How Many Calories do I Eat Daily?

December 5th, 2011 St. Louis, MO
Every December, USA Track and Field holds it’s annual convention to celebrate the year gone by and to plan for the year to come. Among the celebrations are the handing out of the USA Runner of the Year awards. This year two Vermonters made the list.

After a year of stellar performances, Tim Van Orden, 43 of Bennington, Vermont was for the second year in a row named the USA Masters Mountain Runner of the Year. But the committee didn’t stop there. They also named Van Orden as the 2011 USA Masters Trail Runner of the Year. Van Orden stood on the podium in every National Championship he entered this year, winning four of them. In addition, Van Orden finished 10th at the World Masters Mountain Running Championships held in Italy in September.

Kasie Enman of Huntington, Vermont also made the list. She was named the 2011 USA Mountain Runner of the Year after an exceptional season. Enman ran away from the field to easily win the US Mountain Running Championships and then went on to be the first American woman to win the World Mountain Running Championships in Albania.

USATF holds regional mountain races throughout the country all year long, which culminate in the US Mountain Running Championships held each June in New Hampshire. The top six men and top four women at this event are invited to the World Mountain Running Championships. The USATF trail racing scene offers more opportunities for victory. They hold a US Trail Championship for four different distances; 10 Kilometers, 15 Kilometers, Half Marathon and Marathon. Van Orden has been US Masters Champion at all four of these distances.

“This is a great honor” said Van Orden. “It’s one thing to put in the hours, train hard and be rewarded with a victory. But to be recognized by your peers and the governing body of the sport. That’s something else. It’s incredibly exciting and humbling at the same time.”

So how do you get out on these dark cold days and keep your running schedule alive and healthy? With some simple steps. How do I know they work?  Because they were created by someone that really doesn’t like the cold and who has a hard time running even when the weather is nice – ME.

Step 1: Make it a surprise. Don’t tell yourself that you’re going for a run. Simply jump right to step two without any conversation of a run in your head.

Step 2: Get dressed. This may sound silly, but I’ve found that the act of getting properly dressed for the cold makes the idea of going out into it much less frightening. Don’t consider going outside until you are fully dressed to go outside. A little brain trickery goes a long way towards getting difficult things done.

Step 3: Listen and learn. Become a sponge for information. I’ve become an audiobook junkie over the past few years. I listen to no less than 3 (educational) books a week. But I only allow myself to listen to them while running. So even though I may not want to go outside or run, I really can’t wait to get back into the book. This is a big incentive to get out there for me.

Step 4: Just walk outside… Fully dressed… With something exciting to listen to.

Step 5: Walk to the street and take a single step… and then another and another and another.

Post some comments below on how you get yourself out the door on days when you’d rather not

Here’s a video I made about how to dress for cold weather running to give you some tips and ideas.