Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

We just passed Omaha, Nebraska on the Race Across the USA! We didn’t even stop for a break! At this rate, we’ll be to Chicago in no time! The “Talk Trash” comments have turned hilarious. If you aren’t running with us, you’re missing out, so I’m sharing them with you!

Starling Fitness (3 days ago): 1612.63 miles! We’ve hit the 1/2 point in Nebraska!

krisjames (2 days ago): Man, that’s alot of corn!

krisjames (yesterday): Are we there yet… Are we there yet… Are we there yet??

morgan711 (yesterday): goodworkkris

LauraMoncur (yesterday): Quiet down or we are staying at the Holiday Inn without a pool!

SOKAR (9 hours ago): yeah kris don’t make us stop this car 😉

Starling Fitness (26 seconds ago): 2028.04 miles! We passed Omaha without stopping! You kids have been so good that we’re staying at the hotel with the pool AND the slippery slide!

These are the cities we are going to see along the way:

• Los Angeles, California – Starting Point
• Sacramento, California – 384 miles
• Salt Lake City, Utah – 1,036 miles
• Omaha, Nebraska – 1,971 miles
• Chicago, Illinois – 2,439 miles
• New York, New York – 3,227 miles

You can see the full route in detail here:

• Race Across USA Route

Don’t forget that there are prizes for the top 10 finishers:

• 1st place – Most miles run – Four DVD set of Starling Fitness walking videos: Swami’s Beach, Sugarhouse, Moab and the as yet unreleased San Antonio Riverwalk.
• 2nd and 3rd place – Choice of three Starling Fitness DVDs.
• 4th and 5th place – Choice of two Starling Fitness DVDs.
• 6th through 10th place – Choice of one Starling Fitness DVD

The current Top Ten are here:

The race is over the halfway point, so we are no longer accepting any new runners. If you would like to run the next race, please leave a comment here and you will be invited:

• Race Across the USA

I’m just going to give you a teaser for our next race: Louisiana Purchase. Anyone want to guess the route?

Since Nike’s system isn’t set up for a cooperative event like this, you will need to check here at Starling Fitness for progress and winners.

We reserve the right to limit participation in the challenge due to our time constraints or the limits of Nike’s system.

This event is not sponsored by Nike or Apple. Starling Fitness will choose the winners based on total mileage. Our decisions are final.

It doesn’t look like it would exercise more than one arm at a time, but I can imagine playing on this thing for hours as a kid. Just imagine… a fair ride that’s free!

• Wurlybird Flyer – funfair style action toy for boys and girls

I have a couple of questions about this action toy, though:

Can you play with it all by yourself?

As a child, there were lots of playground toys that were useless to me. The teeter totter was one example. It’s impossible to play alone. It’s impossible to play with your sister who is five years younger. You have to find a kid who is about the same weight as you to play. Is that how this thing would work?

Does it only exercise your left arm?

It doesn’t look like you can switch arms, so you would end up with one sore arm after a day’s play with it. If you can’t switch arms, that’s a major design flaw.

This looks like a fun idea, but not quite up to exergaming standards. Heck, even the Wii exercises BOTH of your arms…

Via: Boing Boing: Hand-cranked home fun-fair ride

Cruising past Salt Lake City, Utah on the Race Across the USA! Despite the glitch in the Nike+ Website, we gathered enough miles to get us past Salt Lake and on to Omaha, Nebraska! Imagine yourself running past the mountainy forests of Wyoming and the vast sea of farmland that is Nebraska!

These are the cities we are going to see along the way:

• Los Angeles, California – Starting Point
• Sacramento, California – 384 miles
• Salt Lake City, Utah – 1,036 miles
• Omaha, Nebraska – 1,971 miles
• Chicago, Illinois – 2,439 miles
• New York, New York – 3,227 miles

You can see the full route in detail here:

• Race Across USA Route

Don’t forget that there are prizes for the top 10 finishers:

• 1st place – Most miles run – Four DVD set of Starling Fitness walking videos: Swami’s Beach, Sugarhouse, Moab and the as yet unreleased San Antonio Riverwalk.
• 2nd and 3rd place – Choice of three Starling Fitness DVDs.
• 4th and 5th place – Choice of two Starling Fitness DVDs.
• 6th through 10th place – Choice of one Starling Fitness DVD

Because of the glitch, the Top Ten have changed drastically. This race is still very much up for grabs. The current Top Ten are here:

There is still time to join up! To enter, you have to have a Nike+ and link it up to their online system. You cannot leave a message here to be sent an invitation. You must click on this link and ask to be added to the Race Across the USA on the Nike+ website:

• Race Across the USA

You will be invited to a Speed race of 3327 miles. We’ll add the miles of everyone together. I will check the mileage every day. As soon as I notice that we have achieved the goal of 3,227 miles, I will stop the race and prizes will be announced. The Race Across the USA started March 1st, so come walk across the USA with us!

Since Nike’s system isn’t set up for a cooperative event like this, you will need to check here at Starling Fitness for progress and winners.

We reserve the right to limit participation in the challenge due to our time constraints or the limits of Nike’s system.

This event is not sponsored by Nike or Apple. Starling Fitness will choose the winners based on total mileage. Our decisions are final.

Nike’s website decided that we had all achieved the goal, even though three entrants hadn’t run the minimum yet. I have no idea why they did that, but we have to start the Race Across the USA all over again. I resent out invitations to all the participants and I will start adding the mileage daily again. Yesterday, before the race had been unceremoniously “finished,” our mileage was up to 917 miles. I’m going to add that amount to our daily totals, so we haven’t really lost the progress from Los Angeles and almost through the Nevada desert.

I’m not going to keep track of the old mileage, so any advantage you had against your rivals is lost. Sorry, but we’re starting from scratch as soon as you join the new race. Nike’s website is cool, but it is REALLY difficult to deal with all this stuff, so I am just going to go from the ranking on the new race. Any mileage from the previous race is merely added to our group effort. The winners will be judged when I end the race after we’ve reached New York.

Sorry about the glitch, but here is a chance to start fresh. If you want to get a jump on the person who was kicking your butt before, now’s the time to do it!

Since Nike’s system isn’t set up for a cooperative event like this, you will need to check here at Starling Fitness for progress and winners.

We reserve the right to limit participation in the challenge due to our time constraints or the limits of Nike’s system.

This event is not sponsored by Nike or Apple. Starling Fitness will choose the winners based on total mileage. Our decisions are final.

We just passed Sacramento on the Race Across the USA! With only four days of running, that is freakin’ awesome!

These are the cities we are going to see along the way:

• Los Angeles, California – Starting Point
• Sacramento, California – 384 miles
• Salt Lake City, Utah – 1,036 miles
• Omaha, Nebraska – 1,971 miles
• Chicago, Illinois – 2,439 miles
• New York, New York – 3,227 miles

You can see the full route in detail here:

• Race Across USA Route

Don’t forget that there are prizes for the top 10 finishers:

• 1st place – Most miles run – Four DVD set of Starling Fitness walking videos: Swami’s Beach, Sugarhouse, Moab and the as yet unreleased San Antonio Riverwalk.
• 2nd and 3rd place – Choice of three Starling Fitness DVDs.
• 4th and 5th place – Choice of two Starling Fitness DVDs.
• 6th through 10th place – Choice of one Starling Fitness DVD

The current Top Ten are here:

There is still time to join up! To enter, you have to have a Nike+ and link it up to their online system. You cannot leave a message here to be sent an invitation. You must click on this link and ask to be added to the Race Across the USA on the Nike+ website:

• Race Across the USA

You will be invited to a Distance Goal race of 1 mile. You’ll be able to achieve that goal quite easily, but keep running. We’ll add the miles of everyone together. I will check the mileage every day. As soon as I notice that we have achieved the goal of 3,227 miles, I will stop the race and prizes will be announced. The Race Across the USA started March 1st, so come walk across the USA with us!

Since Nike’s system isn’t set up for a cooperative event like this, you will need to check here at Starling Fitness for progress and winners.

We reserve the right to limit participation in the challenge due to our time constraints or the limits of Nike’s system.

This event is not sponsored by Nike or Apple. Starling Fitness will choose the winners based on total mileage. Our decisions are final.

Starling Fitness is sponsoring Race Across the USA. It is a cooperative event using the Nike+ Challenge. You can still join up if you hurry! The goal is to run across the United States. Going the route I chose, it would take 3,227 miles to cross the USA. The map above is the route that I have chosen. We already have 52 confirmed racers, so join in now to log your miles!

We will walk to the following cities:

• Los Angeles, California – Starting Point
• Sacramento, California – 384 miles
• Salt Lake City, Utah – 1,036 miles
• Omaha, Nebraska – 1,971 miles
• Chicago, Illinois – 2,439 miles
• New York, New York – 3,227 miles

You can see the route in detail here:

• Across the USA Route

There are prizes for the people with the most mileage:

• 1st place – Most miles run – Four DVD set of Starling Fitness walking videos: Swami’s Beach, Sugarhouse, Moab and the as yet unreleased San Antonio Riverwalk.
• 2nd and 3rd place – Choice of three Starling Fitness DVDs.
• 4th and 5th place – Choice of two Starling Fitness DVDs.
• 6th through 10th place – Choice of one Starling Fitness DVD

To enter, you have to have a Nike+ and link it up to their online system. You cannot leave a message here to be sent an invitation. You must click on this link and ask to be added to the Race Across the USA on the Nike+ website:

• Race Across the USA

You will be invited to a Distance Goal race of 1 mile. You’ll be able to achieve that goal quite easily, but keep running. We’ll add the miles of everyone together. I will check the mileage every day. As soon as I notice that we have achieved the goal of 3,227 miles, I will stop the race and prizes will be announced. The Race Across the USA starts March 1st (Thursday), so come walk across the USA with us!

Since Nike’s system isn’t set up for a cooperative event like this, you will need to check here at Starling Fitness for progress and winners.

We reserve the right to limit participation in the challenge due to our time constraints or the limits of Nike’s system.

This event is not sponsored by Nike or Apple. Starling Fitness will choose the winners based on total mileage. Our decisions are final.

I found this video in my Starling Fitness folder, but it doesn’t look like I’ve ever written about it or shown it to you. It sat around because it was such a big file. I tried compressing it, but it was still huge, so I put it up on YouTube. Unfortunately, I have no idea where I found it…

Pretty healthy diet for 1954. I’m interested in the fact that Ralph becomes so popular after eating healthy. When’s that gonna happen to me?

Starling Fitness is sponsoring Race Across the USA. It is a cooperative event using the Nike+ Challenge. This is a little different than anything Nike+ has on their website. The goal is to run across the United States. Going the route I chose, it would take 3,227 miles to cross the USA. The map above is the route that I have chosen.

We will walk to the following cities:

• Los Angeles, California – Starting Point
• Sacramento, California – 384 miles
• Salt Lake City, Utah – 1,036 miles
• Omaha, Nebraska – 1,971 miles
• Chicago, Illinois – 2,439 miles
• New York, New York – 3,227 miles

You can see the route in detail here:

• Across the USA Route

As you can see, we’re taking major roads on our Race Across the USA. By myself, I don’t think I could ever walk it, but if all of us add the miles that we run or walk every day, I think we could finish this walk in about a month.

A month?

Yep, if all the people who read Starling Fitness and work out with a Nike+ added their miles together, I think we could walk across the USA in about 40 days or so. A month if we pushed it.

That’s the goal: all of us together, to Race Across the USA and in one month.

To make it sweeter, I’m even offering prizes.

• 1st place – Most miles run – Four DVD set of Starling Fitness walking videos: Swami’s Beach, Sugarhouse, Moab and the as yet unreleased San Antonio Riverwalk.
• 2nd and 3rd place – Choice of three Starling Fitness DVDs.
• 4th and 5th place – Choice of two Starling Fitness DVDs.
• 6th through 10th place – Choice of one Starling Fitness DVD

To enter, you have to have a Nike+ and link it up to their online system. You cannot leave a message here to be sent an invitation. You must click on this link and ask to be added to the Race Across the USA on the Nike+ website:

• Race Across the USA

You will be invited to a Distance Goal race of 1 mile. You’ll be able to achieve that goal quite easily, but keep running. We’ll add the miles of everyone together. I will check the mileage every day. As soon as I notice that we have achieved the goal of 3,227 miles, I will stop the race and prizes will be announced. The Race Across the USA starts March 1st (Thursday), so come walk across the USA with us!

Since Nike’s system isn’t set up for a cooperative event like this, you will need to check here at Starling Fitness for progress and winners.

We reserve the right to limit participation in the challenge due to our time constraints or the limits of Nike’s system.

This event is not sponsored by Nike or Apple. Starling Fitness will choose the winners based on total mileage. Our decisions are final.

A special thank you to our regular commenter from iPortion for bringing this to my attention. Yourself ! Fitness seems to have gotten past whatever issues that were stalling them and are soon to be releasing a new product called Y!F Lifestyle.

• yourself ! fitness: A Letter From the responDESIGN/Yourself!Fitness Team

We are working on the next Yourself!Fitness title called Y!F Lifestyle to be released on the new game consoles and the PC. Y!F Lifestyle has many of the new features that you asked us to create and we will be releasing the details for this new product soon!

Please stay tuned for more great fitness gaming products from your friends at responDESIGN and Yourself!Fitness.

Of course, my imagination goes all haywire when I hear an annoucement like this. They said that they will be releasing this on the new game consoles and the PC. Does that mean the Nintendo Wii? Can you imagine how fun that would be? They could sell the game with a weighted Wii controller that you have to move how Maya says. It would be an even better upper body workout!

I’m excited to see what Yourself ! Fitness has in store for us!

Via: Iportion: Yourself Fitness, Oatmeal and You

After all the trouble with my feet, I have avoided running. I just didn’t want to hurt myself again. Now, I’m finally willing to join up on the challenge and run again. I signed myself up for Level 1.5, which is the group that runs 5-10 miles a week. My goal is to run one mile a day for five days in a row. That’s if my toes don’t start acting up again.

Level 1.5…

Yeah, that’s really low for my ego right now, but I refuse to hurt myself again. I’m going to run a mere one mile a day for five days in a row and see how my feet can handle it. I have new shoes with tons of room in the toe box and I’m ready to start running again, even if I have to start at the very beginning.

If you have a Nike+iPod kit and would like a challenge, come join the Starling Fitness weekly challenges.

• Level 1.0: 0-5 miles a week
• Level 1.5: 5-10 miles a week
• Level 2: 10-20 miles a week
• Level 3: 20-30 miles a week
• Level 4: 30-40 miles a week
• Level 5: 40-60 miles a week

I only have a few rules, one is if you join a level that is below your weekly mileage, I will move you up to the appropriate level when I invite you to the next challenge. It’s not really fair to join a Level 1 challenge if you KNOW you’re running 20 miles a week. You might win one trophy that way, but I’ll immediately move you to a higher level.

The second rule is no trash talk. I know that Nike+ has a “trash talk” button on their challenge page, but only positive talk is allowed there. I will warn you once if you are disrespectful to the other runners, but if you continue to trash talk, you will not be invited to the next challenge.

If you have a Nike+iPod, you can sign up for the weekly challenges here:

• Support Forums : Starling Fitness Weekly Challenge …

Telll me what level you would like to start at when you sign up and come run with us!