We're approaching the end of 2009, and what an amazing, eventful, inspiring year it's been.  We've dropped a few not-so-subtle hints here and there, and in the New Year we'll be delving a bit more on the blog into the personal components that drove us towards fitness as sustenance.  This is going to be a journey in many ways, and we're really hoping you're in for the long ride. First: Thanks to everyone that reads and contributes on this blog. This has become a great source of motivation and fun for Kristin and me. Second: I'd like to give an update on a post we did last month, profiling a friend of mine "Stefan Kuhn". He placed... [More]

We were standing at the top of a cliff overlooking glittering blue-green water, both of us salty with ocean and buzzing with adrenaline. I'd just mustered enough courage to fling my unwilling body off a fairly large cliff at Rick's, to the delight of Corey, who'd already flipped, dived, and spun off a rope across the way into the depths. I'd suspected he was an adrenaline junkie too, we'd talked about it, but it turned out he also walked the walk. "I'm thinking about going off that one there," he nodded to a sketchy plank on top of a near dead tree on the other side of the cliffs: a place conspicuously absent of whitey tourists. Rastas an... [More]

I love going to the health food store. I feel like a wizard collecting regents to cast spells...night sage, spiders silk, muscle milk! (wtf). There are brilliantly colored lineups of pills and powders with flexing giants hulking on the labels. It's like a socially accepted opium den for fit people! But seriously... I know very little about supplements and powders and the right mix for me has been an experiment in trial and error. Right now, I'm drinking protein shakes twice a day between meals: a mix of three different brands: ISO Sensation (chocolate fudge and Cafe Brazil) GNC Well Being Be Buff and ISO Femme Vanilla (Kristin's, but the... [More]

I hate group sports. I think my bitterness stretches back to 1986, when I was first recruited for an elementary school basketball team.  I was asked to join the team because I could run like lightening, plus I was super tall and gangly and those are the ingredients of athletic prowess on the mini-court of kid basketball, right? Wrong.  I got my first glimpse of the fact that athletic levels vary wildly, even with matching intentions of grandure. The coach, upon realizing my flailing, awkward incompetence, devised a system where he "splashed" me in and out, rather than booting ... [More]

Running is uncomfortable, highly so.  Body parts jiggle, compress, collapse and chafe.  The heart pounds and thuds and sweat pours and the whole ordeal is an exercise in tolerating discomfort.  I like to be as comfortable as possible when tolerating discomfort, and over the years I've honed my running gear to a mandatory set.  I can't run without my marshmallow earbuds and my Lululemon tall pants and if my iPod is dead, it's a deal breaker.   Here are my top 5 absolute must haves for long runs in particular. Great Ear Buds The grey earbuds that come with the iPod don't even fit in the hole of my ear.  I can't... [More]