some tips and tricks for training, taper week, race day, and post race. I have done a bunch of distance races, plus I grew up with my dad always running distance races, and I have a lot of his experience to rely on as well. I selected 10k as the shortest "long" distance. Technically anything under 10 miles is mid or short distance, but I decided to focus on any races that for the average runner would be close to an hour long or more. Yes, there are plenty of beginners running 5-6 min miles, but you can still hopefully benefit from some tips.

Training

The easy part is gear. Make sure you get fitted by a professional at a running store or by an orthopedist for your shoes. In regards to other clothing, the only major thing is to make sure whatever you wear allows for full range of movement for your running form or any exercise you will perform, and that your socks you use are not too tight or too loose. I recommend sweat-wicking running gear, as it will help you from dehydrating quicker, and is generally a lot more comfortable.

For you training plan, I recommend sticking with a simple beginner plan. They usually have at least 2 rest during the week so your body can get used to the mileage and physical abuse you are going to give yourself...remember, running is a high impact activity. Most importantly for your plan; stick with the plan! For your first races or races, unless you are naturally the world's fastest runner, you are probably more focused on completing than competing. I will cover competitor tips in another blog article at a later time. So, follow your plan. If you want more activity, cross-train. Your body will thank you for it. Leg strength training is huge for runners, as your legs, joints and lower back get pounded the less leg strength you have in your legs. Or you can add some other workouts like HIIT, swimming, cycling, P90X/Insanity-type workouts, or whatever you like. The other workouts will not only improve your overall fitness and stamina, but will also aid in faster recovery.

Other things to keep in mind is anything you want to try new for the race, such as water bottle holsters, running with or without music, taking GU or other energy replenishing items, then you really want to train with them. For the beginner, changing up more than 1 or 2 things on race day from your training could cause a lot of unwanted issues. Once you get more experience under your belt, then you will find that the only way to know if something is going to be useful is to try it on race day. But make sure to NEVER change shoes on race day or the week before. You are asking for injury otherwise.

Taper Week

Tapering is basically lowering the volume of your training while still keeping the intensity of your training. This is usually done the week before the race. For beginners and if you are going from something like a couch to 10k, you may want 2 weeks of tapering, but typically 1 week is more than enough. The idea here is to keep active and keep your body used to the faster training speeds so you will perform well at your race. This still applies even if you don't really care about speed. Regardless of your goals, the taper week is designed to keep you active and ready for the race, but not push your body to the levels of your normal training...you don't want to be exhausted and in pain on the day of your race.

For those of you who slack off, I recommend tapering at least 3 days before the race. This usually isn't enough time if you do a really long run right before the race, but for many beginners, this will be the bare minimum time to recover enough to complete the race.

Race Day

Everyone loves carb loading the night before or a couple nights before the race. This is usually pointless unless you are always on a low carb / low sugar eating lifestyle. Usually carb loading is only good for making your bloated or cramped for race day. On race day, try to stick to your usual breakfast you would have on any other long run day. If you are nervous or anxious, which most are, then make sure to have avoid any foods or drinks that are acidic and any foods that would be too heavy or salty. So, OJ is a great example of a drink to avoid. Most dairy will sit pretty heavy for most people, and eating pre-packaged freezer meals (sorry Jimmy Dean) is probably not the best idea because of the insane sodium levels. You don't want to get to your race and have a stomach ache or be dehydrated before you even start.

If you are opting to stay at a hotel, then I recommend picking a hotel either in middle of the start and finish, or closer to the start. Even though you may be exhausted when you finish, the last thing you need before the race is to have to rush to get to the race and get stuck in traffic. If you are staying with someone or going from your house, then make sure you get to the race at least 1-1.5 hours before the races starts. I usually recommend 2 hours before race start. This will allow you to take your time finding a parking spot and getting acclimated to the race environment. If you are nervous, the last thing you need to worry about is parking and finding your way to the race starting line.

Finally, lay out your race gear the night before the race. Usually you will be excited or nervous and not always thinking clearly. You don't want to get to the race only to realize you are missing something vital...like your shoes or your race bib.

Post Race

Usually when you finish the race, you will be hot and sweaty. This means that unless it's an extremely hot day, you will get cold quickly after the race. If you have spectators with you, get one of them to hold at least a dry shirt for you to put on after the race. You probably should have a basic change of clothes though, or a warm-up outfit to put on over your race attire. If you don't have anyone with you, hopefully there is a gear check at the beginning of the race. If all else fails, train with a backpack and just run with your gear. It's not ideal in any way, but at least you will feel "comfortable" after the race.

One important thing after the race is to get some carbs and sugars back in you, as well as making sure you are rehydrated properly. So, eating a banana, bagel, energy bar, having some Gatorade, or similar is always a good option. For longer races, you will want to also get more sustenance. I have found that that chocolate almond milk is a miracle recovery tool. There is no other food or drink I have tried that compares. But, you usually won't have that with you or available, so look for items with a higher carb amount. Ideally, a recovery food or drink item will give you a 4 to 1, carb to protein ratio. 

Lastly, stretch! Get some static stretches in after you finish. It will help avoid extreme muscle tightening later and can also aid in faster recovery after the race.

Most importantly, have fun! The race is the reward for the hard training you just did!

2013 Four Seasons Parkway Run & Walk for CHOP

My company is one of the major sponsors of this race. The race is to benefit the cancer center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. They do some pretty amazing work, so my wife and decided to run in the race. On a side note, my team at my company raised over $3k for CHOP. I was extremely excited about this; we rocked.

Anyway, my wife and I signed up for the 5k run. They also had a 2k fun walk as well. The weather was perfect; mid-50's pre-race and in the upper 50's at race start. However, I was dumb and was wearing a long sleeve tech shirt and was sweating horribly during the run, even though it was only 5k. The event allowed people to sign up on race day, which is always good for big charity races...the more the merrier. The goal was to have 10,000 participants, and they got 9262. It seemed like twice that number there because of how many spectators showed up as well. They raised $976,786.01 at the race, but the final amount raised of $1,031,951.01 beat their goal!

I have to say that the Four Seasons Hotel was awesome for foregoing the port-a-potties and letting everyone use the hotel facilities...which were extremely nice. There was free coffee and water for everyone pre-race. In addition, if your team or company had a tent, they all had Dunkin Donuts. My only complaint for the race was that it started almost 15 minutes late and there was no National Anthem. I would have expected such an overall well organized to event to have started on time; but who cares, it was a for a great cause and it was fun time. The lack of National Anthem was sad...even all of the small local races I do have that...it always gets me amped up for the run.

The run itself was great. You start at Logan Circle by the Four Seasons Hotel, and proceed towards the Museum of Art and onto West River Drive. You turn around a little ways into West River and head back to where you started. Aside from West River Drive, there was a ton of spectators everywhere cheering everyone on.

At the finish, all participants received a free breakfast; which basically was a combination of continental and hot breakfast! Definitely the first time I got eggs, tots and sausage for free after a race!

There supposedly was an APP for your phone to get race results, but I couldn't find it anywhere in the iTunes store; maybe it was Android only? The results are posted now on the website. You can sign up next year if you are in the area; it's September 28, 2014.

Why So Many Knee Issues?

So what's the deal with those knee issues? I mean, come on, it's not like you are on them all of the time. Sorry, had to do a Seinfeld-esque statement there. But seriously, why does it seem there are increasingly more and more knee injuries and people with knee problems? Just get to the record straight, I am not going into hereditary, low bone density, arthritis, old age, and similar causes of knee problems. I am focused on people who were fine for most of their lives until one day they all of the sudden had knee problems.

The common issue is usually plain and simple; a person injured their knee from a sports activity or falling down for one reason or another. This person needs to get usually needs rehab, and maybe some pins, maybe some bio-gel do fill in lost cartilage, or maybe some surgery.

So what about everyone else? I personally never had knee injuries until I got into long distance running and multi-sports. I hate to admit this, but I figured it was just the extra impact on my knees from the extra distances I was going. I was so wrong...and this is a common way to think for most people. I therefore had to do some root cause analysis and figure out how this could have happened. In short, in 2012, the year after I recovered from my second car accident, I got back into running and wanted to do long distance; 10ks and half marathons. I had knee issues for my first triathlon during the running segment. I ignored this issue because I just assumed it was from me just swimming 1.5km and cycling 24.8 miles. However, later that year I collapsed 3 times during the Philly Half Marathon. Was it from overuse, bad running form, something else?

I went to a sport medicine doctor and he said there were two issues; 1) I had extremely high collapsing arches, but with each foot collapsing differently. 2) My leg strength and flexibility were atrocious (the doctor used a harsher explanation than this...which is good because I needed to hear it). The arch issue was easily resolved by insanely expensive custom orthotics. They are definitely not a solution for everyone, but they worked miracles for me...and still do. The surprise to me was leg strength and flexibility.

Flexibility and Your Knees

When it comes to your knees, the range of motion is fixed; straight through bent all of the way back where your heel touches your butt. Sadly, I could not get my knee to bend that far. But that actually doesn't matter as much, since I don't need to ever bend my knee like that for any activity I am doing. This was still an issue that needed to be addressed (exercises and stretches will be in another article). There is more of course; the rest of my legs. My hips and legs were also not very flexible and extremely tight all of the time. Even after doing basic dynamic stretches, I was still always tight. When your muscles are tight, they do not handle impact very well. This causes more impact to be distributed to your bones, which results in lots of problems. The buffer between your muscles and bones are the tendons. Their elasticity makes them an extremely efficient buffer for everyday activity and impact. However, they can only handle so much. Therefore, you need to make sure you are lose before exercising. Yes, some people are naturally loose, but I am focusing on the majority of people. It is recommended that you perform dynamic stretches before you workout, followed by static stretches after you are done working out. Your stretches should not only be focused on the areas you worked out, but rather your whole body. Yoga is a great after-workout routine for getting full body stretching. Things like lunges, jumping jacks, arm rolls, and many more are good examples of dynamic stretches.

Leg Strength is Vital

When it comes to impact, it goes in the following order: muscles, then tendons, then bones. Your tendons can be strengthened via your standard core and leg strength training routines. Most leg workouts, especially for your thigh and calf muscles, will strengthen your tendons in your legs. A lot of people with knee issues will focus on reducing leg strength training during cardio training in order to keep their legs from getting too sore...but this is counterproductive. Your knee is the final point for impact to end. For example, if you jump in the air and land, assuming you land on your toes, you will start with impact dispersion via the feet, lower leg, then upper leg, then lower back, and then you knees. The less muscle you have in those other areas, the more impact the knees will take. An extremely cushioned shoe may help a little more, but ultimately, you need to build up your leg muscles. During my training season, I fit in 1-2 strength training sessions just for legs. This is an addition to the cardio work to strengthen legs, such as hill work. During off-season, which is typically late fall and winter, I will work my legs at 3 times a week in addition to any cardio I am doing.

So, there is even more you need to worry about for leg strength. You also need strength balance between your upper and lower legs. For example, one of my issues with my knees was that my calf muscles were really strong, but my thighs and quadriceps were extremely weak. So, this caused an imbalance for when I took impact. So, because my upper legs did not balance out the impact that the lower legs were taking, my knees ended up taking extra impact. Fortunately, striking a balance is pretty easy. All you need to do is make sure your leg workouts target calves, glutes, hips (abductor and adductor muscles), quads, thighs, and hamstrings. Basically you need to be doing a full leg and lower core routine. Lower core is defined as your stabilizer muscles and primary muscles for your abs and lower back.

Other Common Reasons for Knee Issues

I am a BeachBody coach, yes. But that doesn't stop me from stressing how awful workout programs like Insanity are for your knees. If done properly, Insanity is a killer program and has awesome results. However, it shouldn't be done by someone just getting back into working out. Also, even fit people commonly get hurt in exercise programs such as this, or aerobic classes that focus on a lot of jumping exercises (examples are box jumps and burpees). The reason is pretty simple; form and technique. So many exercise classes and routines focus on the exercise, but usually very little on proper form and technique. I recommend asking your instructor or watching videos online to see proper form. Always watch more than one video, as even professionals can tend to use improper form, even if they know what the proper form should be.

The other big reason is improper gear. Many people think they are experts on their bodies. Maybe you can judge how you feel and if you are pushing yourself too hard, but that is usually the extent of an individual's expertise on themselves. Therefore, for runners and other cardio athletes, you need to make sure you are wearing properly fitting socks, and have a professional make sure you are using the proper shoes. If you look at my feet, it appears I have a normal foot. On closer inspection you can see I have a collapsing high arch. However, it took an X-Ray to see how severe my high arch actually was. In addition, it took analysis of each of my feet to see that they collapse and roll differently.

Summing It All Up

If you plan on being a distance runner or a multi-sport athlete, then your legs are vital to your success and avoidance of unwanted injuries. All of your cardio training is easily wasted if your leg muscles overall are not strong enough. Yes, there people who have always had strong legs and don't need to strength train to keep their leg muscles strong. As I stated before, this is the exception, not the norm. I'll be following up this article with workouts to help with stretching, legs, and lower core.

Rock 'n' Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon - Race Review

I am going to try and be unbiased here, as I just hit a new PR on this race and feel like a million bucks. That aside, this is the 2nd time I have done the race, which is also the 2nd time that the formerly named Philadelphia Distance Run has been under new ownership with Rock 'n' Roll. So, this was the 2nd time I have participated in the Rock 'n' Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon. The race was just as enjoyable as last year.

Parking & Pre-Race

Parking is always a pain, so I recommend getting to the race at least 1-1.5 hours ahead of time, unless you have someone dropping you off. Or, if you are hardcore, you can just jog or bike over. The port-a-potty lines are always an adventure, but moved along pretty well this year. From what I noticed, it seemed like they had a considerable amount more than last year. They also have a VIP port-a-potty area, which you can either purchase a pass or if you got $150 or more of merchandise from any of the sponsors, such as Brooks, then you got a free pass. My wife and I qualified for the free pass, and stupid me, I forgot them...so we used the regular port-a-potties. Not a problem, they were well stocked this year with toilet paper.

Pre-Race in the Corrals

Getting into the corrals was a lot easier this year. There wasn't any security to see which corral you were entering, so technically it was first-come-first-serve despite what corral you should have been in. This was only moderately annoying because there were a lot of walkers and slow runners who went in the early corrals, which made running around people more of a challenge. I was a lot slower last year and in corral 18, instead of corral 5 this year, so I didn't really have to worry about this issue then. Still, it wasn't a really big deal.

Everything felt very organized and it didn't feel chaotic at all; just a lot of excited energy from the runners as you would expect. The weather was perfect! A nice chill in the morning and cool at the end of the race. Although it did feel a lot warmer after the race with the sun out in full blast. Fortunately, this race usually falls on a gorgeous days every year, so I expected good weather.

And We're Off!

It took about 5 minutes for Corral 5 to get to the starting line after the horn was blown. However, corral 17 for example, took 30 minutes to get to the starting line. This was because the later corrals had multiple corrals together. The first part of the race through the city in regards to the roads was a lot better this year. There had been road work last year and tons of uneven road and potholes to avoid. However, there were a ton of ignorant spectators and locals who felt they could just cross the race coarse and runner's were the ones who had to go around them. This is the first race where I saw this situation as bad. The Pittsburgh Half in May had some people like this, but nowhere near as bad. I have to admit that when I saw a 250+lb clydesdale runner take out some kid walking across the street with this headphones on, I got a nice laugh and only hoped that the runner was not hurt...the kid cursed at the runner...while the other runners cursed at the kid to get off the race course.

The Course

You can see the course map on the Rock 'n' Roll Philly page if you want to see the full details and elevation map. Overall, this is a very flat course. However, it ends on an uphill, which sucks. Not only that, but the last couple miles are in almost full sun, which combined with the uphill makes this a very challenging end-course. But, the rest of the course is fine. The only hard turns are in the first few miles through the city. Once you are get out of the city and onto Kelly Drive, it opens up for the rest of the race. There is a slight turn at Falls Bridge, but the road is very open and you make more of a gradual wide turn than a sharp turn. And then it's West River drive to the finish at the Art Museum. Overall, a scenic and very enjoyable race.

One thing I love about Rock 'n' Roll events is that you get music all throughout the course. This year was awesome. No country music (I don't like country, sorry)...but lots of jazz, a drummer, and other groups. Plus, there were they occasional speakers setup playing some decent tunes. Annoyingly the race starts with Eye of the Tiger...which is a song I would prefer to hear towards then end of the race when I need that last bit of motivation to speed up and complete the race. Oh well, they'll figure it out one of these years.

Finish Line Goodies

I think a lot of people complained about the finish line food and drink last year, because there was a LOT more this year. I am angry that Philly races don't seem to give out Philly Soft Pretzels anymore. I know it's not cheap...but seriously, this is a Philly race...I want a Philly Pretzel...and I don't want to pay for it. Sorry, I guess I am spoiled by the past. But, it's expected, as races have grown so large. The race this year was sold at 22,500 people. The race-day overall count was 25,209. Not sure how that works out. Anyway, they had lots of versions of chocolate milk (wish they had chocolate almond milk since I don't like dairy before or after a race), lots of Gatorade, water, Herr's products, bananas, bagels, and more. It was a good spread...I just wish I had a bag to put it all in. My arms were full of stuff.

Right after the finish line you got your race completion medal (in my picture below) and got a finish line photo.

The After Party

The beer garden is impossible to find just like last year. Very annoying and not clearly marked to be spotted over the crowds. Gotta love a free beer after a race though. They also had a "Merch" area. Why Merchandise is being called Merch now is beyond me, since Merch sounds like something you need to see a doctor about;

Me: Hey, did you know I got merch from the race
Friend: Oh man, that sounds painful, you should get that looked at...I hope there is medicine for that

So, the main band to perform was Walk Off the Earth. Sorry, this type of music is not my taste. I either want old school AC/DC style rock, STP, Green Day, or some old or new school hip hop or dance music. Thankfully, for me anyway, there was no country music playing on the race course or anywhere else. I am not a fan of country music, sorry everyone. Anyway, I didn't stick around for the concert, but I read that people who do like that music thought the performance was good.

Overall, a fun and enjoyable race and I highly recommend it. Congratulations to all of the other runners who completed the race!

Rock 'n' Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon - Expo Review

As with last year, Rock 'n' Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon Expo was held at the Philadelphia Convention Center; one of my preferred locations for expos in Philly. Sometimes the races use the stadiums or other venues, and they are always too crowded and packed. Parking in the garage was $17.76, hah. However, if you just park a couple blocks away at a lot, you can get away with anywhere from $10-$12. This is what I did.

I was a little surprised security was so light, as last year there was a lot more. Also, there were a lot more vendors and giveaways last year. You can go this link to see the vendor list. Also, the speaker events were not as interesting and useful this year. You can see the list of speaker events at this link.

As usual, you walk in through the archway to the race bib pick-up area. The line for my corral had no wait, so I got my bib after showing photo idea and handing over my signed race waver. From here I picked up my tech shirt, then my swag bag. You can see the pictures below.

After this, we proceeded into the usual Brooks Zone. It's basically a very large area dedicated to Brooks, since they are a major sponsor. They had a fun zone called Brooks Run Happy Island. Below is a video of a guy riding a shoe; good times.

After you leave the Brooks area, you are off to the other booths. I stopped at all of them, got some free stuff and samples. Nothing really exciting for me this year as I pretty much have all of the running gear I need now. I did pick up some compression long sock; 2 normal pairs and 1 reflective. With the weather starting to get cooler, they will be helpful since my outside runs will start being in complete dark for AM or PM runs, as the days are getting shorter. Other than that, my wife got a pair of compression socks as well, a free visor, GU's, and some other running items. We both got medal hangers and I got another magnetic bumper sticker from Gone for a Run, one of our favorite vendors for non-running running items. Last time we got bib binders and some other magnetic bumper stickers.

Despite there being a good amount of vendors, it was a lot less than last year, and a lot less packed. Last year the whole hall was filled with vendors and there was a lot of food and handouts. This year there was no food, a large amount of the hall was empty, and most vendors were stingy with handouts.

However, still a good time and I highly recommend going to the expos so you can at least get discount vouchers or fill out surveys to get free gear...it all comes in handy. Plus, a lot of vendors will offer high discounts at the expo; not as many discounts this year, but still some plenty of them. It also gives you a chance to try out gear so you can consider it for your next race or training.

I'm running on a half, but everyone else is full

You are going to pick up your race packet for the half marathon you are so eager to run in. You have trained hard and are ready for a PR the next day at the race. As you walk into the expo, you see 2 areas; 1 for the half marathon event, the other for the marathon event. The area for the marathon event looks nicer, but who cares, you are picking up your race bib. You are then directed to get the rest of your racing swag; clear bag for putting your warm-up stuff in, tech shirt, samples, etc. As you approach this area, it's packed. You look around and notice that most of the people around you have bibs for the marathon. For some odd reason you start feeling uncomfortable, even a little embarrassed. All of the sudden your excitement for your race turns into a slight panic. Why do you feel this way?

Welcome to being a human! Competitiveness is a natural instinct. And although you may be shooting for a 10 min / mile pace for that half marathon, the idea of other people doing that marathon just drives you nuts. And that is completely natural. Even if you aren't ranked, professional, elite, etc., you will still feel the urge to be as good or better than everyone else around you, based on some factor you determine subconsciously. So, if this were a half marathon race only, the shear fact that you are here to complete the race and everyone around you is here to at least complete the race, puts you on equal footing. However, you doing the half and others doing a full marathon means you are running half the distance they are. You have therefore decided subconsciously that your competitive factor for that situation is total distance. For some people, it may be the fact that they are getting their number in the general line, but see others getting their number from the elite runner line. Now the factor is either speed or title or both.

Sadly, this feeling tends to discourage many people and even though they might complete their half marathon, they may give up and not do anymore races unless there is no other distance or runner status other than what they will be doing. In some cases, it causes a person to train even harder so the next time they will be one of those elites, or the person running the top distance, or something else. So, is there a way to cope with or use this natural instinct to your benefit?

The simple answer is yes. The truth is that it can be challenging and difficult. For someone like me, I fall into this classification: Competitive self-competitor. This basically means that although I feel very competitive with others, my primary focus is competing against myself. Using various psychological profiling techniques, I can justify this and say this is completely natural. But can I change this? Can I see someone else who is better and then make myself stop at nothing to beat them? Aside from physical limitations, I can achieve this. However, it's in my nature to analyze and over think everything, and then to come to a realization based on my conclusions. Therefore, it's extremely challenging for me to strive to beat someone else.

Here is a good example. I currently have trained to try and run an 8:30 min/mile pace at my upcoming half marathon. My prior time for a half marathon was around 9:07 min/mile. Based on what you now know about me, this time I trained for will more than satisfy my competitive nature. However, I have a coworker who will be running the same race. He is looking to run at a 6:52 min / mile pace. I find that impressive and inspiring, but know there is no way I will get to that level anytime soon. Therefore, I am not going to go out after my race and start training to run at that pace. However, I can take my coworker's time, and look at my long-term goals. One goal is to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I need to be running around a 7 min/mile pace to qualify. So then I tell myself "I can run as fast as him, and to prove it I am going to train to qualify for Boston in a couple of years". Now I have no limits. Usually, my typical thinking is "Okay, knocking another 1:30 min/mile off of your current goal time is not only not reasonable, but impossible for the short term." But because I can now use my coworker and put his time in terms of a way I can compete with myself, I will now be trying to achieve that goal time in as short a time as I possibly can.

So, do I already have a plan even though I don't know if I will even hit my current 8:30 min/mile goal? You betcha! To get myself to thinking this was rough. I had many failures and gave up many times. But I finally got it right, and now the sky is the limit. As a parting note, I used a half and full marathon as the example here, but you can use this for any distance or any event; running, swimming, cycling, triathlons, rock climbing...anything! If I can do it, you can do it too; just figure out what makes you tick; what drives you.  Good luck and remember, always persevere!

Multi-race and Multi-day Race Phenomina

Are you Dopey? Can you stake claim to a Hat Trick? In addition to multi-sport events, such as triathlons, becoming increasingly popular, another sport is becoming popular as well; multi-race events. I have yet to find a buzz-word for this yet, but basically it means that a race event, usually running races, has multiple runs on the same day or throughout the course of multiple consecutive days.

The pioneer of this is Disney. They started with the Goofy run, which is running the half marathon, then the full marathon the following day. Due to its popularity, Runner's World introduced the Hat-Trick for its half marathon events, which involves a 5k and 10k on the same day, and then the half marathon the following day. More events like this are popping up everywhere. But why are these so popular?

The concept of running multiple events on the same day or consecutive days is nothing new. Many people have done this for a long time. With running such a popular sport for amateurs and pros alike, there are many instances where there are Saturday races and Sunday races. They can be part of the same event or be completely different events in different places. Some people want to do both races, so they do. There is no additional medals for this however; just the personal achievement and bragging rights for having that level of endurance. Other races have a weekend of events, such as the Pittsburgh Marathon, with a variety of races on Saturday, and the half and full marathon on Sunday.

So, with the popularity of these new events, the big question is "How do I train for this?" For the shorter distances, it's not too bad, even for beginners. For long distances, this really becomes challenging, as you are putting your body through a lot in a short period of time.

Shorter Distances

For events where you can do something like a 5k and 10k or a 5 & 5 (5k then a 5 miler), you can basically follow a mix of a 5k and a 10k plan. I won't outline plans, as there are so many available on Runner's World and many other fitness sites. I still may post some training plans at another time, but not in the article. Since the races are short enough, you don't really need to worry about much other than hydration for the races. Which is great, because you can pack light and really just focus on enjoying the races.

Longer Distances

Longer distances are a whole other story. Depending on how long each race is and the time between races, you have a lot to worry about. First, you need to follow a training a plan that is tailored for your max distance you will be running; so if your max distance is a half marathon, then make sure you have a half marathon plan in your training. After this, you have a couple of options. First, you can always just make your later long runs equal to the total distance of all of your runs you will do on race day or race weekend. This is good if you are mixing a half marathon with a 5k or 10k. However, when you start getting into marathons as your max distance, then adding a half marathon and maybe even others to your long run is not really feasible. You might as well just train for an ultra at that point. So, the next option is to have back to back longer run days. So, if Sunday is your long run, say 20 miles, you might want to be doing anywhere from an 8-12 mile run on Saturday, at a little faster pace than your long run pace. The short period between the two training runs will help build up your endurance greatly, and your body will be able to adapt better for recovery. Now, of course, you don't want to overdo anything and you will still need the proper nutrition and hydration.

The good news is that for races like Goofy, if you are already training for a marathon, then the 5k and 10k should not be an issue at all. You will just need to incorporate the second option from above to handle the half marathon after the 5k and 10k, and then doing the marathon the following day.

The Competitors

There are those of your who want to compete no matter what. Therefore, if you are going for time and want to place in these types of events, then you will need to follow a training plan that incorporates everything mentioned above, but also include multiple interval sessions each week. In addition, you will want to make sure your interval sessions vary to cater to each distance you are running. So some weeks you may be doing intervals for your 10k race speed, and another week you may be doing intervals geared towards your marathon speed. You will also want to include training runs where you are doing a race pace run for the short distance, following up with a long run the next day.

Health Notes

As some parting wisdom, don't ever blinding sign up and think you will be able to do the multi-race event with little to no training. You will be putting extra stress on your body than it's used to and it's always good to get a physician approval before embarking on such a tough physical challenge. Also make sure you are getting enough "fuel" and hydration; don't want you bonking on race 2 or 3 because you got over-confident and didn't take those extra water stops. And most importantly have a great time and enjoy your bragging rights when you complete it all!

Picking the Correct Workout Routine For You

How do you choose what exercise routine will work best for you? This is a tough question. For starters, if you do the same routine all of the time, and only ever increase reps and/or weight, you will eventually plateau on the benefits of that routine. For many people who are classified as "fit", this typically means you will start to plateau around 3 months of doing the same thing. This is not scientifically proven, as each person's muscle memory and body chemistry tend to differ in many ways. Not only that, but a routine that seems to work for one person who has similar goals to you, may not actually work or give the same results for you. Again, we are not all created equal. Especially when it comes to gender.

So how do you choose? Here are some basic guidelines I suggest to people; but ultimately you need to do some research or get a professional to help do a custom plan for you. There are so many workout and eating misconceptions, that if you don't do the research, chances are you will never get the results you want.

What is my current goal?

You need to know what you want to achieve before you can achieve it. Diving right into fitness with no real goals is fine; many people just want to stay a their owned perceived level of fitness or like it as a hobby. But if you want to actually gain something out of it, then you need to start with a short-term goal. As I will cover below, you can have a long term goal, but it's usually important to set smaller goals throughout the journey so they are more realistic to achieve. Once you know your current goal, you can then start figuring out what types of fitness activities will help you achieve that goal, and of those activities, which ones you would enjoy doing. Granted, if you have never tried an exercise before, it's always good to try it out to see if you will like it. However, I always advise seeking a trained professional to guide you on proper form and technique so you can avoid injury.

What is my long term goal?

It's human nature to start off with a long term goal (even if you technically want it to be immediate). The long term goal should be where you want your journey to take you. For example, if you are overweight and want to be around a certain weight, then your long term goal would be to lose however many pounds to get to that sustainable goal weight. However, as noted above, in order to not psych yourself out or get unmotivated too soon, it's best to then break that long term goal into smaller, more easily attainable goals. Humans typically feed on short-term successes to keep their drive going; doesn't matter if it's for your career, fitness, or anything else.

What are my physical limitations?

Once you have your goals, you need to be honest with yourself. Do you have any permanent issues, such as bad knees, prior injuries, etc.? For example, a permanent back injury could limit you greatly from many activities, such as running or doing weight routines like dead lifts and squats. However, if the injury isn't as severe, then maybe you can do lighter impact activities to strengthen the core and supporting muscles, and eventually perform those activities. Also, I always recommend that you go to your doctor and get various tests taken to make sure your body can handle whatever activities you might want to do. Maybe you have a heart condition that you don't know about; performing a HIIT activity could cause you to have a heart attack. And that is the last thing you want. It's always better to be safe than sorry.

How much time per week can I devote?

The final piece is how much time you can commit per day and how many days you commit per week to achieve your goal. You may want those 6-pack abs in a month, but if you can only workout a few days a week for 30 minutes each session, and you can't drastically adjust your eating routine, then chances are you won't be getting that 6-pack in anywhere near a month. The main thing to understand here is that the amount of time you devote will typically determine the length of time needed to achieve your goal. However, you can only go with generalities on this, as everyone is different, and depending on the goal, the time will usually vary drastically from goal to goal.

What do I like doing?

As I mentioned already, you not only want to do the activities that you will help you achieve your goal, but you also want to do activities you enjoy doing. Very few people have the determination to consistently do something they don't like and stick with it. Therefore, once you have figured out all of the above, you need to figure out which activities you will enjoy that also help you achieve your goals. In some cases, there may be a couple activities you don't enjoy, but if overall you enjoy all of your other activities, making a little sacrifice usually doesn't hinder your success. There are plenty of websites, apps, and professionals who can guide in the right direction to know what activities are available for the goal your trying to achieve.

Good luck and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

Determining productivity software needs for your company

With such a large variety of solutions to choose from, it can be extremely overwhelming for a business owner or IT manager to determine which solution would be best for their company. So, I have some steps to help determine your needs, as well as some package options.

1. What does your company do?

This may sound like a very simple question. Good, it is supposed to be. The first step is to see what business functions your company performs, and then determine what software is needed to run all aspects. For example, let's say your company manufactures plastic widgets that go into a variety of devices. Also, your company has a R&D department and has it's own sales force.

For your day-to-day activities, you need to write up memos, reports, advertising material, store documentation, create and store CAD drawings, schedule meetings, track manufacturing metrics, manage your sales territories, manage customer service, track sales metrics, manage the company finances, and perform a variety of HR functions as well. So, just find an all-inclusive suite that will handle everything, right? Well, for some companies and budgets, that may be an option, but for most, this is not cost-feasible. So, what is next?

2. What is the size of your company and how many people will need to use the computing resources?

With our enormous list of software options from above, it appears that your company's needs seem astronomic and unrealistic. Don't worry, it gets worse. So, let's say your company has a total of 200 employees. This includes office staff, manufacturing, and sales force. Do you buy an individual copy for everyone? Can you just buy a few licenses for different software and limit how many people can use the software at a time? Do you just buy a bulk of licenses? Do you develop your own software? Do you try to use open source? Or do you try and operate in the cloud?

3. Choosing what you REALLY need.

I want to say there is no simple answer here. There are cost-benefit trade-offs all over the place. For example, you can go Open Source, but you still need the IT infrastructure to support it, plus the common risk of Open Source is that there is always the change there may not be enough support, support all of the sudden stops, or bug fixes or enhancements stop coming out. In this case, your software is free, but your hardware and personnel costs will be higher.

You could doing the Microsoft Shop method, and spend a ton of money to get all Microsoft products. You still have high hardware costs, but you get discounts if your employees have Microsoft certifications, plus you get the convenience of all of the software working with each other for a seamless experience, making overall maintenance fairly low, assuming you set things up correctly in the beginning.

Another option is to hit up the cloud. You can do this with Microsoft, Google, IBM, and others. You can get online tools like SalesForce.com, Google Docs, Microsoft 365, and the list goes on. In regards to hardware, all you need is a fast, reliable, and secure Internet access, and any device that can run the websites. So, your hardware costs are almost nothing, you get anywhere access, and it's easy to setup new users. However, licensing can very expensive, and if you need steady up-time in regards to your Internet connection, then you may be spending a small fortune on redundant Internet hook-ups.

In the end, you need to understand what the company can handle. Just because a cloud solution would be best, doesn't mean it's practical. There is still a lot of fear over privacy, security, and data integrity when it comes to Cloud computing, and rightfully so. It may not be possible to convince executive management to embrace this. Therefore, you may have to go with something that is either a hybrid or a full non-cloud solution.

As a rule of thumb, most companies go with hybrid models. A good example of this is having laptops and/or desktop computers powerful enough at the office to run Windows 7, Office 2010 or later, SharePoint 2010 or later, IE 10, etc. Then you have your primary data storage and servers on-site, with a direct connection to a secure off-site location for nightly backups of data for disaster recovery. You then use some of the new SharePoint features that allow mobile users to have cloud access and collaboration to the company's Intranet. There are still tons of options out there, and if you ever have any questions on a direction to go, ask me, or demo lots and lots of software. Sometimes, demoing is the best way.

Tracking Your Life...11 "Apps" to Help You Out

I am always trying to find more efficient ways to do things; and trying to keep my life organized and on-track is always challenging, given my schedule. So, I thought I would share some awesome "apps" that allow me to track everything. I quote "apps" because almost all of them have a web-based and mobile application access, which makes life even better; because once in a while you just don't want to be on a small phone or tablet screen.

1. Evernote
• Quite simply, this is a notebook to store anything you can think of; scrap book, create To-Do Lists, projects for work or personal, etc.
• Alternative to Microsoft OneNote
• Available on virtually every platform
• You can pay extra to be able to have offline usage and some other great features
2. Mint.com
• When it comes to personal finance, Mint does everything stand-alone software does, but it's a website or mobile application instead of something you are forced to install on a computer
• Syncs with almost every financial institution for tracking loans, income, expenses, bill reminders, budget planning, and tons more
• Did I mention you pay NOTHING for it? Yep, awesome!
3. Wegmans
• Chances are you don't even know Wegmans. They are a grocery chain and their app ties seemlessly with their website.
• Grocery list building from all products available from store you set as your local store
• Tells you location in the store of the items on your list
• Can add recipes ingredients from their awesome recipe section to your shopping list
• Can view history of purchases to track spending, what you buy, or to compile new shopping lists quicker
• NOTE: If you shop at a grocery chain, see if they have an app that is similar
4. My Fitness Pal
• Whether you are trying to lose weight or just trying to stay healthy, it's important to know what you eat and recommended by most nutritionists, doctors, and specialists. MFP, as it's commonly called, can track all of that
• It has one of the largest food and drink databases I have come across, and although not all data is always 100% accurate, people can update the incorrect items with the correct information if they want
• You can also track any fitness you do
• Many external fitness sites and tools can automatically sync with MFP, allowing even easier tracking of fitness and activities
5. CardStar
• Did you forget your 10lb keychain at home with all of the different membership and store cards? Don't worry, you can use CardStar to input all of those pesky cards...ranging from an LA Fitness membership card to a GNC rewards card
• CardStar has a huge database of existing services, so usually you just find the name of the company, group, etc. and then input or scan your card
• If the rewards program isn't in CardStar's database, no worries, you can manually input it
• Also, a few updates ago they beefed up security, which is a really nice piece-of-mind
6. Waze
• No website, since this is a GPS app
• However, this is hands-down the best GPS app I have ever used; and although Google has bought Waze, Google's map app for iPhone still isn't that great
• It updates with alerts as people report them, so if Waze sees that there are a lot of slowdowns or an accident that pops up in your route, it doesn't need to wait for it to be reported to the local highway administration, it gets updated immediately by other users, then can automatically re-route you
• This really is a must-have for driving almost anywhere
• NOTE: Google's map program is still the best for walking around a city and finding things
7. Google Drive
• With some recent updates, you not only gain access to all of your Google Drive files, but you can now edit and create as well
• If you keep all of your document on Drive, then this app is a must!
• NOTE: SkyDrive people, unless you have a Windows Phone, forget the editing unless you get another app such as Office2 or CloudOn
8. OpenTable
• OpenTable is basically a restaurant finder and reservation scheduler tool
• Okay, not every place to eat will show up in here...just the ones who sign up with OpenTable
• However, it's great to find somewhere to eat when you are out, and you get rewards and can make an instant reservation...Perfect!
9. Wall Street Journal (WSJ)
• All the news
• Yes, for all of the goodies and articles, you need to pay, but comparing the quality of writing and journalism to other free news sources, you typically don't need to worry about a poorly written and/or researched article in here
• And I personally have no patience or time to weed out the junk articles...no offense to apps or services similar to Google News
10. Chrome
• Sorry Safari, Opera, and million other browser options
• I love the Chrome browser...syncing across all devices I have is awesome...not only that, but Chrome has a great feel to it
• NOTE: With iOS 7 coming out soon, I may end up changing this back to Safari, but we shall see
11. EasilyDo
• No website, but apps on iOS and Android
• If you are busy, and tend to forget things, even when you enter them in your calendar, then you NEED this app
• It basically acts as your personal assistant, and it will automatically send birthday wishes and presents to people via Facebook, or will track a shipment for an order you just, and much more
• Various functions include:
• Location-based items such as Direction to Home and Work, Local Weather and Alerts
• Facebook birthdays, RSVPs, Important Posts, Popular Posts, Daily Top Photos, Tagged Photos of you, Friends' Profile Pictures
• Email (ties into your email service) - boarding passes, hotels, restaurants, events, invitations, job changes, contact information, package tracking, bill pay reminders, receipts, expired deals cleanup, old calendar emails cleanup
• Calendar (ties into your calendar) - Next Calendar Event reminder
• Contacts (ties to your contacts) - Duplicate Contacts Cleanup
• Extras - Free App of the Week, Free iTunes Single of the Week (for iPhone)
• And they are always adding more features!!!
• NOTE: If you are a privacy nut, you don't want this app, it invades everything...HOWEVER, the privacy policy states they will not use any of the information other than for the functions of the app...this still means they can get your non-personal stuff and use it, as most apps do anyway

Nike Training Club - NTC

I wanted to review a bunch of the Nike apps, as I really like the simplicity, yet effectiveness and usefulness of them. The first app on the chopping block is NTC, Nike Training Club. As a quick note, I am reviewing from an iDevice perspective, as I do not have Android or other mobile OS. With that said, let's dive in.

Walkthrough

First off, you'll need a Nike Plus account. You can either sign up with your own e-mail or use your Facebook account. I am not a fan of how much companies get when I use a Facebook login, so I use it as little as possible, but that is just me. You have less logins to worry about if you use your Facebook account though; that is pretty nice. Anyway, you can learn about the Nike account on your own.

The intro screen is nice and simple. The Swoosh is for the home screen, with My Workouts you can view your recent and saved workouts, Progress shows your training totals in minutes as well as the general info from your workout, and Rewards are the typical Nike fashion of encouragement, which is pretty effective. I do want to note that if you want heart rate and calorie burn information, you will want to get a heart rate monitor, such as the Polar FT40 or similar. The Quick Start option will let you go immediately to the last workout you did, if that is the one you want to perform. Get Workout allows you to browse a very healthy list of workout routines, including:

• Get Lean
• High Interval Cardio Drills to Slim Down
• Get Toned
• Light Weights and Intervals to Add Definition
• Get Strong
• Increased Weights and Reps to Build Strength
• Get Focused
• 15-minute Workouts to Target Specific Areas

After you select what you want, you select an intensity level:

• Beginner
• You Average 4-5 Workouts a Month
• This is really for someone who is not used to doing strength training or is wanting to get back into strength training
• Intermediate
• You Average 2-3 Workouts a Week
• If you have been doing strength training, then you still may want to ease into things with Beginner, or you can take the plunge
• Advanced
• You Average 3-5+ Workouts a Week
• You really want to have most of your current workouts focused on strength training and have a good base
• Typically you will work up to this; it's definitely challenging

Now you will get to see all of the workouts available in the level you selected. The list in the example above is from Get Strong - Beginner. Don't worry if you have no idea what Workout Routine to choose, select one and you can view the workouts and even click on each workout to see a video of that workout.

If you want to listen to music during your workout, go for it! It will be lowered when the voice is instructing you to do your next workout, if you need to switch sides, or just shouting out some encouragement. Then, select Do Workout and go!

During the workout you can Pause whenever you need. Also, if you get to a workout you either don't know or can't remember what to do, you select the Play button and can view the workout. This in essence pauses your workout, so after the video, you will be required to resume. 

The workouts have some simple warm-up and cool-down built in, but if you are a person who is typically very stiff before workouts or suffers from post-workout soreness, I highly recommend additional warming up and/or cooling down.

The Bottom Line

Regardless of any misgivings people have with Nike, this application and its workouts are completely free. It's one of the best free workout routine programs I have tried out. Sure, there are better paid ones out there, but free is free. And you will get a workout from these routines. Now, if you are a BeachBody or hardcore CrossFit convert, then even some of the Advanced workouts may not feel as challenging as you would want...but chances are if you are one of those people, you aren't interested in this app in the first place. Enjoy the burn!

Polar FT40 Review

I have had my Polar FT40 for about 3 years now. I purchased it for 2 reasons; 1) It was one of the few watches out at the time that had great reviews on overall accuracy of calorie expenditure during a workout and 2) It was Polar, so I knew the heart rate tracking was going to be very accurate and I could train in zones. Now, the FT40 does not have specific zone training settings, so this was a manual effort; I really only cared if my heart rate went too high. I also wanted a watch that was designed to be able to track fat vs. cardio; basically meaning that I wanted to figure out approximate calorie burn when I was doing weight lifting or HIIT workouts, in addition to my cardio workouts.

Watch Functions and Setup

When I bought the watch, it came with the manual, software installation CD, heart rate strap, heart rate monitor, USB sync dock, and the watch. I had to setup the watch first, since part of the software installation process was to sync the watch to the software. Watch setup was very easy; you put in your gender, height, weight, date of birth, and activity level, and set the time and date.

For more options from the main screen, press the bottom right button. The first option is settings. Now press the right middle button. Here are the Training Settings:

1. Training Sounds
• Off, Soft, Loud, Very Loud
• Pick whichever you want. When I used to listen to music, I turned the sound off, but since I don't usually listen to music now, I usually set the noise to Loud, which is usually a good volume to hear over gym noise or a treadmill motor.
2. Heart Rate View
• Beats Per Minutes or Percent of Maximum
• I do BPM because I don't train based on % of max, but if you do, you can
3. HeartTouch
• The Polar explanation says it better than I can: "When HeartTouch is on, different training information during training can be accessed without pressing buttons, for instance, when gloves make pressing buttons difficult, by bringing your training computer close to your transmitter."
• I personally use it so I can keep session duration displayed on the watch, and then when I want to see what time it is, instead of scrolling through the displays, which is a pain, I just move the watch near the heart rate monitor, and the time will be displayed.
• Per the manual and my usage, HeartTouch only displays the time, and no other display values...HeartTouch is either On or Off.
4. Heart Rate Upper Limit
• This value is set based on your personal info when you first setup the watch. However, if you are in amazing cardio shape, your max HR may be a lot higher. Therefore, you can change this if you know your max HR is different.

Other options on the main selection menu after Settings are Fitness Test and Data. You can read below about Fitness Test. For Data, you get some nice options:

1. Training Files
• Starts with most recent workout
• Displayed date, time of workout, duration of workout
• Press the right middle button to see details
• Calories
• This is your calories burned during the workout
• Cal. Fat
• This is the fat percentage of calories burned
• Average
• Average Heart Rate during session
• Maximum
• Maximum Heart Rate during session
• Fat Burn
• Amount of time you were in the fat burning zone
• This time is usually higher during low intensity workouts, such as strength training
• Fitness
• Amount of time you were in the fitness zone (or cardiovascular zone)
• Typically for runs, biking, or other purely cardio workouts, most of your session time will appear here.
2. Week Summaries
• Shows current week first
• Graph shows activity level of selected week vs. other weeks
• Pressing the middle right button, you can see the details for that week
• Duration (overall for all sessions)
• Calories (total from all sessions)
• Sessions (total sessions for week)
3. Totals since (when you first started using the watch)
• This is a really awesome feature, as you can see how awesome you are
• The one problem is that the max Duration time is 99 hour, 59 minutes, so although it will keep adding sessions and calories, your Duration will stop at 99h:59m
• Displays Duration, Sessions, and Calories
4. Delete Files
• Deletes your currently stored files...if your storage is full and you need to do a workout, you may need to do this
5. Reset Week Summaries
• Same as Delete files
6. Reset Totals
• Same as Delete files
• This is good to use if you are trying to achieve certain goals. This way you can see how many sessions, total duration, and total calories burned to achieve your goal. Then you can reset for you next goal.

Recommendations for Initial Use

After you have setup your watch, signed up on Polar Fitness website and are ready for a workout, I recommend doing 2 things. It's important to know 2 things; what is your resting heart rate and what heart rate range should you be working out in. Heart rate ranges for age and gender are good guides, but people who fall on either extreme end of the spectrum may either hurt themselves or not get enough out of a workout. For example, someone who is extremely out of shape, overweight, and has no real fitness stamina, then their heart rate range is going to be significantly less than another person who is in the middle of the spectrum in the same age group and gender. So, make sure to do the fitness test.

To do the fitness test, press the bottom right button 2 times, then press the right middle button. Make sure you heart rate monitor is on. You also want to do the following:

• Find a relaxed environment to do the test
• Avoid any physical activity prior to test, or any food, drink, or medicine that could alter your heart rate...do this for up to 1 day before test
• Avoid any large meals at least 2 hours before test (I tried test this way and right after a large meal and got the same results)
• Make sure if you are doing the test multiple times over time, always do it in the same conditions

Then, you can start the test, wait 5 minutes for it to finish, and see your results. You will then be asked to update your VO2Max, at which point you should, since it will make calorie burn more accurate.

My result for example, the first time I took the test mine was 42. Per the chart in the manual, that means my VO2Max was on the low end of being moderately good. The last time I took it I was at 53, which is very good. So, you can see I have improved. In essence, the fitness test is Polar's version of trying to determine your VO2Max. Compared to getting your actual VO2Max tested, it's not the greatest, but compared to most other calculators and competitor watches, it's one of the most accurate.

Training

When you want to start your workout, press the middle right button and wait for the watch to pickup the heart rate monitor signal. If you want to start, just press the middle right button again and go! If you need to pause, press the bottom left button, and the press the middle right button to resume. if you are done, press the bottom left button twice.

If you want to customize your workout, before pressing the middle right button a second time, press the bottom right button to see Training Settings, and then press the middle right button to see options.

• Training Sounds
• If you want beeps or not, and how loud
• Heart Rate View
• BPM or % of Max...whatever you want to display based on your training session
• Heart Touch
• I usually keep it on all of the time so I can see the current time if I need to
• Heart Rate Upper Limit
• If you are trying to keep from going above a certain heart rate, set the upper limit and make sure you have Training Sounds enabled so you know if you go over

Sadly, there are no other special training settings. However, there are plenty of other models you can get for this. But for a watch to get you accurate calorie burn from workouts, this is definitely the watch for you.

Can your company survive without Windows 8

For most companies, the answer is yes. Windows 8 doesn't have any ground-breaking features that alter business as we know it. With that said, there are a lot of operational efficiencies a company can gain from Windows 8. Therefore, your IT and business management need to run through some questions to decide if Windows 8 can help move your business forward.

 

Are we a "Microsoft Shop"?

 

I am not really sure when I first heard this term, but for anyone not familiar with it, it basically means your company invests heavily in Microsoft infrastructure. For example, your company may actually strive to be a Microsoft Business Partner because your company develops software or sells computers, and everything you do is around Microsoft products. Or, maybe your company is just "Microsoft-Centered" as I call it. This might be a typical example of the software your company has:

• Windows XP or 7 (for employee computers)

• Windows Server
• Exchange Server

• Microsoft Office
  • Word
  • Excel
  • PowerPoint
  • Outlook
  • Visio

• SQL Server

• Visual Studio
• Internet Explorer

 

If you fall into any of the descriptions above, and your company usually tries to keep up with the latest technology offerings, the simple answer on whether or not to go to Windows 8 is yes. The reasoning is that your cost to upgrade will generally be lower because of licensing agreements and other discounts. I will throw out the disclaimer that you will need to do a full software and hardware system review to make sure upgrading to Windows 8 will not negatively impact any other software or hardware currently in your company, unless you plan on upgrading that as well.

 

Are we mobile?

 

A really simple question that can make your life easy is if your company is mobile. Mobile can mean that your employees use laptops or tablets instead of desktops, most of your employees work from remote locations, and/or a large percentage of your employees are on the road and/or in field offices. If the answer is yes, Windows 8 has a lot of great tools to aid in keeping your technology footprint light while still having tons of security and flexibility. BitLocker and Trusted Boot are two applications that come with Windows 8, and they are pretty solid. There are also a lot of other tools that help with mobile broadband, remote desktop, file sharing, and more.

 

If the answer is no, this does not mean you should not consider Windows 8. However, depending on your current IT infrastructure, both hardware and software, you may not see the ROI you want or any ROI at all by getting Windows 8. 

 

What is the average technology learning curve of each employee?

 

This question can tend to be a huge unknown if a company does not have a tech support department or tech support department doesn't have a useful reporting system to capture metrics. If you know the learning curve is large, stay away from Windows 8, as you will never see the return you will be hoping for, despite the amazing benefits you can get from Windows 8. If you have no idea, then a good benchmark would be something like "How painful was it upgrading Internet Explorer from version 6 or 7 to version 8?" Or "How hard was it for users when the company upgraded to Microsoft Office 2007?" If it went pretty well, then you can assume that the learning curve will not be too bad overall.

 

Do we have the hardware in place to leverage all Windows 8 has to offer?

 

This is a complicated question. The benefits from Windows 8 unfortunately come with the synergies of the other Microsoft software; Office or Office 365, SharePoint, Exchange, etc. Although, from a system resource perspective, Windows 8 is more lightweight than Windows 7, if you are upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 8, your computers, servers, and even your network may not be able to support the system requirements. Also, you have to worry about older software being compatible with Windows 8, or more importantly, loss of functionality of older software in Windows 8. I already said this, but can't emphasize it enough; a full impact analysis must be done before upgrading to Windows 8. As a matter of fact, you should ALWAYS be doing an impact analysis, even on software patches. SQL Server is notorious for its patches messing things up.

 

Conclusion

 

Sure, there are many other questions, but I wanted to provide some key ones to ask. Windows 8 is not like any other prior Windows OS release, and needs to be treated as such. It has amazing capabilities and is a great step forward for personal and business computing. However, most people and businesses are not ready for that leap, as there is always fear and resistance to drastic change of any kind.

 

I am a technology advocate and believe that a company should stay as current with technology as their business operations demand. So, do you need to upgrade to Windows 8? Maybe not, but it may be worth it.