Training with Tim

Acupuncture never ceases to astound me. It’s helped  recover from a skiing accident, get over a fear of water, recooperate from a two-week bike trip and even assuaged the anxiety of a presentation at work. In each instance I had my doubts,  but it’s proven effective. I can now verify that it’s  good for dental pain.  Last Friday I endured a 3.5 hour drilling session to remove an old filling  on one of my back molars. It was positively brutal. For nearly a week since I’ve had pain and headaches. I even stayed home from work with a migraine,  the first time I’ve called in sick since…

Imagine if the Brewers told you Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, Bill Hall and the rest of the team were looking for homes to stay during homestands. And they want to crash with you All they need is a place to sleep, shower, eat and stash their bats and gloves for the evening. Then they’ll go on their merry way on gamedays.  A situation like this sort of exists, except it’s professional cyclists who need your help. Both Superweek and the Tour of America’s Dairyland allow local Milwaukeeans to showcase their hospitality and homes to traveling cyclists racing in southeastern Wisconsin. “My…

Here are some possible options for your Thursday night: 1) Stay home and watch endless coverage of the swine flu unfold. Panic in quiet desperation. 2) Ignore the countdown to armageddon and watch the InStep Runner Fashion show. Maybe those aren’t your ONLY two options, but I still think No. 2 sounds more appealing than most alternatives. InStep racing team members and others will show off the new arrivals of spring and summer running apparel at InStep in the Third Ward, 403 E. Buffallo Street. The event kicks off THIS Thursday at 7 p.m., but you can show up early…

“Because you’re built differently from a man, your bike should be too.” That’s the philosophy of Trek’s new Women’s Specific Design (WSD) bikes. The new WSD bikes include road, triathlon, mountain and hybrid models.  According to Trek, the new designs put the female rider in a more natural position by balancing weight more evenly between the hips and hands. “The result is extreme comfort and control, better balance and optimized power efficiency,” according to Trek.  But you don’t have to take their word for it. Try it yourself.  The Wheel and Sprocket Northshore store is holding a women-only demo session for the…

I don’t think I’d ever have the patience to get into golf. But Speed Golf — a.k.a. Fitness Golf a.k.a. Extreme Golf a.k.a. Hit and Run Golf — sounds like my kind of sport. “It is easily the most fun I’ve ever had on a golf course!” said Mark Newman, winner of last year’s inaugural 9-Hole Speed Golf Running Championships. The event is organized by Racers Against Childhood Cancer and last year raised more than $2,000 to fight cancer. “Interestingly, I’m a much better runner than golfer, but I played golf much better while running that I ever do when…

In a little more than a month, Nathan Winters will hop on a 20-plus-year-old bike in coastal Maine, start pedaling westward, and won’t stop until he reaches the Pacific Ocean.“I have decided that enough is enough and I am going to live out my dream,” the 29-year-old writes on his site, FollowNathan.org. “I am going to ride my bike across America and seek out my adventure while doing good for my planet.”Here’s his proposed route, and he hopes to raise money for the Nature Conservancy along the way. As you can see, he plans to stop in Wisconsin, one of three states he…

Thanks to “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” we know that the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42. However, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the answer to the ultimate running pace is, in fact: 8.3 and 6.5, give or take. These findings come in part from Karen Steudel, a zoology professor at Wisconsin, who discovered that each individual has an optimal running pace that uses the least amount of oxygen. And no, the optimal running pace isn’t walking. It’s like being in the zone. Setting the cruise control. Feeling like…

A few years ago Orcmagazine.com created an Internet meme with “Google your race.” The site compiled a list of the top Google results when you search “White people are known for…” “Black people are known for…” “Asian people are known for…” etc. This was obviously before Stuff White People Like. Is there any significance to Google’s hodgepodge snapshot? Maybe. In his book “Click: What We Do Online And Why It Matters,” Bill Tancer of Internet research company Hitwise argues that search data helps “get an understanding of what people really think about a topic – as opposed to what they…

Milwaukee’s running community is booming.The Lakefront Marathon sells out earlier every year, new community races are constantly being added, and now comes the launch of RunMilwaukee.com.The new blog was started by Chris Ponteri, part owner of InStep Running & Walking Centers. Ponteri has a background in journalism, which makes him the perfect man for the job. He intends to recruit five or six core contributors and target serious runners who enter a half-dozen races, or more, a year.I’m excited because I haven’t seen many existing local running blogs. There’s plenty of triathlon and cycling blogs to go around, and even…

The weirdest thoughts come bubbling up from my subconscious when I’m running. Today it was the realization that my junior year high school track season started exactly 10 years ago this month. What stands out most about that year was the fact that I had long hair past my shoulders. This wasn’t motivated out of some sort of teenage rebellion. It was far geekier than that. I had a goal time I wanted to reach in cross country and track, and for some reason I decided I wasn’t going to cut my hair until I reached one of them. After…