Social Responsibility Scorecard

If you've ever read the Hit The Road Corporate Profile you may have noticed the following :-

"Hit The Road prides itself on being a social enterprise and as well as the financial bottom line we also focus on the social bottom line by ensuring that the communities in which we are based benefit from our presence."

Hit The Road is proud to announce our first ever Social Responsibility Scorecard. 2006 has been an amazing year for us being our most profitable to date but more importantly our social bottom line has been more healthy than ever.

So here is our 2006 results...
Funds donated to charity through Hit The Road programs....$2,650.
Amount of litter collected from local trails..............6 bags.
Pairs of running shoes donated............................18 Pairs.
Number of volunteer hours through Hit the Road programs...140 hours.

Beyond this many Hit The Road members raise funds and volunteered on their own time for various charities.

Congratulations to everyone who took part in our programs in 2006 and we look forward to an even better year in 2007.

Merry Christmas

To all of our friends and the whole running community; Have a very merry Christmas.

It's a busy time of year

You may have noticed that this is the busiest time of year for everyone but it's increasingly important to take care of yourself during this time. Make sure that you make time to get out and exercise even if it's not as often or as much as you would like. Getting out once a week is better than nothing so do what you can without overloading yourself. Remember that exercise is supposed to reduce your stress and make you feel better so don't panic if you miss a workout, just try to make it out as much as you can.

By getting out at this busy time you will be benefiting in two ways. Firstly you will be reinforcing in your own mind that being healthy is what is important to you so when you head out to those parties you will tend to watch what you eat and drink. Secondly, once this month is over and you make a resolution to ramp up your fitness, you will be halfway there rather than starting from square one again.

Lastly remember not to drink and drive, it may just be me running across the road that you don't see even though I'm lit up like a Christmas tree.

Don't let winter make you SAD

Don't let this cold weather get you down. There are many advantages to running through the winter.

Firstly, if you're running during the day you will dramatically reduce your chances of being affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) otherwise known as the winter blahs. By getting more sunlight you will feel better which will also encourage you to eat better and exercise more. Inactivity is a double edged sword as the less active you become the easier it is to stay inactive and the harder it becomes to make healthy choices.

Secondly it's much easier to run in the cold than the hot from a cardiovascular point of view. The air is denser and there's less pollution so you have better oxygen delivery to the muscles allowing you to be much more effective at fatty acid oxidation which is the energy system commonly called the 'fat burning zone'.

By maintaining or lowering your body fat composition during the winter you are fighting back the body's natural response of storing more fat during the hibernation months.

Maintaining your base fitness during the winter also gives you a jump start on next years running season and you will not spent the spring and early summer getting back the fitness you lost.

As always, remember safety. Run a little slower if it's icy and take precautions against bad weather such as layering, covering exposed skin, heading out into the wind for the first half of your run and choosing routes that allow you to make a short cut home in case the weather starts to get to you.

I can assure you that running through the winter is not as bad as you think. There's only a few really bad days each year when you really shouldn't run but don't let them hold you back from being ready for next years bikini season.

Marathon of the Palm Beaches

You may be wondering why the web site has been so quiet for the last few days. Well I've been down in Sunny Florida running the Marathon of the Palm Beaches and checking out potential locations for next years Hit The Road Winter Marathon trip.

What I found in Palm Beach was a well organized race with a great course as long as the weather co-operates. Unfortunately this year it didn't with a temp at 6:30am when the race started of 24° C and by the time I finished it was 30° C. This was by far my slowest marathon yet and at mile 16 I switched from 10 and 1's to 5 and 1's. By the end of the race, I was struggling to run 500M at a time but I finished and have a nice shiny medal to add to my collection.

The course was as flat as I've ever seen and had 24 water stations which helped me drink about 8 litres during the run (more went over my head) and the only downfall of the course was the lack of shade.

Apparently about 200 people switched from the full to the half marathon the day before the race due to the heat.

I thought that my slow time really sucked until I checked the official results and found that I was still in the top half of all the marathon finishers so I know I wasn't the only one who suffered with the heat.

The conclusion is that this was a great course, well organized but if you decide to run it next year and it's a hot weekend... Switch to the half marathon!