Recent quotes:

Nike’s claim on Pre in Runner’s World | We Run and Ride

I’m going to say it: this month’s Runner’s World article on the relationship between Nike and Pre felt too much like an advertisement to be ultimately inspiring.

Why We Get Running Injuries (and How to Prevent Them) - The New York Times

The never-injured runners, as a group, landed far more lightly than those who had been seriously hurt, the scientists found, even when the researchers controlled for running mileage, body weight and other variables.

July 9, 1968 - Jogging: The Newest Road to Fitness | Chicago Tribune Archive

Probably the only disadvantage to jogging is the feeling of looking ridiculous. Rieben gets over this by running at an early hour when few people are on the streets.

Run better with friends

This positive peer pressure even works on a subconscious level—thanks to a concept called "social facilitation," says Cindra Kamphoff, Ph.D., a sports psychology consultant at Your Runner's Edge. It was first discovered with cyclists—they had faster times when racing against someone else versus doing a time trial on their own. The same holds true with runners. "When you run with others, you tend to give more effort," she says. "You get caught up in the pace, and you might not recognize how fast you're going."

Running with a group ups your game

Training partners provide accountability and motivation at every level, says Jamie Kempton, a former high school and college coach who led the Rockland Road Runners, in New York, until January. […]you are more apt to show up and finish a workout when someone else is counting on you. […]And the pack mentality extends beyond accountability when your training partners are a tad faster than you. As Betsy Keever, 39, an Impala, puts it, "Being around a group of speedy ladies has significantly raised my own expectations of myself."

The calendar motivates us

A lot of people want to lose weight. But when, exactly, do they think about dieting? Using Google searches, Dai and his colleagues found that people look up the word “diet” a lot more at the beginning of the week, month and year. […]One study of almost 12,000 students at a large university found that the start of each week, month and year brings a large increase in gym attendance. And in the month following the average undergraduate's birthday, he or she is much more likely to go to the gym -- an effect as great as that produced by keeping the gym open for two more hours.

Fatigue hacking

The cyclists who were shown sad faces rode, on average, twenty-two minutes and twenty-two seconds. Those who were shown happy faces rode for three minutes longer and reported less of a sense of exertion. In a second experiment, the researchers demonstrated that subliminal action words (GO, LIVELY) could boost a subject’s cycling performance by seventeen per cent over inaction words (TOIL, SLEEP).

Robert Frost on running (or marriage)

And you were given this swiftness, not for haste, Nor chiefly that you may go where you will, But in the rush of everything to waste, That you may have the power of standing still — Off any still or moving thing you say.

Running your brain

If you start exercising, your brain recognizes this as a moment of stress. As your heart pressure increases, the brain thinks you are either fighting the enemy or fleeing from it. To protect yourself and your brain from stress, you release a protein called BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor). This BDNF has a protective and also reparative element to your memory neurons and acts as a reset switch. That’s why we often feel so at ease and things are clear after exercising and eventually happy.

Carb loading

The most successful corporate chieftains are marathon runners – Quartz

They found that companies with CEOs who were marathon runners were 5% more valuable than companies led by CEOs who steered clear of the racing circuit.
I called out to my husband: “See you later. I’m running with the big dogs. I’ve got a gang now, you know.” I could hear the song from the recent Lego movie in my head: “Everything is awesome. Everything is cool when we’re part of a team.” When I arrived at the coffee shop where we usually meet, Tina was already there with another runner. I’d messaged her the night before, asking whether the new runner was a Speedy Gonzales. “I don’t understand,” she’d texted back. I initially thought she didn’t understand my reference. I’m more than a decade older than she is, and when I saw her at the coffee shop tried to explain who Speedy Gonzales was. “I know who he is,” she said. “I’m just tired of people complaining about how slow they are.” The other woman chimed in that she was slow, though I wasn’t sure I believed her. She’d just come from swimming laps at the local pool. I’d just come from my bed.
Just in the past few months, studies have shown that caffeine helps female volleyball players hit the ball harder and jump higher, rowers go farther, and cyclists go faster in a 20K time trial. A large body of research shows caffeine helps in "pretty much every kind of endurance exercise," giving a performance advantage of 1.5 percent to 5 percent, says Mark Glaister, an exercise physiologist at St. Mary's University in Twickenham, U.K., and an author of the recent cycling study.
Researchers followed participants over a period of 15 years, during which more than 3,000 died. A total of 1,217 deaths were related to cardiovascular, or heart and artery, disease.Runners, who made up just under a quarter of the study population, had a 30% lower risk of death from all causes and a 45% lower risk of death from heart disease or stroke than non-runners. They also lived an average three years longer.Running for less than 51 minutes a week – or about seven minutes a day - fewer than six miles, or slower than six miles an hour all reduced the chances of dying.People who ran for less than an hour a week benefited as much as those running more than three hours a week.
“Almost everybody breathes nasally at rest,” he continues. “As you start to do light exercise, you’ll continue to breathe through the nose entirely until you’re at about two to three times your resting breathing rate.” At that point, you’ll start breathing through your mouth. And once you exceed four to six times your resting breathing rate—taking in 20 to 35 liters of air per minute—“everyone in the world is a mouth breather,” Shaffrath says. “You can’t push 21 liters of air through your nose comfortably.”
They say “every runner has a reason.” I’ve discovered most of the women I run with have several. We want to know yours.  We’re building something here at Runner’s World we're hoping can capture and harness the collective power, energy, and drive women runners have.
BodyMedia FIT: 9.3 percent Fitbit Zip: 10.1 percent Fitbit One: 10.4 percent Jawbone Up: 12.2 percent ActiGraph: 12.6 percent Directlife: 12.8 percent Nike FuelBand: 13 percent Basis Band: 23.5 percent
Don’t think about things you can’t easily change, like your breathing and form. According to what's known as the "constrained action hypothesis," focusing on the automated running movement or the even more highly automated process of breathing is counterproductive. But it’s okay to ponder your general feelings, or to think about the things that usually flutter in and out of your mind.
Now for the bad news: the GPS latch on is very slow on the 15. Whereas I’ve had some issues with my Nike+ watch picking up GPS satellites within a few long minutes after I started running, the 15 picks up satellites about five to seven minutes into my runs, which reduces the distance travelled in my records. Arguably I am in the middle of urban Brooklyn where the sun rarely shines and a clear view of the sky is often marred by chimneys, water towers, and gibbets from which depend AWOL sailors who strayed too far into pirate waters (not really), so GPS signal lock-in is difficult at best and impossible at worst. That said, you should take special care if you intend to use this unit in a big city.
Then there’s 91-year-old Harriette Thompson of Charlotte, who woke up Sunday morning in southern California, threw on some running clothes, and set a record in the San Diego Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon. Despite still-healing burns on her legs due to recent radiation treatments for squamous cell carcinoma, despite temperatures that soared to near 80 degrees along the Pacific, Thompson finished in 7 hours, 7 minutes, 42 seconds. Her average pace (16 minutes, 20 seconds per mile) was faster than a typical healthy adult’s normal walking speed. And she kept it up for 26.2 miles.
The students found that if everybody ran, there would be 63 million happier dogs, 20 million more great grandmothers, 5 million fewer hospital visits and $130 billion in health care savings. According to the research, there are around 30 million American runners out of a population of 314 million, but if everybody was a runner, we could spend 7 billion more hours outside, increase household earning potential by 10 percent, add nearly $47 billion to the national GDP while losing 2 billion pounds of weight together.
“It’s all about how far they run, not the time they will run it,” said Zoltan Polgar, the race director for the Wings of Life World Run in Florida. “It's not like a traditional run. Here, their race starts right away, not when they cross the starting line, and there will be 34 chase cars across the globe, in the respective cities and countries. It is a global game of chase."
But more and more runners are learning how to clear out the commotion while on roads and trails, thanks in part to Sakyong Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche, spiritual leader of a global network of Shambhala Centers (meditation meeting places). The Sakyong is a dedicated runner (a nine-time marathoner with a 3:05 PR), author of Running with the Mind of Meditation, and founder of a workshop of the same name that is taught in 11 different locations worldwide. "Meditation reduces chaos and stress," the Sakyong says. "When we apply that to running, running becomes a tool that brings relaxation and vitality to the body. By allowing our mind and body to harmonize, we feel more alive and strong."
young people who performed better on physical fitness tests also did better on critical thinking problems when they reached middle age, in comparison to their less fit peers. The boost in performance amounted to a 14% increase in memory skills and a 4-second jump on the time needed to complete the Stroop Effect Test.