Advice from a Good Source

I hope you all enjoyed Rick's post yesterday.  I love him and his vision to "paint the streets."  He's talked some about writing this blog post in the past, and I'm glad he finally did it!  He's an engineer, so I can see why he likes to "analyze" his runs and to keep a record of where he's been.  After he posted his entry last night, I joked on him pretty hard that I should rename this blog to Katie and Rick's Blog About Mothering, Fathering, and Marathoning!!  Tomorrow and Friday he takes the kids early to preschool (one each day) for Dads and Donuts.  He's a great husband and a great dad too.

Rick at the Huntsville Half

I wanted to share some advice from our Huntsville, Alabama Fleet Feet owner, Dink Taylor.  He is a great runner and is also director of the Mountain Mist 50K that will be held this weekend.  I like his advice since it is time-tested by someone who runs a lot.  The first link is from our weekly email newsletter from Fleet Feet, and the second was an article from Running Journal (link was posted on facebook this week).

On the Run With Dink (advice about what to eat as a runner)

Here is an excerpt I really enjoyed reading:

"How about what we eat? Boy, we could get thousands of opinions here. Let’s face it; in today’s world it
is much harder to have the “perfect” diet more than ever. Here is deal, if you have the “perfect” diet you 
are probably spending too much time worrying about it and you need to simplify it and spend your time 
doing something more productive, like training harder! What do I mean by simplifying your diet? First of
all just make common since choices. I by no means have a perfect diet nor do I plan to but I will say that
I graduated from High School in 1984. My weight has been consistent within 5lbs since. I actually
weighed on this past Monday (my once per week weigh day) 3lbs less than when I graduated in 1984.
Based on this I feel like I might have a good idea of how to maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle. So 
what to eat? I do not limit my diet in any way or from anything.  Believe it. What I do try to do is make
good common sense choices." (emphasis added)

I wish more people would make "good common sense choices" like he says.  I am talking to myself here!  I have such a hard time knowing how much time to spend on food and food choices.  I could live at the grocery store and spend all day in the kitchen preparing meals, and I just don't.  Now that I have a family, I want to feed them healthy foods, but I do think that we need to remember everything in moderation.

On the Run: Shoe Advice from a Veteran Runner

Here is an excerpt I liked:

"I know which shoes work best for what workout and I do believe it has been one of the reasons I have been able to avoid injury. I rarely wear one shoe more than twice a week and I run every day. I never let myself get too dependent on any one shoe, the more you depend on one shoe or one brand, the more you are likely to run into problems. It is good to give your feet different feels each day, different types of support as you need to find a way to use all of the 200+ muscles in the foot. Repetitive use of the same muscles over and over can lead to injury. I hear folks all the time say something like, "I can only run in the Asics 2170." Sure it is a great shoe but let me tell you this. The 2170 is only around for one year, then it becomes the 2180, a different shoe. Maybe the changes are slight but if you go back 10 years in that same 2000 series, it is a totally different shoe. It was probably even designed by someone different. The guy that designed the 2100 might work for Saucony now. Running shoe designers move from one company to another, I see it all the time and they take their ideas on footwear with them. If you wonder about shoe rotations and what types you should be using, all you have to do is come in to Fleet Feet and we’ll figure out what will work best for you." (emphasis added)

This one was so interesting to me, to think that he rotates eight pairs of shoes at a time (this is in the article, not in the excerpt above)!  He thinks we should not become too dependent on one shoe.  I know I have been guilty of that in the past, but, actually, I never thought of it as a problem until reading this article!

Dink predicts this year's Mountain Mist will be slow and muddy.  I trust him on that too!  We are getting MORE rain tomorrow.  I have heard that the trails are pretty much going to be streams at some points.  And I've also heard that some vandals were moving the flags that several runners placed last Saturday.  That is utterly ridiculous and very immature!

I am hoping for one good post about Mountain Mist, but it may have to be after the race!  The week is going so fast that I've barely thought about the race.  THANK YOU to all of the well wishes on my last post.  I hope to have a good race report to share with you soon!