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Tanaka is a legend in Shotokan karate. Here is a link to a video where he takes some students through some of his sparring techniques.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a17zNsVJWrY

In my quest to follow the paleo diet, and still run long distances, I need to determine good foods to eat during long training runs or races without resorting back to GUs or Shot Blocks, etc. I found this list of 10 natural race food alternatives from active.com.

Race nutrition can be an experiment if you aim to fuel with whole foods as much as possible. It’s important to look for food that is natural, compact, easy to carry, and tastes good. These 10 race foods fit those criteria. Give them a try when training for your next race.

1. Dates

These can be used for making your own energy bars, or can be eaten on their own. They contain natural sugars and simple carbs that will keep you running over long distances. They’re also easy to chew.

More: 5 Foods to Try This Spring

2. 100% Natural Coconut Water

This drink provides the electrolytes your body needs to replenish the minerals you lose through sweat. It also tastes great and is extremely refreshing on a run.

3. Homemade Baby Food

Use a variety of fruits and vegetables to make your own “baby” race food. Anything is fair game, so get creative and use your favorite fresh ingredients to blend flavors that you will love. Just mush everything up so it’s easy to digest. You can pack it in small Ziploc bags and just suck it out like a gel when you’re ready to fuel.

More: How to Fuel Your Body for Energy

4. Sunflower Seed Butter

This has a great nutty taste and is a source of both healthy fat and protein. Sometimes you can find these in small gel-like packs that are easy to carry. Otherwise you can pack your own in small Ziploc bags. A good brand is Sunbutter, which is completely peanut-free and gluten-free.

5. Frozen Grapes

Frozen grapes are just as sweet as candy. They cool your mouth and they’re easy to carry. Freeze small bags of grapes and carry them on your long runs.

More: 5 Best Carbs for Athletes

6. Homemade Gels

Making your own gel is fun and saves you money. Here’s a recipe to try.

Combine:

7 and 1/3 tablespoons of honey
3/4 teaspoons of blackstrap molasses
1/10 teaspoons of table salt

7. Watermelon Dipped in Salt

The watermelon rehydrates you while the salt replenishes your electrolytes. This is a refreshing and satisfying snack that can immediately boost your energy and help you pick up the pace.

More: 7 New Super Foods

8. Dehydrated Fruit

I bought my own dehydrator so I could make a lot more of this. Dehydrating fruit allows it to keep longer and it’s easier to carry. I also find it sometimes makes fruit taste sweeter. With a dehydrator you can make your own natural fruit rolls, and you can even dehydrate meats and vegetables. You could almost carry entire meals. The possibilities are endless.

9. Honey

Use raw, natural honey as a sugar source. Your body will appreciate the fuel and the good quality honey can also boost your immune system.

More: Eat Green to Run Better This Spring

10. Navitas Power Snacks

These are just a combination of fruit and nuts. They come in small bite sized pieces and they are gluten-free and dairy-free. They’re less chewy than a bar, but not as watery as a gel. I enjoy the consistency and the flavors are delicious.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different foods during training and long runs. On race day, always stick to what you know will work.

So, I’ve debated it and decided to finally join CrossFit Mercer. The groupon I found is ideal: 2 hydrostatic weigh-ins (one before and one after a 90-day body composition challenge), three months of unlimited crossfit, and several seminars on crossfit, goal planning, and paleo.

I’ve resisted up to this point because my physical fitness schedule is already full: karate 5+ times per week, running (marathon training) 6 times per week, DJ Health club 5x per week, and miscellaneous classes at Gold’s 1x or 2x per week.

I will probably cut back on my running to fit this in. Focusing on total body strength and core strength, in my opinion, is a good substitute for some of the “junk” runs anyway. I’ll focus on the essentials: long runs on Sunday, and speed work on Tuesday or Wednesday. Then I’ll do another one or two runs of about 8 to 10 miles some other day. Maybe I’ll run to and from CrossFit on Friday mornings once I graduate from “OnRamp.”

I’ve been doing lots of push-ups, pull-ups, handstand push-ups (against the wall), situps, etc., on my own already. I had to focus on this more when I ripped my shin open down to the bone doing box jumps, since I couldn’t do my normal running routine for about a week. Hopefully, this helps prepare my a little bit for what’s in store. However, I’ve never focused on olympic-type weight lifting. I’ll be trying to figure out what I can lift in terms of deadlift, clean, etc. I will also obviously need help with proper form, which I expect to get from CFM.

Part of the challenge involves Paleo, I believe. I’ve had much success on the Zone diet (60+ pounds of fat loss over several years), and further success on the Tim Ferriss Four Hour Body diet. I follow those principles generally to this day, and maintain what I consider an acceptable body comp, and a great cardio-vascular fitness level. I expect CrossFit to improve my strength, and following the Paleo diet should help eliminate some additional fat. I don’t expect my body fat is very high; probably in the 15-17% range. I’m excited to have the most accurate measurement done (hydrostatic testing), instead of relying on the Tanita scale at home.

This year I’ve joined with Hamilton Area Trail Runs to do the NJ River to Sea Relay on Saturday, August 4, 2012. Seven runners will trek 92 miles across New Jersey from Milford to Manasquan. This event is a lot of fun.

The team is running to raise money to help Thea Danze and other children affected with brain tumors.  The goal is $2,500 and we need your help. Thea, now age 5, lives in Robbinsville with her parents, Trisha and Jeff, and her baby sister, Lilly. In October of 2007, Thea was diagnosed with hydrocephalus and a brain tumor. She was just 4 months old. She underwent 3 brain surgeries that first week, including a nine-hour operation to resect the tumor. They got about 50%. A few days later, she suffered a stroke that left her with right-sided hemiparesis and a long road of therapy.

To date, Thea has had 43 months of chemotherapy, countless MRIs, several hospitalizations and hundreds of hours of PT, OT and speech therapy. But she is one of the lucky ones. Despite all the vomiting and hair loss, her side effects, thus far, have been pretty minimal compared to many other kids with brain tumors. Many other families are not so lucky. Please read more about Thea’s and the funraising effort Thea’s star of hope and if you are moved by her story, please make a donation: http://www.giveforward.com/theasstarofhope

You can also read more about the Hamilton Area Trail Runs “Run for Thea” here: http://www.hamiltonareatrailruns.com/run-for-thea.html

Thank you in advance!

I wanted to draw running routes in google maps that I could follow during the legs of the Ragnar Chicago relay race I was part of this past weekend. However, it was not intuitive to me how to do this with Google Map Maker. Fortunately, I am an avid user of gmap-pedometer. So, I drew my routes using the “draw route automatically” feature for runners and bicyclists. This is a tremendous time savings feature. The only problem is that gmap-pedometer is not a mobile-friendly website, and I would be running with my iPhone. So, I really wanted the routes to show up in a mobile-friendly app. Google Maps works well on the iPhone, so I simply had to export the gmap-pedometer data into Google Maps.

I exported the routes from gmap-pedometer as GPX files (using the great bookmarklet script from http://www.elsewhere.org/journal/gmaptogpx/#).  Google maps expects KML files though, not GPX files.

So once I saved the GPX file, I uploaded it to the very helpful and detailed GPS Visualizer and was able to create a KML file.

Using the KML file, I was able to import the route into Google Maps (within the My Maps section, after logging into Google). One note: turn off Waypoints on the GPS Visualizer. Select “None” in the “Waypoint Options” section of the form.

My buddy Nate posted that he was looking for the lyrics to “The Champion” by Stic.Man. I hadn’t heard the song before, but I looked it up and it sounds like a good song to work out to. I may purchase the whole album. In any case, what follows is my attempt to decipher the lyrics. I believe these are 99% correct, except for a reference where he wants to rise like someone, which sounds like Horace, but I can’t be certain. Enjoy, and if you want to suggest corrections please submit a comment.

Lyrics to: “The Champion” by Stic.Man.

… Now I understand this game.

Refrain:
Who am I? I’m the champion.
I’m the champion. [I’m the champion]

[repeat refrain once]

Yeah…

I stick and move through the madness.
Bob and weave the negative.
Blockin out the haters.
My meditation is medicine.

I beat down barriers.
And stomp out worries.
Gotta keep my guard up,
Cuz that drama comes in flurries.

It’ll throw you off center.
Take your balance off center line.
But I know my enemy,
The biggest battle is within the mind.

Know yourself, build your strength,
Learn from weakness.
Nothing comes free,
Only your sweat earns the secrets

The secret is…
Power exists in all people.
The struggle is a sifu
If you learn to let it teach you.

The key to, the universe
Is right within our reaches.
But we can’t win the game
If we’re standin’ in the bleachers.

[refrain x 4]

yeah…

The game is mental.
The mind is the head coach.
Strength is to youth,
What wisdom is to old folks.

Focusing,
Like a ball going through the goal post.
See the goal clear in my mind,
Touch it, it’s so close

I aspire for higher
To rise like {Horace?}
Increase my flexibility,
My strength and my endurance.

I see no opponents.
I compete with myself.
Training 101,
Like I’m in a class by myself.

My health is a priority,
Winner mentality,
All I see is success
And build it up gradually.

Step by step,
Like two shoes on a treadmill,
Got to make moves in this life,
Can’t stand still.

[refrain x 4]

[shout 6 times:] Who am I ?!? I’m the champion.

The heart, the will, the drive, the skill,
The sweat, the work, desire to win.

The fate, inside, the focus, the fire,
The goal the struggle, humility, pride.

The heart, your will, the drive, the skill,
The sweat, the work, desire to win.

The fate, inside, the focus, the fire, the fight,
The triumphant rise of the champion.

My wife Jeannie wrote a great screenplay titled “The Heart Sees No Color.” It was fascinating to watch over the last couple of years how the screenplay evolved from her first version into the piece of art it is now. I won’t spoil the story for you, but I want to share the impressive talent she has lined up to star in and work on this film.

Chris Mann will play the role of Chris, a recent widower and single father who develops a love interest for the character Melody. You might recognize him from the HBO series The Wire as Councilman Anthony ‘Tony’ Gray. He was also in the film Michael Clayton with George Clooney, and in Duplicity with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.

Brian Anthony Wilson will play the role of Will, Vivian’s husband. His past behavior is a factor that makes it hard for Vivian to accept her brother Chris’ relationship with Melody, who is Caucasian. Brian played Detective Vernon Holley on The Wire, and was also in the film Limitless with Bradley Cooper.

The Heart Sees No Color will be directed by Emmy Nominated Fritz Brekeller. Fritz was a director for the TV series All My Children.

And Jeannie will play the love interest, Melody. Melody is a widow of five years and has children of her own. She can empathize when she sees that Chris is suffering and a relationship grows from there.

There’s more detail about the story line at the Kickstarter project page. There’s a great video too, where Chris Mann, Brian Anthony Wilson and Jeannie discuss the film and how they are trying to fund it. They do a better job teasing you with the storyline than I do. Please check it out, and share it on social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, MySpace, Orkut, etc). The more people that see the video and the promise of the screenplay, the better chance the project has of reaching its fundraising goal so the film can get made. And if you want to get involved, consider making a pledge. The pledge levels have some pretty cool benefits. You could even become an extra in the film.

It’s January 31, 2012 and I just made a log entry into runningahead.com for today’s nine mile run. My total distance for the month of January is 173.4 miles. This is something new for me, because in all the years I’ve been running I never tracked my accumulated distances so closely. I can thank Dimitri Bilenkin for his great example of how to maintain a detailed running log.

I didn’t start the year off using RunningAhead. Rather, I was using a paper-bound log I received in my goodie bag from the Asbury Park Marathon last year. It’s a nice book, however, not being able to share and compare my workouts easily with other people detracts from its social score. About mid-way through January I saw Dimitri’s log and thought, “I could really use this.” So I transferred my paper log to the RunningAhead website and have been an avid user since. Now it’s easy to send someone a link to one of my workouts or running plans by pointing them to the website. Also, the tools, graphs, and summaries on the RunningAhead site are pretty useful. I tried RunningAhead about a year ago but didn’t stick with it.  This year I am more consistent. I am also making use of the “Training Plans” feature to prepare for the Pocono Mountain Marathon: Run for the Red, on May 20. I’m using the Pfitzinger 18 week/70mi peak training plan, which is nicely laid out in my calendar log along with my completed workouts.

I mention this mileage statistic because it’s a personal record. I don’t believe I’ve ever run this many miles in a single month. With this much mileage I am trying to take precautions to avoid injury. I’m continuing my cross-training workouts, karate classes, and miscellaneous fitness activities like: pushups, stretching, and foam/pvc rolling. I believe the foam/pvc rolling is making a big difference in recovery times from my runs. For instance, I ran 17 miles on Sunday afternoon and Monday I was up and about with very little soreness. In the past, runs like that had left me walking around like a zombie the day after.

Next up: set a weekly record in mileage and continue my running streak since December 30, 2011. By continuing my planned activities, I should exceed 58 miles this week.

“We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.” – Jim Rohn
This applies in so many areas of life. Most recently I can apply it to my marathon training and the Philadelphia marathon itself. Never give up.

“The secret to building large apps is never build large apps. Break your applications into small pieces. Then assemble those testable, bite-sizes pieces into your big application” – Justin Meyer
“The more tied components are to each other, the less reusable they will be, and the more difficult it becomes to make changes to one without accidentally affecting the another” – Rebecca Murphey