Run Faster

Most of us would like to eat better, but don’t always know where to start. This week’s links should help give you some ideas:

• From Mark Bloom Running, the 45 best foods for runners. No huge surprises here, except perhaps that where meat is concerned, Mark says darker is better because it’s more nutrient-dense. There are some tasty, healthy choices listed here that might give you some ideas for adding more variety to your diet.
• From Runner’s World, the healthiest chocolate. If you’re going to eat it anyway, why not choose a healthier version? The article tells you what to look for on the chocolate bar label and gives three of the best choices.
• From Men’s Health, the the 20 worst foods you can eat at various chain and fast food restaurants. Click the links at the left of the article to see the worst choice in a category and a better alternative (example: in the drink category, Jamba Juice Chocolate Moo’d Power Smoothie vs. the Jamba Juice Fruit Smoothie in the smaller size).

To those of you that celebrate it, I hope you have a Happy Easter!

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Are you tired of running the same old routes? This week’s links may help you find a few new places to run in your area:

• MapMyRun.com - Perhaps one of the most comprehensive running route finders, Map My Run has an extensive database of running routes. I found 225 in my town alone. If you register, you can also save new running routes and create a training log.
• Run.com - This is a newer service with fewer routes in its database, but still worth mentioning because of its uncluttered interface and easy to remember URL.
• America’s Running Routes - A U.S. only running route service found on the USA Track and Field web site. This is another good resource, although it too didn’t have as many runs in its database as Map My Run.

What all of these services have in common is that the quality of the information provided on each route varies greatly depending upon the whims of the person that entered it into the service’s database. If you try out one of the runs listed on any of these services, you can help future users out a lot by leaving additional comments about the route afterwards.

Looking for even more running routes? You may not need to look any further than the online training log site you already use. Most of the training log sites out there seem to have a pretty good route component built in.

If you have a favorite route finding service, please let us know about it by leaving a comment below.

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