Imagine, for a minute, that Cosmopolitan and Runners' World made sweet, passionate, print-based love and somehow produced an offspring publication. It'd probably be full of lists, telling you all about how hot others' runs are, and what you're missing out on by not waxing your legs for aerodynamics's sake (or something). This super-cool magazine would be all the rage with the kids. We all obviously want to feel young, so let's check out what this magazine has to offer.

TEN GREAT WAYS TO SPICE UP YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH RUNNING!

1. Running alone? Try it with a partner
2. Running with a partner? Try somebody new
3. Run without pants on
4. Steal some stuff and then try to run away
5. Run as slow as you can handle and see how long you can go
6. Maybe see other sports for a little while. When you come back, say you were 'on a break'.
7. Watch lots and lots of films with other people running in them.
8. Running getting boring? Have you tried it ... barefoot?
9. One word: Gu.
10. Two words: Body Glide.

Last week, I shared my experience running a distance relay race. Today: Hash House Harrier running.

It was a warm day -- warmer than anyone in our group of about 15 expected. This meant sweating; sweat and a tight red dress lead to chafing.

There's a distinct flavor of disorientation that results from walking out of a dark bar into a bright sunny day. Wearing dresses, sweaty and day-drunk, we felt like royalty. We should have eaten lunch beforehand.

"The event starts at noon. That should mean there would be a provided lunch, right?" "Probably." That was our pre-event conversation. We showed up to our first Red Dress Run (our first hash, actually) ready to put down a base of food and start drinking before the 2 p.m. "gun time."

We spent the next few hours drinking Budweiser out of kegs, mingling with the group of 15 that we'd signed up with and the others who seemed much more comfortable in their dresses than we were. We discussed the Red River Shootout with a man in a wheelchair (he'd broken his leg after signing up, but damn it, he wasn't going to miss this day for anything). There were a number of grey-haired folks in the crowd, a lot of 20-somethings and, most memorably, a 7-plus-foot gentleman -- we dubbed him Gheorghe Muresan -- wearing a sequined number so tight around the hips that it showed off all of what he was packing (Gheorghe Mure-dong?).

We were told that this event does not accurately represent the average hash run. "Hashmas," as it's known, attracts all sorts of crazy types. This was probably the most accurate statement of the day.

After two hours of beer and mingling, the Hash Master -- one part Mary Wittenberg, one part tour guide and about 50 parts Dionysus -- gathered the group into a large circle along the waterfront and gave the pertinent details to the uninitiated. We would be running to a beer stop; the course was marked with chalk, but wrong turns may be built-in; a small bit of on-course vocab was described and a few songs were sung.^[1]

Then we were off and running; 500 drunks in red dresses spilled through the streets and courtyards of Southwest D.C.

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The New Year always starts with renewed commitments and resolutions that you're determined to see through this year. And, almost always, by March "this" year tends to look a lot like "last" year. If you've stuck with your personal regimen you've probably noticed that the crush of workout warriors cluttering the gym in January has thinned out considerably in recent weeks.

For new runners, the key to success isn't really going a given distance or speed -- it's building a routine and sticking to it. If you are still running 20 minutes a day thrice weekly, I'll bet you've noticed significant progress from where you started nine weeks back.

And, for more experienced runners, sticking to resolutions is similar. Getting back onto the training routine can be just as challenging. If you don't get over the hump, you'll find yourself wistfully looking over entry forms for marathons you wanted to enter but you now know you'll never be in shape enough to run.

The fact is New Year's Resolutions are really meaningless. You can make a resolution anytime and have as good a chance to stick with it as if you promised on that waning week of the year before. So with a sixth of 2012 in the books we ask you how well you stuck with your New Year's resolutions and urge you to commit yourself to whatever you've hope to accomplish.

Shouts out to March. How'd your training go last week?

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Running at lunch is not the easiest thing to do. You're faced with a change of clothes, a need for hygiene, and a time limit on how long you can bandy about the streets.

When I decided to begin The Great Lunch Run Experiment on Monday, I had a very sore shin from kicking a soccer ball on Sunday. That pain lingered all week and I was only able to run on Monday, Wednesday and now Friday.

Today was the first day I actually ran without pain. I am going to continue the experiment over the first three days of next week in order to get a better grasp on the concept without being in pain.

What did I learn? Quite a few things, actually.

First of all, the streets of Washington are busy, and you need to have a plan in mind or else you'll be stuck idling at intersections every quarter mile.

Secondly, running clothes begin to reek when kept in a bag, even for just a few days. If one is to exercise at work, they will need to bring fresh clothes every day or try to clean them as best as possible in the shower. Febreze could also help in this situation.

Also, you HAVE to shower. I am fortunate enough to have a shower at the SB Nation headquarters. Without it, this would have been entirely impossible, for the sake of my coworkers.

Finally, I don't get the same joy out of lunch runs that I do on evening runs. There is something special about running away the work of the day while not worrying about time constraints. Life is an open book and freedom is possible.

I'll revisit the subject on Monday, and perhaps getting some really good runs in on the National Mall will change everything. Enjoy your weekend, friends.

A few weeks ago I was out for a run with my long run training partner, and he mentioned something that I've never once considered during my ~5 years of running: foot care.

He'd been having issues with his foot that week and hadn't run during the work week in order to let things heal. While talking about the injury, he was expressing frustration at the perceived random nature of the injury (it was some mid-foot pain, if I recall correctly). He talked about being cognizant of his feet and taking care of them: including regularly using a pumice stone on the soles of his feet.

That got me to thinking: how the hell are we supposed to take care of our feet?

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This morning I woke up feeling brand new -- Talib Kweli

Over the past four months I've gone from running ten miles a week to running high-20s/low-30s. Two weeks ago I ran 31 miles -- my highest mileage total in nearly nine months. Accepting reality, I figured that at some point the continual increase in training would catch up with me. This past week, it did.

Given the race schedule that I've imposed upon myself (13.1 on 18 March, 26.2 on 2 June), I need to keep building my mileage over the next few months. The training plan that I'm following calls for continued mileage increases up through May, peaking at a total of 47 miles. I've used this marathon training plan four times in the past -- so there's a level of familiarity and comfort there that's both good and bad: good because I know what to expect, bad because I know the perceived effort that it takes to get through the plan and will likely do enough just to get by.

I've had setbacks that I haven't been OK with [via hangover waves], but this past week was a different sort of beast: a reactionary lessening in mileage as a result of leg soreness and fatigue.

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This morning, I explained The Great Lunch Run Experiment and promised a bold new world full of lunchtime jogs through the mall in Washington D.C. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out that way.

Fact is, I played a casual game of soccer yesterday with my roommate. We went to the high school and kicked the ball for a good 45 minutes. Trust me, I am not used to kicking a soccer ball, and it was evident immediately as I stretched on the sidewalk outside Stride Nation headquarters.

I began to break down just north of the White House, stopping in front of an Andrew Jackson statue. Walking was worse, as my shin had completely seized up. I gingerly walked back to the Stride Nation headquarters, took a shower and went into the office to get back to work. Talk about a crushing blow to the lunch running experiment -- we will see how I feel tomorrow, but it may be pushed off until Wednesday.