Powell, who has worked in real estate, is a survivor of colon cancer and is best known around San Diego for his alter-ego, superhero Captain Challenge. Captain Challenge, he once told The San Diego Union-Tribune, “is a super hero with no super powers. Captain Challenge challenges everyone to do something they’ve never done before and challenges people to help those that need help.”

On June 27, that help will come in the form of $25 donations made by anyone who chooses to come to Solanapalooza, an afternoon and evening of musical performances—including an appearance by the USC Marching Band—free wine and food tastings, and the honoring of several cancer survivors.

The event starts at 4 p.m. at the Village on Cedros at 348 S. Cedros in Solana Beach. Then partygoers will make their way to the Belly Up Tavern down the street, where there will be a raffle and live music.

Whether you live close by or are in California for the summer sun, it’s an event worth checking out, as the San Diego Triathlon club is lending its support and several local athletes are expected to attend.

The post Solanapalooza Community Fundraiser Set for June 27 appeared first on Competitor.com.

Retro gas pump courtesy of Alesist on Flickr.

Dump the Pump Day started in 2004 as an effort to get Americans to trade personal vehicles for public transportation for both environmental and financial reasons. But we runners can one-up the original goal of dump the pump day, cutting gas usage down even more. Here are five ways you can ditch gas and get fit in the process:

1. Run to Work
If your commute isn’t a killer, run to cut out gas consumption altogether. But if a one-way run to work would make you an ultramarathoner, consider some creative options that don’t demand Dean Karnazes-like genetics: bike or use public transportation part way, run the rest.

2. Create a Cupboard Meal
Don’t drive to a restaurant or the grocery store today. Instead, challenge yourself to make a meal out of what you’ve got stashed in your fridge, freezer and cupboards. One of my faves: Lipton noodle soup with frozen veggies and meat (if wanted). Heat the soup in the microwave for seven minutes, then dump in the veggies and meat (you can cut up deli meat if needed) and voila! You have a cheap, healthful, electrolyte replenishing meal.

3. Run from Home
Do you usually drive to your local running store to meet up for a run? Or to a trailhead? Try running from home for a day. If people can run 35 miles around Tokyo, the world’s most populous metropolitan area, (see the July issue of Competitor Magazine in two weeks for more on running in Tokyo!) you can urban run as well. Or country run. Just make sure to tell someone where you’re going and when you expect to be back if you’re going it alone in new territory—everything is different from a non-behind-the-wheel perspective.

Happy Friday!

****

Erin Beresini is a senior editor for Competitor Magazine.

The post 3 Ways for Runners to Celebrate Dump the Pump Day appeared first on Competitor.com.

Courtesy of Jeremy Jenum on Flickr.

“The more scientists study warm-ups, the less they seem to understand about the practice,” said the New York Times in a health article posted today.

The article cited a new study published in May in The Journal of Applied Physiology that found some athletes warm up so much that they are too tired to perform at their best come time for their competition.

Researchers at Canada’s University of Calgary studied highly trained male track cyclists, asking them to compete after their usual warm-up (20 minutes of riding, increasing to 95% max heart rate, then 4×8 minute all out sprints) and after a 15-minute, lower-intensity warm-up. The researchers found that the cyclists’ muscles had more power before the cyclists’ usual warm-up than after it, leading researchers to believe that as far as warming up goes, less is more.

The researchers, however, were unable to answer whether or not warming up at all is beneficial to athletic performance.

“A warm-up is thought to allow tissues literally to become heated, to reach a temperature at which they are, presumably, more flexible and malleable and ready for the demands of further exercise,” Dr. MacIntosh, a researcher who studied sprint skaters’ warmups before the 2010 Winter Olympics, told the New York Times. “But it hasn’t been proved that warm muscles perform better than colder ones or that they are less prone to injury.”

The post Why Your Warm-Up May Be Slowing You Down appeared first on Competitor.com.

Runner photo courtesy of lululemon athletica on Flickr.

Sure, Saturday can be a day of rest—after you get in your morning workout! Tempted to hit the snooze button or, heaven forbid!, not set an alarm at all? One or more of these 10 reasons not to sleep through Saturday morning should get you up and out the door.

10. There’s a cute guy or gal at your local shop’s Saturday morning group run. She/he won’t know you exist if you’re in your jammies!

9. Dessert. Run now, eat it guilt free later.

8. Unlike during the week, you can go back to bed.

7. TiVo. If you must watch Fuse’s 100 Sexiest Videos of All Time marathon (you dirty runner, you), you won’t miss a thing.

6. Escape hung-over roommate breakfast rants about how totally ridiculous and stuff last night was, bro.

5. Pancake breakfast. Tastes infinitely better after a run.

4. Your dog will do horrible things to your living room carpet if you don’t.

3. Your hung-over roommate will do horrible things to your living room carpet anyway—but you won’t be around to see it.

2. Summer weather. Some like it hot.

1. Dominate your next race. 6 a.m. wake-up call? No problem. You do it every weekend!

Happy Trails (or streets or sidewalks or beaches or…)

The post 10 Reasons to Skip the Snooze Button on Saturday appeared first on Competitor.com.

Photo courtesy of fsecart on Flickr.

Australian researchers found that formoterol, a relatively new type of asthma medication, stimulates the metabolism without affecting the heart, Science Daily reports.

When eight healthy men took formoterol orally at a dose that would produce a metabolic effect, their metabolism increased by more than 10 percent and their fat burning increased by more than 25 percent, while their bodies lessened protein burning by 15 percent.

“In the long run these effects may lead to a loss in fat mass and an increase in muscle,” said study leader, endocrinologist Dr. Paul Lee.

Before you start complaining to your doctor about a newly developed tightness in your chest, wait for further studies. Science Daily notes the next step “will be to test the drug over a longer period in a larger sample of people to determine if the beneficial effects translate into improvement in body composition, health and function.”

The post Your Asthma Meds Could Make You Leaner appeared first on Competitor.com.

Aspen courtesy of markwgallagher on Flickr.

If you are fortunate enough to get away to Aspen, Colo. this weekend, check out these two opportunities to go on guided hikes/trail runs to either Cathedral Lake or Snowmass Lake. Professional guide service, Aspen Alpine Guides, is leading the hikes/runs as part of Outside in Aspen, a weekend filled with outdoor activities, such as trail running, mountain biking and stand-up paddle boarding, and panel discussions with the world’s top adventure athletes. Rumor has it US Trail Running champion, Rickey Gates, may lead the Snowmass Lake run.

Hike to Cathedral Lake
This popular day hike traverses through Aspen trees and scree fields to an alpine lake at 11,866 ft., just above tree line. Round trip hike of less than 6 miles and 200 feet of vertical gain.

Trail Running to Snowmass Lake
The Maroon Snowmass trail run has an uphill element (2580 ft. gain), but is primarily an endurance run on a narrow hiker’s trail that stretches 7.6 miles one way.

Both events will begin at 9am on Saturday. Make sure to arrive at Base Camp at Gondola Plaza in Aspen at 8:30am to check in and meet your guide.

Find out more about the weekend’s schedule here.

The post Group Trail Runs In Aspen This Weekend appeared first on Competitor.com.

Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega Sport

My boss likes to tell me I’m doing horrible things to my body by eating sugar. Before my morning oatmeal even makes it into my mouth, I can hear him telling me I’m going to spike my insulin if I eat that! Don’t do it! I dig in anyway. I run on carbs.

So when my boss started preaching that fish oil would help me recover faster from training and racing and fix the inflammation I was causing by eating un-Paleo foods, like pre-packaged cinnamon swirl oatmeal, I was skeptical. I am a non-pill taker. I take nothing. No supplements. No Advil. Nada. How’s that for natural?

I stared at the Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega Sport bottle of 90 fish oil capsules for at least two months before I decided I’d give it a try during a month without any races planned. If it were going to screw me up in any way, I needed to know before, say, the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Marathon.

And so the great fish oil experiment began on May 4, a few days after Wildflower and a month before the marathon (feeling weird at Bay 2 Breakers on May 15, I decided, would be OK).

I popped the recommended three pills—one at breakfast, lunch and dinner—and waited to feel awesome. According to the literature, “Ultimate Omega Sport promotes cardiovascular and respiratory function, supports focus and concentration, supports the body’s natural anti-inflammatory response, and supports fat metabolism and body composition.” Therefore, I should be leaner, healthier and more productive from popping the 27 calories per day of extra fat into my body.

The next morning, I felt something. I believe the medical term for it is “the squirts.” What the heck? Does this happen to everyone who eats a relatively low-fat diet rich in Safeway chicken instead of Alaskan fish? I pictured the liquid in the pills forming into SC Johnson scrubbing bubbles and going to work on my intestines.

For two weeks, the fishy scrubbers cleaned me out. I was a bloated, embarrassing mess. I felt like I had invested in a cheaper version of Hollywood’s favorite outpatient procedure: colon cleansing. This is what it feels like to have better concentration and less inflammation? I couldn’t tell if I were leaning out—it felt and looked like a salmon took up residence in my stomach. But I stuck with it. The bottle had 90 pills; that’s 30 days-worth of omega-3s.

By week two-and-a-half, my body’s fish-oil freak out began to subside. I rode my bike 156 miles in one day, then ran three hilly hours the next day (another story entirely—Ultraman Canada training) and felt like I recovered quickly from the effort; two weeks later, at R ‘n’ R San Diego, I qualified for Boston. The first thing I did afterward? (Besides cursing marathons and swearing I’d never run one again because it hurt so bad?) I downed a couple of fish oil pills.

I don’t know if it’s the pills or the placebo effect, but now I can’t imagine doing the training I’m doing without them.

But without sugar? Fat chance, boss.

The post The Great Fish Oil Experiment appeared first on Competitor.com.

Researchers studied 23 men and women who each weighed an average of 218 pounds. They were put on a diet of no more than 30 percent of calories from carbs and as much as 40 percent of calories from fat. Twenty three other men and women were put on a low-fat diet with no more than 30 percent of their daily calories coming from fat and 55 percent from carbs. Both groups exercised moderately.

The high-fat group lost 10 pounds in 45 days while the low-fat group took 70 days to lose the same amount of weight. When checked for vascular differences, including arterial stiffness, the high-fat dieters did not show any harmful changes.

Doctors consulted for the Times article were quick to point out that the study was conducted in just three months and after years of adhering to the high-fat, Atkins-like diet, cardiovascular damage could form.

Bottom line: If you need to lose weight, check with your doctor to figure out what type of diet is best for you, given your health history.

The post Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet May Be Best for Weight Loss appeared first on Competitor.com.

Tokyo's Namban Rengo Running Club in April

It’s not too late to get in a fun group run on National Running Day, particularly if you live on the west coast. Find a group run in your state here.

Sometimes we run for solitude. Sometimes for fitness. Sometimes for friendship. Today is a perfect day to share your passion.

The post Running Day Group Run Finder appeared first on Competitor.com.

Fish Oil Supplements

Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine recently released a study that finds omega-3 fatty acids may improve depression and help people overcome alcohol abuse, Science Daily reports.

When researchers gave mice with bipolar disorder the fatty acid DHA, one of the main active ingredients in fish oil, they found the mice’s behavior “normalized.” Bipolar symptoms, such as depression and stress-induced mania, were eliminated.

“The genes that are known targets of psychiatric medications were modulated and normalized by DHA,” said Dr. Alexander B. Niculescu, M.D., Ph.D. and lead author of the study, reported online in the journal Translational Psychiatry.

Researchers also found that DHA reduced the mice’s desire for alcohol, leading researchers to believe that diets rich in omega-3 fatty acids may help both bipolar disorder and alcoholism similar to the way psychiatric drugs currently do—without all of the side effects.

Read more about the study here.

The post How Fish Oil Affects Your Mood (And Alcohol Consumption) appeared first on Competitor.com.

1. Marion Jones

Marion Jones courtesy of PhotoRun.net

The 35-year old sprinter from Los Angeles won five medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, three gold and two bronze, becoming the American media darling of those Olympic games. But those medals were taken away after Jones admitted to taking steroids before the 2000 Olympic games, then lying to federal agents about her drug use. She was sentenced to and served six months in jail and a two-year suspension from competing in track and field. She retired from track and field in 2007, served her jail term in the middle of 2008 and traded track for basketball. She is currently a guard for Oklahoma’s WNBA team, Tulsa Shock.

2. Ben Johnson
The Jamaican-born Canadian became the pride of Canada in the mid-1980s after setting world records in the 60m and 100m sprints, often lining up next to Carl Lewis in the 100 meter event. After Johnson beat Lewis and set a new world record at the 1987 world championships in Rome, Lewis cried foul play. At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Johnson tested positive for steroids. He also admitted to using the drug before he set his 1987 world record. He was stripped of both medals and suspended from competing for two years. An attempt at a comeback in the early ‘90s was unremarkable, and Johnson tested positive for drugs again in 1999.

3. Justin Gatlin

Justin Gatlin courtesy of PhotoRun.net

The 29-year old’s drug history started early. In 2001, he was banned from competition for two years after testing positive for amphetamines, but he appealed the decision, claiming that drug showed up in tests because of medication he had been on for attention deficit disorder since he was a kid. Gatlin won gold in the 100m sprint at the 2004 Summer Olympics, clocking in at 9.85 seconds. He also won bronze in the 200m and silver as a part of the 4x100m relay. In 2005, he won the 100m at the World Championships in Helsinki by the widest margin ever seen at that event. In 2006, he tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and was sentenced in late 2007 to a four-year ban from athletics. He began competing again in 2010 with unremarkable results and can be seen regularly on SpikeTV’s reality show Pros vs. Joes.

4. Kelli White
The 34-year old sprinter from Oakland, Calif. won gold medals in the 100m and 200m events at the 2003 Paris World Championships. In 2004, her medals were taken away for testing positive for steroids, and she was banned from competition for two years. Like Marion Jones, White’s doping linked her to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) scandal that implicated dozens of top US athletes in taking steroids, including fellow sprinters Marion Jones and Regina Jacobs, and baseball player Barry Bonds. White retired in 2006.

5. Regina Jacobs
The first middle-distance runner on the list! The former Stanford University runner from Los Angeles, now 47, represented the US at three summer Olympic games in 1988, 1992 and 1996, set the indoor world record in the 1500m and won 24 US championships in distances from the 800m to the 3000m. In 2003, she tested positive for using one of BALCO’s steroids and was suspended from competition for four years. She retired during that time and has since become a real estate agent in Oakland, Calif. Her silver medals in the 1500m from the 1997 and 1999 world championships were not taken away.

6. Rashid Ramzi

Rashid Ramzi courtesy of PhotoRun.net

The 30-year old Moroccan won both the 800m and 1500m events at the 2005 World Championships, becoming the first person to win both events at the competition. Running for Bahrain at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Ramzi took home gold in the 1500m—the first Olympic medal Bahrain had ever won. But that medal was taken away after Ramzi tested positive for an advanced version of the red cell boosting drug EPO. His two-year ban from competition ended on May 2^nd.

7. Eddy Hellebuyck

Eddy Hellebuyck courtesy of PhotoRun.net

This 49-year old is the only Olympic-caliber marathoner from the US to have been found guilty of doping. In February of 2004, he ran a personal best of 2:15:36 at the Olympic trials in Birmingham, Ala. (Alan Culpepper won in 2:11:42; Hellebuyck didn’t make the team.) That same year, he tested positive for EPO in an out-of-competition test administered while he was preparing for the Olympic marathon trials. He was suspended from the sport for two years, but vehemently denied any wrongdoing during the suspension. During a 2010 interview with Runner’s World, Hellebuyck, who now coaches cross country and track teams in Tucson, Ariz., finally admitted to doping.

8. Mary Decker Slaney
Early on, New Jersey native Mary Decker was a running sensation. At just 14 years old, “Little Mary Decker” won the 800m event at a US-Soviet meet. By the age of 16 in 1974, she held the world record in the 1000m and 800m events. She suffered from compartment syndrome throughout 1975, but made a strong comeback in the ‘80s, setting six world records in 1982 in distances from the mile to 10,000m. She was heavily rewarded, recognized as the top amateur athlete in the US in 1982, and Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year in 1983. It wasn’t until 1996, at the age of 37, that Decker Slaney (she married British discus thrower Richard Slaney in 1985) got into doping trouble. She qualified for the 5000m at the Atlanta Olympics, but a drug test at the Olympic trials came up positive for testosterone. She was banned from competition in 1997. She fought the IAAF and the US Olympic committee, claiming the test was flawed and could’ve produced a false positive due to the use of birth control pills, but the ban was upheld. She’s currently retired and lives in Oregon.

9. Leonid Shvetsov
This two-time Olympian, Russian national record holder in the marathon and course record holder in the famous Comrades Ultramathon, was accused by none other than Hellebuyck (see #7) of using EPO. Not only of using the drug, but of supplying it to other marathoners training in Albuquerque for the ’96 Olympics. Shvetsov, who retired in 2009, denies any wrongdoing. He currently coaches Russian distance runners and operates an auto service business in Russia, Runner’s World South Africa reports.

10. Ma’s Army
In 1993, a Chinese squad of female runners coached by Ma Junren won six of a possible nine medals at the world championships in Stuttgart. Shortly thereafter, one of Ma’s runners took a 41.9 second chunk out of the 10,000m world record, though she ranked only 56^th in the event a year earlier. Skeptics cried steroids, but before drug use could be verified, Ma’s runners mutinied, sick of his masochistic workouts and lifestyle demands. China withdrew six of Ma’s runners (in addition to 21 other members of China’s Olympic team) from the 2000 Sydney Olympics before they could compete, presumably because China feared the athletes would test positive for EPO.

The post The Top 10 Running Doping Scandals of All Time appeared first on Competitor.com.

Runners

A recent Wired article discussed NY Yankees pitcher, Bartolo Colon, and his resurgence as a Major League powerhouse after injury and age had taken a toll on Colon’s right shoulder. The 38-year old is back, Wired reports, because he underwent an experimental procedure in his home country of the Dominican Republic during which “fat and bone-marrow stem cells were extracted from Colon and then re-injected into his elbow and shoulder, a move designed to help regenerate and repair tissue—including his rotator cuff, which had been torn.”

Stem cell research came under fire in 2009 when the FDA approved the first human clinical trials using embryonic stem cells—cells extracted from human embryos that are only a few days old—to treat genetic diseases, degenerative conditions and physical trauma. But the stem cells used to repair Colon’s rotator cuff—the group of muscles and tendons that stabilize the shoulder—were Colon’s own.

Stem cells, according to Stem Cell Research News, a website devoted to news about usages and the science behind stem cells, “can grow into any one of the body’s more than 200 cell types” including heart muscle cells brain cells and skin cells. While embryonic stem cells can, indeed, turn into any type of cell, adult stem cells, taken from the tissue of live human beings, can only become the cell type of their tissue of origin. “The primary roles of adult stem cells in a living organism are to maintain and repair the tissue in which they are found,” according to the National Institutes of Health.

An orthopedic surgeon on Colon’s medical team told the New York Times that Colon’s stem cell treatment is the future of sports medicine. Proof? Colon is now back to pitching 95 mph fastballs. But skeptics aren’t so sure Colon’s miraculous repair is all due to stem cell therapy. SI.com’s Will Carroll wonders if Colon had surgery on his rotator cuff in addition to the stem cell therapy.

So before you, the injured runner, go hunting down one of only a handful of doctors who are currently using stem cells to treat injuries, maybe you should wait to find out the whole story behind Colon’s recovery. But the future of adult stem cell treatment is looking good.

A 2010 study published in the journal “Biomaterials” found that injecting adult stem cells into an injury site is a way to augment the body’s natural healing response. The study’s authors recommend it as an alternative to other musculoskeletal injury therapies that pose greater risk to the body.

The post Can Your Own Stem Cells Heal Your Running Injuries? appeared first on Competitor.com.

The National Running Center is offering four different pairs of shoes in limited sizes for $50 today through their website, www.nationalrunningcenter.com. If you’re on the fence about getting new kicks, maybe some cash savings will make it easier to replace your beaters. The offer expires at midnight tonight.

Styles available for $50:
Women’s Brooks Addiction 8 
Men’s Mizuno Wave Rider 13
Men’s Mizuno Wave Inspire 6
Women’s Saucony Hurricane Progrid 11 (size 7 only)

About half a dozen other shoes are discounted as well, including:
Women’s Saucony Progrid Triumph 7 for $89.99
Men’s Saucony Progrid Jazz 13 for $59.99
Women’s Saucony Progrid Jazz 13 for $59.99
Men’s Saucony Progrid Ride 2 for $59.99
Women’s Saucony Grid Fastwitch 3 for $69.99
Men’s Asics Gel Cumulus 11 for $74.99
Men’s and Women’s New Balance 759 (medium) for $79.99
Women’s Mizuno Wave Inspire 6 for $69.99
Women’s Mizuno Wave Rider 13 for $89.99
Men’s New Balance 826 for $76.99

Happy Training!

The post Friday $50 Shoe Sale appeared first on Competitor.com.

There she sits in the corner of my apartment. A nameless new Cervelo. Her black and grey aero frame sleek and sexy. She’s faster than I am, this I know. When I ride her for the first time this evening, I’ll join the ranks of sketchy riders who own a bike other roadies would consider above our ability level. I don’t care. I do care about hurting the Silver Bullet’s feelings.

A hunk of paint-stripped aluminum doesn’t have feelings! you say. You’re probably right. But the Bullet and I have spent an absurd amount of time together. I rode my first century, double century and ultracycing race on that bike. I got doored on that bike. We have a history—the Silver Bullet has a name!

They're looking at you! Photo courtesy of minorissues on Flickr.

I feel the same way when I buy new running shoes. But I ran Ironman in these shoes! I ran my 10K PR in these shoes! I can’t just replace them! I don’t name my shoes like my husband does (he magic markers names onto them according to the major race he trained for and ran in them, like IMAZing for Ironman Arizona), but I do grow attached to the two lumps of dirty mesh and rubber.

When I walk in the door with a shoebox under my arms, I feel a bit guilty—until I put on the new pair. So clean! So supportive! The old shoes replace my old old shoes in my closet, the old old ones get donated and so continues the circle of running shoe life.

But the Bullet stays.

Being an endurance athlete is complicated.

The post Are You Too Emotionally Attached to Your Sports Equipment? appeared first on Competitor.com.

5. Horrible High School Hurdles

4. Sprint Standby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY_jZtnvG6g

3. Pole Vault Fail

2. Marathon Fail

1. What Hurdles?

Got a favorite running blooper video? Share it with us in the comments below.

The post The Top 5 Running Blooper Videos appeared first on Competitor.com.

Photo of random runner courtesy of Brighton photographer on Flickr.

I recently came across an article in the New York Times debating whether an online life span calculator developed at the University of California, San Francisco, should be made available to the public.

The calculator, mind you, is meant to “predict older people’s odds of dying in the coming six months, or four years, or nine,” not whether a 20something endurance freak will qualify for Kona in her 90s. The idea is that knowing when an elderly patient is going to die will help guide his/her medical and financial decisions. The Times says that calculator will be available online in the fall.

But is there an online calculator that will determine if I, that 20something endurance freak, will make it to my goal age of 100? (Screw goal weight, I want to cross finish line of some crazyass event when I’m 100 then drop dead.)

I Googled “life span calculator” and found a website called Livingto100.com,”where I clicked on a button that said, “Take the Calculator” (weird word choice) quickly filled out several pages of questions related to stress (yes), smoking habits (none), drinking habits (almost none), exercise (a ton), health history (Do you know your HDL and LDL?) and family history (diabetes and cancer). The calculator presumably crunched my information in some sort of highly advanced algorithm, returning a very pleasing result: I will live to 97.

So a random online tool approves of my lifestyle. Fabulous. But how reliable, exactly, is a calculator on a website that looks like it was designed by a second grader? The “about the calculator” section states that the calculator’s creator, Dr. Thomas Perls, MD, MPH “is the founder and director of the New England Centenarian Study, the largest study of centenarians and their families in the world.” That’s it. I needed more trustworthiness than a statement that the founder of the website probably helps Smuckers find centenarians to wish Happy Birthday to on TV.

So I Googled “life span predictor” and found a mortality calculator designed by a professor of Statistics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. After filling out a few questions about family background, driving, smoking, sexual and exercise habits, it told me I’d live to 93.88. Not bad, however it also said the median lifetime is 96.22. Last time I checked (just now), the World Bank pegged the average life expectancy in the US at 78.7.

The interesting thing about the second calculator is it analyzed my results. If I eliminated stress from my life, it said I’d add 0.18 years (just over 2 months) to my expected life. Now, at least, I won’t be stressed about being stressed. It also said that being a “conditioned exerciser” and “consuming 5 classes of food everyday” maximized my life expectancy.

So what’s all this mean? Three things: 1. I just wasted half an hour looking for a sign that I’m destined to fulfill my goal of living to 100. 2. There is no such thing as a reliable life-predicting calculator for people in their 20s. 3. Even a statistics nerd at UPenn believes good training and nutrition will maximize life expectancy. And, I would add, the enjoyment of each and every one of those years.

The post Can an Online Calculator Predict Your Life Span? appeared first on Competitor.com.

Photo courtesy of gregor_y on Flickr.

Everybody has a friend–or maybe you are the friend–who posts her workouts to Facebook or Tweets about them. All of them. How long, hard and fast they were. What her heart rate was. What she ate. How she got a butt cramp 32 minutes in, but kept going for the full hour. While it’s generally accepted practice for pros—we all want to see how we stack up against them—the jury’s out on whether amateur athletes or gym rats should be sharing training data on sites not specifically meant for athletes or training stats (like RunKeeper).

The argument for posting:

Jessica Ashley, a blogger for Yahoo’s women’s website, Shine, says posting her workouts keeps her accountable and connects her to other women who make fitness a part of their daily lives. Reading others’ posts, she writes in a post on Shine, inspires her to stick with her routine and give her new workout ideas.

The argument against posting:

It’s annoying, bragging, and pointless to highlight every workout accomplished.

Where do you stand on posting your running workouts?

The post Should You Facebook or Tweet Your Workouts? appeared first on Competitor.com.

Floyd Landis courtesy of TatClarkson on flickr.

For the past 5 years, disgraced pro cyclist Floyd Landis has made a name for himself by doping, then trashing other cyclists and cycling officials. A year ago he sent a thousand-word email to USA Cycling CEO Steve Johnson claiming Lance Armstrong was a doper, according to the NY Daily News. Landis himself was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title for the same offense.

The cycling community can’t take any more of Landis’ mouthing off. The International Cycling Union, the world governing body for cycling, is lashing back, starting “legal proceedings” in Swiss courts against Landis for what appears to be defamation, the Guardian’s cycling blog reports.

Armstrong, however, cannot sue Landis for defamation, the Daily news points out. That thousand-word email was sent a year ago last Sunday, and the statute of limitations on defamation in California, where Landis made his accusations, is one year.

The post Karma Comes Back to Bite Floyd Landis in the Butt appeared first on Competitor.com.

OMG! My smiley is fried from Wildflower!
Oh poo, I forgot to sunscreen my smiley!
Your smiley is grinning at me.

Do not neglect the smiley, or you won’t be able to wear clothes that touch your back, lie on your back, do back extensions, bend over or otherwise enjoy your life until your back blisters and the miracle of cellular regeneration replaces it with new, albeit older-looking and spotty, smiley skin.

The post Enduro Word of the Week: SMILEY (body part) appeared first on Competitor.com.

“We found that higher endogenous metabolic rate, that is how much energy the body uses for normal body functions, is a risk factor for earlier mortality,” said the study’s lead author, Reiner Jumphertz, according to Science Daily. This conclusion only applies to resting metabolic rate, not to energy expended during exercise.

Researchers evaluated 652 healthy Pima Indian volunteers. They tested 24-hour energy expenditure (energy expended at rest, as determined in a respiratory chamber) in 508 volunteers and resting metabolic rate in 384 of the volunteers over a period of 11 to 15 years. During the study period, 27 participants died of natural causes. Researchers linked higher energy expenditure with an increase in risk for natural morality.

The findings may explain, Jumphertz said, why “reductions in metabolic rate, for instance via low calorie diets” may benefit human health.

Before you start jumping around thrilled that you will live longer than your naturally skinny friends who can eat anything because they have high metabolisms, consider this: a study highlighted in Science Daily in 2009 found exactly the opposite, although the test subjects were mice.

The study, published in 2009 in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, found that mice with high metabolisms live just as long as those with slower metabolisms.

I seems to me like the study with Pima Indian volunteers was of such small scope–both numerically and ethnically–that it hardly can be deemed conclusive. So party on, those of you who feel lucky to have high metabolisms. It might be a while before scientists decide your metabolism is or isn’t a blessing.

What do you think?

The post Does a High Metabolism Make You Age Faster? appeared first on Competitor.com.