fitness, strength, and wellness over 50
I know summer is not over, yet. Technically, we're barely halfway through. But so much of it has zipped past me, and so many Fall things are looming, that I feel like I've already missed it! Last year's work and school "shut-down" - challenging in so many unpleasant ways - at least created more opportunities... Continue Reading →
There is a terrifying but triumphant story behind that image in the picture above. Kelly Herron was four miles into an afternoon training run when she stopped to use a public bathroom in a Seattle park. A man was hiding in a stall and attacked her, pummeling her with his fists and attempting to sexually... Continue Reading →
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJAW8STfiko This is a great short documentary about 52-year old Nicky Spinks, one of the last two women standing at this year's bonkers Barkley Marathon in Tennesee. For the second year in a row, nobody completed the race - five soul-sucking laps of 20 miles in treacherous terrain and wild weather. In fact, in 33... Continue Reading →
I'm old enough to remember when barefoot running, Pose running, and chi running were "new" (to a lot of people in the US) and seemingly revolutionary. It was about ten years ago, and the revolution was instigated in great part by Chris McDougall's exhilarating page-turner Born to Run - which was in great part about... Continue Reading →
Submitted for your approval: biker shorts that "imbue average people with superhuman walking abilities." I can see the therapeutic possibilities for restoring mobility in people who have lost it, which helps to redirect my thoughts from their otherwise inevitable trajectory to "The Wrong Trousers." Moving right along... I don't know how I missed this in... Continue Reading →
If I'm being totally honest, I'd have to say that after the "high" of completing that 50K walk with my cousins and friends in early October, things have been a bit bumpy. I had a crazy string of colds, flus, and minor mysterious infections, my workout discipline ground to a near halt - partly because... Continue Reading →
How many of you remember Allison Roe? Though her reign as a leading female distance runner in the early 1980s was brief, it was impressive. She won the Boston and NYC and Seoul marathons in 1981, and broke Mary Decker Slaney's course record in the iconic Atlanta Peachtree (10K) road race the same year. This... Continue Reading →
Despite being somewhat debilitated and dilapidated from the running perspective, I still read “Runner’s World,” “Trail Runner,” and even “UltraRunning” (a dilapidated girl can dream!) every month. The October issue of “Runner’s World” features a wonderful profile of 58-year old Edison Eskeets and his recent 330-mile tribute run, retracing the route his Navajo ancestors were... Continue Reading →
My 10K tune-up (walking, not running) was a comedy of errors. The parking lot turned out to be nearly 1.5 miles from the starting line, and I pulled into the lot with just 15 minutes to spare. My best walking pace lately has been around 15 minutes/mile, so I was already in trouble. When I... Continue Reading →
I love this blog post. Sarah Lavender Smith is a writer and a leading ultramarathoner who is trying to "make peace" with some basic physiological realities of aging (she's a mere 48 years old, but that's close enough to 50 to quote here 😉 ). After a particularly good recent workout, she found herself thinking,... Continue Reading →
For a number of years, I've been a fan of Bernd Heinrich, the natural history writer and biologist. It was only in the last couple of years that I came across his earlier book, Why We Run: A Natural History, and learned about his very successful ultramarathon career. He is no longer competing in ultras,... Continue Reading →
Female readers, let us take a moment and give thanks. For forty years, now, the sports bra (or "jogbra," as it was first known) has been making all kinds of athletic pursuits a lot more comfortable for women (and has preserved zillions of Cooper's Ligaments). The invention was so revolutionary, the prototypes are in the... Continue Reading →
50 is the new "forte" 