The web's becoming a fancier place all the time, especially in the health and fitness arena, so today I'm sharing a few of the sites I hit on a regular basis.
MapMyRun.com
For those without the benefit of a GPS watch, this site is awesome. Essentially it allows you click points on Google Maps to plan your next running route and calculate the exact distance you will go. Your training plan calls for 12K this weekend? No problem, just go to MapMyRun, enter your starting address, and start plotting your path. If you do have a GPS watch, you can actually export the route to your device to help you navigate. Very cool.
MotionBased
I've been using a Garmin Forerunner 205 fo about 2 years now and rarely run without it. It gives me the elevation profile and exact distance I run, but as an added bonus I can upload this data to the MotionBased site and start analyzing the data. It not only gives me a map of my run, but it has a large number of graph outputs to visualize and analyze various aspects of my workout. MotionBased also supports the upload of other Garmin fitness watches, so you can upload and analyze heart rate data as well. (Note: MotionBased, which desperately needs a facelift, is getting just that and will be relaunched as Garmin Connect in a few months.)
Active.com
This is a great general health and fitness website that also does sport specific subsites. Great for finding info on cool races coming up, healthy recipes, training tips etc, and for interacting with others via member blogs and the community forum. Also included are a bunch of handy fitness calculators--calculate your Body Mass Index, Ideal Weight, Daily Caloric Needs, Nutritional Needs, and Target Heart Rate. And of course, there's the ever handy pace calculator.
Running Mania
This is a Canadian running community site. The main thrust is the forum (admittedly very Web 1.0) but they do have event reviews and training plans available as well.
iLovetoPlay.com
This site is essentially a sports matchmaking service. Looking to join a soccer team for the summer? Ultimate frisbee more your thing? Maybe you want to just shoot some hoops every so often. iLovetoPlay can help you do all of these things by matching users together based on what they're looking for. Great idea, but right now I don't think the site really has the user base to make it as useful as it could be. I've had my profile up looking for a tennis partner for about a week now and haven't received a nibble. (Maybe a Google or Yahoo acquisition could give this site the exposure it needs to hit critical mass! Larry, Jerry, you reading this?)
Earlier this week I was in Chicago and was confronted with the challenge of staying healthy on the road. For the most part this proved impossible -- 12 hour days working at a trade show make it near impossible (for me at least) to plan healthy meals and get in some exercise. It's really just about survival. Again, healthy living becomes a nice to have, not a need to have.
Before leaving I had read about a cool new service called City Running Tours which essentially hooks you up with a running buddy in a foreign city. Well, I thought it was cool until I realized they charged ten bucks a mile! I know that runners tend to skew to higher SES types, but I can't imagine ever paying someone to run with me.
I did manage to get up extra early one morning and take a quick trot through the city (see map below) from my hotel, up Michigan Avenue to the river and back. Not extensive, just a simple out and back 5k, but I would say probably the highlight of the trip. (Plus it was free!) Trade shows are noisy, talky places so it was nice to be alone for a bit and take in the sights. I should have brought a camera, the city is beautiful. I had never been, but I will definitely be back.
Today's the first hot day of the year, so I can now declare that the sweating season (aka summer) has officially begun. It's 30°C (85°F) and muggy out.
I used to sweat much more, back in the days when I was 230 pounds. Those were my obese days, and I'm happy to report that I am now merely overweight. But sweating is still an issue.
The relationship between fat and sweat is fairly intuitive. If you have excess insulating flesh hanging off your frame, it makes sense you're going to be less efficient about dispensing heat.
Running is a big component of my quest to become an efficient heat dispenser. Earlier today I had discounted a daytime run due to the heat, but after bopping about town for a bit I did notice quite a few people pounding the pavement and frankly, that's just inspiring. I know some people look at runners and get annoyed, but I think they're great. These people--regular people, big or small, but all motivated, are heroes. And they make me want to be a hero too. So I'm hydrating and dusting off my sneaks and getting excited about my first run in over a week!
If I don't get my 8 hours of sleep I can still get stuff done. I can do the client calls, the department meetings, feed the cats and brush my teeth. In terms of what needs to get done, I can make it happen. It's really just a question of pouring more coffee into my face.
My problem is that health and fitness don't fall under the category of stuff that needs to get done. These things are classified as optional nice to haves, not essential need to dos.
Today I got up at 5:00am for early work stuff. One 12-hour day later (I'm a hero), stick a fork in me, I'm done.
When I'm tired, running really just falls off the map. It ain't happening. Compounding the problem are my poor food choices when I'm pooped. Ordered pizza for dinner and even bought some Smarties after that.
Bloated, blogging, and burping pizza on the couch, I'm strategizing. How to avoid this in the future: 1. Get more sleep. 2. Get more tough! Mentally tough. This second point is key for any wannabe marathoners like myself. Do I really think I'm going to feel fresh and rested after mile 20? That's crazy. Fighting through adversity, not giving into fatigue, that's what marathoning's all about, isn't it?
It's easier to control what food goes from the fridge to my mouth when I control what food goes into the fridge in the first place. My girlfriend and I recently bought a condo--a condo that is still being constructed--and our apartment lease ran out today. What does that mean? That means all of our earthly possessions are stacked to the ceiling in my parents' garage and we are officially homeless and bunking out like a couple of unemployed Gen-Xers at the 'rents once again.
Happily we are not actually unemployed, unhappily I now live in a house with a fridge packed with cheese. My parents had a dinner party last night and there's tonnes of leftover fromage.
Gruyère, emmental, brie, camembert, blue, and a few other stinky cheeses I don't know the names of. Plus there's a big tub of cottage cheese and a couple bricks of cream cheese as well. I've been slowly but surely picking at all of these cheeses all day long--in combination with the abundant bagels, crackers, and leftover baguettes that we are well stocked with as well.
My supermarket self-control is excellent. I can walk up and down the isles and pick up mostly healthy--nutrient dense, whole grain, not processed--stuff. My lazy Sunday lounging near a kitchen filled with fatty cheeses and carby white breads self-control is non-existent.
The condo should be ready in a month. Let's hope I don't develop diabetes in that time.
RSS Feed