What I learned from my first half-marathon
Becky and I finished our first half-marathon two weeks ago in Minneapolis. It was a great experience, and for me it was the culmination of months of training. Heck, I even gave up lifting for a month. Now that I’ve finished the race, I’d like to share a few things I learned. Read more 
Thoughts from a newly certified personal trainer
While studying for my NASM certification, people often asked me what my plans were once I became a personal trainer. I would tell them that the first step was to get certified, and I’d figure out the rest from there. Now that I’m certified, I can’t hide behind that answer anymore.
Fitness trolls: Fighting roadblocks to healthy living
An internet troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages to provoke an emotional response in an online discussion. Their presence on the web is annoying, to say the least. What is even more frustrating is that these trolls also exist in real life, and like their internet-dwelling brethren, they exist to provoke and disrupt your healthy decisions.
Create your imprint: Hard work pays off.
After losing her sight to diabetes seven years ago, a blind woman from the UK has been writing a novel by hand. Each week her son visits her and reads her writing back to her. Recently she was devastated to find out that 26 pages of her story were lost, because her pen ran out of ink when she was writing. What was surely hours of work was gone, after never having been captured in the first place. Or was it? Read more
Mark’s journal: Minneapolis half-marathon training
I’m continuously thinking of ways to improve this blog. I was wondering if more personal entries have a place here. Maybe they do, maybe not. But I figured, no one has to read it, so I may as well write it!
Last year Becky and I ran the Monster Dash in St. Paul with a couple of friends. It was a 10-mile race in full costume. We kicked some major shell as the Ninja Turtles. It was a blast. But training for the 10 mile run was difficult. I used to be a pretty successful cross-country runner in high school, but I’ve gained weight since then and now it seems the impact of every step hurts that much more. I generally prefer interval running or shorter distance runs of about 2-3 miles, but this seemed like a new and fun challenge. Read more
