Dean's Finished

Well he finally decided to stop. The man who started running 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states on September 17th, then once finished in NYC ,decided to run back to San Francisco decided to stop when he got to St. Louis. I don't think anyone is about to call him a quitter though. I'm actually glad he stopped. He's always said he never wanted running to come before family and I think now he has proven it. I'm glad he'll be home with his kids and wife for Christmas.

I've been following his progress at his blog. If you're at all interested in what a guy is thinking while running across the United States you should check it out. It would have been pretty cool to keep up with Canadian Hero Terry Fox when he did his Marathon of Hope so I'm kind of thinking of this as a modern day version of that.

Anyway, check out these links to read more about this incredibly inspiring and insane man.

Endurance 50
NYC to St. Louis blog

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Time With My Boy

I’ve been away from home for almost two weeks so it was nice to get home Friday afternoon, even though it took an all night drive to pull it off. My son’s reaction to me arriving home was pretty much the best too. He was soooo excited. It was definitely the happiest he’s ever been for me to come home. So needless to say we’ve spent a bunch of time together since I’ve been here.

One way we get to do something together (and my wife Sherri gets a break) is for me to take Jonah with me when I go out for a run. We spent good money when Jonah was born to get a really good running/walking/biking/cross country skiing stroller. (No joke about the skiing. You can actually get skis for the thing. Check out the Chariot web site.) So I often take Jonah with me when I go for a run. It gives me a little resistance training too.



Well lately, since he’s started talking so much he’s often said some pretty funny things. During my usual route we pass a water treatment plant beside the river. Since Jonah is so interested in pipes and water this was naturally something I thought he would be interested in. So we’ve talked about it ever since he was quite little. Well yesterday during our run, on our way by, here was our conversation:

Jonah: What’s that?
Me: You know what that is. It’s the water treatment plant.
Jonah: That’s where my poop goes, then it goes in the river.

Well I guess he’s mostly right. Made me chuckle anyway. Later in the run he noticed a white van driving by and said “Hi Poppy!” I had to remind him that Poppy doesn’t live in Cambridge.

All that to say it’s nice to be home, and especially to know that I’ll be here for about four weeks straight. Crazy!

Glenn

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Yet another personal best!

I know I talk a lot about running here but hey, it has become an important part of my life, and yesterday I just had such a great run that I have to share.

First off, I try to run every other day for about an hour. An hour of running for me equals around 7 miles now. I’ve got a few routes that I run regularly, a couple at home in Cambridge and a good one in Tennessee. Each of them are 7 mile loops.

After I wrote my last blog about the Goji Berry my good friend Wes gave me a call and wanted to know what the Goji juice has done for me. It’s a hard question to answer really because you can’t verify anything. But I do know that a few things seem different for me since I started drinking the juice. My running is the most noticeable.

Until about a month and a half ago running 7 miles in an hour was pretty rare for me. I was normally around 6.5 miles per hour. To try and push it to 7 always required significant effort and would wear me out. The times I did get 7 miles I would be pretty wasted after. In the last few weeks my times have just been getting faster and faster. It’s like a new personal best every run! Yesterday just topped everything off. Since I’ve had so many great sub hour 7 mile runs I was curious to see if I could maintain that speed for any longer than an hour. So I decided to do two laps of my 7 mile loop here in Franklin TN. I managed to finish 14 miles in 1:57. That means I ran a half marathon about 10 minutes faster than ever before and I was able to maintain my pace and still feel great.

Again, I don’t know for sure it was the juice. I also did read a pretty inspirational book by Dean Karnazes, which you can read about in this blog. It looks like I’m not the only one getting some advantage from Goji juice for running though. Check out this link about 3 guys running across the Sahara.

My only fear now is that I’ll somehow suddenly revert back to my slower running. I don’t think it will happen. I feel like I’ve increased my base speed enough so slowing down would be a choice. Anyway, enough about that.

Glenn
To visit my Goji Juice site click here.

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Goji Berry

Have any of you heard of the Goji Berry (aka Wolf Berry)? Back in October I met this guy in the airport gate area while I was on my way to Toronto to run the Toronto Marathon. I often enjoy talking to random people while travelling. You never know what kind of life the person next to you is living. Anyway, he asked me if I had heard of Goji. I obviously had no clue what he was talking about. He went on to tell me a few things about the Goji berry and this Goji juice. It was sounding like it was some miracle food from the stories he was telling me. He gave me his card (he sells the juice) and I told him I would research it.

There’s a lot of pretty interesting stuff out there on the Goji Berry. Much of it looks like hype, but when you look at the nutritional value of it there’s no question that it’s a very unique berry and that it’s good for you. I found a lot of great info on Wikipedia. Here are a few things I found there.

It has been long known as one of nature’s most nutrient-rich foods in China. Chinese Traditional Medicine has been claiming all sorts of health benefits from the Goji Berry. Things like, it enhances immune system function, improves eyesight, protects the liver, boosts sperm production, and improves circulation, among other effects.

It’s loaded with carotenoids - beta-carotene, zeaxanthin, lutein, β-cryptoxanthin and lycopene, at least 6 vitamins (examples, vitamins C, B1, B2), over 30 essential and trace minerals, polyphenolic antioxidants, and amino acids.

The amounts of Calcium, Potassium, Iron, Zinc, Vitamins C and B2 are also quite high in Goji Berries.

So all in all it’s definitely good for you. I’d rather drink juice than take a manufactured vitamin any day. So I bought some of this Himalayan Goji Juice and have been drinking it now regularly for the last month or so. I am now on a journey exploring selling the juice myself. Yeah, me selling stuff. Seems strange doesn't it? I’ll keep you filled in on how it’s going. In the mean time, check out the web site they gave me. More later.

www.GlennLavender.freelife.com

Glenn

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