Brian Rock 
Now that my summer of racing is (mostly) behind me, it’s time to transition to focusing fully on the Chicago Marathon. Sunday, July 21 marks twelve weeks until the race – Sunday, October 13. Given the fact that I’ve maintained high mileage (~70 miles per week) and a strong base of long runs (16+ miles … Read more
Although much of what I write is freely available on this website, I tend to publish my data-intensive running articles on Medium – either in Runner’s Life or In Fitness and In Health. These articles are time intensive to research and by publishing them there, I’m able to be compensated for my work. But the … Read more
This was supposed to be another racing week – with a XC race on Tuesday and a mile race on Saturday. The mile race ended up getting postponed due to a forecast of heavy lightning in the area. And the XC race was quite hot and humid, resulting in a less than stellar performance on … Read more
If you’re looking for a mid tier running watch with an AMOLED screen, chances are you’re weighing the Gramin Venu 3 vs Forerunner 265. Garmin released both watches in 2023, and they are similar in a lot of ways. They retail at the same price point, and they both feature a shiny AMOLED screen that … Read more
This week was an in between week – no races. The Sunset Classic 5 Miler is behind me, and the Big Bang Mile isn’t until next week. So the focus this week is on training. I’ll get in a workout Wednesday and Friday. I’m also going to have an opportunity to spend some more time … Read more
Garmin recently released a new entry level Forerunner – the 165. If you’re in the market for a running watch with an AMOLED screen, you’re probably comparing the Forerunner 165 vs 265. There’s a lot of overlap in features, and the two watches are similar. Either one will ultimately be a fine choice for tracking … Read more
This is a question I often see people asking – should you get a screen protector for your Garmin watch? Although some people apparently do get screen protectors, I’ve never used one. I had a Forerunner 245 for three years, and I’ve had my current Fenix 7S Pro for about a year. In all of … Read more
If you’re on the market for an entry level running watch, you should be comparing the Forerunner 55 vs 165. The full line of Garmin GPS running watches run the gamut from $100 to $200 all the way up to the low thousands. If you don’t want to shell out $500 to $1,000 for a … Read more
The Chicago Marathon has announced that it will be implementing new qualifying times for guaranteed entry, starting with the 2025 Chicago Marathon. As I began to dig into this data, I was curious about the history of these times. When did they start? Have they changed previously? I was a little surprised to find out … Read more
This week was another busy racing week. I had a cross country race on Tuesday followed by the Sunset Classic 5 Mile on Thursday. Scroll down to Thursday for a mini race report from the 5 mile race. After last week’s heat wave, I had hoped for some better weather this week. And we did … Read more