Jamie, the Diabetic Runner, has put together two running challenges for the Diabetic Runner 2008 Challenge: the DR1K and the DR5H.

“I started this challenge for the vast community of blogging runners and diabetics. I’m hoping to inspire many to do great things, to push themselves to extraordinary heights, and to raise awareness of diabetes, and the United Nations’ designated “World Diabetes Day” held every year on November 14th.

…And no, you don’t have to be diabetic to join the challenge.”

The challenges are both year long challenges. The DR1K challenge is 1,000 miles in 2008, or about 20 miles per week. The DR5H is 500 miles, or about 10 miles per week.

I’m not diabetic myself, but Courtney’s story really got to me, and when I saw that she was involved in the DR Challenge I decided that I’d give it a go myself. I wanted to challenge myself to run more, to run harder, and I wanted to help spread the word. I chose the 500 mile challenge, and as I’ve only got about 60 miles under my belt this year, I’d better get moving!

Visit the DR Challenge page to sign up for either challenge. If you’re a Nike+ runner, you can scroll to the bottom of the page and find links to join the DR1K or the DR5H Nike+ challenges.

Good luck to all the Diabetic Challenge runners!

Gasp! You mean you can cheat technology?! You can, yes, but it’s not only morally wrong, it also won’t help you to become a better runner. We weren’t sure whether to publish this article or not because we certainly don’t condone any of these tactics, but just to prove that it is possible for an insidious runner to cheat the system and to highlight potential cheating with the Nike+ system, we’re going to share these ideas with you.

1. CREATE IMAGINARY RUNS
   Can’t be bothered to run, but you want to win a challenge? Simply use the Nike Plus Edit Web site to quickly create an XML file based on your imaginary 50-mile run before work today. Add the XML file to your iPod, and then before you know it, iTunes has uploaded your mileage to your open challenge(s). Pure evil personified!
2. TRICK iTUNES
   Did your run not go so well today? Wanted to run 10 miles but only ran two? No problem! Edit your most recent run before you upload it to Nike+, and trick iTunes into publishing your pretend workout!
3. CALIBRATION
   Calibrate your Nike+ incorrectly, on purpose. Tell your iPod that you are going to calibrate over one mile, but only run half a mile. Oh how impressed your friends will be when you slash your personal bests by 40% over the space of a few days!
4. MULTIPLE IPODS
   Why use one iPod when you can have two, or even three?! Attach a sensor to each running shoe and BOOM! A 10-mile run suddenly becomes a 20-mile upload. Slightly expensive, admittedly, but people with a lot of money are probably more likely to cheat than those who do not, don’t you think?
5. WEAR NIKE+ ALL THE TIME
   This is the least serious way to cheat as technically, it does involve exercise that you are responsible for. Simply wear your Nike+ device wherever you go! Walking around the house, strolling around the mall or the grocery store, all those footsteps soon add up! But why stop the evilness there? If a friend or a relative is going out somewhere, attach your chip to their shoes and ask them to record their mileage on your behalf!

Remember, you can cheat all you want online, but when it comes down to that real race against real people, we will all know who has been telling the truth and who has not. Be warned!

It’s been over a week since my last post. I haven’t been too lazy nor has life been uneventful in the world of running. To the contrary, I’ve been extremely busy. Usually I battle hills and fatigue, but this week I was in a fierce battle against my sinuses and a touch of the flu. Though my illness got a few good licks in, I do believe I’ve emerged victorious. Unfortunately, I missed the best weekend for running, as well as missing my own personal goal of reaching my 100-mile mark. It was sunny and in the 70s this past weekend and I was lying in bed with an achy body, sore throat and headaches like you couldn’t believe.

I’ve felt pretty good the past couple of days, but I won’t venture out for a run until Friday or Saturday. Because I got sick so late in my training for the Germantown Half Marathon, which is March 16th, I’ve had to alter my mental focus for that race. Before, I was really gunning to beat my St. Jude time, but now I’m going to shoot to finish. I’ve gotten up to nine miles in my training, so I’m pretty confident that I can finish without a bunch of problems, but I’m not anticipating beating any personal records.

Congrats to Derek for his awesome performances in the challenges.

Congratulations to Derek for his terrific clean sweep in the most miles, 1 mile, 3k and 5k challenges in February, well done! The March challenges are now under way and from this month forward, we have a monthly challenge open to all our readers and visitors. We’d be glad to have you run with us!

Now, please don’t take my post title the wrong way. It’s not a lack of creativity or dedication to the cause, but rather I believe Scott must’ve read my mind when he published his last post.

My mom’s training for the ING half marathon in Atlanta, GA. She wanted to spend some quality time with me, so we went running last Saturday. Our desired distance was eight miles. I was a little nervous because the last time I ran that distance, I ended up killing myself for the sake of having a better ranking in the challenges. This has been stated before, but I really feel that it can’t be reinforced enough: while it’s good to push yourself, you definitely SHOULDN’T over train.

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Although I’ve been running regularly for the best part of 16 months now, I hit a point this month where it was really hard to get motivated and go running. A couple of factors influenced this state of mind, including a lack of sleep that consequently left me feeling too tired to run first thing in the morning (my preferred time to run), but also perhaps because I increased my mileage by 36% between December 2007 (69.69 miles) and January 2008 (95.47 miles) in an attempt to win a Nike+ challenge. As experts will attest to, the 36% increase in miles is too much of an increase within one month. The strange thing however, is that it wasn’t physical fatigue I felt this month, but more psychological fatigue. Why do I suddenly not want to go running? Why does the mere thought of running not interest me at the moment? Questions such as these have been running through my head and keeping me lying in bed first thing in the morning instead of embracing the dawn sunrise and getting out there to run.

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Last night I had a TERRIFIC five miler. It was a little cold outside when I started, but that little inconvenience soon disappeared. I felt really good right afterwards, partly because I knew tonight I would just have to run a quick three miler, rest tomorrow, and then eight miles on Sunday; that was until I remembered that my wife and I have dinner plans with some friends right after work.

However, it wasn’t that big of a deal. I decided to get up a little earlier in the morning and knock it out. I was out the door this morning a little later than I would have liked, but still on schedule. I jumped on the treadmill and started my five minute warm up when I realized I had forgot my iPod®. DAMN!!! I started to convince myself that what was important complete my miles not whether or not I had music or my chip to log this run. I decided to suck it up and do what I came to do.

Yea…that lasted literally two minutes. I don’t know if I was just tired from the night before or just lazy, but I didn’t have ANY energy to keep going so I bowed out. I was very disappointed in myself, but I guess that is why we fall of the horse every now and then…so that we can get up and get back on.

I don’t know if the planets were aligned, or if was just my lucky day, but my run last night felt great. I ended up having lunch with an old friend, Vince Perryman, who got me into cross-country running while I was in high school. The difference between Vince and myself is that, oh yeah, he is an elite runner and hasn’t stopped running since the age of 14. I mentioned to Vince my born-again dedication to running.

While explaining some of the recent trials and tribulations with my training plan for the Germantown Half Marathon, Vince offered some astute and simple advice:

“Don’t think about always beating your personal best. There is a fine line between pushing yourself during training and pushing yourself over the limit. You might not only injury yourself physically, but break yourself mentally.”

While I was suffering through the St. Jude/Memphis Half Marathon in December, Vince was setting a personal best for the FULL marathon. When asked what made this race different, he said it was because he didn’t worry about anything but the current moment. He didn’t over think his strategy. He just ran HIS race.

So last night I stood out in my front yard and told myself that I was going to forget about the challenges and just run. I would run hard, but smart. I ran right past the Pyramid when I heard, “400 meters to go!” I thought to myself that I would sprint the last distance. I didn’t think about how far I had already run nor did I think about what my pace was or might have been. I just ran my way.

When I completed my last 400 meters and ended my workout, I heard that WONDERFUL, welcoming female voice telling me I had beat my personal best and I was very happy with my average pace per mile. Furthermore, I was excited to just be out there, enjoying my run again, oh — and not falling down and almost breaking my finger, like I did last week!

Each month, the writers and producers of this Web site participate in some friendly competition with several friends and colleagues. While half the runners live in Memphis, Tennessee in the USA, the other half live within the English counties Hertfordshire and the West Midlands. That’s one of the great attractions and conveniences to Nike+ challenges and Nike+ in general — friends can compete against each other no matter what their geographical location may be, or what time of day or night they run. It’s only until all the running data from each individual run is uploaded to the Nike+Web site that we get to compare and contrast our performances against one another.

View this month’s challenges

Knowing that your friends are trying to run faster or maybe further than you, is what inspires and motivates us to keep in shape and run as best as we can. Whether we know it or not, we are motivating one another by each individual mile we run. Now that we’ve made our challenges public for the world to see, we now have a little more motivation and incentive to get up and run each day.