by Russell Dunkin on May 22, 2010
Not too long ago I raced road bikes, and was fairly competitive. Somewhere along the line I didn’t make the time to stay in good enough shape to hang with the local Wednesday night ride, and not long after didn’t ride much at all.
I stayed in decent shape by going to the gym most weekdays at lunch, but it’s like Jerry Seinfeld said, I was only staying in shape for my next workout.
A few months ago I decided I needed something to train for on the calendar. About that time I saw an announcement for the OVConnect 5k at Oglebay Park. It happened to fall on my daughters second birthday, and was 11 weeks away. Perfect motivation & timing for using the “Couch to 5K” training program.
Although at first glance it seems painfully easy, it gets the job done. For 9 weeks you run three days a week, and build up very slowly. The first week is three days of running for one minute, followed by one and a half minutes of walking for twenty minutes total. Over nine weeks you slowly build up to running eight to ten minutes with a minute of walking for twenty minutes or so until you’ve eventually built up to thirty minutes of running.
This was helpful as I had been stuck on the CentreTown Fitness elliptical machine for too long. When I did try to run outside or on the treadmill I always ended up with shin splints and then I’d be right back to square one.
Even though I knew I’d finish today’s race, I wasn’t too hopefully of finishing it quickly. For those not familiar with Oglebay, it is fairly hilly. In fact most of the first part of the race is up hill.
After running most of the course last Saturday, I realized that if I didn’t start out under control, I’d probably blow-up halfway through and wouldn’t do very well.
Thanks to Runmeter, here is the map of the course and my stats.
Because it was overcast, and under some trees, the gps didn’t pick up the full course exactly. I finished in 26:55, with was just over three minutes faster than I had hoped! Of course some guy who apparently has no hips walked the course in 24 minutes, but seriously, have you seen how race walkers walk? (The next closest walker was north of 30 minutes, so whatever).
You can see the full race results and photos on OVConnects 5k website.
Since the program worked so well, you guessed it, I downloaded the Couch to 10k app tonight. I’d like to do the Faith in Action Caregivers Sprint Duathlon this July…
Hopefully this will get me back on the bike, and staying in shape for more than just shapes sake.
by Russell Dunkin on May 13, 2010
Last week over 200 young West Virginians and I attended the Generation WV conference in Charleston, WV. The mission of GenWV is to cultivate young leaders (21-45) across the state of West Virginia.
Having missed the first two editions, I was excited to attend the sessions, meet new people, and meet a few people I had followed on Twitter, including the keynote speaker, Dan Schawbel.
The conference started off quickly with Dan’s keynote presentation. Dan began his career similar to most in a typical office job. He wasn’t satisfied in that role, and new he could do more for himself through a variety of “new” channels such as social media, and blogs.
What began as an out of office hobby, quickly turned into a new career in the field of personal branding. Here are a few of his points (you can find all of them by searching Twitter under the hashtag #gwv)
- 25% of jobs will be outsourced in the next 20 years. You need to be so much more than you are today
- soft skills are the differentiators – technical skills get you in the door – it’s everything else that makes a success
- the Internet has forced everyone to be a marketer. The economy forced us to be experts
- become known at your company for 1 thing. Be that go to person – irreplaceable
- get specific in your brand. Suze Orman may dominate personal finance, but you can be the personal finance expert in your town
- register “yourname.com”. Out of over 200 in attendance, only 5 of us had
While there were many more great ideas, these were the highlights. I’m looking forward to reading Dan’s book “Me 2.0″ that each participant receive.
I also attended a session later in the day on the five practices of exemplary leadership with Bob Welty from Fifth Third bank. His talk was driven largely by the book Leadership Challenge. This was an excellent presentation, and by far the most immediately useful information of the day. Here are the five main points:
- Model the way. It is very difficult to ask someone to do something you can’t or haven’t done yourself
- Inspire a shared vision. Communicate WHY going from A to B is good for the company AND those you’re leading
- Challenge the process, but don’t be the person that comes to meetings with the next smarter idea. (Don’t be a “yes-man” either)
- Enable others to act by fostering collaboration. Fight the urge to take over X (the sales call, the project etc)
- Encourge the Heart by recognizing contributions & celebrating achievement.
Unfortunatly, this book wasn’t part of registration, so I may need to see if it can be ordered on iBooks, or the Kindle.
I’m glad I attended this years event, and was pleased to see several other local attendees from OV Connect (the local offshoot of GWV). It isn’t often that more than 200 young professionals can gather to learn and share ideas with each other and I’m glad I was able to take advantage of the event.
by Russell Dunkin on April 18, 2010
This year I am “participating” in a great fundraiser for The Mario Lemieux Foundation. I thought this was a great idea last year, but didn’t participate for one reason or another. I decided to try growing a beard this year, and so far so good!
Three games into the playoffs, and I’ve already been able to raise $500!
Take a look at my profile page on Beard-A-Thon dot com and see what you think.
***Update***
05/13/10
I’m very pleased to report that although the Pens fell short in reaching the finals for the third straight season, I was able to raise nearly $1,100 for the Mario Lemieux Foundation. At last count, all “growers” had raised over $85,000 for this great cause!
