Orlando Free Group Runs/Rides & Race Schedules

For those of you who live near the Orlando area, below is a list of free group runs and rides in the area, as well as where you can find listings of upcoming races.

Since I keep sending out this information to friends, I thought I'd keep it in an updated post on my blog for my own reference and for any others who live in the Orlando area who are looking for running or riding buddies. If you have any to add, please comment and I'll update this post.

I also maintain a Google Calendar of upcoming Races & Group Runs/Rides that you can subscribe to. It is not an exhaustive list of all events, but it's a good place to start or if you want to join me for a run/ride/race.

Running Groups / Group Runs

• Orlando Women Runners Meetup
• Orlando Runners Meetup
• Orlando Runners Club
• O2H3 (run hash)
  
• Tri & Run
• Track Shack Training Programs (not free)

Cycling Groups / Group Rides

• Central Florida Trail Bladers & Bikers (CFTB^2) Meetup
• Orlando Bike and Social Club Meetup
• South Orlando Cyclist Meetup
• Florida Free Wheelers
• Orlando Bike-O Psychos (bike hash)
• Let's Ride - Mountain Bikes and More Meetup

Triathlon Groups

• Central FL Trek Womens Triathlon Training Meetup
• Orlando Run / Swim / Aquathlon / Triathlon Meetup

Race Listings

• Running
• Track Shack Running Events
• ORC Calendar
• Fleet Feet Orlando
  

• Multi-sport Events
  
• Buttar
• Sommer Sports
• State of Mind Sports
• TriFind Rece Search
• Faces of Courage Triathlon Series (reverse Tri w/pool swim)

Bike Shops

(most of these also have a list of local rides/events)

• Kyle's Bike Shop
• Retro City Cycles
• Orange Cycle Orlando
• David's World Cycle
• Loco Motion

Yoga for Runners (Revisited)

I made a post back in May with yoga for runners resources. I thought I'd revisit it for those new to this blog and to recommend a few more sites and DVDs.

DVDs
Rodney Yee is my favorite yoga instructor. All his DVDs are excellent. Here are some of my favorites that I've tried.

• A.M. and P.M. Yoga - 20 mins -- he leads the a.m practice; Patricia Walden leads the p.m one; they are each 20 minutes
• Power Yoga - Total Body Workout - this one 1 hour yoga practice is a really good workout. Don't do this one if you are looking to relax, though it does offer that benefit too, but you'll break a sweat.)
• Yoga Conditioning for Athletes - this DVD includes a 1 hour practice geared towards athletes plus several sport specific mini workouts (cycling, running, golf, swimming, and tennis) about 3-5 mins each that can be used as a pre/post run stretch
• A.M. Yoga for Your Week - this DVD has 5 different 20-25 minute yoga sessions to start the day: staning poses, back bends, forward bends, twists, and hip openners. They are great to start the day or as a cool down stretch after a long run.
  

Sites/Podcasts

• iYogaLife for Runners - a great site with free videos of yoga poses and sequences organized by needs (e.g. yoga for runners ...). A good place to start is their pre-run poses and post-run stretches.
• YogaDownload.com - Yoga for Runners Podcast (also on iTunes) - this site has tons more yoga podcasts (both audio and video) and most also include a printable pose guide.
• Yoga Basics - this site is a great resources to look up poses and sequences. I like to do their whole body warm up sequence before starting on pre-run poses.
• RunnerGirl.com - Yoga on the Run
• Runner's World - Yoga for Runners Page

C25K Resources

The Couch to 5K Running program is amazing and I would recommend it to everyone who wants to be a runner but thinks they can't because of [insert reason here]. The clever design of this program gradually eases you into running, starting with 60sec/90sec run/walk intervals in week 1, until you can finally run for 30 minutes straight in week 9. It will change the way you think of yourself in terms of fitness and is a great confidence booster. Since I am constantly referring others to this program, I thought I would repost these links in their own post to make it easier for new visitors to find.

• C25K Running Plan - This sites describes the program and what to do each of the 9 weeks.
• C25K Checklist - This site is just the chart of the 9 week program with checkboxes to track your progress. It uses a browser cookie so it remembers what you checked from one visit to the next.
• C25K Podcasts by Ullrey - One of my biggest worries was how I was going to keep track of when to run, when to jog, and when I had done enough intervals. These podcasts make it super easy and include workout music to keep you motivated.
• Podrunner: Intervals - Another great C25K podcast with more upbeat music. Instead of telling you when to run or walk, this podcast uses a sound to alert you when to switch.
• Couch to 5k LJ Community - this wonderful community is full of people doing the program and offer an endless source of inspiration, motivation, support and advice. Even if you are not following the program exactly as prescribed, they are a great resource. The same goes for the lj runners community.
• c25k.com - even more great links about the program and running in general.

foodsel

http://www.foodsel.com/welcome/



This is a great site to get nutritional information about the foods you eat and what it will take to burn them off with some really nice visuals. Instead of just telling you how many calories and other nutrients a food contains, it also shows a nice graph of the breakdown of the nutrients. In addition, it uses pictures of batteries, sugar cubes, and sticks of butter to visually show you how many calories, sugar, and fat the food contains. Lastly, you can enter your weight and it will tell you how much of any given physical activity you need to do to burn it off. It also has a visual BMI calculator and you can search for foods by group, manufacturer or nutrient.

Tweet What You Eat

Tweet What You Eat (TWYE) is a very simply food diary that you can update from twitter, which means you can log what you eat from IM or your cell phone. I use it because I just want something simple without the bells and whistles and I can update it in a snap from Quicksilver on my Mac. It doesn't have food look up or anything like that, but I use the USDA website to get that data (or read it from the package). Lately I just keep track of what I eat without the calories; I just find all that calorie counting exhausting and never use the data for anything. But if you do, then there is a place for that here. The site can record what you eat, the date, calories, and time you post it. It has a nice print version and you can also download a spreadsheet of the data.

You can see my food diary at http://tweetwhatyoueat.com/diary/user/kitzzy and my twitter account at http://twitter.com/kitzzy

Anyone else use twitter?

Yoga for Runners

I really want to incorporate more yoga into my fitness routine, so I looked into yoga for running and found some links that may interest some of you. I am thinking of doing yoga as my pre and post run stretch. I think it would be more beneficial for my whole body instead of just simple static stretches. If anyone has any other resources, post them in the comments.

• RunnerGirl.com - Yoga on the Run
• Runner's World - 3 Pre-Run Yoga Poses (with Video)
• Runner's World - Yoga for Runners Page
• YogaDownload.com - Yoga for Runners Podcast (also on iTunes)
  This site has tons more yoga podcasts (both audio and video) and most also include a printable pose guide.
• Yoga Basics
  This site is a great resources to look up poses and sequences.

Garmin Forerunner 305

This is my new running watch, the Garmin Forerunner 305 (which I got on sale at REI). It is a bigger than I thought, but not really too heavy (until you've ran for over a mile and a half and are ready to collapse). I love having all this data on my wrist while I run. It can track real time distance, time, pace, speed, and so much more. It can even map your routes and stores all this data for 1000 laps in the watch itself.

Using the Garmin Training Center, you can download the data for archiving purposes and to see graphs of your performance. You can also create custom workouts and the watch will alert you at each step. It comes preloaded with a ton of workouts already to get you started. The watch also has alerts you can turn on to tell you when you've reached a certain distance or time, as well as when you go above/below a specified pace or heart rate zone.

Here is a screenshot from today's run. Click on the image to see the details in the bigger version.

Couch to 5K: W1D1

A couple of years ago, Jason found this Couch-to-5K (C25K) Running Plan. We tried it for a few days and quickly gave up. I never considered myself a runner but that race really motivated me to become one, so I am trying this again now that I am serious about being fit. The key is a slow and steady start.

It is a 9 week program where you do intervals of jogging and walking for 20-30 minutes 3 days a week (including a 5-minute warm up brisk walk and cool down). Each week you increase the amount of jogging vs walking and eventually decrease the total amount of walking until you are just jogging. By the end of week 5, I should be jogging 2 miles in 20 minutes without walking (except for the warmup). From week 7-9, I'll just be jogging (plus the 5-minute warmup) each day starting at 2.5 miles and being able to jog 3 miles / 30 minutes by week 9. So in a little over 2 months I should be able to complete a 5K without walking in under 35 minutes.

I completed the first workout today and I am so excited that I actually managed to jog for the whole time that it indicates--a combined total of 8 minutes out of 30 or so-- for a total of 2 miles. This may not seem like a lot of jogging, but I don't think I even was able to do this much last time I tried this. I am definitely starting to see and feel the muscle in my upper thighs and calves from the walks and jogging I've been doing lately. Now I just need to work on toning the inner thighs. I also need to remember to do yoga because my muscles are a bit soar.

If you are interested in trying this out (it's a great way to start even if you do not think you are a runner), here are some excellent resources to get you started:

• C25K Running Plan - This sites describes the program and what to do each of the 9 weeks.
• C25K Checklist - This site is just the chart of the 9 week program with checkboxes to track your progress. It uses a browser cookie so it remembers what you checked from one visit to the next.
• C25K Podcasts by Ullrey - One of my biggest worries was how I was going to keep track of when to run, when to jog, and when I had done enough intervals. These podcasts make it super easy and include workout music to keep you motivated.
• Podrunner: Intervals - Another great C25K podcast with more upbeat music. Instead of telling you when to run or walk, this podcast uses a sound to alert you when to switch.
• Couch to 5k LJ Community - very active and supportive community of beginner runners. Great place to find motivation and inspiration.
• c25k.com - even more great links about the program and running in general.
  

So who's with me? I know we can all do this!