Phone Addiction? Be Safe Out There.

One of these weeks, the weather on Tuesday will be as nice as the weather on Monday.  But not this week.

We continue to meet up at the normal time and place and get in our miles.  See you there?

This weekend is a busy one for TRYers.  On Saturday, the Making Tracks for Celiacs 5k cross country run or 1 mile walk is at Jamesville Beach county park.  Let me know if you have questions about that.  I'm hoping a few of you can join in.  On Sunday, it's the Mountain Goat Run throughout the city of Syracuse.  And after that, it's Star Wars Day at the Syracuse Chiefs.  (Much to do, there is.)

Sometimes a common theme pops up in my various sources for information and I decide to share it whether it truly has to do with running or not.  This has to do with life.  And since most TRYers are in fact alive, despite what this years turnout most weeks would indicate, I feel it will be of interest to everyone.

In the last couple weeks I've stumbled across 3 unique takes on cell phone addiction.

A team of students at SU have won a couple competitions and are in the process of funding "an antisocial media app".  Which is ironic, don't you think?  To get an app for your phone that rewards you to not use your phone?  Read the article, and watch the quick embedded video.  It's interesting to think about.  Has our phone use gone too far?  I know I'm bad.  But how much worse are people 15-20 years younger than me?  A couple of the quotes in the article are fascinating.

Should we enforce a no phone use rule during our post TRY outings?  Or emphasize that they can only be used at a bare minimum for life essentials only?  (You know, for looking up urban dictionary definitions?  The real "hawkward" is still languishing in third place.  :-(

My (first) wife sent me this NPR article about how using your phone too much in front of your children leads to behavior issues.  (In the children.)  Really?  They admit the study was not at all scientific, but since following families around Walmart must have been beneath them, they observed families at fast food restaurants and noted more phone usage led to children acting out more.  Well before this reading, me and my (first) wife made some guidelines for when we can and cannot pull out our phones, but this made us re-consider that...how much phone use should we do in front of impressionable youngsters?  Yes, I am the bigger culprit of the two of us, but Joseph is rightfully scared of the back of my hand and mostly leaves me be.

Lastly, and very seriously, a woman in North Carolina died in a car accident right after updating her Facebook status.  Read the article if you want to, but the takeaway is that during the investigation into the crash they found a exceedingly trivial Facebook update (and honestly, which ones aren't trivial?) had been made within the last minute.  They also found that this driver had a habit of posting selfies while she was driving.  Really?  Is this what the world has come to?  It's scary that we have to share the road with drivers like this while we are driving.  But what about when we are running on the side of the road?  Or for you bikers, for all those miles you put in while sharing the lane with drivers?  Be careful out there and extra alert. Reconsider wearing headphones while you run on shared roads.  (Save the music for when you are safely running in local parks.)  Assume that the oncoming car is not fully paying attention to their driving.  We have a half generation of drivers out there now from the "low attention span" generation.  That's scary enough to make a status update about:

#suebrokethelatestgeneration

Time to Share our Cans and Boxes

Somehow we manage to keep missing great weather days and landing on not so great weather days.  Oh well, it'll be a lot nicer than last week, so hopefully a few more people are inspired to come out.  The long steady runs of April continue for a couple more weeks.

I'm sure some of you have noticed the sign on the infield of the Ally Loop - the park is collecting items for the Food Bank this year.  I asked inside the visitor center and the collection will be going on for at least "a while" which makes me think it may go on all season.  I thought it would be nice if people occasionally brought something in.  So, on a week you remember please bring an item to donate and drop it off in one of the collection bins inside of the visitor center.  (The building with the bathrooms in it.)  To keep it fun, when you do donate, post on our TRY Facebook page or on this blog with a comment like "I shared my cans" or "I gave a box"...or something along those lines which will remind others to do the same in a future week.  That way TRY can randomly help out the Food Bank throughout our running season.  Thanks in advance!

A reminder that the "Making Tracks for Celiacs" event is coming up in two Saturdays.  It will be held on Saturday, May 3rd at Jamesville Beach park and involves a fitness walk or a cross country 5k.  Due to my late notice, we are now in the "full price" time of $25.  Thanks to Katie F, Lockheed Martin employees can get a free entry again though, so definitely get a hold of me for what you have to do for that option.  I found out that the shirts will be cotton again this year, but supposedly they will not be white for the first time in years.  If you have questions, let me know, otherwise check out the website (you have to click on Syracuse, NY on the left hand side).

I've been checking out some playgrounds recently and a certain brand of equipment uses this sign to remind people how to play.  I thought it was packed with good information for adults and for play that has nothing to do with playgrounds.  Here are some tips on the smart way to play:

Take turns, watch the "rough stuff", be wary when the equipment is wet, and check out the reverse side for fun and safety recommendations!  And above all, have fun!

Ball Me, Blazer.

What a week we've had!  Last Tuesday, one indifferent dog, four brave men, and one even braver and very lucky lady did the TRY workout in somewhat non-ideal conditions.  But, as typically happens (9 times out of 10?) the weather broke just so and the conditions during the run were much better than it could have been.  We really seem to get lucky on how rain and thunderstorms hit and very seldom are in the worst of it on Tuesday at 5:30.

That said, tomorrow's forecast is anything but ideal and attendance is always optional, so if you do not want to be out in almost winter like conditions, save it for another week.  Some cray-cray's will always show up, so, if you are brave or a cray-cray yourself, you can attempt to weather the weather.

I'm not inspired this week since it's winter again, so nothing controversial after last weeks scandalous ending...

Jill has passed along an invitation from the "Syracuse Silver Knights Foundation" for a fund raising dodgeball tournament event in late May.  If Sue was still around I'd make her help me organize a viewing of the "Dodgeball (A True Underdog Story)" movie so that we could all brush up on the 5 D's of Dodgeball and prepare properly for this event.  But Sue left us.  So, F-U Sue!  #suebrokeupthedreamteam

Here is a screen capture of the event flyer:

Key takeaways - It's the morning of May 24th at Jones Road.  Minimum 1 female to start each game.  Double elimination, with three game series for each game.  $200 per team, with a minimum of 6 and maximum of 10 players.  Jill thought TRY would be just the type of group that would be interested in such a thing?  Was she right?  Are we more "Average Joe's" or "Globogym"?  (And no, blind people are probably not allowed to play.  Nice attempt though, Escalade.  :-(

Lastly a link that my lovely wife (my first wife, that is), stumbled across.  I know I failed in my prediction post last summer when I forecasted both "cup free racing" and "Prancercising" in this post...if you haven't seen the prancersize video go there now and read the last paragraph.  BUT, I am confident that this time my prediction is on point.  These masks that simulate elevation training are going to take over the fitness world.  How could they not?  Who would not want a higher quality workout in shorter time.  Jake - have these shown up in local cross fit circles yet?

It is not letting me embed it directly and it's too late for me to figure out why, so I'll just provide the link to the video.  It's only 31 seconds, so you have the time.

Of course, the bad news to this is that everyone will look like Bane from the last Batman movie.  Who knew he was such a trendsetter?  (Let's hope this makes people sound like him too.)

From Bringing Home the Bacon to Thanks Facebook Grandfairy

As our buildup of a running base continues in April, we'll discuss our plan for the night in person and split up into like-minded groups.  For less experienced runners, please ask questions of your more experienced comrades.

This weeks post is a grab bag of "insights":

First, it is important to realize that "love" means very things to different people:



Really, it's all uphill from there.  Let's start the climb with a little bit of overdue research.  I promised Matt an answer about a month ago on making a treadmill workout more equivalent to running outside but I could not find a consensus answer.  Definitely found recommendations about using an increased incline on the treadmill to help offset what is an easier workout.  But some things said 1%, while others said higher.  One thing that made perfect sense to me, was to do varied workouts while on the treadmill, such as doing interval workouts to make sure the workout is a quality one and to not worry so much about the total distance.  So, in the winter, mix in a treadmill interval workout from time to time and now that you are outside most of the time, if you do get stuck inside on a bad weather day, do an interval session on the treadmill instead of a steady pace.

Continuing the climb from bacon love, here is an interesting race report from Kate F from the Syracuse Half last month, given over multiple messages:
"In short, I thought it was a great race. The course was unique and interesting. With the start/stop at the Oncenter there was plenty of space for everyone to keep warm right up until the start and to use actual bathrooms instead of port-a-potties beforehand. The water stops were well-organized (which was one of my gripes about Empire State). Packet pickup was easy--I went with Claire after her soccer practice Saturday and they got me in and out of there before any toddler tantrums occurred (bonus: they gave her a lollipop) and there was also an option to pick up your packet pre-race at the Oncenter. The post-race hot breakfast was a very nice touch. Crowd support was surprisingly good for such a cold day. Race shirts and medals were both nice quality. Honestly, I don't have much bad to say about this race. It had the perks of both big city and small town races and I had a lot of fun running it. Oh also forgot to mention, most roads weren't closed, but in most spots there was at least one full lane dedicated to runners and there were cops at every single intersection directing traffic. Never was nervous about cars driving by too closely.  Oh and parking! Lots of close, convenient parking!"

(Thank you for the detail!)

Now a mix of articles that I liked from the last month or so:
For newbies, "10 Things I Wish I Knew as a New Runner".
For advanced peops, "[3 Things to do to Run a Faster 5K]".  Includes core work, quick feet, and hills.  (The hill part caught my eye - says to FULLY recover during short hill repeats like Faith Hill.  Hmmmm?)
For everyone, "8 Weight Loss Mistakes Runners Make".
And if you want to be reminded how to burn fat while running, think about "Duration, Intensity, and Frequency."  There is a good chance you could use this reminder.

OK, this post has peaked and it's time to plummet to depths even I rarely sink to.  The following links are all brought to you via someone I can only refer to as my "Facebook Grandfairy".  Randomly, inconsistently, I'll get messages from this special person that never fail to amaze.  So, thank you Facebook Grandfairy for teaching me (and us) that today, April 7th, is "International Beaver Day".  Here is the proof:
A local news story from a few years ago.
And a current story that mentions its a "great time to hike into the woods to spot some of these noble gnawers".  (Really, when would NOT be a great time for that?  So if you are reading this on Tuesday...hike into the woods anyway.)
Finally, a partially "not safe for work" (NSFW) song...unless your boss has a soft spot for Scott Baio from when he was on Charles in Charge?  This does shed some light on a hawkward mistake we've all been a part of.  (Most likely.)