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This week, we talk about myRunning with the Pack 98: Ice Baths in Winter, Elliptical 101, Shortened Half-Marathon Training, and More split times for the Disney Marathon, doing an ice bath during winter, the right settings for an elliptical machine to simulate running, a bit about the stair stepper machines, what to do when you have an upcoming half-marathon and limited training time, our plans for Pittsburgh, and John’s voicemail about his recent marathon experience.

Stevie and I talk about the cold that I’ve had, maintaining mileage between races, our thoughts on spring races, becoming vegan or vegetarian for performance reasons, a video from Kevin about his 2009 marathon, and several voice mails.

Just one topic this week: the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend, which includes Stevie’s 5K and half-marathon as well as my Goofy Challenge, which is the half-marathon and marathon. We talk about preparing for the races, getting to the start line, the race start, the course, what happened along the way, our finishes, and what we did afterward. It’s a long podcast, but worth listening to, especially if you’re considering doing these races!

The Disney Marathon Weekend is just around the corner. This week, Stevie and I talk about our training troubles, plans for Disney, a summary of my Goofy Challenge preparation, meeting up before the races, and lots of e-mail and voice mails from listeners. One of the messages is about the Tough Mudder race series, which is like an extended version of Warrior Dash. It looks like a lot of fun! On the morning before the Disney half-marathon, Stevie will be at the meet-up area under the letter “R”. I’ll try to be there as well. On the morning of the marathon, I’ll meet up with people at the “R” area.

Stevie talks about her 10-mile run through Central Park in New York city. I update everyone on how Andrew is doing with his half-marathon training. I summarize the Death Race that Iron Brandon (drink) suggested – no thanks! Some listeners sent in pictures of very cool medals. And we also talk about getting your mojo back.

Stevie and I talk about things that make fun races fun, the Warrior Dash races, dealing with the Winter Blues, a potential informal Disney meetup after the marathon, and a study about people who feel that they are too heavy to exercise. Disney Meetup Details: I’ll be with Andrew and my nephew (Dave), so I don’t want to do anything official, but we’ll be at Mama Melrose in Hollywood Studios around 3:50 for an early dinner and to get into the special seating of Fantasmic. If people want to eat there, we’ll be around for a quick hello or a photo.

Stevie and I talk about what to do about gastrointestinal issues before running events, our training and running in the cold weather, what people say they are thankful for, and a bunch of e-mail and voicemail recordings from listeners. For next week, we’re asking people to let us know about fun races and what they think make races fun (e.g. event size, music, music, etc…). So if you have some ideas, questions, or race reports, leave a comment, send us an e-mail, or give us a call and leave a message: 570-RWTP-262

Stevie’s back from vacation. We talk about the cold that I had during my marathon, Stevie’s runs while traveling, Stevie’s tempo run and possible injury, my holding pattern between marathons, and several race reports from listeners.

This podcast is totally dedicated to my run of the 2010 Chicago Marathon. If you’d prefer to read a race report, I have written the highlights below along with some pictures. Enjoy!/ Andrew and I went to Chicago on Thursday, October 7th, so we could enjoy the city before the marathon. We came in through Midway Airport and took the Orange Line to a stop that was about four blocks from our hotel – VERY convenient! We checked into the Congress Plaza Hotel around 11:30 am. It’s an old hotel with some maintenance issues, but it was clean, centrally located, and about as close as possible to the start and finish line. Thursday was an exploration day. We hit some of the shops that we like, but don’t have in our little college town: Nordstrom’s and H&M. We also explored some of the clubs on Halsted on the North side of town. It was a lot of walking and a bit of dancing, but still within the “tapering” zone. I also unpacked on Thursday evening so I could lay out all of my running gear to make sure that I had everything that I needed. The logic of doing it so early is that if I had forgotten anything, I could pick it up at the race expo on Friday. As it turned out, I decided to buy some Tylenol, just in case I had pain during the race. On Friday, the main event was going to the race expo, which was about two miles from our hotel. Andrew and I spent a few hours there. We got my race bib, verified the D-tag (the chip they use to track runners), and then picked up the rest of my packet, which contained the official race program, race shirt, info about some other races, and some samples. We walked around the booths and eventually found the Newton booth, where the mighty IronBrandon (drink) was busy singing the praises of the shoes that he loves so much. We ran into the Running Laminator while we were waiting for him to finish talking to some folks. This was the first time I’ve actually had an opportunity to try a pair of Newtons on, so I listened to the pitch and tried on a pair. Brandon had us run around the expo a bit to see how they felt and I have to admit, they feel different than I thought they would – very light and very springy. So based on the recent discussion of the corporate responsibility concerns with Nike, I decided to buy a pair of Newtons and give them a try. I’d still run the marathon in the Nike Free shoes that I had been using. The Newtons would be for post-marathon training heading into the Goofy Challenge in January. After the expo, we jumped on a Metra train from the conference center and went to our friend’s apartment in Hyde Park. She (Terrie) is doing a post-doc with the University of Chicago. Her fiancee (Jonathan) came into town that night and we went to an Asian fusion place for dinner. After dinner, we got back on the train, which dropped us off about a block from our hotel. We were planning to go out again, but the lock to our hotel room wasn’t working correctly – so after an hour and a half of waiting for security and then maintenance to fix the issue, we decided to call it a night. On Saturday, I ended up having a burrito for lunch, shopping, and then doing Indian food for dinner. It wasn’t your traditional pasta-based carb loading, but it worked. Andrew, Terrie, and Jonathan stayed out while I went back to the hotel room to get ready for the next day. I double checked my running gear, pinned on my race bib, powered up my phone, set several alarms, and called it a night. I went to bed around 9:00 on Saturday and fell asleep closer to 10:00. On Sunday morning, I woke up around 5:15, which was 15 minutes before my first alarm was set. I checked the weather, hoping that the predictions would be wrong – but they were right on target. The temperature in the morning was in the low 60’s and it was going to be sunny and into the mid-80’s by the time I’d be finishing t[...]

I finally put together the Running Contract that lists things that I need to remember to do for every race. We also talk about tapering, Stevie’s Elliptical from Hell, some Ice Bath science, triggers to keep people running, and several voicemails: Nike’s Corporate Responsibility, Scott’s race, Helen’s preparation for the Marine Corps Marathon, and Christine’s last long run before Chicago. Good luck on your upcoming races everyone!

This episode is dedicated to Ben Davis and his weight loss journey. He has lost 120 pounds since January 2009. Last week, he made and posted a video to chronicle his story. We wanted to get the inside scoop and he agreed, so here it is. Enjoy! If you want to follow Ben’s progress, check out bendoeslife.tumblr.com!

A bit of a failed experiment today. I took Niacin at the beginning of the show, but never turned very red. Oh well. We also talk about the movie Spirit of the Marathon, our listener’s feelings about the weather, and my new running partner. At the end of the show, we play a call from Geeks in Running Shoes’s Jason, who completed his first half-marathon on Sunday. Only three more weeks until the Chicago Marathon!

This week, I talk about my new Nike Run Free+ shoes and the Nike+ GPS App, my 18-mile run, Stevie’s cross country pasta party, good luck to Geeks in Running Shoes’ Jason with his upcoming half-marathon, and much more. Just four more weeks until the Chicago Marathon! [Fair warning: This is NOT a learn-to-speak-a-foreign-language podcast! We apologize in advance to all of our French and Chinese speaking listeners.]

Three reviews this week: Skin Sake, ampoule Chocolate #9, order and adult versus kid Sharkies. We also talk about the album of review photos on Facebook, a neck injury that interfered with my triathlon plans, massages and chiropractors, focusing on health over performance, and a noticeable change in sweat volume.

Stevie and I talk about an organic gel called Chocolate #9, getting lost or being late at races, the anti-chafing lotion “Skin Sake“, doing back to back long workouts, Disney for Marathon Weekend, and a good luck shout-out to IronBrandon. He’s doing Ironman Louisville on August 29th.