• 3T raw unfiltered honey
• juice from 2 limes
• 1/2t celtic sea salt
• 2 liters of water (or dilute the above ingredients to taste)

This is good, but I don’t think it’s as good as the previous. I got a cramp in my calf on mile 15 with this. Of course that might have more to do with the change in altitude. But it sure does taste good.

• 2 liters of water (I carry mine in a Camelbak)
• 3T blackstrap molasses
• 2T raw apple cider vinegar
• 1/2t celtic sea salt

I’ve done this with honey as well, but have occasionally experienced heartburn with the honey. The molasses didn’t do that and I also seemed to have more energy. The molasses is probably higher in numerous minerals (e.g. potasium) so that may be what does it.

The taste isn’t the best at first, but during the run you actually grow to like it. I think your body craves certain substances and your taste for it grows.

Last Sunday I ran 10 miles with a pace of 9:57 minutes per mile. That’s certainly not going to break any records, but not bad for a first. Let me tell you though, 1 hour and 40 minutes of running seems like a long time. I’m following the Hal Higdon novice training program. This weekend I will be running 10K in the Kelly Carter Scholarship Run in Tecumseh, MI.

I have scaled back my weight lifting to once per week in order to maintain what I have gained. I am making very little to no gains, though I seem to have made some minor gains on chin-ups. But the goal here is simply to maintain.

Shari and I took a Chi-Running class. It has been very helpful for me in implemented the Chi-Running form. This form has made running more enjoyable and easier. It has also helped to improve my Taiji.

Weight loss has not occured. In fact I have gained almost 5lbs. Some of that is no doubt muscle, but this much activity has simply made me a lot more hungry all the time. If I listen to that hunger I eat and I gain weight.

Taiji is an ancient (i.e. traditional) Chinese martial art and exercise. Meld that with the most fundamental and oldest form of human exercise in existence and you have ChiRunning.

I thought it would be interesting to see how application of Taiji principles to running would affect my marathon training. I am about 1/3 through the book now and already it has revolutionized my running. Running used to be a chore and 30-50 minutes of unpleasantness. Now I actually look forward to my runs and miss running on my off days. What used to be difficult now feels almost effortless.

As far as the book goes, the first four chapters seem a bit repetitive and there to just increase the page count. They could be compressed into 1 chapter in my opinion. It matters not. The techniques Danny presents starting in chapter 4 are well worth wading through the first 4 to get to.

This book is a must read for anyone who runs, even if you’ve never done Taiji.

I’ll be working on a way to continue my weight lifting in addition to my marathon training program. My goal will not be to gain muscle, but to maintain what I have gained over the last year or so.

One thing is for sure, diet will play a huge role in my training program. I’m starting to think now of how to get more liver into my diet. I’d also like to get some water kefir grains to make hydration drinks.

The race is in October. I’ll be posting about my discoveries and progress along the way.

This summer we spent a week in the park and went on several all-day hikes. The kids, 5 and 8, were excellent hikers and were even heard singing near the end of the longest hike of the trip, Chasm Lake.

My favorite hike was Mount Chiquita. While it seemed an easier climb, the altitude was enough to take one’s breath away – literally. We also did a loop around the Bear Lake and Glacier Gorge area and an excursion down the LuLu City trail. There were numerous smaller hikes as we drove around the park, stopping every 5 minutes.

Someday we’ll move there…

At first the workouts just really slammed me. I was extremely sore and exhausted for several days after each workout. Over the course of 9 weeks I’ve built up a lot of stamina. In fact, I actually feel good after the workouts now. Contrary to what most people hope for with a workout program, I have actually gained about 5-7lbs, but most of that weight has been muscle. I’ve been careful to make sure and eat enough food to actually grow those muscles.

One of my goals was to be able to do a chin-up by the end of the 12 weeks. Last week was the first time I was able to do so and managed to do 6 in one set. On Monday I managed to dead-lift 195lbs for 6 reps.

I try to vary my workouts to keep my body from getting in a rut. My workouts look something like (following the standard set and rep scheme of Body for Life):

• dead-lifts; hamstring curls; calf raises; hanging knee raises
• dead-lifts; straight leg dead-lifts; calf raises; crunches
• dips; bent-over rows; overhead presses; curls; triceps extensions
• chin-ups; bench press; upright row; curls; triceps extensions

For cardio work I ski on a Nordic Track machine for 20 minutes while watching Hogan’s Heroes. And I almost forgot, 20 minutes of Tai Chi every morning.

If I keep at it I may be in decent shape by the time I’m 42…

I recently listened to Bill Phillips’ book Body for Life (the audio book version).

Body for Life seems to be a pretty popular book right now so I thought I would check it out. My basic assessment of Bill’s program will have to wait until I have tried it out for a longer period of time, but I wasn’t very impressed with his book. If you want a weight training oriented fitness program, Bill’s looks like a good one, but the essence of his program can be gotten from the Body for Life website.

If what you need is a lot of motivational psychobabble, then this book is great. Most of the text goes something like… “You can do it … You must be committed … Don’t try, do … etc.” Personally, I’m not a big fan of motivational writing and was anxious to get to the meat of the program. The audio book never really got there. I had to go to his website to find out the details.

Once I got to his site I decided that his program looks like a good one. He has some nice printable log sheets, animations of many of the exercises, and a lot of good information. I’m not really planning to implement his diet program, but it doesn’t look too bad. If one was really interested in trying it one could apply Nourishing Traditions principles to it without too much difficulty. But I’m not going to be eating 6 meals per day.

My wife and I tried our first session last night and let’s just say, WOW, am I really really sore…