As a southern Indiana native, I can openly admit that I’m not a big fan of Springfield winters.

Ice and snow covered my neighborhood’s streets and sidewalks for weeks in December and January, making driving difficult, dog-walking unsafe and running nearly impossible. (Note: I can lend credibility to this complaint. I attempted to take my foster pup Gunther for a quick jog in the park and slipped on a covered patch of ice. Think feet over head.)

As my co-worker Pat mentioned earlier, I’m training for a few different races, so I toughed it out some days. But on others, it was just easier to head to the gym. If you’re thinking that treadmills are a boring buzz-kill, you’re right. I completely agree. So this winter, I decided to try something new — interval workouts.

Interval workouts call for alternating fast-paced exercise with slower recovery periods. Here’s an example: run at 7 mph for two minutes, jog at 4 mph for three minutes, repeat. This method doesn’t just build endurance and burn more calories, but it also makes treadmill time fly by.

I usually do interval workouts on nights when I’m scheduled to run three or four miles. It’s so much easier to stomach the treadmill for 30 to 40 minutes when I know I’m breaking the workout into smaller, more manageable pieces. Plus, I can read up on the latest People and Us Weekly gossip during the recovery periods.

I’ve listed my two favorite interval workouts below. You can find these, plus two others, described in more detail here at Runner’s World (http://bit.ly/bf4UoJ). For an extra challenge, set the incline on your treadmill to 2 degrees. This helps add "air resistance" to indoor running.

Speed it up
Warm up for 10 minutes at a slow pace

Run 3 minutes at a fast pace
Jog 3 minutes at an easy pace
Run 3 minutes at a fast pace
Jog 3 minutes at an easy pace
Run 3 minutes at a fast pace
Jog 5 minutes at an easy pace

Cool down for 5 minutes at a slow pace

10-4’s
Warm up for 10 minutes at a slow pace

Run 10 minutes at a moderate pace
Jog 4 minutes at an easy pace
Run 10 minutes at a moderate pace
Jog 4 miles at an easy pace

Cool down for 10 minutes at a slow pace


Even though winter's almost over (finally!), these workouts will still come in handy on rainy March and April days. Thanks for reading & good luck!

April is fast approaching, and it’s going to be a busy month for a couple of us in the Illinois Times office. Amanda Robert and I are running three races in April, back-to-back-to-back, and we’re pretty excited. We’ve been training officially since January, though we started running in November or December as a sort of “pre-training.” Now that we’re only a month away from the first race, the distances are starting to get long, but we’re ready.

The first race is the Lincoln Memorial Half Marathon (Information/Registration) right here in Springfield. That 13.1-mile race takes place April 3, starting downtown by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and ending outside St. John’s Hospital. Last year, I ran it in 2:18:02 – a bit slower than a 10-minute per mile pace. This year, I’d like to try and get that down to two hours flat. It’s a big challenge, but I’m in much better shape this year than last, having lost 30 pounds and diversified my workout a lot since then. If I’m going to make the two-hour mark, I’m going to have to run about 9 minutes per mile, or 6.7 miles per hour. I hope my knees don’t swell up too much! (See: Runners knee)

The next weekend, we’re traveling to St. Louis for the GO! St. Louis race event on April 10 in Forest Park (Information/Registration). It features a full marathon, half marathon, marathon relay, 5K and more. Since we will have just done the Lincoln Half the week before, we’re going to take it easy with the 5K. (That’s 3.1 miles, in case you didn’t know.) My usual 5K time is somewhere just under 27 minutes. For this one, I’m planning to make it in 25 minutes. That means I’ll have to increase my usual pace by about 40 seconds per mile. Not too hard, I hope.

Finally, we’ll head to Louisville, Kentucky for the Derby Festival Marathon event on April 24 (Information/Registration). Amanda is going to do the full marathon, while I am trying to put together a team for the marathon relay. (If I can’t get enough interested parties, I’ll do the half marathon.) Amanda’s training for the marathon seems pretty intense; she’s doing 16 miles this weekend after doing 15 miles last weekend.

The best part about doing races is the freebies bag. You usually get a cool T-shirt, product samples and coupons. The second best thing is the after-race food. At the Lincoln Half last year, they had pizza, biscuits and gravy and a ton of other awesome stuff to recharge our batteries – all free to race participants! And of course, there’s always the bonus of getting in shape and feeling great about yourself. You get an incredible sense of accomplishment and satisfaction from finishing a big race as your friends and family cheer you on. I can’t explain it, but running races has definitely made me see life differently.

Later this week, Amanda is going to share some information on speed interval training. It’s a great way to build both speed and distance. Until then, leave any questions you may have about training in the comments section below, and I’ll do my best to find you answers.

Take care and GET FIT!

Now that my legs have returned from the jelly-like state induced by the American Lung Association’s Fight for Air Stair Climb on Feb. 20 at the Hilton Hotel in Springfield, I’ve had a chance to chat with a few other people involved in the event.

Lori Younker, director of Program Services and Development at the American Lung Association in Illinois, sent over some photos from the event to share: http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/imagesGalleries.php?action=viewGallery&gal_id=11

All photos are courtesy of SMD Photography and Dennis Oehmke.

The ALA blasted through their $50,000 fundraising goal to reach $53,160! Congrats to them, as well as all the climbers and everyone who donated.

Check out the event page here: http://ala.convio.net/site/TR?fr_id=1271&pg=entry

The winner of the climb was local expert Terry Purcell, whose 2 minute, 24 second ascent was absolutely amazing. (I’m pretty sure he’s a cyborg from the future!) Even cooler is the fact that his wife, Susan Purcell, clocked in at 3 minutes, 46 seconds, not only making her the top female in the race, but also netting her 13th place overall. (She totally blasted my time out of the water!)

As stated before, now is a great time to start practicing for next year. Climb stairs at your own pace once or twice a week for a year and see what happens. I would bet you’ll see your legs grow stronger and your stamina and lung capacity improve markedly.

Best wishes to everybody! Now get out there and Get FIT!

Staring upward from the feet of Polyphemus, I feel a twinge of vertigo overwhelm me. The arrogant, towering cyclops seems to lean over me, mocking me and threatening to crush me. He is unmoving, yet he seems ready to raise his club and end me.

A blink and a deep breath reveal Polyphemus to be the soaring Hilton Hotel - not the hungry spawn of Greek deities, but still intimidating enough to make me wish for a moment that I had stayed in bed. It's among the tallest buildings in the city, and my six-plus feet of height are negligible - even laughable - in comparison.

Inside, the elevator doors slide open with a cheerful "Bing!", beckoning me to take the easy way to the top. It's 30 floors - sixty flights of stairs. I turn away quickly, as if the elevator is trying to make eye contact. Once that happens, you've already lost.

"Not today," I think to myself, mustering the sort of angry motivation every movie underdog must feel when he prepares to take on his Goliath. My fists are clenched, my eyebrows are furled, and my determination burns hot like a gasoline fireball.

My teammate Amanda stands next to me, her even-keeled resolve calming us both. It's going to be a long climb up the winding steps that seem to spiral into the heavens, but we refuse to be defeated by a mere building. Though it stands still - an inanimate chunk of concrete and steel with no will of its own - it seems to thrash violently, like the angry cyclops blinded by the spear of Odysseus. We have no spears, only our worn-out running shoes, but we will subdue this beast. We will defeat the mighty Hilton.

In less epic terms: My co-worker Amanda and I are participating in the American Lung Association's Fight for Air Stair Climb on Feb. 20 at the Hilton. It's a fundraiser for the ALA in their fight against lung disease.

If you feel like supporting us with a donation, here's a link to our team page: http://ala.convio.net/site/TR/StairClimb/ALAUM_Upper_Midwest?pg=team&fr_id=1271&team_id=9440

All donations go directly to the ALA. Click on one of our names to donate. (Unfortunately, you can't donate to the team in general. You have to pick one of us.)

We are called "Slow Patrol" after the band "Snow Patrol". There's another team called "Death Climb for Cutie," so we couldn't resist another band pun. Hopefully we'll be patrolling for slow climbers, rather than just patrolling slowly.

Neither of us has ever done a stair climb like this, but we're both long-distance runners (Amanda is even training for a marathon in April), so we'll take whatever abuse the Hilton can dish out.

Hope you can support us either with a donation or by coming out to cheer us on. Thanks for reading!

Exercise is not everyone’s cup of tea. You get sweaty, you get tired and many of us feel we have to go to the gym to get a real workout. But there are plenty of exercises that don’t require a lot of time, space or equipment.

Lately, I’ve been doing the Prison Workout (here), a regimen of strength-building moves, including Burpees (video), planks (video) and more. It’s a pretty big challenge to complete all of the exercises, but they’re all pretty simple and straightforward, and you’ll get a whole-body workout.

The planks really intrigue me. How can you exercise if you don’t move?! It’s one of several exercises called “isometrics” – workouts where you tense up certain muscles and hold them to build strength in that position. Isometrics are really good for increasing muscle mass and firming up. Read more here.

What other similar exercises do you like?

Ever wonder about the nutritional value of papaya? Ever wonder whether iceberg lettuce is really as useless as it tastes?

The same folks who brought you Condé Nast Traveler, GQ, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Wired, The New Yorker and many other edgy national publications have compiled data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to show you the value of your food.

NutritionData.com is derived from information found on the USDA Web site, but the former is clearly easier to understand and far more visually-appealing than the latter. (Turns out iceberg lettuce isn't entirely worthless after all!)

 There's a lot more to the site - healthy eating advice, a daily needs calculator, food comparison charts, and tons more.You should consult a professional before making any big changes to your lifestyle, but for quick help with your dietary choices, that site looks pretty useful.

 As always, thanks for reading Illinois Times!

When I decided to get my health and fitness in order, I took up running because it was the easiest way to make a change - easier than improving my diet, that is. Since then, I've come a long way, and one group in Springfield has helped me achieve something I thought impossible.

The Half Wits X2 running group is a diverse collection of local runners who get together every Saturday morning starting in January to train for the Lincoln Memorial Half Marathon (April 3, 2010) and the Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon. When I ran with them last year, the group was known as the Springfield Halfwits, focused solely on the Lincoln half. The horizon has since broadened, and the new addition is being greeted with much enthusiasm at the Half Wits' new blog. Check it out at http://spfldhwx2.blogspot.com/.

The full marathon training starts Jan. 2 with an eight-mile jaunt, while the half marathon training starts Jan. 16 with five miles. Both runs will likely begin at the customary time of 7 a.m.

 If you're interested in group running around Springfield, check out the Half Wits' sponsor organization, the Springfield Road Runners Club. You'll never meet a more inviting and encouraging group of weekend athletes.

Merry Christmas, IT readers!

As I sit here munching on all the goodies bestowed upon the office this week from wonderful friends and clients, I can't help but wonder why in the world would I think that I can write anything useful about eating right? But then I remember that eating correctly is the usual thing I try to do. This season just throws me off course a bit. As years have marched on for me, I have had to consider the best way to stay relatively thin. What I discovered is that what works for me may not work for you. But if you are truly trying to find the right mix of good carbs, bad carbs, protein, fiber, fruits and vegetables, I can tell you what IS really working for me and it may be just the thing for you too. Portion control. Dirty words. Very effective. I take a small plate and eat slowly, unlike the days when I "bolted my food like a field hand"....Gone With The Wind some of you will remember. Grazing. Sounds like cows. Very effective. Small portions four or five times daily instead of three big meals. I have high blood sugar just below the diabetes threshold so I feel better this way too. I get a little crabby when my sugar crashes. Balance. Good carbs (whole grain breads, fruits and vegetables, whole grain cereals, nuts and beans). There is no such thing as a long term low carb diet. It only works initially and then it all comes back. Unless you want those fat deposits that it delivers in your arteries day after day. Yuck. Lots of water, although my drink of choice is diet green tea. Several glasses daily does the trick. Nix the fast food. Entirely. A little vodka every day can't hurt either. Here's to a happy lifestyle change. No dieting allowed.

This could be a critical week in the national health care debate as Democrats aim to deliver reform by Christmas. Senate Democrats in Washington, D.C. have mustered the required 60 votes to stop a Republican filibuster of a health care reform bill, clearing the first of the remaining parliamentary hurdles before the massive bill can be passed. The reform measure has been watered down to attract centrist Democrats and independents, which has angered some more liberal Democrats. Notably, the so-called "public option" - government-run health insurance to compete with private plans - was a major point of contention until Republicans forced its removal from the bill. Instead, H.R. 3590 contains a "public option lite," which allows individuals to buy private insurance plans overseen by the government. Democrats can push the bill through with their 60 votes, but dropped support from even one senator could stall or kill the bill.

So what's at stake? Not much - just the future of health care as we know it. Democrats say the sprawling, 2000-page bill would provide quality, affordable health care to 31 million Americans, while Republicans say the bill would result in higher taxes, higher health care costs and longer lines at the doctor's office.

What does H.R. 3590 do? The Congressional Budget office summarizes it this way:

Among other things, the legislation would establish a mandate for most legal residents of
the United States to obtain health insurance; set up insurance exchanges through which
certain individuals and families could receive federal subsidies to substantially reduce the
cost of purchasing that coverage; significantly expand eligibility for Medicaid;
substantially reduce the growth of Medicare’s payment rates for most services (relative to
the growth rates projected under current law); impose an excise tax on insurance plans
with relatively high premiums; and make various other changes to the federal tax code,
Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs. (PDF)

There's a lot to digest in this bill, and Republicans may have enough parliamentary options to delay its passage until after Christmas, but it's unclear if they can strip away support when the votes are cast. There may be24 inches of snow on the ground in D.C., but things are definitely heating up.

See the bill here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.3590.as: