1 comment My friend Carlos, who was a mentor with the Fall Team In Training season, ran the San Francisco Nike Women’s Marathon put together this awesome slideshow of his experience:
Inspired yet?
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What?!? Music on a blog called Running WITHOUT Music? Ok, ok, I admit, I do run with music, but only on treadmills. Do you know how boring it is running on that thing past 20 minutes? I know many of you still listen to music, so I’ll feature music that pump me up on my indoor runs. One website that I frequent for good house music mixes is Trash Menagerie. I love running to house music mainly because of its high beats per minute (BPM), and it reminds me of good times at the club. Yes, I’m tempted to just get up and dance on my runs. You’ll find some great mixes by well-known DJs like LA Riots, Little Boots, The Bloody Beetroots, Chromeo, and Crookers.
Right now, my favorite is Foamo’s House Party Mix. Check it!
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This movie has been out for a while, but I do know that a lot of people have not seen this yet. I’ll try to review running-themed movies from time to time. One night, I rented Run, Fatboy, Run because it came highly recommended from a friend. It’s a romantic comedy written by David Schimmer (you know, Ross, from Friends), and starring Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz, and Shawn of the Dead), and Thandie Newton (Mission Impossible: II). The main character who Simon plays, Dennis Doyle, gets cold feet right before his wedding, and leaves his pregnant fiance, Libby, behind. He realizes he made a big mistake, but he found out his ex is now seeing another man, Whit, who plans to run the Nike River Marathon in London. Dennis thinks his only way to win his ex’s heart back is to beat Whit in the marathon, which he is clearly not a runner, and has not been training for. You’ll see his challenges, which I know many of you could relate to, during his training.Overall, it’s one pretty funny romantic comedy. Although, not the best, but it’s great to watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon with runners alike. I’d recommend this if you can relate to marathon running. If you can’t, you may have a hard time understanding some of the running jokes. For the relationship aspect of the movie, it’s not too strong, but it’s present. Does he, or doesn’t he win her back? I guess you’ll have to pick it up for yourself.
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Everyone loves themed-out parties. Last Sunday I went to my friend’s fundraiser at South in Santa Monica. It was called the Logo T-Shirt Party & Sunday Funday. Here were the details of the party:
Put on your hottest/funniest Logo T-shirt and come celebrate Sunday Funday with us!!! For $5 admission you receive DRINK SPECIALS!!! $3 Beer / $5 Well Drinks!!! Pay only $5 for Beer Pong or to enter our Flip Cup tournament!!! We will also have a silent auction – AMAZING PRIZES!!! YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS!!!
And finally, our LOGO T-SHIRT CONTEST – GRAND PRIZE TO BEST LOGO T-SHIRT!!! Football Fans – don’t worry, the big game will be on ALL of the TV’s for your viewing pleasure! After football game- KARAOKE for all of you SINGERS out there!!!
Sunday has never looked so good! All profits and proceeds go toward The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera (I know, I know… bad me), and I also got there late. I still donated $5 to the cause, but there still seemed to be a lot going on . My friends were still playing beer pong, people were singing Karaoke, and I could see the winning prizes from the silent auction on some tables. I enjoyed the drink specials, as well as seeing some of the funny t-shirts people had on. My favorite was on my friend – “I Need a Stiff One.” Go ahead and interpret that yourself.
0 comments LLS posted a new video on their YouTube channel, with overview of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). It’s a first of a series titled, LLSpotlight. John Walter, President & CEO and others talk about “Why LLS?”
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Last night, I was honored to be a judge of my friends’ TNT Fundraiser at Joe’s Tavern in Los Angeles, CA. It was called “The Battle of the Unsigned Bands“, which was also promoted by a local radio station Indie 103.1. Four well respected LA bands performed in hopes to win the grand prize of a two-page spread in Obscene Entertainment Magazine.
The bands were (in order of appearance, with links to their MySpace Music Profiles):
Each band had such unique styles and sounds, from elements of punk, hip-hop, rock, and ska. It was difficult to judge, but it was overall very fun. I was able to meet some of the bands afterwards, and it was awesome to put on such an entertaining show for free, to help out the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. There was also a silent auction going on at the same time, which included Autographed UCLA Football by Coach Rick Neuheisel, DVDs, iPod Shuffle, Fox Lot Tours, Reebok.
0 comments Running full and half marathons, jogging along the beach, spin classes at 24Hr Fitness, and row classes. I love to do all these things, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop. Five years ago, I wouldn’t even think about doing any of these things. I thought I probably would be married, have a few children, and settling down.
Thinking during Spin Class the other day, I realized that this is what I used to do as a child. I remember back in first grade, I would race my friend around the playground, probably showing off in front of the girls nearby. In elementary school, I LOVED riding my bike everywhere. I would bike a few miles just to buy baseball cards. The neighborhood I was in was fairly safe, so my parents would let my friends and I bike everywhere within reason. We would go from the park to my friend’s house, and so on. I guess it’s my childhood memories that are pulling me back to my running and biking roots.
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Almost a year ago, I donated to KCRW, a subscriber-run local radio station in Santa Monica. In return, I received a few music CDs, and a 3 session gift certificate to Indo-Row classes at Revolution Fitness in Santa Monica. The year had past, and the expiration date just ended. I called Revolution Fitness if they would still honor it, and fortunately, they did.
Since I’m on this cardio phase right now, I gave it a shot and reserved a spot in the class online last week. Coming into the class, I was a little nervous because the last time I did any type of rowing was during a personal training session at 24Hr Fitness maybe 6 years ago. I never attempted to do it again since because I wasn’t confident in my form to do it by myself in the gym.
Revolution Fitness is in the old town type shopping area of Santa Monica off Montana. If you didn’t know the address, the sign wasn’t that obvious, and the actual entrance to the place is not exactly at the street. The staff was very friendly at the door, accepting my expired gift certificate, and directing me to the correct room. The actual place itself is a bit small, but it’s known for the Indo-Row class, spin, yoga, and pilates. It wasn’t the usualy 24Hr Fitness I was used to. The class itself only had about 7 people including the instructor, Brian, who will be traveling to Japan next week for a rowing competition. He was very helpful in getting me started, showing me the correct form, and explained the rowing machine. Everyone else were 4-5 time repeaters of the class, but I think I was able to pick up very quickly. I wasn’t paying attention to the intervals of the training, but they were definitely intervals, going from very slow, to fast. He broke up the training with strength training with weights, and sit ups. We would go back and do sprint-type rows, and slower motion rows. There was a team aspect to all this, meaning we all had to keep up at the same pace, which is especially important when doing actual rows in the water.
The class was almost exactly like how I pictured it to be. I thought it wasn’t as cardio intensive as my spin class, I felt the muscle burn all throughout my body. I’m excited to go back next week and mix up my cardio training while I wait for the next marathon season!
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That’s right, Team In Training is now on Twitter. Don’t know what Twitter is? According to the Twitter website, “Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” I use it on a daily basis, microblogging what I’m doing, and sharing ideas, opinions, websites, and like-minded people. I will soon compile a list of TNT and marathon twitters to follow if you have an account.
The Team In Training twitter is seriously one valuable resource for important TNT updates, survivor stories, fundraising tips, and discovering/interacting with other people from Team In Training. Even if you don’t have a Twitter account, it’s actually a useful news feed outside of your local chapter and main TNT website.
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A few months ago, people from my marathon team did a group outing of a movie called Spirit of the Marathon. I never got around to it when it was out in theaters, so I was glad to see it released on DVD and iTunes. Late last night, I decided to rent it off iTunes, and stayed up until 2:30am watching it. The movie is a documentary following 6 different endurance athletes of different levels, training for the Chicago Marathon, which is a well known course for setting PRs and its great energy. The athletes are: Ryan Bradley – Boston Hopeful, Leah Caille – First-Time Marathoner, Deena Kastor – 2004 Olympic Bronze Medalist, Jerry Meyers – Four-Time Marathoner, Daniel Njenga – World Class Marathoner, and Lori O’Connor – First-Time Marathoner. It truly captures the essence of marathons, from training, to health, down to the excitement of the race, to the heartbreak of getting an injury. If you’ve ever ran a marathon before, thinking about doing one, you should definitely watch it! Even if you have no interest in it, but know of someone, this will help you understand what they went through, and what kinds of thoughts they have all throughout training.
You read more about the movie here, or download it on iTunes. You won’t regret it!
