One Million Voices Campaign October 18

Hat tip to Lirun!
Embed this on your blog too.

Just wondering.. has there ever been a running event for peace?

Using Sport Psychology for learning to run a 5K

Go Team!



One of the reasons I decided to do this blog as an aside to the blog we're supposed to be writing in for the Chronicle is that I'm a blogger and I love writing. Most importantly, with the added tools of links and abilities to post pics etc, blogger just gives you more flexibility. I wanted to delph (sp) into this whole enterprise from different angles PLUS trying to connect with other sports and exercise minded bloggers.

Anyhow, I was thinking about all my team mates' different goals for the upcoming 5K in December. Click HERE to see everyone's video and learn about these goals. So far, we're focussing on the training schedule during the week and the training we do together on Saturdays. However, the feeling I get from almost all of them is that it's more than just about this competition and this upcoming 5K. It's about making a concerted effort to change our current lifestyle. To be physically healthier, to challenge ourselves in a group so we can't wimp out, to mentally refocus from an all consuming illness that's being battled.
What is the common denominator? Motivation perhaps. And then I remembered an old friend in college telling me about sports psychology. So I checked it out.
Click on the title to go to the site and peruse through to see what could help you mentally to strenghten your resolve to keep at it, or to help doing it regardless. To put mental discipline on ourselves for something physical is a whole lot different than what most of us need to do in life. In this technological world, most of the discipline comes from the mind, to learn, to absorb, to recall.

But how about the physical? How much are we used to that kind of discipline? I sure could use some tools for that.
What is your plan for the mental aspect of your challenge?

The Benefits of Exercise..

The hike and bike trail, exercise central especially early saturday mornings.


So.. one of my team mates for this 5K training made mention of not having much motivation for tomorrow mornings' training session.
Our group, consisting out of 11 people picked from 130 hopefulls, has been training for the last couple of weeks getting together at 8am every saturday morning at Auditorium Shores here in Austin. That got me thinking. Generally, everyone knows that exercising is 'good', but how good is it? Well, there are apparently 60 good reasons to do it. Here are a few:

#1...Increased energy
#2...Increased Self-Esteem
#3...Increase Mental Focus
#4...Decreased Risk of a Heart Attack
#5...Decreased Risk of Osteoporosis
#6...Reduce the Risk of Breast Cancer by up to 60%
#7...Increased Strength and Stamina
#8...Reduced Depression
#9...Decreased Stress Levels
#10...Well actually, here are another 50 benefits

But that's not all. There are four areas of fitness that need to be addressed. So for us 11 trying to improve our walking/running, we do need to think of the following:
cardiovascular endurance; muscular strength; muscular endurance and flexibility. In order to be fit, we have to cover all four areas. Read the rest HERE.

Taking Charge

I need to make changes in my life and one of the ways I tried to get myself involved was to enter the Club Chronicle Team Zen challenge. Out of 130 people, the Chronicle ended up picking 11. We have met and exercised with each other for two weeks now, getting together on Auditorium Shores every saturday. We've posted on the Chronicle on our individual blogs and come November, people are supposed to vote for a 'winner'. Winner being designated the ones with the most people votes AND finishing the Trail of Lights 5K in December. I will post more about this later. The essence of this blog is taking charge. I am trying to be literally and figuratively active and not hope for things, but instead, do them. Taking charge.

Trail of Lights 5K 2006

This is one of the reasons why I wanted to challenge myself. I could not keep up with my four year old who was running a 1K (that's less than a mile!).

Rebecca ran like a maniac and you can't tell that I was about to keel over! This is Rebecca doing the kids' bun run.

With the yellow pants, this is my son Dirk: