A New Idea!

More to come on this later but I'm excited about this so I'm mentioning it right away. We have been planning on putting together a Team Downhere running club. Here's the beginning stages of what it will be about.

The purpose of Team Downhere is to Condition, Connect and Contribute. We want to Condition ourselves physically, mentally and spiritually to be in the best shape possible. We want to Connect with each other so that we can encourage one another and help each other along in this journey. We want to Contribute by having others benefit from all that we do as Team Downhere.

So as we travel around with downhere we'll let people know where we are and hopefully be able to get a run in with some team members. Beyond that we'll have marathons and half marathons that we'll participate in where we will try to help others in need through the organization World Vision. For instance, the goal chosen ahead of time for the team could be to help a community that is in need of clean water by raising enough money to dig a deep well for them. Or the goal may be to help some families by providing specific farm animals or even enough animals to start a farm for themselves. As a team working towards this we believe we'll be able to accomplish much.

We also want to help people get started running and give people who are already running motivation to keep going. Things like developing training programs, and creating regional running groups are some of the things that we think would be beneficial.

Now what I'm extra excited about is that we are planning our inaugural run to be in Nashville April 2008 and we just secured a Team Downhere $10 discount for the run. So now it really feels like the wheels are in motion.

I'll write more as we get the main web site up and developed. We're still working on how everything will work but I was bursting and thought some of you would like to know about it!!

If this interests any of you drop me a comment or tell me in person and I'd love to tell you more about it.

GL

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My son the artist!

Thanks Randy for a post with some great pictures. We visited our friends Randy and Chris yesterday while in Franklin. Randy is the one who is really responsible for starting my running career. Randy is a painter and had his easel and paints set up. Since Jonah loves to paint he asked pretty quick if he could paint. He made some pretty cool creations. We'll have to scan a couple and put them up. Anyway, check out Randy's blog to see Jonah in action.

GL

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Good old Peanut Butter

Well I haven't been in Sweden for a couple of weeks now so I guess it's time to update ye olde blog. I wish I was still running like I did in Sweden though. I had my fastest 8 miles ever while there. I ran 8 miles in 59:30 and that's with taking all of my walk breaks except for one. I take a 1 minute walk break after every 9 minutes of running.

Anyway, I've been on a bit of a peanut butter kick for the last few months and it turns out it was a smart move. Check out this article I found on Runnersworld.com.

PEANUT BUTTER A GREAT RUNNER'S FOOD
It sticks to your mouth-and to your muscles

We all know that peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth. But do you know that peanut butter might also help you "stick it out" during a hard workout or an intense race? It's true. In fact, peanut butter-yes, that sticky companion to jelly on all those sandwiches your mom made-just might be the best runner's food on the planet.

"When it comes to the food choices runners can make, you can't do much better than peanut butter," says sports dietitian Nancy Clark, author of Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook.

To read the full article go here.

As an aside, while I was in Northern Ireland a couple of years ago we were having sandwiches at a friends house. I decided to have a peanut butter and jam sandwich. The mention of this combination was too much for our host. She couldn't believe I would possibly put those two things together. Funny how a staple sandwich here doesn't even exist there. Then again we don't often have an Ulster Fry here do we? To find out what an Ulster Fry is you may have to ask our resident Northern Ireland blogger Supersimbo.

Glenn

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In Sweden

I arrived in Sweden today with the band. We're in the city of Halmstad. This is the view when you walk out the front door of our hotel. So far Halmstad seems like a pretty cool place. It's right on the water and has the Nissan River running right through it.


After we had supper we went for a walk along the river all the way down towards the ocean as far as we could go. We saw this boat on our walk. It looks much bigger in real life.

I'm hoping to rent a bike tomorrow as well as go for a run so I should have opportunity to see more of the city and to get more pics. The question will be if I can get the pics onto my compy. The camera seems to be acting up. Time to try and get a good night's sleep.

GL

p.s. I didn't have my camera with me so I stole these pics from other people. Here are their links.
Pic 1
Pic 2

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