Learning to Run in 13 Weeks: Week 3

If you're following along with us, you too are entering week 3 of the 13-week running program. My group agrees that the program has been pretty reasonable so far and they are even looking for new and more interesting running areas. Two members have discovered a beautiful trail not far from our neighborhood that should make the longer runs more entertaining.

Last week, I mentioned that this program emphasizes consistency; meaning that you want to get into a regular training schedule. In this case, it means three days per week with at least one day of rest in between training days. Another important training rule is moderation. You need to give your body time to rest and adapt to the new stress you are inflicting on bones and tissues.

To my mind, the best part about moderation is that it allows you to feel good about what you are doing. If you hit the street thinking that you need to be "serious" and run several miles right off the bat, the odds are good that you won't enjoy your experience and it'll be that much harder to run the next time. If you start small, you'll find that you enjoy your effort and can feel good about your slow but steady progress as the weeks go by.

As mentioned in earlier posts, we're following the gradual program outlined in the The Beginning Runners Handbook: The Proven 13-Week Walk-Run Program *. Here's the schedule for this week and next.

Week 3

Day 1: 5-minute stretch, run 3 minutes, walk 2 minutes. Do this 10 times. 5-minute stretch

Day 2: 5-minute stretch, run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes. Do this 9 times. 5-minute stretch

Day 3: 5-minute stretch, run 3 minutes, walk 2 minutes. Do this 9times. 5-minute stretch


Week 4 (Easy Recovery Week)

Day 1: 5-minute stretch, run 3 minutes, walk 2 minutes. Do this 8 times. 5-minute stretch

Day 1: 5-minute stretch, run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes. Do this 7 times. 5-minute stretch

Day 1: 5-minute stretch, run 2 minutes, walk 3 minutes. Do this 7 times. 5-minute stretch


*A few words about The Beginning Runner's Handbook. The 13-week program doesn't appear until page 151 because the authors (Ian MacNeill and the Sport Medicine Council of British Columbia) thought it was important to start with topics like moderation, choosing good shoes, training mind & body, pregnancy, cross-training, technique, diet, injuries and stretching. It is probably wise to do some reading of your own before you launch into this new exercise program. Please make sure you're healthy and ready for action and then join us!

Zip line in India: Too Fun!

If Sky Hike sounded interesting but Georgia isn't part of your summer travel plans, check out a very cool zip line in India called Flying Fox. You can put this on your fall calendar because it's re-opening in October. Click here for pix and video.

You can read more about Flying Fox on Wend Magazine's blog, click here.

Road Trip: Sky Hike in Georgia

According to their Web site, Sky Hike is the nation's largest adventure course. Within the confines of your safety harness, you'll be able to test your skill on a tight rope, leap through the air from one structure to another, climb vertical rope nets and cross suspended bridges. Sky Hike allows for the mildly adventurous by offering challenges at 12 feet above the ground but if you're into heights, the four-story-high Super Challenge Trail will be more to your liking. This seems like quite a bargain at only $14.

Where: Stone Mountain Park, Atlanta, Georgia

Closed-toe shoes required.

You can read more about Sky Hike here in an article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Learning to Run in 13 Weeks: Week 2

Welcome to week 2 in our our summer running adventure! So far, so good. My group is in agreement that week 1 was easy and enjoyable. I hope you're having a similar experience. I've mentioned before that consistency is important so don't skip a week just because you're traveling. Five members of our group will be running in alternate locations for the next couple of sessions, two in Ireland, one in Italy and two in Delaware (the exotic Delaware will be yours truly and Liz).

As mentioned in earlier posts, we're following the gradual program outlined in the The Beginning Runners Handbook: The Proven 13-Week Walk-Run Program *. Here's the schedule for this week and next.


Week 2

Day 1: 5-minute stretch, Run 2 minute, walk 2 minutes. Do this 11 times. 5-minute stretch

Day 2: 5-minute stretch, Run 1 minute, walk 2 minutes. Do this 10 times. 5-minute stretch

Day 3: 5-minute stretch, Run 2 minute, walk 2 minutes. Do this 10 times. 5-minute stretch


Week 3

Day 1: 5-minute stretch, run 3 minutes, walk 2 minutes. Do this 10 times. 5-minute stretch

Day 2: 5-minute stretch, run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes. Do this 9 times. 5-minute stretch

Day 3: 5-minute stretch, run 3 minutes, walk 2 minutes. Do this 9times. 5-minute stretch


*A few words about The Beginning Runner's Handbook. The 13-week program doesn't appear until page 151 because the authors (Ian MacNeill and the Sport Medicine Council of British Columbia) thought it was important to start with topics like moderation, choosing good shoes, training mind & body, pregnancy, cross-training, technique, diet, injuries and stretching. It is probably wise to do some reading of your own before you launch into this new exercise program. Please make sure you're healthy and ready for action and then join us!

World Refugee Day

Today is World Refugee Day. Designated by the UN General Assembly, the day is dedicated to raising awareness about the 42 million refugees around the planet and their struggles. This year's theme "Real People, Real Needs" should help focus attention on the women, men and children who have been uprooted by conflict and persecution. For more information about World Refugee Day, click here. To find out what your country is doing to mark this important day, click here. To link to the "Gimme Shelter" Facebook page, click here.




Image credit: WORLD MAP OR GLOBE BACKGROUND
© John Vernon | Dreamstime.com

Road Trip: Syncronized Fireflies in the Smokey Mountains

There is a very interesting post on Boing Boing about fireflies in the Smokey Mountains that flash in unison. Click here to read more about the bioluminescent bugs and to watch a video of their performance. I think this is worthy of a road trip, don't you?

Learning to Run in 13 Weeks: Week 1

Here's the plan. My Daughter, Liz, needs to get back in shape after a prolonged sports injury. After consulting with her doctor, we decided to use the The Beginning Runners Handbook: The Proven 13-Week Walk-Run Program to slowly increase her strength and endurance. As luck would have it, I have a crowd of women who like this idea and who want to spend their summer "learning to run."

I'm going to post our training schedule for weeks 1 and 2 so that you can follow along at your own pace. I'll update the schedule every Monday for the remainder of the program.

My group is going to meet on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings. However, they all have a copy of the schedule so that if they can't run with the group, they can run on their own. Consistency is very important. Also, according to the book, you want at least one day between training sessions and you want to make sure to begin each session with a 5-minute warm up and conclude with a 5-minute cool down. The Handbook has a number of stretching exercises for these 5-minute periods.

With that in mind, here is the schedule:

Week 1

Day 1: 5-minute stretch, Run 1 minute, walk 2 minutes. Do this 12 times. 5-minute stretch

Day 2: 5-minute stretch, Run 1 minute, walk 2 minutes. Do this 9 times. 5-minute stretch

Day 3: 5-minute stretch, Run 1 minute, walk 2 minutes. Do this 11 times. 5-minute stretch

Week 2

Day 1: 5-minute stretch, Run 2 minute, walk 2 minutes. Do this 11 times. 5-minute stretch

Day 2: 5-minute stretch, Run 1 minute, walk 2 minutes. Do this 10 times. 5-minute stretch

Day 3: 5-minute stretch, Run 2 minute, walk 2 minutes. Do this 10 times. 5-minute stretch


A few words about The Beginning Runner's Handbook. The 13-week program doesn't appear until page 151 because the authors (Ian MacNeill and the Sport Medicine Council of British Columbia) thought it was important to start with topics like moderation, choosing good shoes, training mind & body, pregnancy, cross-training, technique, diet, injuries and stretching. It is probably wise to do some reading of your own before you launch into this new exercise program. Please make sure you're healthy and ready for action and then join us!

Getting Liz Back on Track...

Last fall, my daughter, Liz, suffered a sports injury that put her on enforced couch potato status. She's been bored, she's been very bored and she's itching to move. Happily, the last MRI showed that she's ready for action -- if she goes slowly.

My friend, Carol, found an interesting book called The Beginning Runners Handbook: The Proven 13-Week Walk-Run Program at our local library and thought it might be just the thing to get Liz back on her feet. The basic premise is that you build up strength and endurance by alternating running and walking -- extending the running and decreasing the walking segments as the weeks go by.

I've told a number of people that Liz and I are going to spend the summer "learning to run" and to my surprise I had a bunch of women say that they wanted to join us. After a while, it occurred to me that some of you might want to join us as well. So, once a week for the next 13 weeks, I'll tell you what we're doing and if you're in the mood for something new, I hope you'll come along. You know, this would be a great activity for an Adventure Club! Everything is more fun when you do it with friends.

A few words about The Beginning Runner's Handbook. The 13-week program doesn't appear until page 151 because the authors (Ian MacNeill and the Sport Medicine Council of British Columbia) thought it was important to start with topics like moderation, choosing good shoes, training mind & body, pregnancy, cross-training, technique, diet, injuries and stretching. It is probably wise to do some reading of your own before you launch into this new exercise program. Please make sure you're healthy and ready for action and then join us!


Photo credit: Abbie Mulvihill

100 Years Ago...Alice Ramsey and the first coast to coast road trip

100 years ago today, Alice Ramsey left New York in a specially outfitted, four-cylinder, 30 horsepower automobile and began a grand cross-country adventure. Drafted by the Maxwell-Briscoe automobile company to help promote their brand, Alice was a 22-year-old Vassar grad who knew her way around cars and who had the strength to handle rack-and-pinion steering for 3,800 miles. Her skill and spirit (and a little help from some friends) resulted in a successful journey that landed Ms. Ramsey in the record books as the first woman to make a coast-to-coast road trip. While a few men had already accomplished the feat, Alice also set the best time.

Margery Krevsky wrote a nice story about Alice and her three traveling companions for the Detroit News. To read the article, click here.



Image credit: SUMMER LANDSCAPE
© Alexey Arkhipov | Dreamstime.com

Life as an Ex Pat

It's not easy to pull up roots and set them down again in a foreign land but many, many women do just that. I thought you might like to get a perspective from several different international adventurers who are testing new cultures, new foods and new ways of life:

A Canadian mom with 3 preschoolers, writes about life in Cape Town, South Africa in "A Day"

A Canadian teaching English in China, Amy writes about "My Least Favourite Word"

An English woman re-rooting in California, Lorna writes about "How to be an Ex-Pat."

An American in Saudi Arabia, Susie writes "On Being Normal." (By the way, I'm happy to report that the KSA government has unblocked Susie's blog and Saudi citizens can once again read Susie's Big Adventure.)


If you're an expat and looking for kindred spirits, click here to visit Expat Women: Helping Women Living Overseas. To read blogs by women from all over the world, click here.

This Weekend: Treat Your Friends to an "Exploding" Soda

Ok, maybe this isn't really an adventure but I thought it was hilarious. Wired has a great "how to" for creating an exploding drink by freezing Mentos candy into ice cubes and then adding the cubes to a glass of pop. Wired created a Manhattan (my grandmother's favorite cocktail) for this prank but it would work just as well with plain ol' Diet Coke. If you haven't seen what happens when you mix Mentos and Coke, click here, otherwise I know you're already giggling.

Click here for step-by-step instructions for making Mentos ice cubes.

For an amazing display of what you can do with lots of Coke, lots of Mentos (and some corporate funding), click here.

Today is Meet Your Neighbor Day

Happy Meet Your Neighbor Day!

Go forth and introduce yourself!

Meet Your Neighbor Day on Facebook

Join the "Meet Your Neighbor Day" group on Facebook. Click here.

Get Ready for "Meet Your Neighbor Day"

On Monday, I wrote that I am declaring June 5, "Meet Your Neighbor Day." Why? Because June 5, is AWB's first birthday and I want to create an adventure that we can all do together. Meeting an unknown neighbor will probably push your comfort zone just a bit. Depending on the neighbor, it could expand your horizons quite a lot! Here are a few suggestions.

How to Meet Your Neighbor:

You can simply walk up and say, "Hi" or you can take thing up a notch by doing a little more.

The calling card: In my current neighborhood, there is a nice tradition of greeting new neighbors with a hand written card that includes your name (and others in your family) plus your address and phone number. It helps the new neighbor remember you and it gives them a way of contacting you if they need assistance. This might be an easy way to meet an elderly person in your area.

Food Part I: Who doesn't like receiving a tasty treat? You can always knock on your neighbor's door with food in hand and tell them it's Meet Your Neighbor Day and you've come by to be friendly.

Food Part II: Why not invite several neighbors over for drinks and appetizers? You can enjoy the company of the neighbors you know and take the opportunity to meet some new friends.

Food Part III: Party! Grab a friend and organize a get-together for all the people who live on your street, in your complex or who work in your office. You can invite everyone for tea, you can do drinks and appetizers, you make it a potluck*, or you can go all out and have a BBQ with music and limbo.

Some of these things will be hard to pull off by Friday but as long as you're in the planning process, it counts for Meet Your Neighbor Day!


To be part of Meet Your Neighbor Day on Facebook, click here!



*I've hosted a bunch of foreign exchange students who are mystified by the concept of a potluck dinner. If it's new to you, click on the link to learn more.

Things to do with your new neighbor friend:
National Good Neighbor Day (September)
Dinner Day (2nd Saturday in January)

Celebrating AWB's First Anniversary

Almost a year ago, on June 5, actually, I started Adventurous Women Blog. If you've been reading along, you know that my plan for this blog was, and is, to encourage women to leave their comfort zones and try new things. That might mean mountaineering to you but it might mean starting martial arts to your co-worker or entering a cooking contest to your sister.

I've been thinking about ways to celebrate the first 12 months as an adventurous blog--I wanted to find something that we could all do together. That's not an easy feat considering that you wonderful readers come from all parts of the globe. Clearly, we're not going to have a party at my house.

Going back to the idea that adventure means expanding your horizons, learning new things and leaving your comfort zone I decided the one thing that we all share is a fear of the unknown. And what's one thing that is universally unknown? Our neighbors.

We all have a strange older woman or a reclusive gentleman or a wacky family that we generally ignore or avoid. We also have people whom we see regularly but have never met. All of these people can enrich our lives with their stories, their traditions and their perspectives.

So, in honor of AWB's birthday, I am declaring June 5 "Meet Your Neighbor Day" and I challenge you to introduce yourself to one new person. I'll have some ideas on how to do that on Wednesday.

To join Meet Your Neighbor Day on Facebook, click here!