Athlo Blog

Jack Quinn’s Irish Pub in Colorado Springs is becoming more well known for its running club than its Guiness and Irish folk music.  Last month marked the second anniversary of the club and they had a record attendance: 715 runners.  To put this in perspective, I was a member of the running club when it first began and usually 30 to 50 people would show up each week.  The run is on Tuesday evening, year round, rain or shine.  

To see the club grow to the point where the it now has multiple starting times on Tuesday night is incredible.  Members run a nice 5K route along downtown and the Front Range trail in Colorado Springs.  After the run, Jack Quinn’s Irish Pub serves free spaghetti and salad.  They make their money back and then some by offering beer specials and having hundreds of thirsty runners at the Pub on a night they would not otherwise be there.  Although I could not tell from the running club website, I think their policy of giving out free T-shirts to members who show up five times is still in effect.  Since the club runs all year, it should not be too hard for residents of Colorado Springs to get one.

Although similar clubs in Denver and Boulder have not had the success of the Jack Quinn’s club, I think any town in America with a bar and a good group of people who want to become or stay healthy (and drink beer) could start their own running club.  My hometown of Quincy, IL has some frigid winters so year round running is probably out of the question, but I know of a nice little Irish Pub downtown that I will be pitching this same idea to next spring.

Nike has the ambitious goal of getting 1 million people to run a 10K on August 31st, 2008.  You can register for the race is in 25 major cities around the world, 4 of them in the US.  If you cannot make it to one of these cities or do not feel like spending the money to travel for only a 10K, you can still participate in your home town.

With a Nike Sport Band or Nike+ iPod and Sport Kit you can still sign up through the Nike website and synchronize your run with the Human Race 10K.  August 31st is over a month away and plenty of time to train for a 10K.  The Athlo training calendar is the perfect resource to plan your training runs over the next few weeks.  Although I will not be running in any of the 4 participating cities, I will be signing up and running in my hometown.

In addition to getting so many people around the world physically active, Nike will be donating $3 million to its three charity partners; The UN Refugee Agency, The Lance Armstrong Foundation and The World Wildlife Federation.  When you sign up to run you get to pick which of the three charities you would like your miles to count toward, which will affect how they distribute the money.

Join me and 1 million others in being part of the Human Race.

Athlo has a new, clean style that we think helps to bring key content to the forefront while at the same time being unobtrusive.  First, we’ve added subtle tabs to the top of the site.  When you’re on pages like your profile, the corresponding tab will be shaded to make it more obvious where you are on the site.  For those of you forced to use MS Internet Explorer 6, we’ve accounted for many of that browser’s shortcomings that may have resulted in a less-than-optimal viewing experience (we recommend Firefox).  We’ve also made a lot of subtle tweaks that probably aren’t worth mentioning here, but our loyal users are certain to notice and appreciate.  We’ve employed the help of Athlonian and graphic design expert Jahmai Smith to help us work on color schemes and site imagery going forward.  So while this style change is a refreshing update, it’s only the beginning!

Shifting gears to information, a question we get a lot is, “what is Athlo?”  Well, we’ve added the facilities to help answer that question on the site.  The Athlo site tour is a clean series of pages that help to highlight what Athlo is all about and why it’s a step ahead of the competition.  So the next time you’re telling a friend about Athlo, send them to our tour page and let them see first hand what Athlo brings to the table.

Dean Karnazes is a name that has become more and more widely known in the running community. For anyone who does not know who he is, 60 Minutes recently said that “it’s likely he has run more miles than any other living person.” Whether that is true or not is probably something that would be hotly debated within the running community. There are many other ultramarathon runners who have won many more races than Dean.

Regardless of the number of races he has won, his running resume is impressive. Winning the 2004 Badwater Ultramarathon and in 2005 running 350 continuous miles without sleeping are just two of the highlights. In 2006, he completed the North Face Endurance 50 which consisted of running 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states. He competed in some actual marathon races but for most of the 50 he recreated the course and ran with whoever came out to join him. I did the Chicago marathon that year and distinctly remember him passing me around mile 20.

Dean’s second book, 50/50: Secrets I learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 Days — and How You Too Can Achieve Super Endurance!, chronicles his journey across America and is currently in bookstores. In addition to the book, the movie UltraMarathon Man: 50 Marathons • 50 States • 50 Days will be in theaters soon but for one night only. The showing is only July 31st and you will need to check the theater map to see if it is playing near you. Whether you are a long distance runner, short distance runner or are thinking about starting to run, this movie is sure to inspire you to get out there. It might not inspire you enough to sign up for the next North Face Endurance 50, but then again maybe it will.

It has been 4 years since Lance Armstrong last dominated the toughest bike race in the world but American cycling is still growing in strength and popularity despite his retirement.  Christian Vande Velde from Team Garmin-Chipotle finished 5th overall despite a painful crash in one of the stages.  Team Columbia finished 7th overall in team standings and managed to rack up a very impressive 5 stage wins, 4 of them coming from Great Britian’s Mark Cavendish.  Team Columbia held the yellow jersey for 4 days and also held the green, polka dot and white jerseys during multiple stages in the Tour.

Carlos Sastre and his CSC teammates proved they are by far the most dominant team in cycling but with more doping scandals in this year’s Tour resulting in team’s losing their sponsors, Team Garmin-Chipotle or Columbia could definitely add some strong riders to their roster in the off-season and give CSC a legitimate challenge next year.  American Christian Vande Velde proved he can climb with the best in the Pyrenees and Alps this year and said he intends to do just as well if not better next year.

A Spaniard has won this race the past three years (American Floyd Landis was stripped on the yellow jersey three years ago for failed drug tests) but it looks as though an American team, and possibly an American rider, is posed to change that in 2009.

TrailSmiths is an outdoor leadership education company based in Colorado Springs who recently announced they are expanding internationally. The TrailSmiths will be partnering with Hohliebi Programs to operate the Alpine Summer Term (AST) program in Lenk, Switzerland from July 13 to August 9, 2009. Lenk is a picture perfect mountain village located in the Swiss Alps and known for its skiing and spas.

The AST program is designed for high school aged youths to engage in leadership through learning outdoor skills and building teams. The AST consists of activities like back packing, mountain biking and cooking but also focuses on education and appreciation for the environment. This program is a fantastic opportunity for kids to gain a broader perspective of the world, build confidence and form new friendships.

Last month while visiting friends in Colorado Springs I had the good fortunate to be a part of a one day mountain biking trip with the founders of TrailSmiths, Ben and Sarah Smith, through the Stratton Open Space. I can say that they are superb guides and extremely professional. If I had children I would strongly consider sending them to Switzerland next summer.

You can find out more about the AST program and TrailSmiths through their website or by calling (719) 649-3642.

Outward Bound was originally founded in 1941 to provide young European sailors with the skills required to survive at sea.  Since then, they have expanded to the US and their current mission is “to inspire character development and self-discovery in people of all ages and walks of life through challenge and adventure, and to impel them to achieve more than they ever thought possible, to show compassion for others and to actively engage in creating a better world.”

In keeping with their mission and with generous funding from the Military Family Outdoor Initiative Project, a joint partnership of The Sierra Club and The Sierra Club Foundation, Outward Bound is offering 100% free 5 day expeditions to veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.  Airfare to and from the expedition is included.

Expeditions range from back packing to dog sledding in Maine, Minnesota, Colorado, Texas, and California.  Enrollment is currently open and more information can be found on the Outward Bound website or calling 866-669-2362.  I will definitely be signing up for an expedition, probably some dog sledding in Minnesota.  If you love the outdoors, free lodging, free flights, free food and are a veteran, you should strongly consider this fantastic opportunity.

We made some tweaks to the way we think about dates and times on the site.  Athlo is now aware of time zones.  Let’s say you live in San Francisco and log a run at 6pm.  Your friend in New York checks your recent activities at 9:15pm his time.  What does he see?  9:15pm - 6pm = you ran 3hrs 15mins ago, or does it? In reality, 6pm your time is 9pm his time and you ran only 15 minutes ago.  If your brain is hurting because of the time zone math, don’t worry, we’ve taken care of it.  Athlo now knows about your friends around the world.  When Switzerland resident and Athlo user Sarah Apgar logs a workout and 15 minutes transpire, everyone will see 15 minutes ago when they view her profile regardless of their time zone.  Check your settings page to ensure your time zone is properly set.

Some of you told us that you felt the drag/drop calendar interface was lacking because there was no trash can to drag workouts to in order to delete them.  In the bottom right of the calendar we’ve added just that.  Simply drag any workout that’s on your calendar that you don’t want to the trash and it’ll be deleted. We think it’s one of those tiny additions that make the site much easier to use.

We’ve made several other back end changes like enhanced page caching to speed up page load times, but we’ll spare you the geeky details.  Just know that we’re continuing to clean up and enhance some of the existing features on the site in parallel with the development of new features.  As always, your input is valueable so let us know what you’re thinking in the comments.

Slowing down to run farther seems obvious, but it is the hardest thing for people to force themselves to do when they first attempt longer runs.  To explain this, I’m going to target people who’ve never exceeded the 3-5 mile run range, think anyone going farther is crazy, and probably genetically superior.

Take your average high school athlete that has had to run 1-2 milers to stay in shape and maybe was able to crank out a 5 miler or 10k at one point for a charity race.  This likely seemed like the hardest thing on their body because they were trying to keep the 1-2 mile pace over the longer distance.  The fact is your body cannot maintain the heart rate you get up to when running a fast 1 mile over the course of 5 miles.

To show this point I’ve plotted the world record paces for the Olympic distances along with the mile and both full and half marathons:

Assuming that the average person would exhibit this rate of slowdown, someone who could run an 8 minute mile would be able to run a:

• 5k (3.1 mi) at a 9.1 min/mile pace (multiply by 1.13),
• 10k (6.2 mi) at a 9.4 min/mile pace (multiply by 1.17),
• Half Marathon (13.1 mi) at a 9.6 min/mile pace (multiply by 1.20),
• Marathon (26.2 mi) at a 10.6 min/mile pace (multiply by 1.33)

By slowing down at these rates for longer distances and periods of time, the body avoids crashing like when you finish a hard sprint and need to immediately stop to catch your breath.

There are a number of methods out there to determine your body’s thresholds like heart rate training and VO2 max determination, which I highly recommend looking into if you’re training for 13+ mile events.  If you’re not a competitive runner and sticking to 10Ks or less the best thing is to listen to your body; it’ll tell you when you can pick it up and when you should slow down.

If you’re not consistently running and try this approach a few times a week you’ll be amazed at how easy it becomes to get up to 45 - 60 minute workouts.  You’ll quickly be at a cardio level recommended by most doctors and medical journals.  If you get the bug and want to push it longer or harder I would advise researching nutrition management to ensure you’re replacing adequate calories and fluids to keep you going and avoid serious injuries.

That’s my approach to running farther: slow down.  I’d be curious to hear if any of you have found other methods that have really helped when trying to go from short to long distance running.

We posted a few site updates over the weekend that we’d like to briefly point out as we think they make the overall site experience much cleaner.  First, we’ve added a home page for every user.  Once you’ve logged in, clicking the Athlo logo or your name will take you to your home page.  This page’s purpose is to provide you insight into the activities of your friends.  You’ll find who’s been active, who’s been on the site, and most importantly who hasn’t logged any recent workouts and is potentially getting lazy.  We’re hoping all of these things plus the features in our pipeline will help you to motivate yourself and others.

On the profile page, you’ll find a much cleaner interface for uploading images and setting your profile picture.  While not an ultra-critical feature, we’re taking the time now to make nice some of the features we slapped together early on while focused on other training features.

Lastly, we’ve added a lot more links to connect you to your friends’ profiles and training calendars throughout the site.  On your profile and training page you’ll find links to your most active friends, and on your friends pages you’ll find a new sub-menu that will allow you to easily jump between their profile and training pages.  Seeing what your friends are doing is much easier as a result.

We’ll be rolling out some more interface enhancements this week so keep checking back and poking around.