September 18, 2008

Oldies but Goodies: My Favorite Blogs

For those of you who asked on my last post how I find the time to run, the answer is: I don’t. I joke about my once-a-week training schedule, and most people probably think I do it out of sheer craziness, but the truth is, I do it because I rarely find the time to run during the week. Last night was a bit out of the ordinary, but I’d say I typically work about twelve hours a day, and then usually have another hour or two a day of work obligations (non-client research, recruiting work, team dinners, training, administrative stuff, etc). By the time I get back to my hotel, it’s too dark to run, and often even the hotel gym is closed so I can’t hit the treadmill. My solution is to get in at least some form of exercise every day, even if it’s just the Hundred Pushups Challenge (I restarted week one this week and did day two last night and I am already getting stronger and using better form!) or doing jumping jacks in front of my laptop. Anyway, the point is, I spend a lot more time reading about running and planning my runs than actually doing them.

Which brings me to today’s Take it and Run Thursday topic: Bring Your Favorite Blogs. As you can see from my sidebar, I have a ton that I frequent. Like Amy, my Google Reader is always overflowing – my current count is 334 posts to read, but by the time I finish writing this, I’m sure it’ll be up. My philosophy is: if you are nice enough to stop by my blog and comment to let me know, I want to be sure I stop by yours and do the same!

The problem is, this has led to me spending more and more time on Google Reader. Recently, I’ve been trying to clean out some of the blogs that aren’t updated or don’t hold my interest for every day visits, but this made me feel terrible – who am I to judge your blog? At first, I tried to just make a “favorite running blogs” category for those that I’ve decided I can’t go a day without reading, but soon that category was so full that I still wasn’t getting to all of them. I’ve yet to come up with a solution (comments welcome!), but for now, just know that if you are on my sidebar, I am reading your every post, even if I get a little behind in doing so. I have not yet had to “mark all as read” without reading them, and I’m hoping I can come up with some way to ease my reading load. But you all are so interesting!

If I tried to annotate every blog in my sidebar, I would never finish this post. I would highly encourage all my readers to check out ALL the blogs I list over there – they are all fantastic. However, for the purpose of this post, I’ll focus on the blogs I’ve been reading for the longest period of time – almost a year – and can say are reliably awesome 🙂

Pieces of Me – Jess is one of the first running bloggers I found. I don’t even remember how I got to her blog, but the enjoyment I got from reading hers was partially what inspired me to seek out more running bloggers. And her blog is pink and she loves wine! Okay, I’ll shut up now… 🙂

Notes of a Non-Runner – Speaking of starting my own blog, Nancy’s virtual races were what gave me the kick in the butt to actually create Absolut(ly) Fit. I participated in her inaugural virtual race, 8 on the 8th, and when she posted my results as “Laura the Lurker,” I was so embarrassed by the pedophilic (is that a word) sounding nickname that I promptly started my own blog. Thanks, Nancy!

I’ll Run for Donuts – Topher’s was another of the first blogs I found, and I loved it. From the Dunkin Donuts logo to the reason for running (I’ll run for ice cream!), Topher offers a good mix of humor and serious topics, and I always can’t wait to see what he’s writing about.

Running Off At the Mind – RazzDoodle’s blog is similarly funny yet serious, and his gratuitous use of bullet points is duly appreciated by me, your resident PowerPoint monkey. Razz also has the distinction of discovering/naming a running affliction from which I used to suffer: commitophobia. Fortunately, we are both in recovery!

The Boozehounds Inc Running Team – Viper’s blog attracted me right off the bat by showing me that I didn’t have to give up getting wasted in order to be an accepted member of the running blogging community. I’m hoping to get to meet him at the Akron marathon, but I don’t think we’ll be able to share a drink due to my travel schedule. Unless someone wants to be DD and take me to the Cleveland airport that afternoon? I’m all ears for offers!

Half Fast – If you haven’t read Vanilla’s hilarious commentary (and the even more hilarious commentary of his guest blogging wife Candis), you need to head over. Always brightens my day 🙂

Runnin’ Duff – For a while, Christine and I were pretty neck and neck in terms of our running accomplishments. We seem to be close in age and personality, and we got into running at about the same time. She beat me by a few months for doing her first marathon, but I’m currently leading the tally for total marathons run while she’s branched out and done some tris. We signed up to do the Disney Marathon together in January, and I can’t wait to meet her then!

Training Hard, Hardly Training – NY Fly Girl was the first New York City blog I started reading, and it was so cool to see someone writing about the same races and routes that I ran! We still haven’t ever met, but I’ve met plenty of her friends at races all around the country. I swear that if I ever get over my commitophobia and join a New York City running club, it will be hers, the New York Flyers.

I sincerely hope I did not offend anyone by not including you in this list – there are so many wonderful blogs that I just didn’t have time to write about everyone! If you are on my list at the side, know that I’m reading (though not always taking the time to comment) and if you’re not over on that list, leave me a comment so I can check you out.

Finally, I want to say thank you to everyone for being such an amazing part of the running blogging community! Honestly, having something to blog about is frequently the reason I do races and go for runs, and your encouragement plays such a huge part in keeping me going. Keep reading, keep commenting, and above all else, keep writing!!! I hope to meet up soon at a race near you 🙂

This post was written as a part of Runners’ Lounge’s Take It And Run Thursday, in which runners from all across the running blogging community come together to post about a single topic. This week’s theme was Bring Your Favorite Blogs.

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16 thoughts on “Oldies but Goodies: My Favorite Blogs”

  1. Thanks for the link. Perhaps we’ll have to deal with sharing the free beer-flavored water at the finish. It appears to be Mich. Ultra again … I usually only serve that to my nieces and nephews. Cheers!

  2. You’ll never guess what I just did — I actually RAN! But of course the first thing I did upon finishing — after downloading Garmin, of course — is open my laptop to get caught up on my peeps. What a fun addiction!

  3. My Google Reader is also overflowing. I have no idea how to keep up with everyone’s blogs. If you discover the secret of how to do so, let me know. 🙂

  4. You are so right! There are many excellent blog. Despite the challenge of an overflowing google reader, I would not think of throwing any of them out of my list.
    The running/blogging community and the passion with which the bloggers write about their runs and the struggle to find the time for runs and races, is inspiring and contagious.
    Thank you for a very good post

  5. Hi Laura sure i would love to eat raw with you!!! I know of a few good places!! Let me know when your work eases up, we can go!!

    Tonight i will make sauteed broccoli rabe with some pasta!! Healthy yet not raw!!

    Michelle

  6. We totally did talk about you. We were like, “she is one crazy biznatch for all those marathons.” But we meant “crazy biznatch” in the most admirable, awesome way, of course.

    After Portland, I will probably do the Surf City Half again (3rd year in a row). Hopefully my work schedule doesn’t conflict. Then that Santa Ynez Half Marathon in May was really fun too. I’m so predictable sometimes.

    Maybe I can talk my girls into running NY Marathon in 2009.

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