Real men juice before a workout!

Yeah, that's right.  I'm going on the juice.  I'm pretty sure it will improve my workouts and cut a few extra pounds off me as well.

Oh, right.  First off....Hello again.  It's been a while since I posted anything here and I'm committed to not falling totally off the wagon anymore.  The nice thing about writing a newsletter and a blog is that it does improve your visibility and thus, increases business.  However, an increase in business isn't so good for writing a newsletter or maintaining a blog.  Thanks for all the complaints I've received regarding my slacking nature so I promise to be more disciplined about scheduling my writing and will have regular things for all of my one person to read from now on.

Back to me getting on the juice.  Winter season was especially busy and as a result, I stagnated a little bit in my ongoing efforts to become ridiculously fit.  Running Bloomsday again this year was something I'm committed to do so I've stepped up my training for that.  However, I felt like that wasn't quite enough to energize and excite me.  Then, this Sunday I watched, "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" over the internets.  It's a great film about this businessman Joe Cross who is very overweight and suffers from a terrible skin condition for which he takes medication he doesn't like.

The movie chronicles his descision to go on a 60 day juice fast while traveling across America talking about why we eat the things we eat.  By the end of the movie, he looks great and we sound pretty silly talking about why we eat fast food everyday.  Along the way he gets people to try his juice and some like it enough to try their own fast.  I won't spoil it but there's a pretty amazing story in there and I really enjoyed it.

Now, am I doing 60 days?  Hell no.  Upon visiting his website (free btw) I see what they refer to as a 'Reboot'.   Essentially, a 3 day detox that I think would be a good idea.  I'm gearing up for it by working in a couple of glassfuls each day.  The plan is to start on Thursday and end on Saturday night.   I think it is just what I was looking for in terms of a jump start to my own training.

I get asked about detox programs all the time and I've been hesitant to recommend any that have you only drinking lemon water or use costly shakes as meal replacements.  I like this idea that I'm using actual foods and getting a super sized jolt of micro nutrients over the course of a weekend.  Plus, I'll actually be able to talk about my experience for those interested in such things.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Fit Topic of the Day - Running Mechanics


Spring time brings out the walkers and runners.  It also brings out the foot/ankle/knee pain too.  One fundimental aspect of gait that I see a lot is from folks toeing out.  Duck walking with one or both feet is just not mechanically efficient for force production in running.  It's often the result of over active external rotators in the hip.  This tension rotates the femur outward, hence the duck foot.

In order to get the foot in position to strike the ground for the next stride the leg comes forward and rotates inward in time to hit the ground.  Then, at the last second externally rotates again for the duck foot.  This constant planting/rotating/planting pattern puts torque through the ankle and knee and is very often the cause of pain.

You can help yourself a bunch by doing some foam roller work on the outside of the thigh.  A table stretch will attack those external rotators as well.  Place one leg onto a waist high(or close) flat surface with the leg bent 90 degrees at the knee and the thigh pointing straight away from you.  Lean forward and do your best to get the knee flat on the table.  You'll feel a good stretch running outside you butt.

Then, the next time you walk or jog, take the first few minutes to get those feet turned more parallel to eachother.  It'll feel weird at first, but stick with it.

Ridiculously Fit Person of the Day - Joe Cross


I'm going to stick with my movie for this post and go with the guy who dropped a load of weight, eliminated his skin disorder and got himself off of medications all by drinking some juice.  I'm pretty sure he eats food now so I'm glad he's not too freaky about it.   Also, he did start up a really helpful website with plans, recipes, community pages and forums to discuss juicing.  All for $0 to boot!

It ain't always about the abs people.  Sometimes you've got to focus on that good feeling.

Me and My iPod


Workout -
I'm back to running regularly so last week I did 3x at 30 minutes for a nice base.  This week we'll throw in an interval or two in addition to adding on about 5 or 10 minutes to a steady state run.  The weather sucks so I'll stay indoors this week most likely.

What I'm listening to - Loving me some 'Flo Rida'.  I love that he makes a name out of a State.  'Good Feeling'  and 'Club can't handle me' are superb.  Also, going old school 80's metal:  Judas Priest, Dio, Scorpions are beyond awesome.  Queen also never gets old.

As usual WTF podcast was good - Bill Maher was interesting.  This American Life continues to be good every week.

Take care people, I'm going to get my juice on!