Welcome to the official blog of U.S. middle-distance runner Sara Hall. Sara’s list of running accolades include being a former NCAA All- American at Stanford, the 2006 USA 5K road champion, and the 2006 champion at the Continental Fifth Avenue Mile. Check back every other Friday for her latest entry at http://sarahall.thefinalsprint.com/
I often joke that I was born in the wrong body when it comes to music. For someone who loves music so much and whose brain is so musically-oriented, I can not carry a tune for the life of me! I have an incredible capacity for song lyrics, from childhood on, that I’ve heard more than a few times. I wish there was a TV show that was “Name that Disney Tune” because I would clean up!
Although music impacts me greatly, my own musical career didn’t last long. I tried taking up piano for two years while in junior high, but soccer, basketball and track took over, and I never could find time to practice. When I forgot my song in the middle of a piano recital, my parents and I decided it was time to call it quits. Besides that, though I have ambitions of learning the guitar one day, my music-making consists of singing in the car (poor Ryan!).
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Sometimes, it feels like nothing could be more rewarding than a long run in the fresh spring air. Your legs are weightless, the day is windless, and the minutes seem to fly by.
But what about those other days? You know, when you feel like you crawled out of bed to fall flat on the road, or your same old route feels blah and you can’t stop checking your watch. How do you to combat boredom in your running routine, keep things interesting, and sustain a challenging fitness lifestyle that leaves you wondering what’s next, instead of counting the seconds until you can hit the showers and grab a coffee?
Read the rest of this entry at our partner site: HerActiveLife.com
Reluctant IAAF Hands Jones’ Silver Medal To Thanou
Even though she herself is under a cloud of suspicion, the IAAF said they “had no other choice” but to hand Marion Jones’ silver medal from the 2001 World Championships 100m dash to Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou. Jones lost all her medals last year after confessing to doping.
Read more at: [Google News]
If Only Fan Reaction In the US Were This Rabid
Even though they won both men’s and women’s team titles in the 2008 IAAF World Cross-Country Championships, the Kenyan team returned home to mixed crowd reaction. Since the Ethiopians swept the individual titles, some of the Kenyan fans look at this outing as a failure. Here in the US, our own delegation was greeted with confused looks and people who were heard saying, “cross country? What’s that?”
Read more at: [Kenya Broadcasting Corporation]
The Day The Music Died
If you need more than the sound of your own breathing and footsteps to accompany you while you try to reach that marathon finish line before your glycogen level drops further south than a penguin during mating season, you might be troubled to learn that the IAAF is considering a world-wide ban on mp3 players during competition.
Read more at: [Guardian UK]
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Check back every other Wednesday for his latest entry and for more information about Cox, also please visit: www.joshcox.com
In ‘97 Cox ran and won a 50-mile ultra, in ’99 he ran his first marathon making him the youngest Trials qualifier. The following year he clocked 2:13, which opened the door for him to train with the world’s best in Kenya. Cox has tried his hand at Reality TV, been all over magazine covers and is a fixture in the sport.
CARPE DIEM
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven played music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Baptist minister and civil rights leader“It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself.”
- Francis Bacon, English philosopher and statesman“Never, never, never quit.”
- Winston Churchill, Author, soldier and Prime Minister
October 1980, Paul David Hewson and his band - formally known as “Feedback” and “The Hype” - had just released their first full-length album, Boy. Their single “I Will Follow” climbed the UK charts and their star was born. Around that time, the band joined a religious group in Dublin, the Shalom Fellowship. Time passed and some of Shalom’s leaders began criticizing the bands “involvement in the world.” The leaders told the band that in order to please God they would have to give up rock ‘n’ roll.
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TheFinalSprint.com (TFS) is honored to present our monthly Success Story award to individuals who have overcome tremendous obstacles, changed their own lives and/or the lives of others through running, sports or fitness.
I am proud to announce that TFS’s January 2008 Success Story, and my guest on Episode 119 of The Final Sprint Podcast is courageous survivor and hall-of-fame track & field coach BEVERLY KEARNEY, head coach of the University of Texas women’s track & field team and founder and president of “Pursuit of Dreams,” a non-profit organization comprised of leaders from athletics, business, and medicine whose mission is to provide the necessary assistance and guidance to individuals in order to fulfill their total mental, physical and spiritual goals.
Coach Kearney uses those same principals in her coaching. Her success in track and field is almost unprecedented. In her distinguished career, she has led her Longhorns to 6 NCAA National Championships and 14 top-three team finishes, She is 3-time NCAA Outdoor Coach of the Year, 2-time NCAA Indoor Coach of the Year and 15-time Conference Coach of the Year. She has coached 14 individual NCAA Champions who have earned a total of 28 NCAA titles, 36 different student-athletes to 51 NCAA national titles overall (individual and relay) and 15 relay-team NCAA Champions.
To top it all off, she recently was inducted to the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame. She has accomplished all of her remarkable achievements despite having to overcome incredible adversity, including losing her mother in high school and becoming homeless, and suffering a near-fatal car accident that killed two of her friends. Using her own principles, she is walking now and has coached her young ladies from her hospital bed, a wheelchair, a walker, and now stands and walks on her own. In our interview we talk about all of this and much more!
Listen In
[PLAY] (To Download: Right click and select “save as”)[RSS] Add The Final Sprint Podcast RSS feed to your RSS reader to have the show delivered to you
Host: Jimmie R. Markham | Guest: Beverly Kearney
Producers:Greg Cherniet, Jimmie R. Markham
Music: Ryan Ahlwardt & Darnell Perkins
File size: 16.4 MB | Length: 23:58
Episode Sponsored By: Nike +
Long Live Running!
Nike Plus will improve the way you run. Get feedback from your iPod on pace, time, distance and calories burned.Log into Nikeplus.com to track your progress,
set goals and challenge friends.
Interested in featuring The Final Sprint Podcast on your site, blog or My Space page? Click here to learn how!
Episode 115 of The Final Sprint Podcast, the most listened to running podcast in North America, features my two-part interview with JAY JOHNSON; middle-distance track coach at the University of Colorado, Director of the Boulder Running Camps and now the producer/editor of a new DVD series for runners.
In part two of the interview Coach Johnson talks about his current middle-distance track team at CU and their chances of making the U.S. Olympic team, the resurgence of distance running in the U.S. and how we can compete with the Kenyan runners.
Download the podcast to hear Coach Johnson discuss these topics, what he thinks about Ryan Hall’s recent performance at the Olympic Trials marathon and much more!
Listen In
[PLAY] (To Download: Right click and select “save as”)[RSS] Add The Final Sprint Podcast RSS feed to your RSS reader to have the show delivered to you
Host: Jimmie R. Markham | Guest: Jay Johnson
Producers: Greg Cherniet, Jimmie R. Markham
Musicians: Ryan Ahlwardt, Darnell Perkins
File Size: 19.6 MB | Length: 21:27 MIN
Episode Sponsored By: Nike +
Nike Plus will improve the way you run. Get feedback from your iPod on pace, time, distance and calories burned.Log into Nikeplus.com to track your progress,
set goals and challenge friends.
Interested in featuring The Final Sprint Podcast on your site, blog or My Space page? Click here to learn how!
Episode 114 of The Final Sprint Podcast, the most listened to running podcast in North America, features my two-part interview with JAY JOHNSON; middle-distance track coach at the University of Colorado, Director of the Boulder Running Camps and now the producer/editor of a new DVD series for runners.
In part one of the interview Coach Johnson talks about his role on the 1998 Colorado Buffalo cross-country team that was featured in the cult running classic Running with the Buffaloes by Chris Lear. He also discusses why runners need to be better prepared nowadays than they were when he ran and how his new DVD Building a Better Runner: Building from the Ground Up can help runners do that. He is offering this DVD to readers of The Final Sprint at a 20% discount (see code in graphic at the top of this post).
Download the podcast to hear Coach Johnson discuss these topics, describes the fantastic experience young runners can have at his running camp, Boulder Running Camps, and much more!
Listen In
[PLAY] (To Download: Right click and select “save as”)
[RSS] Add The Final Sprint Podcast RSS feed to your RSS reader to have the show delivered to you
Host: Jimmie R. Markham | Guest: Jay Johnson
Producers: Greg Cherniet, Jimmie R. Markham
Musicians: Ryan Ahlwardt, Darnell Perkins
File Size: 22.4 MB | Length: 24:31 MIN
Episode Sponsored By: Nike +
Nike Plus will improve the way you run. Get feedback from your iPod on pace, time, distance and calories burned.Log into Nikeplus.com to track your progress,
set goals and challenge friends.
Interested in featuring The Final Sprint Podcast on your site, blog or My Space page? Click here to learn how!
Product: Nike+ iPod Sport Kit
Prices: $30.00 (foot pod & iPod receiver). iPod nano and Nike+ shoes sold separately.
Rating: Very Good 8.3/10.0
Pros: Very easy to use. Good accuracy once it is calibrated. Inexpensive; very good value if you already own an iPod and Nike+ shoes. Power Song feature is great idea. Nike+ online training log free, fun, and incorporates good motivation and community.
Cons: Requires calibration. Requires specific ancillary equipment (iPod nano, Nike+ shoes).
Overall: To use this innovative running tool effectively, you need to regularly run with music (or podcasts), own an iPod nano, and should own Nike+ shoes. Given these “ifs”, it is a great product for the money, and a tremendous motivational tool. The sensor will need to be calibrated, and works best in a Nike+ shoe, but tends to yield fairly good accuracy once these criteria are met. Runners who don’t use an iPod, or who want a richer feature set, should continue looking at more “traditional” fitness monitors.
Design - 9 - Out of the box, the Nike + iPod Sport Kit includes a Nike + iPod Sensor (foot pod), a Nike + iPod Receiver, and an instruction manual. The foot pod goes into the cavity in the left Nike+ shoe. The receiver goes into the bottom port of an Apple iPod nano. If you don’t own Nike+ shoes, the foot pod can be put into a shoe pouch (sold separately for $10), which can be attached to any shoe’s laces. All testing for this review was performed with a pair of Nike+ shoes and a 3rd Generation iPod nano.
I was pretty excited when I got the 3rd-generation iPod nano; the possibilities for running were great. However, I lacked one critical accessory: a good protective case and armband.
I soon found that the DLO Action Jacket solved my problems. The neoprene case is designed specifically for the 3rd generation (4GB/8GB) iPod nano, and comes with a 180-degree rotating belt clip and an adjustable armband. The Action Jacket retails for $30, but I was able to find it for as low as $18 (plus free shipping!) on Amazon.com. Colors are available in black, white, or pink. I personally like the black.
To me, a mark of a good armband is that it makes no impression on me. In other words, I won’t know it’s there, leaving me free to think about my run and enjoy the music! The Action Jacket succeeds in this with its simple design. The neoprene case with clear viewing window protects the iPod from the elements, and a “cut-out” in the case allows me easy access to the nano’s Click Wheel. I actually ran with it during a snow storm, and it did its job.
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When I made the jump to running with an mp3 player, I quickly noticed two things:
As a result, one of the first accessories I purchased were nicer, more comfortable, more stable ear clip headphones. Even these never quite fit my ears right and tended to jiggle around. Perhaps I should have first looked at a pair of Nike sport headphones.
I recently had the pleasure of testing the Nike Flight and the Nike Vapor sport headphones. I enjoyed both models, and each offered a unique set of pro’s and con’s.
The Nike Flight headphones (Pictured above) feature a behind-the-head design, and retail for $20. The aspects I immediately noticed about this model is that they are extremely lightweight and simple.
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MotionLingo’s Adeo has garnered much attention this year as an innovative GPS-based fitness trainer that not only tracks your speed and distance, but also accommodates full integration with any mp3 player.
I have run with many other GPS products, but the Adeo is the first to provide workout feedback via audio messages rather than a […]
Every week The Final Sprint’s team of music gurus post a new, downloadable iMix on the site and in iTunes to help you stay motivated throughout all of your weekly runs and workouts.
FINISH STRONG iMix #2, created by Adam Jacobs, features the greatest collection of pump-up classic rock tunes ever assembled. Below […]
Well, I’ve broken down and done it. I have purchased an mp3 player … and I intend to run with it!
Most of you are probably thinking: “Well, so what? Welcome to the 21st century!” It’s true, I’ve been a bit behind. But there’s more to it than that. I have to […]
If you’re an avid runner, then the Nike+iPod system certainly caught your attention and you may even be a user. Well, what if you could take the iPod out of the picture? Nothing officially has been announced yet, but a visitor to the Nike Store Europe website snapped a screenshot of a new […]
I have an odd habit. I try to run naked once a week. By “naked”, I actually mean “without a watch”.
We runners love our gadgets, and the sports watch is the grandaddy of all running accessories. Many of us literally feel naked without one. Take my iPod, GPS, HR monitor, and hydration pack - […]
As most of you already know, exercise is known to be a battle of “mind over matter” (with your mind often wandering while we work on our bodies). Although mind wandering can sometimes lead to your next great idea when you’re at the gym or on your training runs, you need your mind to […]
Want the gear that will go the furthest, last the longest and do the most to improve your performance? Want to buy the perfect holiday gift for the runner in your family? Want the newest, most advanced training tools on the market?
Then look no further! The Final Sprint’s Top Picks of 2006 […]
Thanks for your great responses to the second contest in The Final Sprint’s Re-Launch Celebration. The lucky winners of the Adeo GPS Fitness Trainers have been notified. For those of you who missed out, don’t worry because we’ll be giving away a few more next week.
For our third contest, The Final Sprint is […]
Every week The Final Sprint’s team of music gurus posts a new, downloadable iMix on the site and in iTunes to help you stay motivated throughout all of your weekly runs and workouts.
SOUND RUNNING iMix #1, created by Rick Jacobs, is a 70-minute playlist of Classic and Modern Rock. As an avid runner himself, […]
Every week The Final Sprint’s team of music gurus post a new, downloadable iMix on the site and in iTunes to help you stay motivated throughout all of your weekly runs and workouts.
FINISH STRONG iMix #1, created by Matt Kappel, is 70 minutes in duration and features a solid combination of rock songs. […]
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