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What’s On Your Bucket List?

Written by on December 31, 2011
Argentina

New Year’s resolutions make no sense to me. Why does a change in the calendar year dictate when we’re allowed to make a new commitment? Why can’t we improve our lives and/or the lives of others, challenge ourselves, or try something new whenever the inspiration hits us? I don’t want to wake up in 20 years disillusioned, wishing I had lived my life differently, regretting missed opportunities, full of disappointment or nostalgia. My Bucket List   Travel – International Bike along the Danube Argentina Australia Bahamas Belize Brazil Cambodia Canada Costa Rica Czech Republic Denmark Ecuador India Israel Laos Mexico Myanmar Nepal The Netherlands Nicaragua Peru Sri Lanka Tahiti Thailand Turkey [archaeological dig] Vietnam New Zealand Travel – U.S. Arizona California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Maryland Massachusetts New Jersey New York North Carolina Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina Texas Virginia Washington Remaining 50 states, but priority: Alaska Hawaii Illinois New Mexico Oregon Tennessee Vermont Wisconsin Adventure Hang-gliding Hot air balloon Parasailing Paddleboarding Ragnar Relay Rapelling Rock climbing Skydiving Wind-surfing Ziplining Sports – Running Race – 5K Race – 8K Race – 10K Race – 15K Race – Half Marathon Race – Marathon Race – Ultrathon Race – Duathalon Race [...] Read more »

Categories: Adventures, Martial Arts, Running, Travel

Hydration and Energy – Do you GU?

Written by on December 23, 2011
Hydration Pack

This morning’s 5 mile run was exhausting. It may have been our general energy levels or the unanticipated heat or the hydration pack I tried to wear with the 2 liter hydration reservoir. Two liters feels surprisingly heavy while running. Now that we’re running 7+ miles regularly in Florida, we’re trying to play around with hydration and fueling options. I get thirsty at the drop of a hat no matter where I am or what I’m doing so I drink tons of water daily, but I hate carrying water bottles during runs. It seems to help if I drink Gatorade rather than water before a run, but I would prefer to have hydration with me at all times. So, I bought the hydration pack hoping it would be light enough to run with. It looked small and seemed light. However, it proved to be exhausting. Maybe it will just take some getting used to… Now that we’re running longer distances to train for the half marathon, we’ve been advised to fuel during our runs. So, we bought some GU – both the energy gel and the chomps. I’m still apprehensive about trying the energy gel mid-run, but Eric brought the [...] Read more »

Categories: Running - Tags:

8 Miles with Nike Plus and St. Pete Parks

Written by on December 18, 2011
RockNRoll St Pete Half Marathon

Eight miles feels so much longer than 7. Four weeks ago, we started training for a half marathon. Over the past year, we ran a few 5Ks and one 8K (and Eric ran a 15K last weekend), but, until recently, distance has not been our focus. However, we’ve always wanted to run a half marathon, so this is as good a time as any to begin training for one. Our “coach” is nikerunning.com. We created an account when we picked up the Nike Plus iPod Sport Kit last year. After each run, we plug our iPods into our computers and each run syncs to nikerunning.com. It’s convenient to track runs and we can get our pace stats and mileage on the go with the push of a button. The Nike Running website also offers challenges (for example, we’ve run over 211 miles in the year 2011, but not quite 365 miles in 365 days). They also offer training programs, including a half marathon training program for beginners. We’re 4 weeks into a 12 week program. We signed up for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in St. Pete, which is scheduled for February 12, 2012. We plugged that date into [...] Read more »

Categories: Running - Tags:

2nd Annual Barefoot Fun Run 5K

Written by on November 20, 2011
Race Bibs and Book

Barefoot Fun Run Background The first race Eric and I ever ran together was the Barefoot Fun Run in November of 2010 [blog post here]. At the time of the 2010 race, Eric had been running for about 6 months and I had been running less than 3 months. We continued to race and train regularly through March of 2011, but I broke my toe during a 5K trail race in April and I’ve been in and out (mostly out) of running since then. It was a good 4 months before I even tried running again, but I overcompensated for the continuous throbbing of the healing broken toe and sprained my foot. I finally began running regularly again about a month ago. We were excited when we heard news of a 2nd annual Barefoot Fun Run. We were hesitant to sign up because of my injuries, but we wanted this race to be our “anniversary” race, so we were determined to participate, even if we had to walk. While it does frustrate me a bit to participate in a race I don’t feel I’ve appropriately prepared for, we had a blast and we hope to make this a regular event [...] Read more »

Categories: Running - Tags: , ,

SXSW 2012 Proposal Timeline Update

Written by on September 28, 2011
SXSW Panel Picker

I want to sincerely thank everyone who voted for my SxSW submission Social Media: Fear and Loathing in Health Care. Several people have asked me how the voting went, so I wanted to give you a quick update. Public voting ended on September 2nd. All will be quiet in the SXSW Interactive world while the Staff (30% of the vote) and the Advisory Board (40% of the vote) deliberate. At the end of October, they will announce the first round of picks. By December 19th, everyone should know the fate of their proposals. So, for now, we wait, but I truly appreciate your support! Read more »

Categories: Technology - Tags: ,

SXSW: I Want To Go To SXSW 2012

Written by on August 16, 2011
SXSW Vote Button

I want to go to SXSW 2012. Specifically, I want to present in the Health Track of SXSW Interactive on barriers to social media adoption within the healthcare community. It would be an incredible opportunity to attend and an inexpressible honor to present at such an extraordinary event. I could use your help! What is SXSW? SXSW began as a music festival in 1987 and, in 1994, a film festival and interactive track were added. It is an exciting and innovative conference drawing almost 50,000 registrants, so it’s kind of a big deal. More about SXSW Interactive here. How To Vote The proposal process is a lengthy and intricate process, but the public has a 30% say in which proposals are accepted, so I would greatly appreciate your vote.   The voting process is easy: Visit my proposal: “Social Media: Fear and Loathing in Health Care” Click the “thumbs up” button You will be prompted to either login or create an account They will not spam you – don’t worry! When you’re redirected to the page after you login, make sure the “thumbs up” button is green. To peruse all SXSW Interactive proposals for 2012, visit the Ideas page here. [...] Read more »

Categories: Technology - Tags: ,

SportingTheSmallStuff Reviewed on #Blogchat

Written by on August 5, 2011
Mack Collier Blog Announcement

I…or, should I say, SportingTheSmallStuff.com…had the honor of being reviewed on #Blogchat – a weekly Sunday evening Twitter chat about blogging started by Mack Collier in 2009. Each month, several blogs are chosen from a pool of applicants to be reviewed (and sometimes lambasted) by #Blogchat participants. To see the announcement on Mack’s blog, visit The three blogs we’ll review at #blogchat tonight are… Pre-Review While perusing Twitter last week, I ran into Mack’s call for blogs and I entered SportingTheSmallStuff.com, requesting suggestions on SEO and audience engagement. I have participated in #blogchat in the past and it is one of my favorite chats. It is the largest chat that I know of, having so many participants that it’s sometimes difficult to follow all of the concurrent conversations. For this reason, and due to the caliber of participants, there is never a shortage of excellent ideas and suggestions. I was ecstatic to learn that my blog was selected as one of the three to be reviewed, but I knew that my blog could be torn apart, so I braced myself. The 20 minutes people spent reviewing my blog turned out to provide me with a wealth of invaluable information. Review [...] Read more »

Categories: Technology - Tags:

P90X – 30 Days Down

Written by on July 22, 2011
P90X

Today is Day 30 of our P90X training program. 60 days remaining. We began the P90X Lean program on June 16, 2011. We ran through the first 2 weeks splendidly, albeit painfully. We did every workout and didn’t skip days. Since I also do Kung Fu, there were days that I did both. Enter Week 3: We found ourselves going out of town for 4 days. Thinking we would have access to a gym, we brought our DVDs and planned to do the program using the gym space and equipment. Unfortunately, we did not end up having access to the gym and the room in which we were staying was too small to train in. So, we tried to improvise and substitute running for the P90X training we couldn’t do. That went well until I got sick a few days later, landed in the hospital, and had to take a few days off. So, we decided to repeat Week 3. All went well in Weeks 3 and 4. I have continued to integrate Kung Fu into the program and we’ve also added running which, after 4 months off from the broken toe, has proven to be a bit more difficult [...] Read more »

Categories: P90X, Running - Tags:

Running – First Day Back Post Toe Break

Written by on July 8, 2011
Sweetwater Preserve Image Courtesy of singletracks.com

Saturday was my first attempt at running since I broke my toe 4 months ago. If you missed how the toe broke, check out the XTERRA Trout Creek post and the post-break update. Eric and I have been doing P90X for over two weeks and we went out of town with our DVDs, fully intending to continue P90X training in the gym we anticipated having access to. However, it turned out that we could not access the gym and the room in which we were staying was too small to train in. We didn’t want to skip a few days, so we decided to give running a try. At this point in my toe’s life, it is still about twice its normal size and it primarily hurts when I point my toes or put a certain level of pressure on it in just the right place. Pushing off of it while barefoot is also uncomfortable. Thus, I did not sport my Vibrams for this running experiment, as I’m not even sure I can fit the toe into them comfortably. I put my sneakers on and attached the Nike Sensor to the laces. I fully intended to continue to land on [...] Read more »

Categories: P90X, Running - Tags: ,

Airbnb – First Hosting Experience

Written by on June 27, 2011
Airbnb Listing

Eric stumbled upon a website called Airbnb while we were looking for affordable short-term housing for our visit to Philadelphia in May. Airbnb proved to be significantly more affordable than hotels, hostels, and bed and breakfasts in the city of Philadelphia, but at over $70 per night in the city, the options were still just too expensive for us. We decided to go with CouchSurfing for our frugal Philly experience, but the Airbnb concept was not far from our minds. So, what is Airbnb? As a traveler… Airbnb is a concept where people rent out rooms, homes, apartments, suites, or other spaces per night, week, month, etc. It affords travelers on a budget the opportunity to visit places they may not otherwise visit, either due to financial restrictions or various other reasons. Not only that, but the local expertise of their hosts allows travelers to learn about the neighborhood, town, or city. Travelers may receive various levels of accommodations, but it’s up to the traveler to choose what they require. Airbnb offers a checklist and hosts are encouraged to be as upfront as possible in their descriptions. The company does its best to create a safe and positive experience for all, both [...] Read more »

Categories: Travel

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