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.

We start with some shocking news from the New York Times: physical activity is good for you.

Phys Ed: How Staying Active Keeps Us Healthy | NYTimes.com
Inactivity produced spikes in blood sugar levels in healthy young volunteers, which may help explain why sedentary behavior raises the risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

And now for an example of someone doing a pretty great job of "staying active" ...

Cardiff Woman to Run Antarctica Marathon | Encinitas, CA Patch
Having already completed the Great Wall of China Marathon, Vickie Clauson -- a 52-year-old woman who admittedly "hates the cold" -- will race across one of the most frigid places on the planet.

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Hey folks, sorry for the late warmup lap.

Qualifying for famed Boston Marathon gets harder | Deseret News
Ever dreamed of running in the most prestigious road race in the world? Better pick up your pace.

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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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Chrissie Wellington currently holds the women's world record for all Ironman distance races (8:18:13 at the Challenge Roth triathalon last July) and has won four world championships. Not only has the British endurance athlete never been defeated over the Ironman distance, she holds the five fastest times ever recorded by a woman in the race.

Chrissie Wellington is, in short, a badass.

She's also a survivor of serious eating disorders. In her forthcoming autobiography, Wellington details how her insecurity as a young adult led to a struggle with anorexia and bulimia. While her family successfully intervened Wellington told The Guardian newspaper she now gets emails from other female athletes and recognizes the exact same symptoms.

"The victims of such illnesses are often very ambitious, outwardly successful young women who pursue these ideas of control and achievement," she said. "We're driven, compulsive, obsessive, competitive, persistent and seek perfection. That can be channelled incredibly negatively."

This week is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week and it's a good time to take a look at the problem of eating disorders among runners and endurance athletes, particularly for women.

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Looking for a neat way to spend Leap Day ... and happen to live in Fort Collins, Colorado? Perfect! There's a Leap Day 5k today at 5:515 p.m. For everyone else, onto the links!

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Last week, Denny told you all about Zombies, Run!, a soon-to-be-released running app that does just what you probably think it does. Now it's officially available in the app store.

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It used to be said that to finish a marathon made you one in a thousand. Turns out it's actually a little lower than that now. For every 607 Americans, one person finished a US marathon in 2011.

The 26.2 mile race continues to enjoy growing popularity with approximately 518,000 people finishing more than 720 marathons held in the United States last year, according to Running USA's annual report. In the past 12 years, there has been a 47% increase in the number of marathon finishers in races held in the United States. This graph, using stats compiled by Running USA and Marathon Guide, shows how that popularity has increased year-to-year since 2000.

The trend can be seen in the participation in the premier marathons over the past decade. Last year the New York City Marathon saw more than 47,000 people cross the finish line making it the largest such race ever held. For the most part, all the major races have seen progressive annual growth over the past decade with the exception of Honolulu. These figures are also compiled from Running USA and Marathon Guide numbers.

Entrant caps on big-city races and a growing interest in half-marathon events has tempered the runaway growth of destination marathons seen a few years ago but those are only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.

According to Running USA, a total of 94 U.S. marathons reported more than than 1,000 finishers in 2011. The year prior, 89 races surpassed that mark and, since 1999, the number of U.S. marathons topping a thousand finishers in a single year has more than doubled.

And the overall number of marathons has grown tremendously. In 2000 there were only an estimated 300 26.2 mile races; last year there were more than 720.

As you might expect, all this is translating to more people running more training miles. Running USA's survey of 11,800 runners found that US marathoners ran approximately 4.4 days per week for an average of 29.4 miles. They also purchased approximately 4 pairs of running shoes and 83% had spent $100 or more on running apparel in the last 12 months.