Last year I was searching for a fitness watch to calculate distance. I was surprised to find the only kind that existed were bulky GPS varieties that didn’t look much like a watches at all or ones that included a foot pod. Now, Garmin has finally come out with a style that looks like a watch but tracks mileage and calculates speed and pace using GPS–the Forerunner 405.

You can upload your date to free Garmin Training Center software where you can keep track of workouts and calories burned, map routes you’ve run and design future workouts. You can also connect with other users online and even compete against other 405 users with the unit nearby. The watch is available with or without a heart monitor. If you workout indoors you can opt for a foot pod to track treadmill mileage (since GPS won’t work inside your gym) and if you’re a cyclist you can get a cadence sensor. I don’t think you’ll find a more fully-funtional fitness watch.

If you’re going on a vacation this summer and want to stay active while you’re away, plan ahead and find a few spots to explore before you leave home. No matter what activity you enjoy, you can find preplanned routes for just about every area of the country and across the globe. And unlike a hotel gym, it’ll give you another perspective of your destination.

For runners: Visit Run.com to map or find a route just about anywhere in the world. While most of the routes are in the US and Canada I did find one for the area I’ll be traveling in Ireland later this summer. Each one is rated for difficulty and scenery and often has markings for points of interest and water breaks included.

For bicyclists: Find a ride on Bicycling.com. Again, enter your location info and you’ll get a list of nearby trails. Aside from a map, you’ll see info on elevation, the split between downhill and uphill, and total distance.

For hikers: MapMyHike.com has a database of hikes logged in by users. You can get mapped trails for the area you’re traveling to, read user comments, calculate the number of calories you’ll burn and even track workouts in a log.

I’m ready for a new pair of running shoes and that fact fills me with both excitement and dread. I love having an excuse to treat myself to a new pair of shoes (it’s been six months), but always struggle to find a shoe that fits perfectly and feels great even after I get out of the store and into the gym. I did well with my last purchase–a pair of Brooks Radius R7s. I could stick with the same, but how fun is that?

So I decided to try the Running Shoe Finder from Runner’s World. It’s really cool! You input your gender, shoe size, preferred price range, favorite brands and shoe type and it produces a list of suggestions from the Runner’s World Shoe Lab. And if you don’t know what shoe type is best for you (i.e. cushioned, stability, etc.) there’s a separate tool for that too. Once you get your list, you can do a side-by-side comparison of up to four styles and print it to take along when you go shopping. While I still need to take them for a test run at the store, at least I’ve narrowed down the selection and have an opinion to consider other than the (not always so qualified) shoe salesman’s opinion.

I was just reading Whole Food and More and found the answer to one of life’s biggest mysteries–the secret of Kenyan runners’ many successes. So what makes them the fastest on the track? A diet that’s hard for us to mimic here in North America–raw milk products.

Apparently from 1988 to 1998 men from one Kenya tribe, the Kalenjins, have won roughly 40 percent of the top medals in distance running. And these men get half of their daily calories from a soft cheese-like fermented raw milk product (mursik) that’s produced on their own farms. Now, even if you could change your diet so 50 percent of the calories you consume come from milk products, you’ll be hard pressed to find the same ones here. You can check for a local farmer in your area that sells 100% grass-fed clean raw milk, but it’s still not a diet to try at home!

The editors over at Her Active Life posted a poll last week asking, “Would you wear a running dress?” My first reaction was no way! I admit, I don’t run every day, but when I do, I have no desire to hit the pavement in a dress! Shorts and a t-shirt work just fine for me. The little black dress seems best reserved for Saturday night with a pair of heels and a blow out, not a pair of sneakers and a hat.