PubWest BookLore: Social Media for Publishing Professionals

In mid-May, I'll be presenting with Melissa Taylor of Pinterest Savvy to talk about some ways publishers are using social media.

Hope you'll join us! If so, please RSVP to Kent at executivedirector@pubwest.org.

Thu, May 16, 2013 at 6:00 PM
Denver Press Club
1330 Glenarm Place
Denver, CO 80204

My part will focus on content marketing, which is using book content to sell books.

I’m going to talk briefly about online promo effectiveness and then spend some time on how I used WordPress, Facebook, and Twitter to promote:

• The Feed Zone Cookbook
• Slaying the Badger
• Swim Speed Workouts
• Inside the Box 

This will include some gimmickry, SEO, meta-tagging, keywording, post timing, cross-posting, and poaching celebrity Twitter handles.

I’ll then compare the effectiveness of content marketing with traditional online advertising by using online metrics and book sales data.

A preview of Scott Jurek's upcoming book Eat & Run

For Scott Jurek, few things in life have come easily. And that’s why he’s the world’s best ultramarathoner. In his new book Eat & Run, Jurek reveals depth of character as he tells how sports offered a reprieve from a tough childhood spent as family caretaker in Minnesota’s backwoods. Running became his salvation, delivering him to the highest heights of a modernizing sport. Jurek’s journey shows him melding the best parts of those around him, grafting their toughness and attitudes about life, sports, and food onto his hardened athletic core.

The book’s race reports are its best feature as freelance writer Steve Friedman’s gritty, emotional writing style carries us along smoothly over the jagged terrain and rocky emotional struggles Jurek endures. Jurek puts us inside his head as he devours mammoth workouts in the mountains around Seattle and smashes course records at races like Western States and Badwater, often running brutal paces on torn ligaments and broken bones. Witnessing Jurek’s development as a person and philosopher-athlete transform his running performances into personal milestones more meaningful than any podium finish or new world record. Any runner will absorb Jurek’s subtle lessons about mental toughness and find invaluable his four-step process for handling crises.

Some readers might find the “Eat” parts of the book less fulfilling. While Jurek is clearly convinced that his vegan diet has carried him throughout his career, runners may find his workouts and racing more relatable than his clean-fuel diet. Jurek eats simply, yet the interjection of his somewhat involved recipes at the end of important chapters felt a little jarring.

Eat & Run is a fascinating and inspirational look at Scott Jurek, deepening the narrow portrait of him in Born to Run. Though many of us undoubtedly had an easier upbringing, Jurek’s inner fire and his transformation into the world’s best ultramarathoner are motivating reminders of why we run. Eat & Run will become a classic of ultrarunning lore. For runners and trailrunners, Jurek’s story is anthem.

Eat & Run will be available next week in bookstores and from its publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Learn more about Scott and his book at his brand-new website www.scottjurek.com.

Fitness Myth Busting

The ever insightful New York Times is running a series of fitness myth-busting articles this summer, and they're worth a look.

First is this one about warming up before exercising. In short, sports science says endurance athletes don't need nearly as much warm-up time as they think. This explains why I like Bobby McGee's approach: walk 5 minutes, do some dynamic warm ups (like easy stretching but with continuous movement), build into the workout.

Second is this article about endurance sport's 10% rule. I've always thought the rule of thumb -- don't increase your training load more than 10% a week -- was really conservative. It turns out the rule might not have any basis besides tradition.

This article busts no myth: it says that your best middle-aged mile run time is a reliable indicator of your risk of heart disease late in life. "The exercise you do in your 40s is highly relevant to your heart disease risk in your 80s." Cool! Now that's a payoff I can really appreciate.

Even modest exercise keeps you sane and sharp instead of nutty and senile, according to this recap of a new study.

Those silly looking "toning" shoes? They don't do a thing.

The Unbelievable Niceness of Elites

Dear diary,

Today was a big day. I got to go for a run with two-time Olympian Alan Culpepper, and I met Scott Jurek, America's leading ultrarunner.

During the run with Alan and while talking with Scott, I was impressed by four things:

1. When Olympians run, their feet make no sound. Amazing. Try it sometime. Impossible.
2. Scott Jurek is a very tall man, surprisingly tall for a guy who regularly runs 100 miles at once.
3. People who run a lot, and I mean a lot, run with extremely consistent pacing.
4. Alan Culpepper's slowest workout pace is my 5K race pace.

Alan is now a coworker in the Boulder office of Competitor Group. Scott moved to Boulder to train for the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, a ridiculously hard ultramarathon, and he'd stopped by the office for a quick photo shoot. Over the past several years, I'd corresponded over email with both men, asking for their endorsement of several of our running and nutrition books. Fortunately, they liked all the books I sent them and both were gracious and generous with their support.

After today's run and run-in, it struck me that elite athletes tend to be really... nice! Sure, some athletes will blow you off, but most of the elites I've met in person (Alan, Scott, Chris Carmichael, Erin Mirabella, Tim Johnson, Joe Parkin, Karl Menzies, Bob Mionske, Michael Barry, Mark Plaatjes, Craig Alexander) have really been quite nice. Like nicer than the average person you might meet at a friend's dinner party. The athletes I've met have been nicer even than non-athlete sports professionals, though most I've met have been quite cordial as well.

How is that that such driven, singularly focused people are so nice? They're on top of the world, paid to do what they love, adored by fans. Athletes come and go, and they have to make the best of their 15 minutes. The pond of endurance sports is not a big one, so athletes rely on their sponsors, their popularity with fans, and on their performances. Sure, anyone can keep up a cordial act for the few minutes it takes to meet someone. Sure, I meet athletes under pretty good circumstances.

Yet not all of them have been nice. I think I know why: all the elites I've found rude have been removed from the height of their greatness, either by time or performance. Even after paying them large sums of money to appear at events, I was barely acknowledged by two cyclists who haven't ridden professionally in 30 years. A decade after the height of his career, I was ignored by one of the world's best ski racers despite holding a copy of the first American edition of his biography in my hand. Some former elite cyclists in Boulder have asked me rather brusquely for donations to their causes, despite any real connection to them.

These rude elites are not washed-up has-beens. All have found some way to spin their athletic success into comfortable careers. So why the rudeness?

Elite sports are the domain of the young. Having found success at a young age, untempered by the wisdom gained in failure, elites flame out of their sports before they are prepared to leave. As Joe Parkin has said, most cyclists don't retire. Most don't even know which race will be their last. Beaten and exhausted, they just quit. Most of us need to work for decades to find success. To have that pyramid turned upside down, to find success early and lose it so soon, to become a usual person after having been special, that must be a rude awakening.

What does it take to retire with civility intact? 

What We Feel When We Run: a Review of Haruki Murakami's Book

What was I thinking?

This morning I finished reading Haruki Murakami's book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. For a few years, it had seemed to me that the book was mentioned in the running media with the same reverence normally reserved for books like Lore of Running and Once a Runner. We're publishing our own running memoir this year, and having seen What I Talk About laying around the office, I thought I should read it. I expected it to be taut, maybe a bit mystical. I think I thought it would be for running what Tim Krabbe's The Rider is for cycling.

Just two chapters in, I was thinking about putting it down. At first, it felt like Murakami was rambling and spending too much time qualifying that this book was simply about what running was like for him. After 50 pages, I realized I was reacting to Murakami's complete lack of pretense. There is no artifice between writer and reader. Murakami writes plainly. When Murakami runs, you run. When he tires, you tire. It's not because Murakami's descriptions are lively. They aren't. He describes passing roadkill during a run from Athens to Marathon with as much pragmatism as those whose job it is to remove roadkill. The reader knows Murakami's experience as a runner because the reader is also a runner. The genius of What I Talk About is not the creation of an experience for the reader, but its evocation of experiences the reader has already had. There is no need for Murakami to describe the act of running because we fill it in for him. Instead, he describes the feelings his running brings out in him, and we feel them in our own way. This common experience of running becomes a conversation with Murakami. He says: here is how running makes me feel. Naturally, I thought about how running feels different to me. I thought about how running is the same for me a Murakami and how we are different in our running. Did Murakami plan on this being my reaction? Murakami made me realize that, though everyone runs by alternating the left and right feet, running is a different experience for each runner. The act of running evokes a unique response in each of us, and Murakami's book asks us to think about how running is for us.

Murakami's book is thought of by longtime runners as being particularly quotable, but I don't think this is particularly true. Parts of his book leave strong impressions, but the words themselves are not succinct. When searching for the book's title, Google auto-suggests adding the word "quotes" after it. Clicking on the top result brings you to a blog that quotes literature. The three What I Talk About quotes are over 3,500 words. Murakami writes in impressions. Yet he quotes someone early in the book, "In the act of shaving lies a philosophy." He explains that he feels any act repeated often comes to reflect the person repeating it. For Murakami, running and writing are deeply personal rituals, in part because he has run and written so much.

What I Talk About is really an improvised run. Murakami is an impulsive man, and he felt it time to write this book, so he did. I imagine him sitting at his sun-bathed desk in his open-air office in Hawaii and completing a sentence. He looks up and his eyes focus. Something has stirred in him and broken his stream of thoughts. There will be no more writing now. I think of him rising out of his chair, stepping tightly to his running shoes, which lie neatly next to the door, facing outward. He lifts off his shirt, stretching upward, breathing a deep breath and tingling in anticipation. He opens the door and, head down, begins his run. Murakami has no route in mind, no thoughts, just an urge to move. He must run until he is spent. As his body warms and his legs unspool, he is able to lift his eyes from their clouded writer's haze to see the ocean-side, the trees, the signposts easing past. He tells us what this feels like to him and we feel what it would feel like to us.

For Murakami, running is a moving experience, pardon the pun, and his experience has moved me. What I Talk About has made me think differently about running. I feel sad for those who run blankly or not enough to feel some hint of the depth Murakami draws from running. In the end What I Talk About is more than a description of what we feel when we run, more than a conversation among runners. Murakami describes how this act of running, repeated often, has come to reflect the person he is. He describes how running has challenged him to become better. In making me more aware of this process, Murakami and I will run together for a long time.

It's On! The GoLite Warehouse (and Sample) Sale for 2 More Days

 

WARNING! This sale is in a different location. There's more parking and it's easier than the Gunbarrel location. 

Another difference from the usual GoLite warehouse sale, at least from what I've noticed at past sales, is that GoLite is selling both new product and samples. Samples are just that, sample products that sales reps take from store to store so product buyers can see the goods. Sample sales are usually deeply discounted (in this case GoLite was selling them for around 80% off) and are generally sold as is.

And here, my discount-hunting friends, is the fall 2010 GoLite Warehouse Sale price list.

Sitting Kills: For Your Heart, There Is No Faking Fitness

In March, my life tally included a wife, a three-year old, and a condo. In two months, we sold our condo, moved into a rental place, had another kid, bought a house and moved in. During this time, I spent nearly 8 hours a day sitting at work, another few hours sitting at home (or packing boxes and lifting furniture), and the rest lying my back (sleeping). My exercise, other than walks to the park and wrangling kids, was running 3 miles or so every other day. I've been thin since birth, and my weight hasn't changed since 7th grade, so I consider myself reasonably healthy, even if I don't have the time I'd like to get more regular exercise.

So the article "The Men Who Stare at Screens" on NYTimes.com was disheartening and a little scary. To your heart, it doesn't really matter how much exercise you get if you spend most of your time on your butt.

"Men who spent more than 23 hours a week watching TV and sitting in their cars (as passengers or as drivers) had a 64 percent greater chance of dying from heart disease than those who sat for 11 hours a week or less. What was unexpected was that many of the men who sat long hours and developed heart problems also exercised...Their workouts did not counteract the ill effects of sitting...Your muscles, unused for hours at a time, change in subtle fashion, and as a result, your risk for heart disease, diabetes and other diseases can rise."

If this seems alarming, you should read the rest of the article. Basically, the modern workplace forces the white-collared to sit all day. Modern home life allows us the free time to be entertained via screen. We've replaced the daily light-intensity activities of our grandparents with screen time. We've become "active couch potatoes."

The study in the article relies on a measure called metabolic equivalent of task (MET). One MET is the amount of energy you burn lying down for one minute; it ain't much. Two METs would be twice as much energy as you would spend lying on the couch. I've wondered before if METs might be useful as a way to compare apples to apples efforts in different endurance sports.

As is often the case with New York Times fitness coverage, the story merely criticizes, offering no remedy. It would be useful, for example, to suggest MET guidelines on an hourly basis, even if they are a "GuesstiMET" on behalf of one of the researchers. Surely there was some threshold of light exercise apparent in the survey results; people are not merely active or inactive and there must have been some correlation to their health.

Anyway, you can download a list of daily activities and their MET score to help you make your own GuesstiMET of how often to take the stairs.

The Compendium of Physical Activities Tracking Guide (pdf)

UPDATE 1/15/11: The New York Times reports that screen time kills. The Well blog describes mounting evidence that, regardless of your exercise time, too much sedentary "activity" is very bad for your health. This is scary stuff for the white-collar class of professional sitters.

The Glorious Bluster of Boulder, Colorado (and How to Use It to Your Advantage)

Boulder is one of America's fittest, most active, most outdoorsy cities, and we Boulderites love to brag about it. My wife and I moved here for its access to great hiking; it was a return to nature for us. We were totally out of shape, unless you include our expertise in judging local cuisine, which seemed to be our primary extracurricular connection to Washington, DC. We huffed and puffed our way on the trails that wend their way through Chautauqua, pausing frequently to express amazement at the altitude. First, Boulder humbles you. Then it transforms you.

Our dear Flatirons

We hiked nearly every day for months. One summer, we took friends backpacking on five weekends in Rocky Mountain National Park. We bought season passes to Abasin (because its season pass was cheapest - big mistake!).

So I surprised myself a year later when I started a new job in endurance sports and fitness industry instead of in the outdoors industry. I interviewed with Chris Dinneen at VeloGear in late March. I wore pleated khakis and a button-down longsleeve with collar, and I was worried that I was underdressed. Chris wore shorts, sneakers, and a t-shirt. During my post-interview office tour, Nick Ramey told me I would need to dress down. There were dogs running amok through the office. I loved it! What could be more Boulder? I learned later that I got the job and learned much later that the company, Inside Communications, was one of the cooler places to land a job in Boulder because it owned VeloNews, Inside Triathlon, and Ski Racing magazines.

Over dozens of race expos, bike swaps, and tradeshows for VeloGear and VeloPress, I learned a few invaluable lessons.

1. Enthusiasts are everywhere, and they are often in the closet. I'm surprised to find triathletes in the most unlikely places. And once you recognize one, the defining characteristics and contrast with the surrounding non-triathletes become more stark. It's like a vertigo shot or the scenes from Highlander when the immortals sense each other's presence.
2. Enthusiasts are always sizing themselves up. When you come from a well-known brand, people will associate you with that brand. When I introduce myself as an extension of VeloNews, Inside Triathlon, or Triathlete, people naturally assume I am a cyclist or triathlete. When I introduce myself as a part of VeloPress, people assume I'm an endurance sports training nerd or cycling history buff with intimate knowledge of the yearly performance variations of Campagnolo derailleurs.
3. Endurance athletes are insecure! There is a persistent training myth in endurance sports that more is better. Endurance athletes are so driven that they constantly worry that they haven't done enough training. In fact, they are in a constant state of guilt that they are not working out right now. I blogged about a study that described the difference between outdoors and fitness enthusiasts like this: outdoorsy people will ask "What could I do today?" while fitness people will ask "What should I do today?" A brilliant and insightful distinction. 
4. Once you show an authentic association to a known enthusiast brand, enthusiasts will always overestimate your athletic abilities. People don't just assume I'm a cyclist or a triathlete, they assume I'm a total badass, a former racer. They assume I'm Neal Rogers or Lars Finanger or Fred Dreier or Lennard Zinn, with the ability to win any lunch ride, climb any hill, race Kona, or spend a full day on my bike in the mountains. This is not so. Outside of Boulder, I'm likely a half-respectable endurance athlete. When in Boulder, I'm much lower on the totem pole.

Photo: RunColo.com

My Reputation Precedes Me

So in this landscape of insecurity, how does one exploit brand? Here's what works for me.

• Lead with the brand. It's obnoxious and unseemly to namedrop in casual conversation. (Heck, this was one of the things I hated about DC!) But if things turn to business or the business of sports, I'll drop brands like they're hot. The sooner people know your affiliation, the sooner they will start overestimating you. Until, that is, they start asking you to write a story in VeloNews about whatever it is they're selling.
• Speak softly and they'll think you carry the bigger stick. Understatement is better bluster than outrageous claims. People you've just met listen more carefully when you're harder to hear.
• Let them down slowly. Or, have a good backup plan. More optimistically, impress others with brand and then impress them with whatever it is you really are good at. The crazy assumption of the enthusiast marketplace is that enthusiasm equals quality. Being able to ride for 8 hours in the mountains, place in the top 10% at Boston, or fix a 1945 Campy derailleur doesn't mean you're good at your role in those sports. Sure, it might help.
• A brand is a promise. Always remember that the brand you represent is just a foot in the door for the brand that matters most. The brand is you, and you don't need bluster.

Advantage: Running

May 2, 2010

The first point runners use to sell their sport is the lack of necessary gear. All you need is a pair of shoes, they'll say. At no time is running's advantage more apparent than on race morning. I'm writing this blog post on my first race morning of 2010 at a quite reasonable time of day, 6:45 a.m., and I'm afforded this luxurious combination of free time and restedness by running's simplicity.

Other than two years of walk-on swimming in college (where you need a pool, goggles, a towel, and apparel that will fit in the palm of your hand), the dominant sporting activity of my adult life has been triathlon. If I were racing a tri this morning, I'd have spent a solid hour last night coordinating equipment: shoes, socks, tri shorts, tri jersey, gloves, sunglasses, helmet, bike, spare tires, spare tubes, air pump, chain lube, water bottles, various energy gels and powders, sunblock, goggles, wetsuit, wetsuit lube, race belt, running shoes, speedlaces, gym bag, towel, and probably those few items that triathletes are always worried to forget but usually remember if they provide enough opportunities to coordinate race-day equipment.

The race would likely have begun at 9 a.m., and it would have been at a reservoir, which would likely require a half-hour drive to get to. The transition area would have opened at 8 a.m., and I would want to have arrived bright and early to get a choice location and avoid bumping elbows with stallmates. Add in gear-wrangling into and out of the car, and that's a 7:15 a.m. departure and a 6:15 a.m. wake-up, at the latest. Once at the race venue, there's tire-pumping, lugging bike, gym bag, and wetsuit to transition, race number, body marking, and timing chip, sunblock, last-minute hydration, the inevitable porta-potty line, and a three-sport warm-up.

And then there's the attempt at flawless execution of the race-day plan where all that gear serves to speed you up instead of slow you down so that you finish a few minutes faster (though it still takes at least an hour to finish a tri). To be a triathlete requires neurotic organization; there's just too much to remember for it to be a sport for the forgetful or unmotivated. And that's just race day and the day before. Let's not forget a few months of daily periodized training in three sports.

Last fall, I was given the opportunity to take my running more seriously. Since then, life circumstances have forced my (unreluctant!) temporary retirement from triathlon. I've been running instead, and I can appreciate single-sport training over triathlon.

Sure, triathlon forces you to work out every day. Sure, you enjoy fitness in three sports instead of one. Sure, the endless gear wrangling and triplicate gym bags help keep you on your toes.

Cycling's got the pure fun of riding a bike. But, man, you can't race a bike with any panache without spending huge amounts of time riding. Swimming, especially outdoors in mid-summer, is pleasant and scenic, but again, to be competitive takes at least an hour of swimming a day and, frankly, who can stomache getting into a cold pool that often?

Running has its downsides, too (future blog post!), but gear-wrangling is not one of them. Preparing the gear for today's 5K took me about 1 minute per mile. Shirt, shorts, shoes, socks, race belt, charge the Garmin, hat, sunglasses, warmup pants, jacket, and a few colder weather versions of these items. And I actually got a decent night's sleep knowing that the gear was under control and that today's race should take me about 23 minutes (hopefully slightly fewer!).

I'm now back from the run, having dropped 52 seconds from my best 5K time. In my first-ever podium finish, I placed third in my age group (20-39) with a time of 22:18 (Here's the Garmin data.).

It was after the race that I realized yet another advantage of running over cycling or triathlon: when you finish the race, you simply walk away. In triathlon, you've got to pack everything up, including a sopping wetsuit, wrangle stuff and bike to your car, jam it all in there, get it home, and do a little preventative maintenance before you stow it away.

But at this race, I didn't just walk away. I took a few minutes to enjoy watching the finishers, many of whom were grade school kids. On my way back to the car, I enjoyed a rare treat: a free post-race coffee.

Running has its advantages!

GoLite Warehouse Sale in Boulder This Weekend!

GoLite's awesome semi-annual warehouse sale is this weekend!

Friday, April 23
8am-8pm

Saturday, April 24

9am-5pm

Sunday, April 25

9am-5pm

6230 Lookout Road

Boulder, CO 80301

I've been going to this unbelievable warehouse sale for several years now, since it was in the GoLite office truck port and parking lot. It's always been worth the drive to Gunbarrel during lunchbreak, and it's usually worth the wait in line at the door.

In fact, the wait line at the door has been almost empty the last few times I've gone. That's not because the event is less popular, but because the GoLite team got smart and realized that you want people waiting once they've committed to the purchase, not before they've had the chance to sample the wares.

This is a well run sale with good merch and good prices. GoLite rents out several thousand square feet of empty office space and fills it with tables, racks, and bins of perfectly good merchandise that is still in season. I haven't bought a large quantity of stuff there -- maybe 3-5 items -- but they've always been retail ready and never cosmetically flawed or wonkily cut.

GoLite has been consistent about offering this sale and they've promoted it well, which means the community knows what to expect -- it's becoming local tradition to lighten our wallets for lightweight gear. It's easy to find and easyish to park. The sale itself, though it can be ungodly hot during the summer when the office space has no AC, is not so crowded as to be elbowingly unpleasant, but just crowded enough to inspire you to lust for gear, shop with a glint in your eye, paw through the bins, and lose your inhibition and DIY a dressing room.

BUT! Man, the checkout line can be brutal. The price of no line in the door is a long line at the register. This is my kind of shopping, though -- I want to be convinced I really need the gear and really like the price before I'll commit to a half hour checkout line. I'm not sure what GoLite can do but add to its existing battery of 12 cash registers. They've got all the discount pricing in a nice POS database and all the employees (poor bastards) seem to know what they're doing. It's just that most of the people who go to the sale seem to buy many items, which takes time to ring up.

If you can find a designated sucker shopper, give them a print out of the gear you want from the GoLite website with your size preference and two color options then make sure you're accessible by phone. You might need to bribe them first or apologize later, so think about how you'll thank Geeves when s/he gets back to the office. And whatever you do, act thrilled with what they got for you, even if it's the wrong color or doesn't fit. It can be agonizing to make a purchasing decision for yourself in the midst of a warehouse sale much less make a judgment call for someone else. So don't be an ingrate. Accept effusively, pay promptly, and sneak back to the sale later to get what you wanted.

(But don't try to exchange without a receipt! Those poor warehouse sale staffers are harried enough from the frenzied crowds, being on their feet all day, trying to help edgy shoppers find just the right size and color shirt at bargain prices, and keeping one eye peeled for shoplifters. Just suck up the loss and shop for yourself next time!)

In the past, GoLite has had a price list available. I'll see if I can score one and post it here. Check back on Friday afternoon.

Obviously, the prices are pretty incredible -- that 30-90% off price range is legit, though most gear seems to be in the 50-60% off range. My favorite piece of "warehouse wear" is this Wisp Wind Shirt, which I bought at the sale for $20 ($30 off) and have since found to be key gear for running in the Colorado springtime. 

Update: Here are the price lists! (Click to enlarge.)

 

Title Nine Warehouse Sale in Boulder, March 25-28

The Title Nine Blowout Sale is coming to Boulder!

March 25-28, 2010
29th Street Mall
1300 29th Street (on the corner of Arapahoe and 28th Street), Boulder, CO 80301

Prices up to 60% off on womens’ shorts, pants, running and hiking gear, swim, bras, tees, shoes and more! Arrive early for the best selection. Parking available. We accept Visa, Master Card, cash and checks. Gift cards not accepted at sale.

For more info call: 303-996-0074
Thursday/Friday 10am – 7pm
Saturday 10am – 5pm
Sunday 11am – 5pm

It's a Good Thing Flu Season Is Off Season: Exercise and Immunity

The New York Times Well blog, in its ever-snarked, contrarian way, asked recently "Does Exercise Boost Immunity?". The answer: moderate exercise boosts the immune system and intense exercise hampers it.

This answer requires some explanation. What do moderate and intense mean and just how much boosting and hampering are we talking about?

According to this article, moderate exercise is compared to a leisurely jog or walk. For endurance athletes, a leisurely jog is a warm-up. Intense exercise is described as "a workout or race of an hour or more during which your heart rate and respiration soar and you feel as if you are working hard". For endurance athletes, this is 2 out of every 3 workouts.

The endurance athlete's "neck check" needs some refinement. The traditional guideline for endurance athletes is to go ahead with a workout if your illness is a head cold -- above the neck. If you're sick below the neck -- with a cough or something intestinal (or a fever) -- ditch the workout to avoid getting worse. 

One expert interviewed said that "Moderate exercise...may prop up your immune response and lessen the duration and severity of a mild infection....It is okay to exercise if you have a simple head cold or congestion — in fact, it may improve the way you feel. I would avoid heavy, prolonged exercise with a head cold, though.". 

So endurance athletes fighting a cold (or fighting to stay healthy in a germ-ridden workplace) should adjust their workout intensity. Skip the intervals and stick with easy, aerobic workouts like a zone 1-2 ride or base run for intervals.

Heck, isn't that what the off season is for?

BolderBOULDER Warehouse Sale! Aug 28

The BolderBoulder is hosting its warehouse sale on Friday, August 28th!

BolderBoulder Warehouse Sale
Friday, August 28th
8am-6pm
5500 Central Ave.
Boulder, CO 80301

The official announcement is here.

The sale, which will somehow feature identical pricing on the online store and in person (how will they track inventory?), includes $5 technical t-shirts by adidas. Check out the tech tees here.

"Funemployed" and Staycationers Boosting Endurance Sports

Back in February, I declared that triathlon is not recession-proof and made some predictions about what would happen to the sport during this recession. Since this recession is likely to continue into spring 2010, time will tell how right I am. Right now, though, I'm happy to report my wrongness.

This is a great time for some in the endurance sports industry, especially athletes and producers of lower price-point products.

Aside from the Slowtwitch.com poll I mentioned in my February post, the June issue of Runner's World magazine ran the first story I've seen addressing endurance sports and the economy. "Fiscally Fit" by Yishane Lee is a survey article of how the recession is affecting run.

Some of her findings:

• Runners are running more now than pre-recession
• Race attendance is up and registrations are filling up faster than usual
• Race entry fees haven't changed
• Corporate sponsorships--both for races and elite pro runners--are way down

Read the Runner's World online survey that inspired this article at runnersworld.com/economy.

Reed Albergotti at The Wall Street Journal has found that "funemployed" and furloughed athletes are spending more time training and racing. In his June 9 article, Fast Times for Jobless Runners: As Unemployed Amp Up Their Training, Marathon Results and Participation Rise, Reed shows not only that there are more runners, but also that they are actually faster!

Some highlights:

• Participation in 2009 is up over 5%.
• Marathons, triathlons, and road runs are filling registrations in record time. "With the economy in the doldrums, more people are discovering thatwithout those 12-hour workdays, they're able to pursue fitness goalslike never before."
• In 2009, 4.6% of marathoners could qualify for the Boston Marathon. That's a 39% increase over 2008.
• Average gym membership has actually risen 18% this year.

And on July 6, Iowa's WCFCourier.com published a story "Road races not feeling sting of economy". This article provides several examples of running races selling out registrations--because of the down economy.

The main points:

• "Nationwide, several races appear to actually be prospering in the current economy." Even my hometown's Bolder Boulder 10K, which hit record participation numbers last year, "had its second highest number of entries and a record number of finishers."
• Endurance event race registrations, ranging from $70-$150, are cheap in comparison to travel and vacationing. By racing, endurance athletes are saving money. That's one way to "staycation".

Americans exercising? During a recession? We must reward these energetic people with The Pro Deal for All Americans!

UPDATE July 22: "Running for Lean Times" from the Wall Street Journal and "Spent, before race: Sales of marathon goods still strong" from the Boston Globe discuss the emotional benefits of running when times are tough and the shopping mentality of the "bucket list" marathon runner.

Fitness People vs. Outdoor People

Back in December, I wrote about a creative agency's white paper, "Actively Different: Fitness vs. Outdoor Messaging". In that short post, I mentioned that the agency's interesting observation was this:

The outdoor-oriented person asks, "What could I do today?" The fitness-oriented person asks, "What should I do today?"

Ever since, I've been thinking about this observation and wondering how one might expand on it. As a backpacking triathlete, a skiing cyclist, a swimmer turned camper, I've often found that my endurance sports training plans interfere with my more directionless wandering about in the woods. Training plans have a framework; each short-term goal is part of a bigger picture. Woodland wandering more often seems like simple fun.

What makes the outdoorsy different from and similar to the athletic?

Outdoorsy :: Athletic
* What could I do today? :: What should I do today?
* Being outside as long as possible :: Being outside for as long as the workout requires
* Eat what tastes good :: Eat carefully
* Build capability for longer hikes, higher climbs :: Build muscle for speed, endurance

Common ground
* Goal orientation: reach the summit
* Enjoy the journey and enjoy the workouts
* Except for the old-fashioned outdoorsmen whose yester-gear is "good 'nuff", gear lust seems to be a common trait. (This explains my garage.)

To Earn a PR, Pace Yourself

Joe Friel, one of the most respected coaches in endurance sports, just blogged about why the negative split is so crucial for endurance athletes. Joe says that he recently read about pacing and running world records.

"[The research] indicates that nearly all of the record-breaking times in the last 40 years or so have been run with negative splits."

A negative split is when you do the second half of something faster than the first half. For example, I can confirm that I eat the second half of an ice cream cone much faster than the first, mostly to prevent it from dripping all over my hand, which I hate. If I were to begin eating an ice cream cone really quickly at first, my tongue would go numb, I wouldn't savor the flavor, and I'd likely get a painful ice cream headache.

It's the same in endurance sports. If I burst off the start line, I'll likely get very tired quickly and then I'd have depleted much of my body's limited carbohydrate fuel stores (because I usually race without access to ice cream), and I'd be unable to recover. I'd either shock my muscles and they'd turn to lead or I'd race for awhile and then bonk.

Instead, the goal is to set a controlled pace, let the body, the muscles, and the fuel systems to adjust to that pace, and then gradually build into a higher speed. It's this gradual build to a higher, sustainable speed that makes the second half take less time than the first. This negative split is key to racing well. And when you do it right, it feels fantastic! Instead of feeling fastest at the beginning of the race and fading, which is frustrating, I race faster and faster all the way to the finish.

Joe concludes that "The bottom line here is, once again, that if you want to run a fast race it appears to be beneficial if you start conservatively and pace yourself so that the second half is run slightly faster than the first half.".

For cyclists who have on-handlebar computers, estimating pace is easy. How does one estimate pace while running?

• Run on a track.
• Run on a path that has mile markers.
• Trace a route on mapmyrun.com and get familiar with landmarks that approximate distances.
• Use a "foot pod". Foot pods relay stride length to a recording device, usually a wristwatch, but they must be calibrated and can't adjust for changes in stride length without recalibration. Many runners' stride lengths will change throughout a season and throughout a run, so food pods don't strike me as reliable.
• If you have an iPod, get the Nike+ device (Nike site, Apple site). This $29 device, profiled in the July issue of WIRED magazine, straps to your shoe and your iPod and estimates and records your running speed and distance. Next time you sync your iPod, you can upload your running data to the Nike+ website for logging and analysis. The Nike+ uses an accelerometer to measure how long your foot is in contact with the ground, which exercise physiologists have found to be a 95% accurate measure of running speed.
• Use a GPS device, like certain smartphones or a Garmin Forerunner wristwatch. Polar and Timex have GPS products, too, but they look enormous compared to Garmin products. GPS products track your speed over various time periods, which can give you your current pace, average pace, and much more.
  

Some day, running without a GPS watch will be like driving without a speedometer. Sure, there are purist runners out there who won't run with even a wristwatch, but there are purists in any sport until they've all become convinced by their faster peers. I just got a Garmin Forerunner 405, and I'll review it later.

Until then, pace yourself. It's the time-proven way to set a personal record.

How to Buy and Apply Sunblock

The New York Times comments on this summer's impending SPF "arms" race:

"No SPF, not even 100+, offers 100 percent protection. What’s more, both UVA and UVB radiation can lead to skin cancer, which is why dermatologists now advise using sunscreens with an SPF of at least 15 and UVA-fighting ingredients like an avobenzone that doesn’t degrade in light or Mexoryl SX.

The difference in UVB protection between an SPF 100 and SPF 50 is marginal. Far from offering double the blockage, SPF 100 blocks 99 percent of UVB rays, while SPF 50 blocks 98 percent. (SPF 30, that old-timer, holds its own, deflecting 96.7 percent).

A sunscreen’s SPF number is calculated by comparing the time needed for a person to burn unprotected with how long it takes for that person to burn wearing sunscreen. So a person who turns red after 20 minutes of unprotected sun exposure is theoretically protected 15 times longer if they adequately apply SPF 15. Because a lot of sunscreens rub off or don’t stay put, dermatologists advise reapplication every two hours or after swimming or sweating."

"It has long been assumed that applying half the recommended ounce meant half the SPF protection. But a small 2007 study...found that 'If you apply half the amount, you get the protection of only the square root of the SPF.'...So applying a half-ounce of SPF 70 will not give you the protection of SPF 35, but 8.4."

Read the full article here.

Triathlon Aid Stations Should Supplement, Not Supply

A friend of mine finished yesterday's Ochsner Ironman 70.3 in New Orleans (race coverage). She said the afternoon temperature rose into the 80s.

An Ironman 70.3, or half-Ironman, takes its name from the total distance raced: 1.2 mile swim + 56-mile bike + 13.1 mile run = 70.3 miles.

Is it possible that anyone would be crazy enough not to bring any water?

"There were a number of athletes who came into transition (between the swim and the bike) with no water bottles on their bikes, " race director Bill Burke said. "How athletes come into 70-mile races without any of their own fluids is absolutely amazing."

A Times-Picayune blog post, "Thirsty-somethings: High temperatures leave some unprepared competitors desperate for a drink", discusses the race's dire water situation.

"Those stations are supposed to be supplemental fluids. We went through about 6,500-7,000 bottles of water on the bike alone, " Burke said. "We went through about 7,500 cups of water on the run and 5,000 pounds of ice at the finish and 2,000 pounds of ice in transition. I've never seen it this bad, where hundreds of athletes brought nothing to the race."

Sound familiar? 2007 Chicago Marathon?
Aid stations in any sport are intended to aid, not fully supply, the athlete. If you underestimate your caloric or hydration needs, the aid stations are there to bail you out so you can finish, if not race. No matter what distance you're racing, hydration and nutrition are your responsibility. In fact, so are your core temperature, your ability to recover from a tire puncture or broken chain, etc. Unless your race registration says otherwise, you shouldn't expect that race day will be like a day sightseeing at Disney World or a day of skiing at Beaver Creek (where, I hear, attendants give you warm cookies and tissues).

There are many ways to carry your own water during a triathlon.

On the swim: uh, don't drink the water. Especially Lake Pontchartrain. Grody.

On the bike:

• Use your water bottle carriers. Most people accustomed to rides over an hour will have to water bottle cages mounted inside their frame.
• Add a seat-mounted bottle carrier, like this one at TriSports.com:

• Put a water bottle between your aero bars, like this one from Profile Design:

• Fill a CamelBak with cold water to help keep you cool or wear a CamelBak RaceBak:

On the run:

• Wear a Fuel Belt:

• Carry a bottle in hand, like this Hammer Flask:

Few sane people would embark on a half-Ironman without first having gained valuable experience and fitness at the sprint and Olympic distances. Since this was New Orleans's first Ironman-branded triathlon, I'm guessing that the "hundreds of athletes" who raced without water were less experienced triathletes. Were they trying to save a little weight on the bike leg?

Dope Legally: Caffeine Is an Athlete's Best Friend

My favorite, over-cited news source, The New York Times, seems a little "behind the times" on this story, It’s Time to Make a Coffee Run.

"Starting as long ago as 1978, researchers have been publishing caffeine studies. And in study after study, they concluded that caffeine actually does improve performance. In fact, some experts, like Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky of McMaster University in Canada, are just incredulous that anyone could even ask if caffeine has a performance effect.“There is so much data on this that it’s unbelievable,” he said. “It’s just unequivocal that caffeine improves performance. It’s been shown in well-respected labs in multiple places around the world."

The truth about caffeine:

1. It's a performance enhancer. Caffeine allows us to burn fat instead of carbs, resulting on longer-lasting energy. It masks fatigue.
2. If you're a regular "user", it doesn't dehydrate you.
3. You only need a half cup of coffee (or two Cokes) to caffeinate your performance
4. It's 100% legal in every sport.

Eat More Cookies to Train Harder

It seems that willpower comes in limited supply. The New York Times reports that a person's willpower gets tired after use, i.e. restraining yourself from one activity may make another tedious activity more difficult. But it also works the other way: you can store up willpower.

There are practical applications. Maybe part of the reason that tapering workouts makes us faster on race day is all that extra willpower we've saved up from not having to force ourselves to work out during the taper.

Check out the NYT article and report back on your favorite willpower-related rationalization!