Fidgeting Your Way to Fitness

I enjoy the thought of this, from the NY Times…

May 11, 2011, 12:01 am

Fidgeting Your Way to Fitness

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

If work is interfering with your plans for a workout today, perhaps you should drum your fingers against your desktop in frustration. Doing so may help, in some small way, to maintain or augment your fitness, at least according to a study published last month in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

The study examined the role in physical fitness of “incidental” physical activity, which involves any movements that are not formally exercise. Also called “activities of daily living,” they include walking to the window, bobbing your foot as you sit, pulling weeds in the yard, chopping onions for dinner and similar movements. Once, people accumulated large amounts of this unplanned exertion, since the world contained fewer cars, offices, elevators and takeout options. But levels of incidental physical activity have fallen sharply, and the amount that any one of us completes varies widely, since some people naturally fidget more than others and some have more physically demanding occupations, like nursing or mothering small, caroming children.

Read on here.

Wednesday Night Run 5-18-2011

Hello ORC,

So what’s going on this week/weekend?  The Brick Store Pub is having a yard sale and pancake breakfast.  They will be selling old glassware and other goods from their beer vault.  There will be Martinis in the garden at the Oakhurst Community Garden Project.  Roxie Watson (it’s a band) is playing in Decatur Square on Saturday night.  On Sunday, Avondale Estates is closing down their streets and opening them up for foot and bike traffic.  It’s like Atlanta Streets Alive but for Avondale.  That’s a lot of stuff and I haven’t even left Decatur/Avondale Estates.

I may be getting this information late; congratulations to Emily and Ian on the birth of their child.  Hope everything is going well, rested, recovered, and enjoying parenthood.

What else is going on?  Care to share?

There are a couple of local races this weekend.  In Grant Park is the geneRACEtion 10K & 2K.  I am not sure how I feel about the title.  I guess it is catchy.  In Atlanta and Freedom Park are the Atlanta Mission 5K and the William Dillard Foundation 5K Walk/Run respectively.  There is a trail run in Paulding, Dirty Spokes Mt. Tabor Trail Run.

This Wednesday you will be running route 10.  The run hits Rockyford, Hosea, Tupelo, and the rolling hills of Spence/McDonough.  Watch out for traffic at intersections.  You can see the map through the link below. After this 5 miler it is off to Mojo's Pizza for food, drinks, and trivia.

Thanks for making the Oakhurst Running Club one of the friendliest running club in Atlanta.

Corny

http://oakhurstrunningclub.blogspot.com/

http://oakhurst-running-club.googlegroups.com/web/Route+10.pdf?gda=kD5eK0EAAABX1J9qhvqHbbbNJKzo8aYdQAKLUIfH6uF3UPF5u7KH5NYTmJ10onBJPR398DLgjmhTCT_pCLcFTwcI3Sro5jAzlXFeCn-cdYleF-vtiGpWAA

Local Races This Weekend

Saturday, May 21

geneRACEtion 10K & 2K, Grant Park

Atlanta Mission 5K, Atlanta

Dirty Spokes Mt. Tabor 4.0 Mi / 8.0 Mi Trail Run, Paulding

Moving Towards A Cure 5K Run/Walk, Stone Mountain

Trot to Clot Hemophilia Walk/Run 5K, Stone Mountain

William Dillard Foundation 5K Walk/Run, Freedom Park

Wednesday Night Run 5-11-2011

Hello ORC,

A lot of very cool local stuff going on this weekend in and around Decatur, first is the Decatur Garden Tour.  Then it is the 2^nd in a series, Decatur Concert on the Square, featuring The Damages.  Also on Saturday at The Marlay House is their street food event.  Not only will The Marlay House have their own Fish & Chips truck, also there will be Yumbii, Tex's Taco, Grace's Goodness, Westside Creamery and Tamale Queen.  A little farther out in our neighboring neighborhoods is the Kirkwood Spring Fling.  The fling’s musical entertainment features Drivin' N' Cryin'.  A little farther out in East Atlanta is the Brownwood Bike and Run fest.  So go out and enjoy yourselves.

What else is going on?  What events would you like to share?

On the race calendar is the requisite neighborhood festival 5K with the Kirkwood Spring Fling 5K and the Brownwood Fest 5K in East Atlanta.  There are also races in Brookhaven (Bolt 5K), Georgia tech (Janeen’s Run), and Piedmont Park (5K Walk to End Violence Against Women).  If you want to run up some stairs there is the 2011 Fight for Air Climb at the Equitable Building.  For you multi-sport athletes, Callaway Gardens is hosting a duathlon on Sunday.

This Wednesday you will be running route 8, the East Lake Golf Course run.  The link to the route is at the bottom of this e- mail.  It's one of the oldest as in longest running routes I know of for the group. If there is a 5-mile race to be run, this would make a great route with the exception of maybe taking out the uphill on Garland Av.  In fact some promoter wants to have a 5-mile run in Decatur.  This route will be suggested.  After the run, it's off to Mojo's Pizza for food, drinks and trivia.

Thanks for making the Oakhurst Running Club one of the friendliest running club in Atlanta.

Corny

http://oakhurstrunningclub.blogspot.com/

http://oakhurst-running-club.googlegroups.com/web/Route+8.pdf?gda=YuPpQU

Local Races This Weekend

Saturday, May 14

2011 Brookhaven Bolt 5K, Atlanta

Janeen's Run 5K, Georgia Tech

Kirkwood Spring Fling 5K, Kirkwood Station

2011 Fight for Air Climb, The Equitable Building

5K Walk to End Violence Against Women, Piedmont Park

Brownwood 5K Run, EAV, Brownwood Park

Sunday, May 15

Callaway Gardens 5K & Duathlon, Pine Mountain

Running Boston Twice A Year

From Running Times online…

Gary Allen Loves Boston So He Runs it Twice Each Year

The 54 year-old Mainer runs it by himself on New Years and with everyone else on Patriot's Day

By Joe Wotjas

As featured in the April 2011 issue of Running Times Magazine

At 6 a.m. on Jan. 1, as most runners were still sleeping off their New Year's Eve celebration, Gary Allen was once again in Hopkinton, Mass., standing on the starting line of the Boston Marathon. And just like he's done for the last six years, the 54-year-old resident of tiny Great Cranberry Island, Maine, ran the course to kick off his year, this time in 3:19.

"It always seems like a really nice, symbolic way to start the year," he says. "It's the least crowded day of the year along a magnificent piece of road. And you can't believe you're doing it all alone."

The tradition began in 2004, when he and his family were in Boston for New Year's Eve and he had a 20-miler planned for the next day. That's when he began wondering what it would be like to run the marathon course instead. "I was pretty much done with having a few too many beers on New Year's. I wanted to do something special," he recalls.

So the next morning he was in Hopkinton, where it was clear and calm with a bit of snow on the ground. "The last time I had been there was in April for the marathon, so it seemed surreal," he says.

Read on here.

May is National Runners' Month?

I saw that May is National Runner’s Month and after doing very little research, I found out that it is just a marketing campaign for Dick’s Sporting Goods.  From the Times Union online…

May is National Runners’ Month? April 27, 2010 at 6:38 am by Colleen Morrissey Wheatley

Have you caught the commercials that May is national runners’ month?  I have heard it a few times and wondered what that means exactly.  After a brief time on the interwebs, as a colleague refers to it, I found it is just a marketing campaign by Dick’s Sporting Goods.   Not that it is such a bad thing – they are sponsoring a series of races and will have expert tips on the web site by Bart Yasso and Dean Karnazes, but it isn’t any sort of official designation.

Read on here.

Good Sugar Reputation

From the NY Times…

May 4, 2011, 12:01 am

How Sugar Affects the Body in Motion

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Sugar is getting a bad reputation. A cover article in The New York Times Magazine several weeks ago persuasively reported that our national overindulgence in fructose and other sugars is driving the epidemics of obesity, diabetes and other illnesses. But that much-discussed article, by the writer Gary Taubes, focused on how sugars like fructose affect the body in general. It had little opportunity to examine the related issue of how sugar affects the body in motion. Do sweeteners like fructose — the sweetest of the simple sugars, found abundantly in fruits and honey — have the same effect on active people as on the slothful?

A cluster of new studies suggests that people who regularly work out don’t need to worry unduly about consuming fructose or other sugars. In certain circumstances, they may even find the sweet stuff beneficial.

Read on here.

Wednesday Night Run 5-4-2011

Hello ORC,

Belated happy May Day and Happy Cinco De Mayo.  As I was coming into work I started to see the Cinco De Mayo signs.  Some places that are the furthest thing from a Mexican restaurant is really pushing their Cinco de Mayo.  I wish I could have taken a picture; their decorations were over the top.  Mother’s Day is also this weekend.  On Saturday is the Atlanta Indie Market in downtown Decatur.  Also on Saturday in the Square is the 3^rd Annual Decatur Green Fest.  If both of these things are going on, Decatur square will be busy so how about Art-B-Que in Avondale Estates in the RAD area.  What can be better than art and barbeque?

And here are 2 great things that will keep me busy this weekend.  On Saturday are the BeltLine Bike Tour and SoPo Bike’s Broken Hearts scavenger hunt fundraiser.  I know the irony that this is a running group and I’m talking about biking; consider it cross training.  It’s a small plug for the volunteer work that I do.  So please come out and ride the BeltLine and tour the neighborhoods.  And then ride Broken Hearts to support a great organization and have a lot of fun at the same time.  If you have any questions about either, ask me.

There are a couple of local races this weekend from Atlantic Station for the Komen race for the Cure to Tucker and the Tucker Road Race.  On Sunday there is even a triathlon at Chastain Park.  It’s a sprint distance tri.

What else is going on?  What events would you like to share?

Wednesday you will be running Route 9, the Lake Claire run.  It's a nice run with some long hard flats.  The link is at the bottom of this e-mail, hopefully it works.  After the run it's off to Mojo's Pizza for food, drinks and trivia.

Enjoy your run Wednesday night.  Thanks for making the Oakhurst Running Club one of the friendliest running club in Atlanta.

Corny

http://oakhurstrunningclub.blogspot.com/

http://oakhurst-running-club.googlegroups.com/web/Route+9.pdf?gda=ewBanT

Local Races This Weekend

Saturday, May 7

Komen Atlanta Race for the Cure 5K, Atlantic Station

IOCC 5K, Atlanta - Century Center Office Park

FODAC's Run, Walk N' Roll, Stone Mountain

Swift Cantrell Classic 2011, Kennesaw

Tucker Road Race, Tucker

Sunday, May 8

Chastain Park triPATHlon Sprint, Chastain Park

Naked Bandit Marathoner Tased

From Cincinnati.com…

Naked Flying Pig runner arrested

8:40 PM, May. 1, 2011

Written by Paul McKibben, pmckibben@enquirer.com

 

Cincinnati police say they arrested a central Ohio man who was running naked in Sunday’s Flying Pig Marathon and tased him when he wouldn't comply with their orders to stop.

Police charged Brett S. Henderson, 35, of St. Paris, Ohio with public indecency and obstructing official business.

Police say Henderson was told to exit the race and get in a police car but he refused, running around an officer and continuing to run in the race. Eventually, Henderson was instructed to get in a car or he would be tased. Henderson kept on running and an officer tased him.

Read the article here.