I have tried a to find the perfect cross training activity many times over the years, but the activity that I keep trying over and over with the hopes of making it a habit is yoga. Not just yoga, hot yoga. I have been craving a new adventure in cross training recently, so I decided to give hot yoga another try. Frank Shorter famously said... "You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming." I believe the same principle should be applied to overweight runners attempting to do hot yoga with hardly any yoga experience as well. You have to forget your last hot yoga experience before trying another. Your mind (and body) can't know what's coming. About 15 minutes into my 60 minute class this afternoon, the only thing going through my mind was...               A few of my accomplishments from today's adventure in cross training are below...

• Heaviest person in the class
• Wearing more clothes than anyone else in the 105 degree / 40 % humidity climate controlled room
• Most inflexible body in the room
• Only class member singled out by the instructor to be shown how to modify poses to make them easier
• Asked by yogi with zero body fat if it was my first class after

I think it is safe to say that a lot of people take up running so they can eat more of the foods they love. Naturally, some crazy runners out there have decided to combine their love of running and food. A good number of races have popped up across the nation over the years. In fact, Runner's World has compiled a Bucket List of 10 Wacky Food Races. By far, the most popular type of food / beverage race is The Beer Mile. The world record for the beer mile currently stands at 4 minutes and 34 seconds! Serious kudos to that guy! Over the last couple of years, the Taco Mile has been rising in popularity. The editor's of Runner's World even staged their own taco mile on Cinco De Mayo this year. I know that this opinion won't be popular, but I believe that tacos are hardly worthy of having their own speed mile event. As a runner, and as a food lover, I have been getting the itch to participate in a food race. That being said, I have some issues with participating in the two most popular types of food races. The beer mile is out because I don't drink alcohol or carbonation. I don't think my Mormon bishop would be too pleased to see a member of his flock throwing back a can of beer in between each lap of a 4 lap race (just a hunch). Why not participate in or stage a taco mile? Tacos are a fine food, but I don't find them worth risking serious gastro intestinal distress for. What food do I consider worthy of risking possible gastro intestinal distress and regurgitation for? Yep! You guessed it. PIZZA!!! (more…)

I love a good sports movie. Lucky for me, sports movies have been a go-to genre in Hollywood for years. Sports movies can typically be produced for low to medium budgets and historically their box office returns assure the studio behind a film a solid return on investment. The sports movie genre is typically represented by two types of films. The outrageously over-the-top comedy (i.e. Bull Durham, Major League, White Men Can't Jump, Tin Cup), and the inspirational, almost always based on a true story, movie (Hoosiers, Rudy, Miracle, Hoop Dreams). Unfortunately, movies about running are typically few and far between. McFarland, the Kevin Costner led Disney film about an upstart cross-country team in a small California farming community that beat the odds and became 9 time state champions is the last running movie released by a major studio (Disney), and that was a couple years ago. Although most of the Hollywood films that have been based on distance running have performed fairly well at the box office, runners are only treated to movies based on their sport once or twice a decade. With that being said, I have GOOD NEWS! (more…)