Newfangled Dad

*Housekeeping note: I looked at the data for what browser my readers are using & a full 34% of you are using Internet Explorer...the one with errors in reading the new Endurance tab for sports posts. So I'm ending that experiment for now & going back to mixing running/tri into the main blog feed. It's not ideal for the 75% of you who want to read parenting posts, but neither is having a third of my readers unable to see certain updates.  Greetings from Personal Record land! It was a busy weekend around my house, obviously, so I'll try to get to everything in posts this week...though one of the things to blog about is the wave of colds that has taken over. So we'll see how far I get. I'm the last one standing and even this morning I have a blah feeling that is combining with sniffles to make me think it isn't just marathon recovery. Whatever happened, I sure ran a heck of a race though so you won't get medical complaints here. I lowered my PR by o...

Several of you have said you have enjoyed my posts about race-day fueling strategy. So I thought I'd offer a bit of a wrap-up with what I've settled into. I looked at my training calendar last night and realized that after I return from our trip to Ohio there will be 8 weeks left until Race Week. Halfway there! And I'm feeling good. I think it's a combination of many causes. The cross-training on the bike. The new nutrition plan. More experience in knowing when/how to push myself during workouts...and when to back off. I loved the granola. There was even a sale on the half-bars I would have wanted to use. In the end, they're not for Race Day, I've decided. The North Shore Half was a nice, fair test drive for them and they proved to be too sticky, too crumbly, and hard to get down on a hot day. Granted, I hope the Chicago Marathon doesn't have a finish line high temp of 91, but you have to be prepared for anything. Lately, on my long runs I've bee...

(More on my continuing series on sports nutrition can be found using the tag cloud on the left or clicking on the Natural Nutrition For Runners label at the bottom of this post.) I always think it speaks volumes about a product when a reviewer begins with a critical mindset, but ends up changing their mind. In this case, Honey Stinger was another company who promised review samples, but they never arrived. So I went out and bought my own from the local running store. Super excited about the waffles, I also threw in some Gold energy gel. Not sure what I was expecting from the waffles the first time around. They were much denser and sweeter than I imagined. Less like a toaster waffle and closer to the texture of the bottom of an old-school shoe. Thin and little too much of a sugar rush, I wrote them off as not for me. On another run, I turned to the gel...which, by the way, tastes like honey and pretty much is  honey with some nutrition added...and was neither pleased nor ...