As the former head of the gait lab at the University of Virginia, Jay had access to one of the most high-tech running labs on the planet, so he’s seen firsthand how modifications to form and footwear can influence the forces applied to the body. This summer he moved out to Bend, Oregon to join Rebound Physical Therapy where he will be continuing his gait work in a more clinical setting.

The purpose of this post is to introduce Jay’s new blog: an athlete’s body. In addition to being a gait expert, Jay is also an adept writer, and his blog at UVA was on my must-read list. He’s now moved it to an independent URL, which you can find here.

Jay also wrote a book that was released last month titled Anatomy for Runners. I’m about 2/3 of the way through it (detailed review to come), and I highly recommend it. It provides a lot of the “how-to” information that was absent from my own book. Jay’s book can be purchased at Amazon.

Friend and fellow minimalist runner Damien Tougas of the Adventure in Progress blog has just put up an interesting new site/social network for shoe fanatics. Called Toe Salad (named by his daughter), the site features reviews and information centered around every manner of minimalist running shoe. Here’s how Damien describes the site:

“After writing about minimalist footwear for the last couple of years on ADVENTUREinPROGRESS, I thought it was time to create a minimalist footwear community site. A place where everyone could share with others their minimalist footwear stories, experiences, reviews, links, and photos. A place to learn, ask questions, and find out what works and what doesn’t in the real world.


What makes this site different than other community sites is that it is centered around a directory of products. What better way to discuss the finer points of a particular product than to do it on a page dedicated to that product. It is my hope that by structuring the site in this way, it will be easier for people to find the valuable information they are looking for. This concept is still in its infancy here. If you have any suggestions as to how we might be able to improve the user experience, please leave your comments in the suggestions forum.“

 If you are interested in checking the site out, visit: http://www.toesalad.com/

I’ve just spent some time reading through some posts on Amby Burfoot’s Peak Performance blog on Runner’s World – if you haven’t read his blog, it’s definitely worth a look. His posts are well researched, even-handed, and very science-oriented. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s a Boston Marathon winner and one of the most experienced runner’s in the business.

One of the things that I’ve found is that Amby and I share a very similar perspective on running shoes (or lack thereof) and their relationship to performance and injury prevention (i.e., that we need more scientific data, and that what is out there is largely inconclusive). It seems that he, like me, believes that runners likely vary widely in their shoe needs, but that the goal of each runner should be to find the least shoe possible for their body. He’s also open-minded about barefoot running, having run several races barefoot himself (you can read more about that in his book, The Runner’s Guide to the Meaning of Life, which I also highly recommend).

You can click this link to add Peak Performance to you RSS reader.

You can also follow Amby Burfoot’s Exercise Science Twitter feed at: http://twitter.com/exerscience

I’d also like to point you to several posts on the Peak Performance blog that are excellent reads:

-Which Is Better–Rearfoot Striking Or Midfoot/Forefoot? An Experiment Of One

-Do Running Shoes Cause Running Injuries? A Few Insights on a Dismal Science

-Should You Switch Your Stride to a Forefoot Landing? Maybe Not

-New Nature Magazine Cover Story Shines More Light on Barefootin’

And for a post not focused solely on running, I thought this one was excellent:

-Sports Illustrated Updates the Genetics-of-Sports Story with Latest Findings

I am both a longtime user of a Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS watch (2+ years) as well as an active member of the social training community on dailymile. Together, I’d count my Garmin and the dailymile community as two of the most essential parts of my running toolkit, and when I first joined dailymile about a year ago I was disappointed that the site didn’t support syncing/uploading of data from the Garmin devices. I’ve gotten along just fine entering data manually (I actually kind of enjoyed doing it that way), but after a lot of hard work on the part of the developers (thanks Kelly and Ben!!!), Garmin Sync on dailymile has finally arrived!

If you’re not familiar with the Garmin Forerunner line of watches or the dailymile website, here’s a quick overview:

Garmin Forerunner Fitness Watches

The Garmin Forerunners are a line of fitness watches that operate by tracking GPS signals while you run. They have highly customizable data screens, and allow you to track things like distance, pace, elevation, grade, your GPS route track, etc. in real-time and with great accuracy (far better than the Nike+ – you can read my Nike+ review here). You can use them to create workouts (for example, I’ve used mine to do interval workouts on the roads instead of a track since it measures distance), and the best part is that they store your data for later upload onto a computer. I’ve been using the free PC-based program SportTracks for uploading and storing my Garmin data, and it’s a program that I highly recommend (I’ve posted a detailed review of SportTracks, and a SportTracks plugin for dailymile is in the works!).

My Garmin has played a huge role in helping me to improve as a runner, and the accurate pacing data that it provides has now helped me survive through 5 marathons and numerous shorter races. In fact, my Garmin is probably the only thing that rises above the shoes on my feet in terms of its importance to my running, and if you know me, that’s saying a lot. There are a number of Garmin models out there, ranging from the top of the line Forerunner 310XT, to the more watch-like Forerunner 405CX, to my trusty Forerunner 205 (check out my review of the Garmin Forerunner 205/305) – I’ve heard good things about all of them, but if I had to make a choice right now I’d probably buy the Forerunner 305 – it has the perfect combination of features at a fairly reasonable price (it’s like the 205, but with the added ability to track heart rate and sync with a footpod for use indoors on a treadmill). Below are links to the Forerunner watches on Amazon.com (Amazon has consistently had among the best prices on these devices):

dailymile: Social Training Website for Logging Your Miles

dailymile is a social training site for posting workout data, and has an interface that is kind of similar to Facebook, except that it’s geared directly toward active people who value exercise as a part of their lives (runners, swimmers, cyclists, walkers, etc.). I can’t begin to explain how much this site has meant to me and my training, and through dailymile I’ve met some truly inspirational people, many of whom have become good friends. To get a feel for what dailymile is all about check out this post that I recently wrote on the dailymile Community Blog (in the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I’m now part of the dailymile Team and the editor of the dailymile Community Blog).

At its heart, dailymile is a place to post your workouts and share that data with a group of on-line (and often real-world) friends. The site is filled with a great group of very positive people who are always there to cheer you on when you when you run a great race, or give you a kick in the pants when you’re in need of a bit of extra motivation to hit the road/trail for a run. Now, with the ability to sync your Garmin, posting of data has gotten even easier. After a relatively painless setup process, uploading data from your Garmin is a snap, and dailymile currently pulls your distance, time, calories burned, and optionally can include a GPS map of your running route (this can be turned off if you have privacy concerns). With a simple syncing process, you simply click a button, fill in a journal entry on the workout and add a few other details if you’d like, and then publish your workout. Friends can then comment on what you’ve done, and you can do the same on their workouts, which appear in a news-stream similar to what you’d find on a Facebook home page. It’s a slick interface, and a beautifully designed site. Having gotten to know the developers a bit over the past few months, all I can say is that the site is in great hands, and there are lots more goodies to come!

So, if you have a Garmin and are looking for a site to log your workouts and meet some great people, I urge you to give dailymile a try – you won’t regret it. Sign-up is free, and you can click the banner below to head over to dailymile and start logging your miles!

I’ve talked quite a bit on this blog about a website that I belong to called dailymile. In a nutshell, dailymile is a social training site for posting workout data, and has an interface that is similar to Facebook, with the major exception being that it is geared directly toward active people who value exercise as a part of their lives. I can’t begin to explain how much this site has meant to me and my training, and through my membership I’ve met some truly inspirational people, many of whom have become good friends. To get a feel for what dailymile is all about and the type of people you’ll find there, I urge you to check out this blog post that I recently wrote documenting members’ weight loss resulting from adopting an active lifestyle.

It was with great pride, therefore, that I recently accepted an offer to be part of dailymile’s Team of ambassadors. The dailymile Team is a group of 36 site members (at the time of writing this post) who have contributed significantly to the life of the site and who enthusiastically share their passion for exercise and living an active life. Our Team mission is to “Grow the community of active dailymilers and promote the activities we love by inspiring and motivating others.” Inspiration and motivation are what dailymile is all about, and I’m excited to be part of the Team that will help to guide this rapidly growing site as it continues to develop into the future.

What I’d like to do here in this post is introduce you to some of my friends on the dailymile Team by re-posting a series of introduction videos that were recently posted on the dailymile blog (thanks to Kathy S. for putting these together!). Before I get to these, I’d like to again ask that if you haven’t tried dailymile yet, you should give it a shot – it’s free, easy, and there is no obligation to stay if you don’t find that it suits your needs. Simply click on the banner below to give it a try:

Now for the videos – I’ll start with the one that I’m in (you get to meet Jack!), and then follow with the videos for the rest of the Team:

And then there were more from dailymileteam on Vimeo.

Dailymile Team introductions Round 1 from dailymileteam on Vimeo.

dailymileteam | east coast too from dailymileteam on Vimeo.

Last but not least from dailymileteam on Vimeo.

So there you have it – not all of us are featured in these videos, but I think you can get a good feel from these for the type of people that we are.  We represent a cross-section of the dailymile community, and it is our hope that we can help motivate and inspire you as you strive to achieve your health and fitness goals. For more information about the dailymile Team, and to friend anyone that you met in the videos seen here, please visit the dailymile Team webpage.

And once again, if you’d like to give dailymile a try, click here and it will take you to the sign-up page – my suspicion is that you’ll love what you find on dailymile.

Quick post here to alert you to a great article recently posted on the New York Times website.  The article, written by Olivia Judson, and titled “Stand Up While You Read This!,”discusses the negative health impacts of sitting for long periods of time during the day, even if you are a regular exerciser (I’m guilty!). Here’s the opening paragraph from Ms. Judson’s article, which gives a good feel for where she goes with it:

“It doesn’t matter if you go running every morning, or you’re a regular at the gym. If you spend most of the rest of the day sitting — in your car, your office chair, on your sofa at home — you are putting yourself at increased risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, a variety of cancers and an early death. In other words, irrespective of whether you exercise vigorously, sitting for long periods is bad for you.”

What I appreciated most about this article is that it was clearly well-researched, and the author provides a wealth of references to the scientific literature to support her claims – a refreshing change of pace from most mass-media articles on health and weight-loss. While I’m not likely to purchase a desk treadmill like that shown in the opening photo to the article (didn’t even know such things existed!), I am intrigued by the exercise-ball-as-chair idea – if anyone has used these and finds them beneficial, I’d love to hear some feedback.

You can view the article here: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/stand-up-while-you-read-this/

http://www.theclymb.com/invite-from/PeterLarson

In the interest of full disclosure, they do provide a bonus for each person that joins through your invite link, but only if you ever wind up ordering something from them.  The deal prices are very good, but like I said, I have yet to order anything myself so I cannot comment on customer service, shipping or other aspects of the site.

Enjoy!