From the Manufacturer
Gold Toe Marathon Plus athletic quarter sock is made of combed cotton and stretch nylon. Midweight, ankle length, cushioned foot. Reinforced heel and toe. Shoe size 8-13. USA/Imported.
Gold Toe Women’s 3-Pack Marathon Extended Size Athletic Quarter Sock
December 27th, 2009Marathon (Kindle Edition)
December 24th, 2009
Review
Any insider will relish the running descriptions. Any outsider cannot help but be fascinated by the inner workings of a big city marathon. —-Kathrine Switzer, author, Marathon WomanHal Higdon already knew as much as anyone could know about the history and insider workings of marathoning. Why not write a novel about one big-city race? Why not follow a tried-and-true formula–the hour-by-hour countdown to a major event–that allowed for maximum intersection of people and events, especially unexpected events, as the clock ticks down to the final minutes? Suspense builds, the reader turns the pages rapidly, eager to find out what the next minute will bring. Of course, I’m not going to reveal much more about what happens in Marathon. That’s up to you to discover. I’ll say this however: No matter how many marathons you’ve run, you haven’t yet run one as dramatic and surprise-filled as this one, the annual Lake City Marathon. The things that happen in Marathon are big (more…)
Personal Training
December 21st, 2009Personal training should be just that. Entirely personal and catered to you, what you want, and your overall wellbeing rather than just a generic work out regime that possibly doesn’t even focus on your results. There should be people listening to exactly what you need whether it is that you are training for a sports season or marathon, or just want to feel healthier. An effective personal training programme has an impact on every element of you, and how you feel inside and out, increasing both happiness and confidence.
Picking a good personal trainer who delivers exactly what you want is crucial to your enjoyment and success. Any good personal trainer does this by first and foremost, understanding how the body works and being well trained themselves and certified as a professional. However, being great at getting people to their goals takes far more than a piece of paper. They should always be motivated and good at making you feel motivated. Being friendly is a must as feeling comfortable, not inhibited, will make the process easier and the time spent with your trainer fun. It will also help the results come much faster. It is also imperative to find someone who is versatile. You may not just want a trainer for yourself but somebody who can train your whole family from the youngest to the oldest member and a personal trainer should be able to choose suitable activities and exercise for everyone of every age. You may not currently have a large family, or children, but your trainer should also be ready to deal with any situation, (such as pregnancy) with intuitive ways to keep fit and healthy. Lifestyle and food is also a very big factor in fitness and a trainer should offer vast amounts of sound, but realistic advice on how to alter your diet to co-inside perfectly with your fitness plan and goals creating a healthier you.
By having a bespoke training and nutrition plan, then whatever your circumstance, you are most likely to stay focused and work hard and inevitably get to where you want to be. One company that employs dedicated and enthusiastic personal trainers who commit themselves to attaining what each individual client wants is Body Solutions in the North West. A company that will create the perfect fitness package and offer first class rehabilitation to those with injuries means that with them, you are in safe and supportive hands. A good personal trainer will inspire you to change your life for the better, and who knows? You may even become the inspiration yourself.
Weight Training Programs That Build Muscle
December 21st, 2009Weightlifting programs a keys are too large or cracked. But many people lift weights and then immediately over and running on the treadmill for 30 minutes. This is counterproductive.
How often have a marathon runners runners with large muscles seen or cracked? Probably not too often. This is that exercises lead walking and other endurance type, that to shrink your muscles. This makes hard, without going too quickly exhausted, enabling Muskelfasern more metabolisch efficient and turn to go long the runners.
But if you try fast constructing Muskelmasse then runs for a long time only to negate a lot of work, particularly with the weights. If you like I goal is to build Muskelmasse but remain simultaneously the slim, if not even something bold lose.
Here is the way to do so. Separate day cardio day of your weight training as much as possible. And instead of walking or cycling for a long time at a constant speed interval training for a shorter period of time can.
For example, if you train with weights every second day heart do the days in between. Interval training is absolutely fantastic. If it to fat burning their far more effective than long term simply for one.
What is interval training? Interval training works like this. Suppose you choose Run as your Cardiotraining. Doing means it at intervals that would jogging to a moderate pace say, one minute, then you would Sprint as fast as you for approximately 30 seconds. After the Sprint jogging at a slower pace for a minute then had back again Sprint you and so on.
The short outbreak of speed and effort regularly published a chemical in the body, which helps you burn fat.
To separate your weightlifting shipments from the heart as far as possible. What is 20 minutes instead of walking or cycling at a constant speed over time interval training.
Bodybuilding Training For Hardgainers – Unique Approach to Training For Massive Muscle Gains!
December 20th, 2009I was always wondering why my friends were getting bigger in the gym while my muscles did not respond to training as much as I would expect. Then I realized that as a skinny hardgainer I will have to do much more than just “train hard” and “lift heavy” – as many of the bodybuilding “gurus” and magazines would advice. After a bit of research about ectomorph body type I realized there are many genetic challenges hardgainers have to overcome in order to be able to build muscle.
One of the reasons why hardgainers struggle with “getting bigger” is a higher ratio of type one muscle fibers in hardgainer’s body. In general, there are several types of muscle fiber in our body, but the two that we deal with the most are type one and type two muscle fibers. Type one muscle fibers are your endurance related fibers (e.g. marathon runners have a higher ratio of type one muscle fibers). At the other hand, type two muscle fibers are the ones you get your power from, these are explosive power type fibers. The way hardgainers should target these two muscle groups is completely different than what a “normal” bodybuilding program would suggest!
Other reason for very slow (if any) muscle growth is the fact that hardgainers are biologically challenged when it comes to neuro-muscular communication, which results into poor muscular response and slower muscle building process. In other words, when you’re working out and lifting weights, your type two muscle fibers are much harder to target. Research has shown that only 20 to 30 percent of them are actually hit by your heavy lifting training! That is why the “lift heavy approach” does not really work for hardgainers.
So what advice would I give to skinny guys that do not want to be disappointed seeing all their hard work gone to waste?
One way to overcome the hardgainer’s training challenge with targeting type II muscle fibers is to gradually increase your body’s neuro-muscular communication throughout your workouts by using a “Rest Pause” format. This format is used in many different variations. The aproach I am going to show you might be a bit controversial but it is definitely worth trying because it can greatly magnify your bodybuilding results:
- Pick up a weight that is about 50% of your one-rep max
- Perform 5 repetitions and then rack the weight
- Wait 10 seconds
- Perform another 5 repetitions and rack the weight again
- Wait 10 seconds
- Perform another 5 reps & so on…
By gradually increasing overall workload in your sets with this twisted “Rest-Pause” format, you will slowly activate your Type II muscle fibers. The ten second rest periods will give you just enough time to catch your breath and regenerate energy for the following set. This technique dramatically improves neuro-muscular communication and results in 3 times better muscle growth.
When applied correctly, this “advanced” bodybuilding training technique is actually the HOLY GRAIL for hardgainer training.
Enjoy and lift smart!
Andy Mikulka
Musings from the Marathon (and How it Can Help Your Business)
December 20th, 2009I just returned from San Diego where I walked my third marathon. It took me 6.5 hours. (I’m not a runner, I’m a walker, and that’s averaging between a 14- and 15-minute mile.) Now if you know anything about marathons, you’ll know that I’m never going to make the Boston marathon with that time.
In fact, I was beaten by an 86-year-old woman from South Carolina (we were neck and neck for awhile — she pulled away when I stopped for a bathroom break, beat me by 5 minutes) by a man dressed in a banana suit, by naked man (he whipped off his shorts when he crossed the finish line, although it’s probably not fair to compare him to me as he definitely had less wind resistance than I had) and a bunch of guys dressed as Elvis.
My point is if I was doing marathons to win, I would probably be in the depths of despair this week. Lucky for me, I do marathons for other reasons that have nothing to do with speed and everything to do with perseverance.
In fact, I think every business owner and entrepreneur should complete a marathon at least once in their life. No, not because I want partners to share in the torture and agony, but for the same reasons why I do. Let me explain.
I’ve come to the conclusion that nature has intended for the human body to only travel about 20 miles at any one time. I’ve decided this based on both science and my own experiences.
Now, I’m not a scientist but here’s my understanding of what’s going on when you walk a marathon. Your body only has around 2000 calories of ready energy it can use at any one time. How long does it take you to run out of 2000 calories? Oh, about 20 miles. After 20 miles, your body starts attacking your muscle to use as fuel (your body can’t burn fat on its own, it can only access the fat through burning something easier, such as carbohydrates or muscle).
At the same time, the hormones your body produces when you run (the ones that are responsible for the “runner’s high”) are used up. When that happens, the natural pain killer that’s part of the runner’s high also disappears, so now you feel every bit of the pain your muscles are going through.
In other words, somewhere between mile 20 and 24, your body runs out of ready energy and starts attacking your muscles and also runs out of the hormones that give you extra energy, stamina and pain relief. There’s a term for this you might have heard. It’s called “hitting the wall.” And if you’re going to hit the wall, you’re going to hit it somewhere between mile 20 and 24.
As someone who has smashed head first into said wall, I can tell you it’s not pretty. You can get a second wind at mile 12, 16, even 18. There’s no second wind at mile 24.
During every marathon I’ve done, there comes a time where nothing helps. Nothing. Everything hurts. Everything. You’re exhausted. Every muscle in your body is screaming for you to stop. You’re keeping your legs moving on sheer grit and determination alone. There’s nothing else left.
The only thing that even comes close to helping during this time is the people cheering on the sideline. The ones near the end yelling “You can do it, you’re almost there.” (Note to spectators, this is the time to lie. Tell the runners or walkers or limpers they’re almost there or the next mile marker is around the corner, even if the next mile marker is actually around the corner, up a hill and a half-mile away. You need anything you can grab on to at this time.)
So for all you spectators, yes your cheering really DOES help. Don’t let our grumpy expressions fool you. We’re hanging on to what you’re saying for dear life.
(On another note, the neighbors who live between mile 15 and 16 who every year buy a gazillion oranges, spend hours cutting them up and then MORE hours standing on the street handing them to us as we go by, I only have one thing to say to you — I’m leaving you in my will.)
Okay, so my hypothesis is the human body is only supposed to walk or run for 20 to 24 miles. And a marathon is 26.2 miles (and yes, that .2 is VERY important — that .2 of a mile is harder than the first 20). So what that means is you are literally pushing yourself past your body’s limits for at least 2.2 miles.
In fact, that’s why I think marathons ARE 26.2 miles. Because they push past your physical boundaries.
I suspect this was the discussion back when marathons first came up. The Marathon God was sitting around with the other Greek Gods in Mt Olympus and the conversation went something like this. “Maybe a marathon should be 20.4 miles.” “No, no, that’s still within their body’s limits.” “Okay, so how about 28.8?” “No, that’s too far. Too many people will drop out or die and that defeats the purpose.” “So what about 26.2 miles?” “Perfect, just far enough to push past their boundaries and not so far that they give up or die.”
So walking marathons is about pushing past boundaries. If you can push past your body’s physical limits with your mind, then you should have no problems pushing past other boundaries with your mind, such as income boundaries or business growth boundaries.
After all, you know it’s possible to build a multi-million-dollar (or billion-dollar) business from scratch. You’ve seen other people do it. And after you walk a marathon, you’ll know you can push past boundaries because you’ve just done it. So therefore, now you know you have the capability to push past whatever boundaries you’ve set for yourself. You’ll have physical, tangible proof of it. (And they even give you a medal when you finish.)
And that, my friends, is why I think every business owner and entrepreneur should walk or run a marathon at least once in their life.
Preparing For a Race – Tapering Your Training
December 20th, 2009Training hard in the two weeks prior to your race, particularly if it is a marathon, will not increase your fitness. In fact, you could spend this time in bed doing nothing at all and it would still not decrease your fitness. Taper or scale back your running during this period to avoid pre-race injury, maximise glycogen storage and preserves muscular freshness.Why taper your trainingTapering involves scaling back your running distance and effort level, and many world records have been set when, because of minor injuries, runners have had to take their training two weeks prior to a race.These athletes were forced to ease off their training, and then they went on to surpass everyone’s expectations. The fact is, training hard two weeks before a race can only hurt you physically. It can cause injury, tear down muscles and deplete your glycogen stores. Tapering your training protects your body from last-minute injury. It also gives your body a well deserved rest, during which time, you will have lost none of your fitness.How do I do it?Many runners continue to train two weeks before a race for psychological reasons. This satisfies a mental urge to exercise and prepare, despite the fact that there are no physical advantages. Finding your own balance between all rest and the amount of exercise you need in order to feel prepared his key.Everyone is different, with varying psychological requirements of exercise. How much you taper your training is therefore a subjective thing, so scale it down to whatever you feel reasonable to you. A good general guideline to tapering is to scale back your distance and intensity by 30%.So, if you had been averaging 40 miles per week in training, you should reduce this distance to no more than 28 miles per week of easy running in a conversational pace. You may even want to run with a personal stereo to ensure that you are disassociating and thereby running easily. This will not deplete glycogen stores or hinder your performance on race day.
Can You Run an Online Business?
December 20th, 2009Did you know that it is easy to become better than 95% of those involved in any type of business venture? Well, this is true according to Norman Vincent Peale. This is true for you as well in your online business.
There is a statistic that claims that 95% of those who start an online business will not be very successful, but the reason for this is that they don’t succeed because they aren’t willing to put in the time or work that is necessary to make it a success. There are so many who think that they should start seeing results within a couple of weeks, and when they don’t, they quit.
You need to change your mindset if you want to be a success. Your business is not race, but a marathon. You will have to developing a doable work schedule that you can adhere to over a long term. Write out your plan, how many hours will you spend writing articles, and how many will you write a day and per week? How much time needs to be spent on research, web building, etc?
When you begin to treat your business as a business, going to work every day, putting in your hours, accomplishing your tasks and goals, you will not only reach that 95%, but you will exceed it.
Here is a list of things you can do in order to successfully run your online business.
1. Choose a niche that you are interested in, one that you already know something about. If you aren’t sure what that is, then write a list of things that interest you. Even if you don’t know anything about the area you choose, really doesn’t matter, as long as the interest is there. Once you have your list, you break it down from there to one.
2. Next you want to determine if the niche you chose will be profitable. You will need to search for products relating to your niche, and look to see if these products are being sold. Go to Clickbank and do a search amongst their affiliates to see how many related products are available and how well they sell.
3. Choose a good catchy name and buy a domain related to your niche. Once you have your domain, you will be ready to run your business.
4. Next register with an auto responder site and then start building a list. A targeted list can easily earn you approximately $1.00 for every subscriber, so plan your time for making this very important list.
5. Time to get your name, your brand and your articles out there. You are going to focus on marketing your site and product. Write several articles a day, make a signature file that will promote your niche. Visit forums that are related to your products making at least 8 posts on each forum, leaving signature in every post.
6. Take step 5 and repeat it for every site you have. You want to get your name out there as someone who is known and trusted. You are becoming an expert in your niche.
Folling these tips will ensure your online marketing business is successfull. Remember, this is not a get rich quick scheme, this is a business that will bring you ever increasing residual income for years to come.
Strength Training Guidelines for Endurance Athletes
December 19th, 2009You can make great strides in your sport performance in the weight room. Because strength training can break down a lot of muscle tissue I recommend weight work be done in the foundation or base period. This does not mean you will not continue to build strength throughout the season. Hill running, slow cadence cycling work outs, and resisted swim work outs are all forms of strength training that are specific to disciplines. Weight training should smoothly transition into strength training in your disciplines.As your season progresses, and your intensity increases, weight work can be detrimental to your more specific work outs and events. Your legs may need up to 72 hours to fully recover from a weight work out. This is a big block of the week to give up performance in other areas. Just like your training plan your strength plan will go through specific phases. Endurance athletes should not use body building plans that are focused on muscle mass gains. This can actually be counter productive for a distance athlete. Each phase will have a specific purpose such as acclimation, hypertrophy, muscular endurance and power. If you are weak on sprints and jumps, you may want to emphasize more power training. If you are weak on climbs, muscular endurance is a good focus. If you are generally weak, or new to strength training, I recommend a slightly longer period with the weights. Shorter distance athletes may want to emphasize more strength work for speed, while longer distance athletes, that are more slow twitch, will not need as much weight work.Listen to your body and avoid overreaching yourself with the weights. This is especially important in the very beginning of your plan. You may feel the need to push yourself, but you may also not be walking well the next day. This is due to micro trauma in the muscles or small muscle tears. These tears have to heal up before you get stronger, so take it easy. You may also find yourself more tired, and you may need more sleep during the initial acclimation period. Make sure you refuel after a strength work out just like you would any other.Core strength is crucial to protecting your back during lifting. I recommend using a variety of exercises to strengthen all core muscles every other day. Core strength also will help with your running, biking, and swimming ability. If your muscles are very sore, do not overstretch them. This may re injure the micro trauma that occurred during training and slow the healing process. Light stretching and recovery work is recommended. I do not use a weight belt. These belts are for power lifter who wants to increase inter abdominal pressure for max lifts. They may actually make your back weaker. Do not use a belt to exceed your limits. In fact you should be no where near this type of lifting. I like to perform my core strength at the end of my work out. Performing core exercises first may leave them too fatigued to properly support you.Choosing when to strength train is very important because it affects your other work outs. I usually try to strength train after a rest day early in the week. I make sure I do not have a critical or high stress work out in the next few days following my leg work out. Again, this is why weight work is best performed in the base or foundation period when there are not a lot of break through work outs.I generally only strength train my legs heavy one time per week. I may do a lighter session at the end of the week. Strength training and endurance training are like oil and water for the most part. They work well when separated, but do not mix. With a heavy foundation load I do not recommend strength training more than twice per week. You may negatively affect your other training, or more likely over reach yourself. These are general guidelines. I will not recommend specific work outs. I do recommend the core of your routine be compound or multi joint exercises such as the squat, lunge, dead lift, step up, and leg press. The number one rule of strength training is switch up your routine. Your body will acclimate quickly to the same routine week after week, and growth will be retarded. Switch up your exercises each week. You may want to get with a certified strength trainer to learn advanced training techniques such as drop sets, compound sets, super sets, and other methods. Try to use a pedal width stance on your exercises and mimic the range of motion of running and cycling. One exercise I will caution you on is the leg extension. Most people use way to much weight on this exercise, which can put a lot of pressure under the knee cap. This may lead to cartilage damage. Leg extensions are a good exercise to warm up with. Use light to moderate weight and lots of reps. You may want to perform this exercise in the top 20 degrees range of motion. This helps strengthen your VMO or innermost quad which plays a key role in patella tracking.Finally, if you are unfamiliar with weight training and proper form I highly recommend you get with a certified athletic trainer. Exercises such as the squat, dead lift, and even leg press can easily injure you if performed incorrectly. I could write an entire book on how to perform these exercises, but if I am not standing next to you and watching your form, you could still be performing them incorrectly. I see and correct bad form from even experienced clients on a daily basis.Phase I Acclimation 4 8 weeksPurpose To gradually adjust your body to the stresses of strength training. During this phase you will use light weight and high reps. You may want to start of your first few weeks with very light weight or body weight. Make sure you perform your exercises slowly and controlled.Reps 15 .25Weight Light to ModerateExercises 3 .5Sets 2 .3Rest between sets 1 .3 minutes generally allows full recoveryPhase II Hypertrophy 4 .6 weeksPurpose To recruit maximum amount of fibers and promote muscle growth and absolute strength. Make sure your first set is a light warm up set. You will want to pyramid or increase the weight on each set while lowering the reps. A typical rep scheme may look like this 12 .10 .8 .6, or 12 .10 .8. This phase has a good potential for injury, so be careful and listen to your body. You can take your lifts to muscular failure during this period. I recommend a spotter. Don t be surprised if the first few weeks leave you very sore. Reps 6 .12Weight Moderate to HeavyExercises 3 .6Sets 3 .4Rest between sets 1 .3 minutes generally allows full recoveryPhase III Strength Endurance 6 .8 WeeksPurpose To train the ability to sustain repeated hard efforts, similar to a steep climb. This phase will raise your lactate threshold and time to exhaustion. You want to use moderate weight and slow controlled motion. You can bring yourself to muscular failure but at a higher rep range. I recommend that you raise your rep range slightly as you progress.Reps 15 .30Weight ModerateExercises 3 .5Sets 2 .4Rest between sets 1 .3 minutes generally allows full recoveryPhase IV Power 3 .6 weeksPurpose Power is force over time, or the ability to move the most resistance in the shortest time period. This is necessary for jumps and short sprints. Again, I recommend a trainer during this period because of the potential for injury, and the creative knowledge needed for power training. You will take each strength exercise and explode upwards. Be careful on the eccentric phase lowering. Try to picture a spring that is slowly coiled until it is tensioned, then explodes. Go light, especially in the beginning. This does not mean you will not fatigue the muscles. I use a body weight for the first few weeks. Reps 8.20Weight Light to ModerateExercises 4.6Sets 2.3Rest between sets 1.3 minutes generally allows full recoveryYou have to view strength training as a tool box. You have to decide which tools are right for you based on your body, and your event. I personally am a smaller person, slow twitch, and my goals are usually short events. This means more time in the weight room for me. If you are a marathoner, you will need less strength work and less weight. If you are a large muscled person, who has good short distance speed, yet you are training for an IM event, I would focus less on hypertrophy and more on strength endurance for climbing.
Running Into Migraines
December 19th, 2009Exercise is good for you. Being fit will help your whole body feel better, including your migraines, right? So why did your headache specialist just tell you to drop out of this weekend’s 10K if you want to be able to go to work on Monday?
A regular exercise program is a great migraine deterrent, but it needs to be the right kind of exercise. Many workout types put a real strain on the cardiovascular system and scientists have linked migraines to vascular problems in the temporal artery, among other potential causes.
Migraineurs who want to sweat need to warm up, slowly, for about fifteen minutes prior to any strenuous exertion, whether it is exercise or home repair. Skipping this warm up is nearly a guarantee that a migraine will be interrupting your plans later in the day.
While any exertion can be good or bad and each migraineur is different, there are a few types of exercise that are notorious for bringing down the head.
* Aerobics: high-intensity aerobics classes are a trigger for many women, especially when the cardio-pounding workout is paired with loud music.
* Biking: Whether it is competitive cycling or spinning class at the club, this is a major trigger for many.
* Running: Any kind of running that involves hard-core exertion, especially endurance events like marathons and triathlons.
You may be able to keep doing these things, especially if you really enjoy them, but you need to think about toning down the endurance aspect. Cycling should be for pleasure and exercise but not competitive. Replace high impact aerobics classes with dance, yoga, or free weight aerobics. Reduce the distance you run and see if it helps with the migraines. There is no reason a migraineur cannot be fit, just do not run yourself into a migraine.