My Articles:
Make your own custom M&M’s!
Yeah, you heard right: custom M&M’s! Settle for the plain ol’ primary colors and white M’s no longer. The website MyMMs.com lets you customize M&Ms with your own personal message. You can choose from several colors, including the traditional M&M hues, several shades of pastel (light purple, light blue, and pink), dark green, aqua, gold, silver, cream, white, black, and even dark pink M&M’s. Pink AND dark pink? What a perfect Valentine’s Day combo! (Hint, hint to anyone who wants to get me a Valentine’s gift! :D).
Inspiration from another generation
I have set a general goal to run my marathon in less than five hours. A little closer to four and a half (Oprah’s time was 4:29, and I feel like I should be able to beat her, but I don’t want to get in over my head!) would be great, but I want to set a fairly conservative goal so I’m not too disappointed. It’s my first marathon, after all, and hopefully there will be more if all goes well! I have the rest of my life to run a sub-four marathon –Â but I’ll need a little more training before that happens!
New month resolutions
I’m a big proponent of breaking down tasks into smaller increments. You want to write a novel? Don’t think about writing 50,000 words (like the NaNoWriMo people do); think about outlining your plot, sketching your characters, then writing 1000 (or 500, or 300, or as many as you can manage) words each day. Half of those words may never become part of your final novel–but you’ll never create a novel without them.
Doing the right thing!
I’m a big fan of my iPod, but I don’t actually use the iTunes Store that much. This article, though, points out that the iTunes Store has a benefit I’d never thought about before: an environmental one!
We are only human!
Yesterday I came across this cool new site called Only Human. It’s a place for people to share mistakes they’ve made in the past to help ensure that others won’t make the same ones. It’s still pretty new, but they’ve gotten a surprising amount of contributions in a short time.
Can “Ultraman” motivate me to become “Ultrawoman”?
Just ran across this new Wired article about Dean Karnazes, the ultra-ultra-ultra-marathoner (I have to add a few extra ultra’s for Dean!). I’d heard of Dean several times, but didn’t know too much about him. I was surprised to learn that he wasn’t always an ultra-runner; he got on that track about 15 years ago, at age 30. If he can make such an intense lifestyle change at that age, I bet most of us have the ability to make at least minor changes, no matter where we are in life!
A mini-resolution
I recently came across a cool blog post which suggested trying to have a judgment-free day:
Deja vu?
I was really excited when Alan Webb broke Jim Ryun’s high school mile record back in 2001 by running a 3:53.43 mile (at the Pre classic, no less! :D) after becoming the first high school miler to run a sub-four mile indoors. (He’s still the only high schooler to accomplish this feat.) Now, six years to the day after his sub-four indoor mile, Alan’s gone and broken another record!
If the shoe fits…
You don’t have to wear it! Shoes are a big component of running success, and the suitability of a running shoe goes beyond fit (though that’s of course important!). I’ve had the same pair of shoes for almost a year and will definitely need to be getting a new pair soon for my marathon training.
Running in the rain (and worse!)
I came across this great Runner’s World blog post by Kristin Armstrong about an intense run she had in some chilly (41 degrees!) rain. I was reminded of one run during my high school years when my track team got caught in a totally intense thunderstorm!