I've talked before about how I don't usually like New Years and I think part of that is the bad rap that New Year's resolutions get. Having goals and things you want to change is essential, but New Year's resolutions come off almost as a recurring joke. For the past couple days, I've been thinking a lot about this subject since it's right around the corner and trying to put my finger on why it is that I don't like resolutions for the New Year. Granted, I am positive that t

No, not the fun kind of George Clinton style funk. Today was another of those days that I was just completely not feeling it. Between it being a Sunday, it being the end of the holidays, all my family leaving to head back to their respective homes, and the inordinate amount of holiday food that I've been eating for almost a week; I was in a pretty serious funk this morning. I hit a 3 mile run with some of my family yesterday which was a great way to get primed up for more h

This post has taken me a bit longer to produce than I expected due in part to some holiday traveling, but primarily due to a shift in my focus. Originally, I had been thinking about making this list about stuff that you might forget for a race, but I realized that everyone's routines and gear lists are going to be different so I decided instead to look more at some things to think about when you're going to do a race, particularly in the often dreary weather of winter. Peop

Today was one of those days that it was a serious mental battle as to whether or not I would get up and run. Between not getting as much sleep as I normally do and catching sight of the temperature approaching freezing, I was not too keen on going out for what I had planned to be a 5 or 6 mile day. The impending precipitation in the forecast was another mitigating factor affecting my decision making process. I finally did get out of bed and was still grumbling around decid

I got up nice and early today to get a lift and a run in for the morning. I've been making myself get up earlier and earlier lately, but my 5:45am alarm was not met with much excitement. Still, I was up and lifting before the sun came up, but then a few minutes into my lift, my dad directed my attention to the sunrise. My picture doesn't do it justice, but it was a really nice sunrise and a great view to start the day. The clouds were laid almost perfectly parallel to the

At some point or another, the familiar environment of traditional school learning falls away from your life. I imagine it can range to almost any age or level of schooling, but I would posit that it happens to basically everyone. For me, it happened when I graduated from college and was no longer in an environment directed towards learning, but for some it gets more complicated. This is an idea that I've been working on mentally since before I left college and I was spurre

I've been looking forward to today for pretty much two weeks now. Today is the day I got back to running after giving my hamstring some time to heal up and it went about as well as I could have hoped. I got a nice 3 miler in this morning as the sun was coming up and was almost entirely pain free, which is more than I can say for any other run that I've done in over a month, so it certainly feels good to start getting back into some run training. To try and avoid further iss

There's a point in a good workout that is undeniably awesome; maybe half to three-quarters of the way through at one of the more intense parts. I call it the sweet spot. I used to get it mainly in leg press lifts and deadlifts where you just got some heavy weight and the only thing that can possibly exist in your mind is that lift - getting the weight from point a to point b. I've gotten to where I find it in running too if I'm doing a longer run, around 4-5 miles in, I ju

The beginning of the year used to be a somber time to me. For whatever reason, it would be a more reflective and sometimes regretful period. As this year begins to come to a close though, I am getting really amped up for 2015. This New Year, I have some very concrete and ambitious fitness goals, but I also feel that they are realistic and will be fulfilling. I was doing a little research earlier today and I found that Atlanta has a half marathon and 5k on Thanksgiving. I

I used to be a full-on night owl. I preferred staying up until 4:00-5:00am to get things done rather than get up at 5:00 or 6:00am. Slowly, over the past couple of years, I've been ratcheting back the time that I aim to get up, mainly motivated by various work obligations and an interesting challenge in self-mastery. Sweet flares, bro. Lately, I've been trying to get up before 7:00am even when I don't have anything specific to do at that time and it's primarily because I au