Do you have a Netflix account? If so, do yourself a favor and throw “Saint Ralph” in your Instant Queue. I just got done watching it with two of our kids, and it was really good. Both witty and inspirational.

If you’ve never heard of it, it’s an indie film about a 14 year old kid who sets out to win the Boston Marathon in 1954. He’s running the race in hopes that the miracle of winning it will save his mom’s life. Sounds goofy but, like I said, it’s quite good.

Here’s the summary from IMDB: link

And here’s a link to the trailer: link

According to a recent study from USA Track and Field, stretching before running has no impact on whether or not you’ll wind up with an injury. At the same time, if you normally stretch, you’ll increase your injury risk by quitting cold turkey.

Here’s the scoop:

The researchers split up 1400 runners aged 13-60 into two huge groups. One group was instructed to do a 3-5 minute series of static stretches focusing on the lower body prior to their workouts. The other group was instructed to skip the stretching, but to otherwise run the number of miles.

At the end of three months, they discovered that 16% of the runners in both groups had suffered a “running injury.” In this case, a running injury was defined as one that was severe enough to force the runner to take at least a week off from running.

In other words, stretching before running “neither prevented nor induced injury when compared with not stretching before running.” Interesting.

But what’s more interesting (at least to me) is the relatively high rate of running injuries. Overall, nearly 1 in 6 runners got hurt bad enough to miss at least a week of running during that three month period. If you ask me, that’s a lot.

Another interesting finding was that injury rates were similar for men vs. women and young vs. old, and that mileage, flexibility, and level of competition had no effect on injury risk.

So what causes injuries? The study identified two variables: body mass index (BMI) and the occurrence of a recent or chronic injury. The only other risk factor was that, for people who normally stretch before running, their risk of injury doubles if they suddenly stop stretching.

What about you? Do you stretch before you run?

Source: USATF Stretch Study via NY Times

Last night I discovered the joys of running after dark. With the kids back in school and their activity schedules cranking up, my exercise schedule has gotten increasingly unpredictable, though I’ve done my best to remain consistent.

Yesterday I had every intention of running when I awoke, but the wheels came off shortly after my alarm clock buzzed, and I wound having to delay until later in the day. After work, I picked up one son from cross country practice and then took another son to soccer.

During soccer practice, I finished up some last minute work, and then hustled home. By the time I hit the road for my run, the sun was setting. The good news is that our typical summer weather pattern has broken, and it’s really starting to cool down in the evenings.

Beyond the cooler temperatures, I noticed several other things that I liked about running at dusk. For starters, our neighborhood is very quiet, but it’s even more quiet at that time of night. In fact, I only saw a couple of cars during my run.

I also enjoyed getting out after a stressful day, rather than before it, when my mind is racing with all of the things that I have to do. Last night, my mind was filled with the sounds of nature and the sight of things like fireflies buzzing around in the trees.

But the biggest thing that I liked was the sense of peaceful solitude that came from running at dusk. It’s hard to explain, but as night closed in around me, my focus seemed to improve and my running got easier. I felt like I could run forever.

Cautionary note: If you’re running at night, you need to be smart. Don’t take unnecessary risks. Run in a familiar area, be aware of your surroundings, wear light colored and reflective clothing, watch your footing, etc.

Did you know that drinking water can help you lose weight? Of course you did, but did you know that the benefits go beyond simply filling you up so you eat less? It’s true. Read on for details.

According to researchers at Virginia Tech, individuals who drank a half liter of water shortly before each of their daily meals lost more weight than those who did not. The really interesting part of this study is that all participants consumed the same number of calories.

In other words, the additional weight loss was due to the water consumption itself, not to the “filling” effects of the water. Of course, in the real world, you’ll also benefit from the increased feeling of fullness, so adding a pre-meal drink will have likely produce a dual benefit.

So… Drink up if you want to lose weight!

Source: The Economist

Barefoot running is the latest craze to sweep the running world. This increased attention is due, at least in part, to Christopher McDougall’s book Born to Run, which sings the praises of barefoot running. But is barefoot really better?

While there are tons of runners that will testify to the fact that barefoot running reduces injuries, medical experts say that the jury is still out.

“There is little scientific proof that this style of running is a cure for nagging injuries, and experts say this barefoot lifestyle could be doing more harm than good.” (Source: Montreal Gazette)

While a recent Harvard study found that barefoot runners had less discomfort when running on hard surfaces, there’s still little evidence showing that heel striking causes injury.

According to Michael Ryan, an orthopedics researcher at UW-Madison, it’s difficult for doctors to collect numbers on barefoot running injuries because many runners abandon the technique as soon as the experience pain.

Ryan notes, however, that many in the field have noticed an increase in foot, ankles, and calf injuries. What remains unclear is the extent to which such injuries are simply due to the process of transitioning to a new running form, as well as perhaps doing too much too soon.

This is just a quick note to say that the kids are back at school, and our 12 year old has decided to go out for the middle school cross country team. His first practice is tomorrow at 4PM, when it will be 95° and humid. We’ll see how that goes…

As the proud new owner of a Withings WiFi Body Scale, I have a newfound interest in body fat percentages. After all, my shiny new scale gives me an estimate of body fat, so now I need to know where I stand.

While bioelectrical impedance isn’t a particularly accurate way of estimating body fat composition, it’s by far the most convenient method given my circumstances. At worst, it gives me a relative measure so I can track my progress.

So… What’s an ideal body fat percentage? As it turns out, the answer differs based on your gender. What follows is a breakdown ideal body fat percentages from the American Council on Exercise.

As you can see, the acceptable ranges are considerably higher for women than for men. As for me, my initial estimate from my Withings scale was around 19%, so I’m currently near the low end of average.

Again, I’m not reading too much into the actual numbers given the questionable accuracy of bioelectrical impedance, but at least I now have a benchmark for tracking my progress.

Last week’s data loss was enough to finally prompt me to order that Withings WiFi Body Scale that I’ve been wanting. I just ordered it from Amazon for $159 (plus $3.99 for Prime o/n shipping), and I simply can’t wait for it to arrive.

For those that are unfamiliar with the Withings WiFi Body Scale, it measures both body weight and fat mass and automatically uploads your data over WiFi to a password-protected account on the Withings website. There’s also a free iPhone app (WiScale) for mobile access to your data.

It’s a pretty slick contraption, in that it supports multiple users and auto-recognizes (and upload accordingly) based on body weight and composition. There’s also RunKeeper integration if you’d like to keep track of all your data in one place.

I’m not sure if I’ll continue manually inputting data over at PhysicsDiet. I guess that all depends on how good the Withings interface ends up being. Regardless, I’ll do an in-depth review once it arrives and I’ve had time to play with it.

If you already have a Withings WiFi Body Scale, please feel free to share your thoughts and/or experiences in the comments.

This is just a quick note to say that my tool of choice for tracking my weight online – PhysicsDiet.com – crashed hard this week. While it’s now back online, all data entered since May 13th are currently missing.

Details are here, or you can check in on Twitter with the developer.

Unfortunately, it sounds like the missing data may have been lost permanently. Apparently WebHost4Life doesn’t backup their servers more often than every few months even though they claim to do so on a daily basis.

Hopefully it’ll get sorted out, but I’m not holding my breath…

Over the weekend, I ran a 5k with our eight and twelve year old. All in all, we had a blast, and I was very impressed with both of them. For our eight year old, it was his very first race, and he performed admirably.

During the race, my wife hung back with our five year old. For those that can count, you’ll note that I only mentioned three of our four boys. That’s because our ten year old opted out and slept over at a friend’s house.

Rushing out the door

We had planned to leave about an hour before the race to give us plenty of time to register, warm up, etc. Shortly after pouring myself a bowl of cereal, however, I looked at the race paperwork and discovered that it was scheduled to start 30 minutes earlier than anticipated.

We all dropped what we were doing, got ready in a flash, and jumped in the car. We ended up getting down to the race more or less on time, though I only ate about one bite of breakfast and barely had time to take a few sips of water.

We had to rush through our warmups a bit, but were feeling pretty good about things when the race started. This race was in the same general area as our first 5k, though the course rather different.

And they’re off…

As we lined up, I could tell that our eight year old was totally excited. He’d been looking forward to the day for weeks, and he had a cool confidence about him.

When I asked if he wanted me to run with him, he said “No, I’m fine. You can just run at your own pace.” I think that both of use were expecting me to be fast than him. Guess what? We were both wrong.

The race was essentially an out-and-back that started out by heading down (down, down, down) toward the river. Of course, that meant we’d have to go up (up, up, up) to get back to the finish.

It was 7:30 AM, but the temp was already getting close to 80° and the humidity was hovering around 75%. Yuck. Oh well, at least it was early. It later got to 99° with a heat index nearing 110°.

Falling behind

Shortly after we took off, our twelve year old announced that he was going ahead. No problem, I thought. He’d been threatening to “own” me all week, and he’s much better than me on hills, so I expected him to pull away at some point.

The middle section of the course was overlooking the river, so there was a decent view. Unfortunately, it was far from flat. Our eight year old was doing a fantastic job and, according to RunKeeper, we were moving at a decent pace (around 9:45/mile).

As we neared the turnaround point, however, he started pulling away from me. I wasn’t sure what to think, but I let him go. I halfway expected to catch back up to him on the final hill, but I didn’t see him again until the finish line.

As I expected, the hill at the end was a killer, but I kept moving and got through it. My twelve year old later told me that he nicknamed it “Treadmill Hill” because he felt like no matter how hard he tried, he wasn’t getting anywhere.

Trophy time

After conquering that last hill, the finish line finally came into view. My two boys were there waiting and I got a kick of adrenaline. I wound up crossing the finish line in 32:47. That’s my slowest 5k time thus far, but the conditions were also the hardest, so I’m fine with it.

And my kids? They not only beat me, but they both also won trophies! Our twelve year old took 2nd place for his age group, and our eight year old took 3rd for his age group.

As I crossed the finish line, my eight year old looked up with a gleam in his eye and said “Dad, do you think they’d let me run it again?” Hah. Maybe next year.

While he didn’t get to tackle the course a second time, he jumped at the chance to do the mile-long Fun Run. And guess what? He covered that mile in 8:30 despite having just run his first 5k. Not bad for an eight year old, huh?

As for our five year old, he ran some, walked some, and got a piggyback for awhile. At the end, however, he crested the Treadmill Hill on foot and sprinted to the end of his first 5k. He also did the Fun Run and made it through the whole way.

One last thing… This marks my 3rd consecutive month having run a 5k since I started running. My twelve year old and I have an unofficial goal of running at least one 5k per month for 12 months in a row.