Fun on Foot Running, Walking Blog

On Sunday, Nola and I ran in these Orange County, California events. Still emerging from our mostly-non-running winter in the Rockies, I took on the half marathon and Nola the 5K.

It is an exciting course. The half marathon spans the cities of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. It was one of the most pleasant I have run, including a stretch on the ocean shore plus some beautiful terrain through the nature reserve around Newport Bay. The course is mostly flat, although there are a couple of very nasty little hills. The marathon extends in a loop from near the end of the half into the cities of Irvine and Santa Ana to end at the same finish line.

My main warning to runners contemplating this event in the future is that the logistics are complex and you need to give good attention in advance to where you stay and how you get around. The start and finish lines are several miles apart and the shuttle services between them are tenuous, not aided by the many street closures that occur. We stayed the night before the event in a hotel near the marathon/half start and had our own vehicle. We were very happy we did it that way.

Bottom line, I finished the half in a respectable time but, more importantly, Nola won her age division in the 5K for a GOLD MEDAL!

Warwick Ford

One figure we runners and walkers need to know is the number of calories our bodies burn while out on-foot. One reason it is important to many of us is the weight-loss factor. If I know that today’s run or walk burned more calories than I would intake by drinking a beer or eating a cookie, I shall feel no guilt about consuming a beer or cookie after the exercise.

However, for endurance athletes (including marathoners) the rate of calorie loss is important for another reason. It helps us know what carbs we need to store before and intake during a run, allowing us to better plan our race days.

The answer has always been a bit of a mystery to me, since there are so many calorie calculators on the web and even devices like treadmills tell me how many calories they think I burned. But, amazingly, these different sources of answers frequently disagree with each other. Furthermore, many of those calculators present their answers in an unhelpful way – for example, they will tell me (for my body weight) how many calories I would burn in 30 minutes of exercise running at 8 miles per hour. Unfortunately, I do not run in 30 minute segments and I do not think of running speeds as miles per hour.

But I do know my body weight and I do know the mile pace I run on every outing and I do know how far I go. The calorie-related figure I really need to know is how many calories I burn per mile. I decided to pin down that figure for different body weights for the paces we typically run or walk.

I have put together the table we need and included it in a new free article on our website at www.funonfoot.com/resources.html I recommend you read the full article since there are a few provisos around the final figures given, plus supporting information.

Use these easily memorized figures in planning your next endurance run.

I have never got to love treadmills. I find them deadly dull and usually located in a hot, stuffy environment. The outdoors is so much better. However, I do often find myself on a treadmill – when the weather is really rotten outside or when I am stuck overnight in a hotel where there is no outdoor running option (happens all the time on those highway overnight stopovers). At those times I am grateful to know that a treadmill is at hand.

I know that not all runners share my negativism about treadmills. I have friends who laud the treadmill as a great training environment. (more…)

As winter winds down I wanted to pass on what I have learned this snowy winter about training on the snowy trails. I have spent the winter in Aspen, Colorado, a place with plenty of snow and many winter distractions, but I have nevertheless endeavored to keep in some sort of running shape. (more…)

I think I can lay claim to being the only runner in NYC Reservoir Dogs colors participating in the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa, OK last Sunday. Nola and I flew there from Colorado for the event. Nola had planned to run the Half Marathon but an injury forced her to withdraw.
The Marathon, with a field of 1222 finishers (plus relay teams and around 5000 Half Marathoners starting simultaneously), was a very enjoyable one. The weather was perfect. There were many enthusiastic spectators and plenty of entertainment along the course. (more…)

Nola and I trekked west to San Diego to run in Sunday’s Half Marathon (August 16). It was an excellent event, with over 7000 runners, and well organized. The course is really spectacular. It starts at the Cabrillo Monument a little after sunrise and proceeds around the shore of San Diego Bay, into the heart of downtown San Diego, and then climbs the hills to finish in beautiful Balboa Park. For details of the main parts of this route, see our San Diego chapter in Fun on Foot in America’s Cities.
The course is mostly flat, with a downhill stretch near the start, and a very nasty uphill climb extending over a mile just before the finish. The latter feature makes the run quite challenging.
The weather, however, was just perfect, as San Diego’s weather almost always is. The temperature was in the low 70s and there was cloud cover hiding the sun for the first three-quarters of the route. On hearing from our friends how difficult the New York City Half (run the same day) turned out, with 90+ temperatures, we were very thankful that we had chosen to go west for that day’s race.
Both Nola and I were successful in our runs in San Diego, with both of us scoring PRs. What a fantastic event! We shall definitely keep it in mind for future years.