The road to the Disney Half Marathon- Two weeks and counting

I'm starting to get really excited for the Disney Half Marathon! As of today, the race is exactly two weeks away, and we leave in less than that. I'm in the home stretch, I can see the light at the end of the training tunnel, (add in any other sports cliche you'd like). And it's feeling great... well so to speak. Now that my knee has settled down a bit, my foot is bothering me, but those are just problems that I know how to avoid for my next running race. For now I'm beyond excited for this race.
       The 'official' RunDisney facebook page has been updating like crazy with videos and excited people and the event itself has sent a lot of last minute confirmation emails, so with nothing else to look forward to this winter break, my sights are set squarely on the Disney Half Marathon.
       For all of you that can't make it, I'll be documenting the whole thing. I'll be taking an insane amount of pictures and who knows maybe I'll take a few videos and make them into a youtube video (if I can figure out how).

     p.s. I must be crazy, but here's a new update on my racing endeavors. A friend of mine just convinced me to sign up for the Go! St. Louis Half Marathon in early April. Despite the fact that I'm an abysmal runner and every year people drop like flies from the heat, I'll do it anyways just for the heck of it. A few friends are also doing it which is pretty much the only reason why I even considered it. But here's the real kicker, the day before is the Run For Your Lives 5k where I'm going to be a 'chaser zombie' for a few hours in the morning. Sooo....we'll see how this works out, with my main concern being potentially getting injured during the 5k. So I'll have an exciting weekend to relay to you all after the first week in April.

In light of my Disney trip---- remember that Disney is an amazingly magical place (I don't care how old you are, nobody can deny this fact) and if you're doing one or more of the races that weekend, have an amazing time!

road to the disney half marathon- less than a month

There's less than a month now until the Disney World Half Marathon and I'm more excited than ever. I've gotta admit though that I slacked on my run training towards the beginning, but I've now almost caught up. This weekend was suppose to be the 9 mile run, but I've been experiencing a lot of pain in my lateral right knee and had to rest it for fear of it getting worse. But, I finally got a knee-brace thing and it pretty much took care of the problem. My ideas are that it's a patellar tendon and/or distal IT band tightness/stretching from my undoubtedly incorrect running stride. But, either way this brace seems to be doing the job because I felt no pain on my 8 mile run the other day. So it looks like things are back on track.

I almost feel like it's taboo to say this, but....running isn't that bad. Can't believe I'd ever say that, but if you're conditioned, it's not horrible. But I add that astricks of "if you're conditioned" because there's few things worse than going out for a 3 mile jog when you haven't run in over a month.

I've also found the awesomeness of trail running. There's a really popular trail in Columbia called the MKT which is flat, open, and, really fun to run on. I emphasize flat, because hills aren't really fun on any run that's longer than 2 miles.

On these longer runs, listening to music only go so far, so I'm going to see if audiobooks can help pass the time a bit better. I sound like an old fart saying that, but hey it's worth a try.

Ali'i Drive video

The Ironman youtube site has been putting up some videos lately in honor of the upcoming Ironman World Championship. They interview the pros that are in the field this year, and I've gotta say that this video is the best one yet. I say that because the triathlon community is kinda weird and eccentric and that's what makes the sport fun

Disney Half marathon update

Hey guys, I figured I'd update you guys about my training for Disney Marathon Weekend. I've been using Hal Higdon's Training Program. I extended his schedule to 20 weeks, so most of the weeks are repeated. Since I'm not a great runner I've been loosely using the Novice 2 workout. I say loosely because with my class and work schedule I've had to move around a bunch of days and often time end up doing my long run on Tuesdays. It's been about a month and I still haven't gotten into a good routine yet. But, hopefully I'll get one soon, I think my only option is to get up really early to run. Normally this would be fun because I'm a morning person, but it's gonna mean a lot of long days.

On a lighter note, I ran 5 miles today, which I've never done before. Actual runners probably aren't impressed by that distance, but I'm not built for running so it's a decent accomplishment for me. I officially started a calculation the other day and there's about 102 days until my friend and I leave for the trip. It's a bit away, but it's going to be awesome.

Ironman Wisconsin video

this is probably one of my favorite Ironman videos to date. It's probably because of the hilarious crowd

true facts: ultimate frisbee

I saw this the other day and thought it was really funny, especially as a left handed former player.

trizou video

check it out, Ultramax Nation (the company that puts on a lot of the high class races in the Iissouri/Kansas area) made a video of my old pal the TriZou. The best part...my mom and I made it in briefly at the 0:19 second mark. We're the ones standing on the track looking at something.

Ironman Louisville

the Louisville Ironman was on sunday and here's the video Ironman made for it. I will be there at some point in the next few years

Run For Your Lives 5k

I almost completely forgot to tell you guys about the zombie 5k I did this weekend in St. Louis. It was a whole lot of fun and completely exceeded my expectations. So here's the deal, I'll tell you guys about it and then tell you guys about what kind of stuff to bring and how to prepare because as far as I've seen there's no list of helpful stuff to bring.

For an event that focuses on zombies and beer I was pleasantly surprised at how amazingly organized the whole thing was. Everything from the parking to the course itself ran very smoothly. The course wound through a trail in the woods with a plethora of roots and loose gravel to trip you up, so if you're like me and have weak ankles definitely wear ankle braces. It started out winding through the woods and everybody was running at first. I've replayed every zombie encounter in my mind and I can't decide which ones were the hardest because they were all EXTREMELY hard (mainly because I'm not a sprinter and I'm not built for it either). It was really hard when you'd come out of the woods after going up and down on the dirt trail and see a whole field of zombies. But that was also the most fun too because it was only about a 100-150 foot long section which was round shaped so there was a lot of room to try and avoid the zombies getting your flags. Hands down the hardest part was a very long skinny part where there was an insane amount of zombies. The worst part was that it was slightly up hill and once you got through them you turned the corner only to see a good 1/8 mile more filled with zombies after you were already really winded (it's the part where the guy falls in the video I'll post below, but he doesn't put the second part where you turn the corner in the video). The scariest part was the ones that would pop out of the woods and there was no where to go but into the trees (as evidenced by my scraped up right leg)

I was so close to having one flag left. But unfortunately at the end the very last 2 zombies ganged up on me and took my last flag. I heard her go "Yeaahh!!" behind me when I ran away, it was very disheartening. Note to self: that's what I get for 1)putting my last flag directly in front instead of in back and 2) for trying to run in between two zombies when I'm the only one going. It was extremely tiring and I can't remember the last time I did something that anerobically and aerobically challenging (and that's coming form an aspiring triathlete).

Here's some hints and stuff to bring if you're doing it in the future:
1. All you really need to do is practice agility and sprinting. You end up walking a whole lot of it since it's through the woods and you're really tired. Honestly I don't think just jogging 3 miles did much of anything for me. Practice sprinting down the long side a 1/4 or 1/3 mile track and you'll be golden
2. If at all possible don't wear your best pair of running shoes because you can donate them to a charity (I'll put up a picture later where you see all the muddy shoes in a pile).
3. Miscellaneous stuff: a whole change of clothes because you can get hosed off at the end and you don't wanna be walking around wet, a bit of money, sun glasses if it's sunny, a camera with a whole lot of battery life (my unfortunate mistake) because there's a bunch of hilarious people and zombies which make for great pictures, a towel to dry off, a bag to carry clothes/keys/phone in, a towel/chairs to sit on (because when you're done with the race and want food there's not a whole lot of open seating.

The moral of this story is that it was absolutely awesome. And if it comes to St. Louis again I'm gonna try in every way to be a zombie because that would be super fun.

Here's the good part: the pics and video

This isn't my video, it's courtosy of jamatthews86
 

The entrance area

the main area

The starting line/entrance thing

The end. You absolutely couldn't get any grip because it was so muddy

The super awesome and slightly muddy medal you get at the end

Right before the end. That guy is cheating. And unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries at this point so I don't have any actual cool pictures for you guys

Here's the pile of donated shoes. This picture is from the Run For Your Lives facebook page. They have some great pictures on there if you want a better collage of cool pics

Funny Chrissie Wellington

this is why Chrissie is the best pro triathlete out there today. She knows how to have fun.

hilarious sailing announcer

In the spirit of the Olympics, here's a hilarious Irish guy commentating on the sailing race

Show Me State Game triathlon update

The Show Me State Games triathlon was this morning and it went pretty well. There was only a few hundred people if that and it was super low key. I don't think it's technically a "USA triathlon" sanctioned event, but nonetheless it's still a triathlon.

I really thought the heat would be a bigger factor considering the high today is over 100 degrees. But I guess that since it's been over 100 for the past month everybody is pretty much use to it by now. I don't have an official time yet, but I finished in about 1:48 which isn't a spectacular time, but it's not horrible either. I was able to get a pretty decent bike time with riding 15 miles in about 55 minutes.

My first open water/mass start went fairly well also. Nobody was too happy with the mass start, but what can you do. I was lucky to be in a fairly non cluttered area between the fast people and the slow people. There were maybe only a dozen of us in my general area with minimal bumping. The pond we swam in was filled with alge/seaweed (whatever you wanna call it) and you absolutely couldn't see a thing, but again what can you do. It could be worse.

The swim was a clockwise loop around the big orange buoys 

There was nothing too eventful about the bike, it was mostly uphill the first half and then we did a 180 degree turn and went right back. I've gotta say that I'm glad it was that way instead of being downhill the first half and then uphill on the second half.

The run was two laps around the lake that we swam in for a 3 mile run. Well, technically it was a run around the lake and then, like the bike, spin 180 degrees and go back.

It all went well with minimal complaints. But I have to say that my only complaint was that at the run around the .75 mile mark/ 2.25 mark (for the way back) there was a water station which is always appreciated. My only complaint was that on my way back there was nobody there and no cups left. A guy in front of me had to tip the bucket a fair amount to get the water out. I can deal with getting our own water especially at such a low key event, but the fact that there weren't any cups left was kinda bothersome. But it's not the end of the world.

Here's what you've probably been waiting for: pictures and videos (disclaimer: I know that my transitions aren't very good)

My helmet set up, it worked pretty well

My ground set up minus my shoes. Normally I wouldn't have energy chews but it was really hot and I figured anything could help. I also chose to have water and Gatorade to keep my electrolytes in check

The swim start video is easily the coolest one of the bunch

I don't know if I'm gritting my teeth or smiling. Going from the swim to bike

Going off to the bike course

This one is pretty bad quality, but it's the bike to run transition

The finish-and yes it was gravel 95% of the way which probably added an extra level of difficulty 

Start of the road: Disney Half Marathon

The hotel room has been booked, tickets bought (mostly), and the plans are being made for the Disney World Half Marathon. It's 5 months and 6 days away. At the moment I'm training for my sprint triathlon, but once that's done in a week, my training for the half marathon will officially begin. I'm adding 4 weeks onto the usual 20 week training program because I'm not a very good runner and I figure making it more gradual will be better better not only because of that, but because I have an extremely busy schedule.

So the ball has officially started rolling.

Jerry Seinfeld: The Olympics

in honor of the upcoming London Olympics, here's Jerry Seinfeld's hilarious commentary on getting second place in the Olympics.

Show me state games triathlon

I signed up for another sprint triathlon today. This one is a part of the "Show Me State Games" which take place in Columbia, Missouri. I just found out about it and the entry was only $25; who can beat that (here's the link if you feel like joining). Given my performance in the last sprint tri, I know how much is too hard when it comes to pushing myself on the bike. But this time around I have a distinct advantage because I'm back in St. Louis for the summer and the neighborhood I live in is all hills. It makes a 16 mile ride if you go on all the streets there and back. Unlike when I train in Columbia where it's hard to find good biking that's not on a scarily major road.

This one is slightly longer than my old pal the TriZou which is 400 meter swim-14 mile bike-3 mile run. This sprint is a 1/2 mile swim-15 mile bike-3 mile run. So not a significant difference but enough of one where I'm really exited about it. I'm actually most looking forward to the traditionally most uneventful part of the race; the swim. Because the TriZou takes place in a pool and everybody starts a few seconds apart. This one is a mass start in a lake which is more traditional of a triathlon. I'm really excited about that since it'll be my first mass start and there's something really fun about swimming in open water as opposed to the pool. (Watch me end up hating it). The only part of the swim I'm not looking forward to is people bumping and getting in the way of each other. Well, that's about it in terms of current racing, nothing too exciting. I'll remember to take pictures and maybe a video or two.

In other tri related news, I've decided to become slightly more serious about the sport. My first step is getting tri-specific gear. One of which is getting a tri jersey/shirt because although my "wicking fabric" shirts are great, I need a tri shirt. And I'm planning on getting aero bars and pulling my road bike seat forward to make it a tri-road bike hybrid. As great as a tri bike would be I don't have $2000 to drop on a new bike. I've decided that next year is really gonna be the year that I pick up triathlon training. I hope to do a few 1/4 distance tri's. And it's my goal to do the 1/2 ironman in Branson two years from now. And from there maybe another year and off to the Louisville full Ironman. So that's my "5 year plan" as they call it...slightly different from other people my age, but hey might as well do it while you can.

IronMan Louisville video

Just found this video on the ole' youtube and decided to share it. Is it crazy that I want to do this at some point before I graduate from grad school (That gives me 3-4 years from now depending on what program I get into). Knowing that I'll never get to Kona, at least Louisville is relatively close in terms of IronMan triathlons go.

And of course another good video of the volunteers. Races wouldn't be able to run smoothly without volunteers and I need to volunteer at more to give back to the racing community.

my TriZou results

Well it was an interesting TriZou that's for sure. The rain held off, but unfortunately the heat didn't, it was pretty rough. I think the MC said it was the hottest trizou they've had.
         Either way, in general it was a good race for myself. I say in general, because I completely was a complete "struggle bus" (for lack of a better phrase) through the run. Mainly because I pushed myself a bit too hard on the swim and bike, and with the combination of that and the heat, I had to walk a few steps a few times during the run. I pretty much consider this a failure on the run portion, because I've never had to walk before and usually running 3 miles is pretty easy. But, at least I wasn't the only one, since I was one of the last ones to start there were a whole bunch of us walking because of the heat (and we're not exactly the "elite" group). The good part was that there were a few of us who were having a hard time and finally the last mile one of other girls came up to me and was like "come on, we're gonna do this together," so we ran together for the last mile. I can't thank that person enough, because usually I hate working out with other people but in this case having somebody to run with was my saving grace.
      Now that I've given you the bad news, the good news is that I improved in every other category and improved my overall time by 3 minutes. I had timed myself in the pool at swimming a 10 minute, 400 meter, but adrenaline got me through it in 9:24. I also improved my bike time by several minutes. Mainly because I figured out my work out style- mainly, some people are better at lighter weight (resistance for a bike) and fast reps, but I'm better at less reps, but more power required. So on the flat parts I put the gears on a harder setting so I could get more distance and power with less reps. This is probably the wrong way to do it, and any legit biker is probably yelling at me, but in this case for just a 14 mile ride, along with a swim and run, that's what works best for myself. But, I did push myself to do better this year, which I did, but I payed for it in the run.
       All in all, it was a good race, with the exception of the run. I guess we all are apt to bad moments. Oh well, something to improve on for next year. Well here's my results and some pics if you feel like looking at them:

Division Place: 10th out of 24
Gender Place: 94th out of 182   (I was amazed there were only 182 women out of 550 total people)
Swim Time: 9:24
Transition 1:   3:48
Bike: 53:38    ( 14 miles)
Bike rate: 15.7 mph (almost a 2 mph increase from last year!)
Transition 2:  2:01
Run: 30:16
Run pace: 10:16   (literally have never run a slower 3 mile pace, ever)
Overall time: 1:39:04

Now for the fun part: pictures

The finish line the afternoon before the race

This really has nothing to do with the race but the Quad and the Columns were so pretty Saturday afternoon

The sunset on the quad was pretty too

The transition area at the TriZou with the bikes

TriZou bike transition. Running leg next (I'm the one in the black)

Finishing the trizou. Thanks to the lady in blue who's behind me who ran with me for the last mile

the TriZou finish

TriZou weekend

So the TriZou's this Sunday and I'm pretty excited. The only problems are that it's going to be close to 90 degrees, and if you're familiar with midwest weather the temperature isn't the bad part, it's the intense humidity. But, it's been humid this whole week so hopefully everybody will be at least a little bit use to it by the time race day comes. It also looks like it's going to rain, so cross your fingers that the rain won't start until after the race.

My training went fairly well this year. My only complaint is that I spent too much time on the indoor bike trainer as opposed to getting out there and biking on the roads. So I took some advice from people who are very knowledgeable in this field and did a bit more interval training. For instance if I was going on a 3 mile run, I would purposefully run faster than my normal pace for a bit about every 1/2 mile or so. It's one of the only ways to make you faster and hopefully it worked.

Tomorrow's packet pick up day and I think I'll swing by the track (aka Stankowski field) where all the transitions are/where the bikes are kept tomorrow afternoon and see if they've set up everything. If stuff is up, I'll take a few pictures for you guys.

If you're participating in the TriZou tomorrow, than good luck.

zombie 5k video

this has got to be my favorite video yet of the Run For Your Life Zombie 5k. I think the hay stacks are traditionally the first obstacle where you meet the "zombies." This is pretty much the best video because 1. The four ninja turtles make an appearance at 1:30 mark
2. The dude at 3:40 "Come on Waldo, you got it, keep going! Go Waldo Go! I found you!"

Run for your lives zombie 5k

Well here's an interesting race I just signed up for. It's basically a 5k kind of like 'epic mud run' or 'the warrior dash' except with a strange twist. It's called the Run For Your Lives Zombie 5k where you're given a flag football belt with three red flags on it which are your "lives" and you have to climb over and dive around obstacles in the mud and dirt all while avoiding 'zombies' which try and rip off your flags... I really want to know what happened at that planning meeting when somebody said "guys, we're going to put zombies in our 5k race, it'll be awesome."

It's something I never thought I'd do, but hey why do a normal road 5k when you can do an adrenaline filled one? It'll be fun because I'll already have the cardio from my half marathon training and all I'll need to work on it agility and explosive movements. It looks like I'll be doing a whole lot of box jumps and wind sprints. But it looks like a whole lot of fun, and lets be honest how often does a 5k race like this come along to an area close to you.

It's actually pretty cool because this race is only taking place in 8 states and Missouri is one of the lucky ones. Even luckier is that it's going to be only about 30 minutes away from my home town so that makes the commute fairly easy. And the main reason why I'm doing it is because 1. my roommate got really excited and wanted to do it really bad and 2. it's one of those things that you get to tell your kids down the road "yeah I did a 5k race where you had to avoid zombies"

Trizou coming up!

My favorite race, the TriZou is coming up here in the next 12 days, it's definitely that time where you start getting really excited because it's coming up so quickly. I say favorite because it's the only not-purely-running race I've ever done. I really encourage you to sign up even if you live in a 2 hour radius of Columbia, Missouri. Here's the website if you're interested. And if I remember, I'm going to bring a camera (or at least take pictures and video with my cell phone) because I know how much I personally like it when people post pictures and videos.

Now that I know in general how to pace myself I'm gonna push myself a bit this year. Last year was a kind of trial run to figure out how I would do with going from biking 4 gigantic hills to running 3 miles. The only two foreseeable problems will be 1. the weather has been super unreliable (raining for a few days, than really cold, then 85 degrees) 2. there's construction where the running course use to go through, so they've had to change it slightly and it now incorporates a hill. Even more unfortunate is the fact that the hill is in the last mile-ish of the race so everybody's gonna be tired. But, aside from that I'm really excited.

My time last year was 1:42 so I'm aiming for anything lower than that, even if it's only a minute or two. I realize that's not a significant goal, but considering that I only do this stuff for the fun of it and the experience I don't have the time to train non-stop and improve time significantly.

So probably for narcissistic reasons I added the video my dad took on his phone of me finishing last year. I'm the one in the dark blue shirt.  A little background behind the video is that the lady next to me passed me a little while before and me being unhealthily competitive really wanted to catch up to her.

Sign up day

The start to my Disney Half Marathon adventure has officially begun! Today was the first day of sign ups for the Disney World Marathon Weekend and I signed up my mother and myself. (She was the only one willing to go with me). For now I'm just going to focus on the TriZou triathlon and I'll think about the half when the time comes. Everybody does races for their own reasons, mine is: To prove to myself that I can. Up until now I've never run farther than 4 miles because I'm not all legs and build like a gazelle like other people. I'm going to follow Hal Higdon's training program and even though it's a 12 week training program I'm probably going to stretch mine out to 18 or 24 because I have the time, and like I said before I'm not really built for long distance running (or running in general). If you wanna take part in the family fun run 5k/half marathon/ full marathon the sign ups are here.

I since I won't officially start training till about July or August you probably won't hear a substantial amount of updates until then. But in the mean time I'll let you in on my general work outs from here unti then.

hiking the Great Smokies

This past week I went hiking in the Smoky Mountains. Specifically the section around the Gatlinburg, Tennessee/ North Carolina area. Here's just a few pictures of how beautiful the place was.

that's Mt. LeConte in the back, which we hiked up on our last day. The elevation is 6593 feet and one of the most beautiful hikes I can imagine.

This drop off on Mt. LeConte was one of the prettiest/most nerve racking parts of the whole climb. The actual part you hiked on is out of the frame on the right side with a cable to hold onto so you don't slip on the rocks.  

A tiny waterfall thing on the Mt. LeConte trail

my racing exploits

So I came to the conclusion yesterday that if I end up being able to do the Disney World Half Marathon in January, I really want to "document my efforts" for the lack of a better phrase. I figure it might be fun for both myself and the whole whopping two of you who read this blog to follow my efforts from sign up day to race weekend...that came out narcissistic sounding. But I know that at least for myself I love following stories of people who are training for a race whether that be a triathlon/marathon/half marathon etc.

As a filler of sorts let me tell you about my current efforts in my training for my second TriZou. For those of you that don't know, the TriZou is a sprint triathlon here in Columbia, Missouri that's held on the first Sunday in May, which for this year is the 6th. Lately I've been using an indoor trainer for bike training simply because it's hard to find a good biking road here in Columbia that 1. doesn't have a million cars on it and 2. isn't filled with pot holes. But, hopefully I'll find a route soon and get out into the beautiful weather. The running is so-so; by far running is my worst discipline so I make a point to run either on trails or in very hilly places. This being because if the course is the same as it was last year than they choose a relatively flat 3 mile loop around the Vet School (as flat as you can get in Missouri). This year I know how to pace myself based on my performance last year. Last year I took everything pretty conservatively because I wasn't sure how quickly I was going to get tired. The main things I'm going to work on are:

1. The bike route is two loops, and I'm going to push myself a little bit more on the second loop.

2. The adrenaline made my swimming time much faster than normal, so now I know to line up with the 9.5 minute people (it's a 400 meter swim) instead of the 11 minute people.

3. I was actually fairly pleased with my running time at an average of a 9:40 mile, which for me is pretty darn good. Especially after swimming 400 meters and then biking up 4 giant hills for an hour. Now that I know the terrain of the running course, I'll know where I can pick up the pace a bit.

And if you wanna join me in the Disney Half Marathon. Here's the sign up page. Sign ups are April 10th at noon EST. Hopefully everything will work out and I'll be able to do it-so fingers crossed

parkour madness

Think you're in shape and agile? Well so did I until I watched this guy. There's nothing cooler than watching acrobatics like this

Brian Wansink: from mindless eating to mindlessly eating better

So tonight I went to my first legit keynote presentation. It makes me feel like somewhat adultlike (although if you'd ask my friends about that topic, they would disagree). But I figured I'd highlight some main points, because the presentation was extremely interesting. It was given by Brian Wansink with the title "from mindless eating to mindlessly eating better." I have to start off by saying that the only reason why I was going in the first place was because my nutrition teacher said she'd give us 10 extra credit points for attending, so I figured-heck yes I'll sit and listen to somebody else talk for 10 free points. It ended up being totally worth it because not only did I get extra credit, but the speaker was very funny and the topic was really interesting.

The first thing I found comical was the plethora of "introducers" (I call them that because I don't know the technical terminology of what their role was). There were 4 introducers to introduce the main speaker. Is it like that at all formal presentations? Do they often have introducers to introduce the introducer of the speaker?

Now we get to the topic itself. The gist of it is what our unconscious eating habits are, and how to improve them also unconsciously. Brian is a very well respected reacher and teacher at Cornell who has run many experiments over the years about eating habits. One of the most interesting points he made, in my opinion, was that there is statistical/research evidence to show that if you name something a more elaborate or interesting name, people are more likely to eat it. For instance they set up a research restaurant where they had a few food items on the menu that they labeled with bland names. Then a few weeks later they had the exact same food, but with more elaborate names. When this was done, the people who took part in the experiment actually gave a review of that food being of better quality and the chef having more years of experience even though it was actually the same food.

Another interesting point, although slightly predictable is that people will eat healthier if the healthy food is within reach/sight/ascetically nice. This was proved in high schools across the country when Brian went and just rearranged how the food was laid out in a school lunch line. He did this by putting sugary drinks towards the back and putting milk and H2O in the front, etc. My favorite part of the whole thing was that when schools put fruit in the front and in a pretty bowl (not a plastic one), fruit sales shot up +100%. The moral of that story was that people reach for what's most convenient and visible. If that's a cookie than they'll choose a cookie, if it's an apple than they'll pick the apple.

It was very informative and interesting, but I did have one complaint. At the end a girl asked if actively teaching students about healthy choices would be a better approach to getting kids to eat better instead of "tricking" them and their subconscious. He stated that a kid is gonna know what's healthier, but that's not gonna change their choice either way. I find this partially true and respect the girl's question. Here's my thoughts:

1. Yes, kids do know what's healthier and probably won't choose the healthy one cause it doesn't taste better. The thing that rings true especially with teenagers is that they're gonna do the opposite of what you say, no matter what it is. So continually telling them what's good and bad is kind of like beating a dead horse (I hate that saying, by the way)

2. I do believe that high schools should have nutrition classes so that they're aware of what exactly is in different foods/ what their health benefits are. That's always a good skill to know. But it should be taught as being informative as opposed to an oppressive right v. wrong.

3. I don't like the idea of solely relying on tricking people, but it seems to work as much as I hate to admit it.

disney world half marathon/marathon

Disney World had their annual 5k/half marathon/marathon somewhat recently and in honor of that I found the page of a guy on youtube who's done the marathon several times. He has a few videos up of the race, but I like this one the best because he explains things about the race which is pretty cool. So as of now I'm making it a goal to do the half marathon sometime in the near future. I may not be able to run more than 4 miles right now, but that's the beauty of training

urban mountain biking

So dangerous, yet so cool

it's the most wonderful time of the year

PITCHERS AND CATCHERS

world's largest rope swing

yet another awesome video from devinsupertramp

MU v. KU basketball game

College Game Day is coming to the mizzou v. kansas basketball game on Saturday. And given the occasion, people are posting hilarious things on facebook. Here's one that a friend of mine found.

The color run 5k

here's a fun 5k that a few friends and I are probably gonna do in Kansas City in June "The Color Run". It might not be as epically awesome as the Warrior Dash or the Epic Mud Run, but from the looks of it it's a very friendly atmosphere. They welcome everybody from the super fast and competitive to the people who just wanna walk and have fun. I definitely wouldn't have naturally picked it myself, but hey anything to make a 3.1 mile run seem a bit more fun

bethany hamilton video

Here's a cool almost 2 minute video made by devinsupertramp, the maker of the human slingshot slip and slide video that became popular a few months back

parahawking

so this might not technically be in the sports category, but it's so awesome I had to share.

the most popular thing on tv

Well this is a really cool article to read. Apparently football is the most popular thing on TV( along with Sunday night and Monday night football shows), beating out the Academy Awards and pretty much everything else. If you've got 5 minutes it's a cool read, especially if you're a football fanatic like myself