Yesterday, I opened my mail and saw the white USP package for which I’d been waiting. I was hoping it would get here before Saturday and it did. Who says the United States Post Office is unreliable?

The package was from tthe good folks over at Gballz. They sent me three new joggling bags for my upcoming TV appearance. (More on that later). While I love my current set of Ultraleather Elite bags, they have been through a lot in the last year and were starting to look a little weathered.

They were dropped in mud, dropped under a running treadmill, and water-logged in the London marathon. They even briefly developed a strange stain reminiscent of those visions of spiritual beings in weird places.  I never did figure out what caused the marks or why they disappeared.

My new set is the ultra suede series. They are a colorful shade of orange and have a light, soft feel. Unlike many bean-filled, suede bags these are not over stuffed to make them feel hard as a rock. They are smooshie but feel solid when you catch them. A true joy to juggle. I haven’t tried joggling with them yet but I’m looking forward to doing that tomorrow during my next big race, the Quarryman 10 miler.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Filed under: Equipment Review, Races | 4 Comments »

We first learned of Timothy Perram from the joggler forum run by the IJA. This is a place where lots of jogglers talk about some of their latest races. We asked him to tell his story here on JYAJ and he happily obliged. Tim is a 26 year old joggler living in San Diego. He has a degree in Physics from UCSD.

JYAJ: What is the story of how you learned to juggle?

PERRAM: I learned to juggle when I was in elementary school, probably 3rd or 4th grade. My dad had a grocery bag full of tennis balls. He kept tossing tennis balls to me until I was able to juggle 3 ball cascade. Then in sixth grade PE class we had a circus unit. That is when I learned to juggle 4 balls, clubs, use devil sticks, diablo, and ride a unicycle.

JYAJ: When did you start joggling?

PERRAM: I started joggling this past November (2007). I had seen a blurb on the morning news about a joggler.

JYAJ: Why did you start joggling?

PERRAM: When I saw the blurb on the morning news I said “Hey, I bet I can do that! I like to run, and I like to juggle. That is a sport for me!” I figured it was right up my alley. I have always liked being unique and competing in alternative sports. Other sports I have been into have been Ultimate Disc, Footbag (hacky sack) and Girevoy Sport (www.usgsf.com for more info). I also competed in cross country and track and field in high school.

JYAJ: How many races have you done while joggling?

PERRAM: I have competed in 3 races while joggling: two 5Ks and a 4 mile race. One of the 5Ks was dropless.

JYAJ: What are some of your favorites?

PERRAM: Each of these races was my favorite! The Saint Patrick’s Day 4 mile was my favorite because it was the first race I joggled. This was awesome because I got so much attention and respect from other runners. After the race they were all coming up to me and asking about the juggling. The Great Race of Agoura 5K was my favorite because it is run in my home town of Agoura Hills. I run this race every year, but this is the first time I joggled it. I ran this race with my brother, which was rockin’. The La Jolla Shores 5K was also my favorite because it was my first dropless race.

JYAJ: What is your best story about joggling?

PERRAM: I went out for a run on my usual route about town. This day I did not bring along my juggling balls. I saw a woman standing out in front of her house. She asked me, “Where are your juggling balls? My kids love that.” I sure wished that I had brought my juggling balls that day! I decided that I ought to bring them along on all my runs, so as not to further disappoint the public.

JYAJ: What kind of training do you do? How fast do you run?

PERRAM: I joggle a 3.1 mile loop around my neighborhood about 3 times a week. Other days I train with Kettlebells, swim, or ride my road bike. I train at probably about 9-minute mile pace. My joggling times for races are 23:00 and 23:47 for 5Ks and 30:45 for a 4 mile race. I recently ran a 5K in 20:45 on very flat course. When I was in high school I ran a 3 mile cross country race in 16:29. In high school track I ran a 2:00 for 800m and 4:47 for 1600m.

JYAJ: How long do you think you will keep joggling?

PERRAM: I will keep joggling indefinitely. If I get bored or burned out with it, I will take a break, but likely pick it up again at a later time.

JYAJ: Do you eat a special diet?

PERRAM: During the week I eat very healthy, with lots of fruits and vegetables. Breakfast is oatmeal and a banana. Lunch is a turkey and cheese sandwich on wheat bread, an apple, carrots, and potato chips. Dinner is a giant vegetable salad usually served with whole wheat tortillas or pitas. Sometimes dinner is vegetable and bean soup or vegetable stir fry served over brown rice. Another favorite healthy dish of mine is a grilled Portobello mushroom on wheat bread. On the weekends I cheat and go out to eat several times. Burgers are my favorite food.

JYAJ: Do you have any advice for would-be jogglers?

PERRAM: If you know how to juggle, you will be able to learn to joggle. Practice juggling until you can juggle with your peripheral vision (not actually focusing on the balls). That said, how fast a joggler you are simply will be depend on how fast a runner you are.

JYAJ: Where do you see the sport of joggling in 10 years?

PERRAM: Gosh, I do not see this sport growing too much, nor do I want it to. It is cool to be involved with an “underground” sport. Jogglers are unique individuals. If joggling were a popular sport, I probably would not be doing it.

JYAJ: What juggling equipment do you use?

PERRAM: For races I use a set of juggling balls that I got 15 years ago on a family trip. We were passing through San Francisco, and we stopped into a juggling shop. They are soft, cushy type balls. For training I use similar balls, but they are a bit stiffer. I got these ones earlier this year at a cirque-du-soleil gift shop.

If there are any other jogglers out there in San Diego, it would be run to go for a joggle together. Email me at timothyperram(at)yahoo.com

Well, Tim the next time I’m out in San Diego (I know a couple of people out there) I’ll be sure to look you up for a joggle.

Just follow this link if you want to see interviews with other jogglers.

Filed under: Inspiration, Interviews, Joggling | No Comments »

Last weekend was the 10th annual Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati. A great marathon if you like hills, heat and a 23rd mile that takes you out of the state! Actually, it’s well organized and joggler friendly as I had a fabulous time doing it about 5 years ago.

Turns out, it was also a fortunate marathon for 55-year-old Bobby Edwards. In the 10th mile of the race, he collapsed suffering a heart attack.

Of course, the heart attack isn’t the fortunate part. That was the fact that he was running in front of a group of paramedics and firefighters. They saw him collapse and immediately started CPR. He was stabilized, brought to the hospital and is now on the road to recovery.

And while Edwards didn’t finish the race, Patrick Conrey and the other paramedics that helped did. Now those are dedicated runners!

Filed under: Training Tips | 5 Comments »

The good folks at Gatorade just sent me a link to their latest commercial for Propel Fit Water. You can see the short 30 second clip here.

I’ve actually tried Propel water and it’s pretty good. At 25 calories per bottle, it’s significantly lower than regular sports drinks and many vitamin water products. That means you get all the vitamins and electrolytes from this stuff, without having to joggle an extra 2 miles to burn it off.

That’s right. Joggling burns about 130 calories per mile and one bottle of most sports drinks is about 250 calories.

So, why not just drink water? Well, you can but that gets a bit boring because there is no flavor plus a few extra water-soluble vitamins may make running (or recovery) easier.

Go ahead and try Propel. I’m curious what you think.

Filed under: Training Tips | 4 Comments »

Last year the Chicago marathon sold out in mid-April. This year it happened again even though they were accepting 5000 more runners. At 45,000 applicants this race is going to be huge.

I never mind a huge race for two reasons.

1. It means there will be a big crowd watching (which is great for joggling).

2. If you’re in a corral up front the crowd doesn’t affect you much.

But part of me thinks it’s not right for the race to fill to capacity by April. There are going to be a ton of runners who drop out and the Chicago marathon doesn’t allow you to sell or refund your application money. What a racket!

Oh well, I’m happy I got in. I’m also happy that last year’s weather debacle didn’t hurt interest in the race this year.

So, I’m in for the Chicago marathon. Who else is in? And when do you think a marathon is too big?

Filed under: Training Tips | 2 Comments »

Fellow joggler David Livingston reports that he is attempting to do an 18-hour run while juggling in the Wooster Relay for Life on June 6-7, 2008. You can see his video right here.

David Livingston Joggling

According to Livingston,

I have set my goal to joggle nearly the entire 18 hours of the event. I will take short breaks when necessary, but will only cover distance on the track while juggling. I expect to be able to do at least 200 laps (50 miles) and could do considerably more. But I won’t exceed 400 laps (100 miles, which is what I did running only two years ago in 17 hours, 40 minutes).

We here at JYAJ wish him luck. I’ve already donated and if you are interested, please see David’s charity donation page here.

Filed under: Training Log, Training Tips | No Comments »

As most of you know, I recently retired my consecutive running and juggling streak at 444 days. I fretted about whether to do it or not but eventually just skipped a day to officially end it. Most hard-core running streakers wouldn’t have done it. It takes a bit more to get them to quit. Take Ronald Kmiec for example.

Kmiec kept his running streak going for 32 years. He started on November 28, 1975 and just recently ended it.

Why?

Because he suffered a heart attack. He had surgery to implant a stent and wasn’t able to get out of bed to go for his run. He tried to get out of bed and go but alarms on his bed alerted the nurses who wouldn’t let him leave.

Wow.

The good news is that even though his streak is over he’s recovered enough to get back to running. In fact, he just did his 35th Boston Marathon. Someday, I’m going to joggle that race.

Filed under: Training Tips | 2 Comments »

We’re coming up on summer in Chicago and that means great outdoor joggling.  But it also means you’re going to get sunburned if you don’t take precautions like using sunscreen.  Runners need it more than most because we are outside longer, we sweat it off, and we have more exposed skin.

If you’re like me, you have half used tubes of sunscreen all over the place.  You’ll have no idea how old they are or whether they are still good.  If it is only a year old, it probably is.  In fact, most sunscreens last 3-5 years.  The folks over at U.S. Pharmacist published the secret code to popular sunscreens so you can tell how old your product is.  Look yours up and see if you can tell how old it is.  Here’s a sample of the list.

1.  Banana Boat - First two numbers are the year, last three numbers are the month (e.g 032 = Feb 1)

2.  Coppertone - First two numbers are the year, Letter is the month ( A=Jan, B=Feb)

3.  Hawaiian Tropic - First number is the year, Letter is the month

4.  Neutrogena - It may have an expiration date on it.  First three digits are number day of year (up to 365) Last number is the year

5.  Water Babies - Last number is the year, letter is the month (A= Jan, B=Feb, G=June, etc).

Most of these products only last 3 years however the Banana Boat is said to last up to 6 years.  The most important thing is that you use sunscreen whenever you are going to be outside for any length of time.  There’s really no reason not to.

Personally, I like the spray sunscreens best.  What do you other runners/jugglers use?  Anything?

Filed under: Tips | 2 Comments »

One day stumbling around the internet, I happened upon this website called A Hong Kong Joggle. It’s another blog dedicated to the wonderful sport of joggling. I contacted its owner, Bruce Foreman, and asked him for an interview. Here’s what this interesting character had to say.

Introduction

My name is Bruce. I am from Sydney Australia, but currently live in Hong Kong. After a four year stint leading tours in China and Tibet, I now work as a writer, photographer, tour guide/ operator and tour leader, occasional chiropractic assistant, script reader, location- scouter, herbal remedies researcher, avid traveler, occasional blogger and joggler.

Firstly, thank you JYAJ for wanting to interview me. What an honour, ’cause when I look back at the beginning of my joggling days, back when I thought I had totally invented the sport myself, I scoured the website and it was you who appeared to have all the cyber limelight with your highly original joggling blog.

This interview is also very timely as the premise for my own joggling blog which started 2 years ago, was to attempt bring recognition to this fantastic sport by bringing it to the Beijing Olympics, which we are now in the exciting 6 month lead up to. If you have followed any of my own blog at http://joggle.wordpress.com you can follow some of the heartache and the anguish that has gone into this journey towards Beijing 2008; about ten minutes worth. Yes… I am sorry to say, my joggling journey has been weak as piss and constantly pushed aside by other fads, though I do remain true to my love for this sport.

But just because I am slack, and the journey has been less than anguished, doesn’t mean that it isn’t going to happen. Joggling will be taken to Beijing in August this year; to what I am sure will be the rapturous appreciation of 1.4 billion Chinese, not to mention the rest of the world, as I set out to snag the world record for the fastest joggle around Tiananmen square. Exclusive coverage to be viewed on A Hong Kong Joggle.

JYAJ: Why did you start joggling?

FOREMAN: The thing that I love about joggling is that you can choose the terms of the competition. Usually I am happy just to run circuits at the Taihang sports Ground and meditate on the waterfall of joggling balls. I personally find it very effective in distracting my attention from the tedium of plain old jogging, but every now and then I will jump from the 400 meter jogging track to the 100 meter sprint track and attempt to race against the senior citizens who are shuffling along, or the kids doing little athletics. So far I have won every race against these tough competitors, even when I have fumbled the joggling balls and had to return to the starting line

JYAJ: How fast do you run?

FOREMAN: I race the clock. My personal best on August 18th 2006 was 24 seconds for 100 meters on rubber.

JYAJ: What is your best joggling story?

FOREMAN: My favourite form of joggling is cross-country. I like to go up into the Hong Kong hills behind where I live, and joggle in the fresh morning air with the birds singing and the pollution pleasantly diluted by sultry breezes from the South China Sea. I have almost stepped on several snakes in the course of such jogging in the hotter summer months, so whilst looking at the balls one must also look out for the local wildlife. I have joggled in Phuket, Macau, and at the Alhambra in Granada, which made a local drug dealer who was trying to pressure-sell me hashish, think that I was already too loopy, subsequently leaving me alone. “Joggling scares off local drug dealers” is a story that I was too lazy to blog but is definitely one of my favourites.

JYAJ: What kind of training do you do?

FOREMAN: In terms of training, I do track-work and cycling, beach running and swimming, and yoga stretches and try and integrate juggling into all of these things, hence joggling has new relatives called swiggling, yogauggling and hikegeling, and daggling (dance juggling), and tai-chiggling, all of which I am hoping to get recognition for inventing.

JYAJ: Do you have a special diet?

FOREMAN: I eat everything, but have been attempting in recent months to focus on alkalizing foods and do away with refined sugar altogether (except for in dark chocolate), whilst introducing super herbs like Gotu Kola, as advocated by the 256 year old Chinese dude Li Ching-Yun whose philosophy -

Sit Like a tortoise
Walk like a pigeon
And sleep like a dog

This serves as a guide to both my joggling and non joggling life.

I drink tea in all forms excessively. I also advocate lemons with water, with avocado, with vodka and gin, and as the hardiest fruit for joggling with – and one that enhances the experience with lovely whiffs of citrus as you jog through the juggle zone.

JYAJ:  How long will you continue to joggle?

FOREMAN:  I am sure I will fall off the joggling band wagon from time to time (not because I am not obsessed by it but because I get obsessed by too many things), but do intend to joggle for the rest of my life, which I am sure will also be lengthened by this healthy and meditative form of exercise… touch wood.

JYAJ: Where do you see the sport of joggling in 10 years?

FOREMAN:  Joggling does require people to look a little silly which is one of the most healthy things about the sport.  But I do think this may hinder the sports uptake by the majority of the population who are stuck on being serious.  So, in ten years time I picture a few more people joining the joggling ‘way’ but not too many.

Its fun, healthy and silly, and it makes people laugh.

Give it a go I say.

Thanks Bruce.  You can read more at Bruce’s joggling blog called A Hong Kong Joggle.  And if he’s successful in his attempts, you might even see him joggling in this year’s Olympics.  See this page for interviews with other jogglers,

Filed under: Training Tips | 1 Comment »

I don’t know about you, but I think the latest design on the McDonalds Baked Apple Pie carton looks an awful lot like a girl joggling apples.  What do you think?  And does anyone really eat these deserts any more?  I much prefer the McDonalds ice cream cones.

Incidentally, the Brewmaster was the one who showed me and also ate this product.

Filed under: Training Tips | 4 Comments »