A Successful Encoded Baton Pass

It has been a strange week on this blog.  For some reason, on Monday morning, when we informed you that the Kiprunning Sports Club details are finalized, Blogger decided to stop properly sharing the meta search descriptions for all of our posts over on Facebook.  This bothered me, because I hadn't tinkered with this blog's HTML since April, and even then, my modest adjustment--singular--had nothing to do with the post search description function.  Moreover, that adjustment worked perfectly with the rest of the blog for months.  Why the sudden problems?


Thus ensued endless hours of frustration and despair.  Anyone who earnestly believes that the Internet fosters open democratic communication should do three things:

1. open a Blogger account
2. open a Facebook account
3. try to make them get along

Shortly after doing these three things, you will be disabused of your optimism.

Now, at the end of the week, we seem to have gotten this matter fixed . . . until it breaks again (for reasons that will never be clear).  I hope that doesn't happen, though.

In the meantime, we owe a heartfelt thanks to Dr. Sara Hooshangi, who took time out of her Thursday morning to start hacking through the impenetrable Blogger code that had flummoxed me for most of the week.

We also cannot thank enough Kevin Thompson.  Who is Kevin Thompson?  Kevin Thompson is a programmer extraordinaire.  He has also been a dear friend of mine since we were teenagers (I actually think I was twelve when I met him).  We met at the first day of cross country practice in high school, and we spent many afternoons riding buses to various running events in the early 1990s.  Lots of memories; lots of them about running.

After high school, we actually went to college together, where we lived together as roommates.  

That last part is crucial, by the way, because on Thursday night, after hours of phone conversation and virtual conferencing about this matter, I was quite confident that my wife was giving me the boot. At least, I think that's what the packed suitcase that she placed by the door was supposed to mean. Kevin was going to have to take me in again!

<b:if  cond=hours of uninterrupted HTML blather>

<meta content='anger and boredom' og: spousal emotional state>

<b:if else=sleep on the couch with your computer>

If you have no idea what that means, let me assure you, there are lots of us who don't.

Q: Is Running Bad for You?

A: No.

(As always, we invite more nuanced discussion and commentary in the comments section.  I, for one, am very interested in the following part:

The issue here, as pointed out in an excellent special report by Alex Hutchinson published this month in Runner's World, is what happens long term to your heart if you are a pretty serious runner, averaging 20 or more miles a week consistently for a long time.

I'm having an unusually hard time finding that particular report--I'm also at work--but nevertheless, I'm wondering about what would constitute a "long time."  Also, as the rest of Gleiser's article points out, the body has a way of indicating instances of overuse.  At worst, those indications are injuries. I've run over twenty miles a week for a "long time," but I haven't done so uninterrupted because of the usual intermittent injuries.  How do those natural interruptions factor into all of this?  Again, discuss!)

Kiprunning Sports Club Details Are Finalized

As promised, we have been working steadily on a variety of website updates to Coach Kiprunning [dot] com. I'm happy to announce that the new Coach Kiprunning website is roughly 85% complete. Over the next few weeks, we hope to finalize some remaining details to tie up the small amount of loose ends that we have dangling out there.  As always, if you have questions in the meantime, please contact me.

The big news that I want to share today is that the Kiprunning Sports Club section of the site is, essentially, finalized.  The information contained on that section of the site is current and accurate, and it reflects our functioning at this time, the fall of 2016.  I very much welcome DC-area competitive runners to consider joining the club, and I'll look forward to receiving any questions or inquiries that you might have about it.

Until then, run steady.

Reader's Poll: What Are Your Favorite Running Routes?

Somehow we missed Condé Nast Traveler's brief slideshow "9 Best Places to Run in the U.S."  Thank you, Facebook feed, for informing me of this slideshow.

Give the list a look.  It's brief, and of course it's subject to debate.  That's what our comments section is for!  What are your favorite running routes--in the United States and elsewhere?  Let's add them to our Long Run Route page.