Wednesday marked a month since bombs struck the Boston Marathon and despite the terror, it seems as though slowly but surely the city and the nation have started to heal. Through prayer, support, or runs in memoriam, the path to recovery has taken shape. And here in Oregon, home of Track Town USA and a population of outdoors enthusiasts, the run feels stronger than ever.

Three weeks ago, I wrote a piece encouraging the “run for Boston” and I was sure to follow my own advice. Last Saturday, after a quick three weeks of training, I ran in my first race. I headed home for Lake Oswego’s annual Lake Run to finish a 10k.

I have to admit that prior to the race, I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a runner. My occasional weekly jogs consisted of completing two miles as quickly as I could. Learning how to pace myself and run for over 50 minutes was a foreign process. There were plenty of times during my hurried training that I thought I would be going home to humiliate myself. The runs fit in between class periods and work consisted of walking, erratic paces, and plenty of frustration.

Pulsating music, thousands of spectators, and approximately 10,000 runners.

To some, the Portland Rock ‘n’ Roll Half-Marathon scheduled to take place on Sunday sounds like a runner’s dream. To others, it’s an overwhelming scene they would rather avoid.

For those runners sitting out the Portland Rock ‘n’ Roll this weekend and longing for a more intimate event, they are in luck. The four races below offer a less frenzied atmosphere, and often carry a smaller price tag too. But plan ahead and sign up early — while it might not seem like it this weekend, other runners realize the beauty of the small races and the limited spots will go fast.

I’m in love with yoga. I’ll admit it, I’m biased. I adore standing on my head. I have a complete crush on backbends. I tend to stand in tree pose and at any given moment, you can find me sitting in the lotus position or attempting bakasana. Adho mukha svanasana? Don’t mind if I do. Vrschikasana has been my own personal challenge pose since January. Confused yet? Oh, well you must be new to yoga. Welcome!

The physical and mental benefits of yoga are numerous and can be life-changing. I’m not going to try to convince you of those, however; not yet, at least. The first step to believing is trying it yourself. If you’re one of the many who claim to “not be able to do yoga” but find yourself in a yoga class, the following five tips may help your yoga experience to be a little less stress and a touch more Zen.

As someone that has been in the gym regularly for the past 20 years as a bodybuilder, trainer, club owner and also an “observer”, it truly surprises me how few trainees take advantage of the many varied angles, grips and planes of motion we have at our disposal to target our muscles. One of the fastest routes to stagnation, when it comes to hypertrophy (muscle growth), is to continually to do the same things over and over again. This may not occur in the very beginning, but after you have been toiling away in the gym for a few years, believe me when I tell you that your muscles and nervous system will become quite resilient at not responding to the exercises you expose them to. So, does this mean you have to constantly switch movements at every workout in order to continue to make progress? Not necessarily. By simply changing your grip, torso angle, and/or plane of motion you can use the same basic exercises while actually altering motor unit recruitment patterns entirely. So, in a sense, to both your muscles and central nervous system, it will seem like you are doing a totally different movement, and thus the stimulus they receive will then be unique (and more productive). Here are some simple examples of how you can make just one exercise seem like three to your body:

My column last week covered the proper use and benefits of ice and heat.  Today, I am going to talk a little about stretching, what it does, why it is important, and list some basic stretches you can add into your routine.  First things first. Contrary to popular belief, it is now suggested that STATIC stretching should not occur after warming up. DYNAMIC stretching is encouraged prior to exercise and can help to reduce the risk of injury. This is a significant change from the way it was when I was growing up as a young athlete. Stretching HAS BEEN proven to increase range of motion and circulation, improve flexibility, provide more energy, help to quiet the mind (think of what happens when you do Yoga for example), and possibly even assist women with making menstrual periods more tenable and regular. I find myself more energized, invigorated, centered, and grounded. After an intense workout, stretching helps me to cool down and be more in my body. I also use a re-bounder, which helps to circulate fluid around the lymphatic system. If you don’t have a re-bounder, try using a mini-trampoline.

Running has long been a passion of mine. My freshman year of high school, I ran cross country for the Panthers of Plymouth Comprehensive High School in Plymouth, Wisconsin.  That may have been the beginning of my running career, but it wasn’t necessarily what excited me about the sport.

Cross country races were just over three miles and in practice, we typically ran three to five miles. All of which seemed to be a bit extreme to me. I remember my first race; it was at New Holstein High School. The starting gun sounded and everyone began to sprint. This was a complete surprise to me. After all, three miles seemed like an eternity and although I willingly joined the team, I could not understand why anyone would intentionally do something so painful. My perception of distance was obviously unsophisticated.

I did not go out for the cross country team my sophomore year. And I definitely did not run anything close to three miles or more until many years later. I was more likely to utter phrases like, “I don’t run unless I’m being chased.”

My first big race, a half-marathon, was many strides short of a perfect event.

I realized this recently while chatting with a friend, who also shared her first race experience. We laughed as we recalled our preparation mistakes, but I shuddered remembering some of my choices. I ate two energy gels before the race and another two during it, a decision that my stomach didn’t … well, stomach well. My friend shook her head about her decision to wear a cotton t-shirt on a hot day and carry an enormous water bottle on a course filled with aid stations.

The mistakes were endless, and of course glaringly obvious, now that we have a few years and races under the waistbands of our running shorts. But as many new runners head out this racing season for their first race, below are a few race day tips — some that I wish had been shared with me. Happy running.

By now you are well on your way to a chiseled and ripped physique, and you might already be dealing with injury or at least a ton of soreness. This week, we are going to talk a little bit about what to do when it happens. I urge you to nip this in the bud because injuries can set you back in your training, or worse still bring it to a complete standstill.

Common practice encourages icing an acute injury and heating a chronic injury. Unfortunately, most of us do not understand the difference between acute and chronic so we self-treat with whatever feels right. Honoring your physiology with the proper use of the two can reduce your down time.

If you weigh 225 pounds, can you bench press your weight ten times?

In some alternate universe, a strong man laughs and says, "Easy."

At the NFL combine where each college player gets less than 225lbs and pushes it as many times as they can, it looks easy.

They'll do ten repetitions, or twenty, or thirty.

Young men who lift weights for their sport, for their future, practice a lot. And it shows.

For an accurate visual, 225 is an Olympic bar with four forty-five pound plates. Two on each end.

Does it sound like a load? It's more than a load.

In the last two articles, we have discussed how to create a vision board and use it as a resource to improve your health. In this segment, we will discuss some practical information that you can implement to achieve your goals. We are going to keep things nice and simple and at the beginner level, since that is where we started when this column first went to print. I have asked an associate of mine to contribute to this week’s column. Her name is Katie Rowlett. She is a personal trainer and a national level figure competitor / sponsored athlete living in Central Oregon. I asked her to first discuss motivation, since this is a sticking point for many people. Here is what she had to say: