Saturday Night Live had a sketch once that was called the “Run, throw, and catch like a girl Olympics.” I admit, I thought it was funny. But I also didn’t take offense because I was raised in a family where we were all physically active and I was never made to feel like I wasn’t good enough because I was a girl. I played sports all through my youth, mostly soccer and tennis and then started running as an adult. I confess, I enjoy it that I can run faster than my husband and that I beat my brother’s time in the Ironman we did together (in the interest of full disclosure he was scarily dehydrated, but…still). I’ve always thought that I’m a better person for having been athletic my whole life and the evidence seems to be stacking up that sports in one’s youth has a long lasting positive effect.

The NY Times reported on some recent research by economists about the lasting effect of sports and girls and Title IX. Their conclusion is that participating in sports has a positive effect on education and employment in later life. Playing sports and being active was easier when I was a kid, cable TV didn’t really become part of our life until I was in junior high and the video games that were around then weren’t all that exciting. So we spent our free time outside, dragging ourselves home when the streetlights came on. Life is different now but we can help our kids be active by being active ourselves. Model good habits and encourage outdoor activities. For me, I’m going to push my daughter to run, throw, and catch like a girl because there’s not a single thing wrong with that!

Here’s something for your running mix to remind you of your days as a girl.

Today is blog your heart out day to draw awareness to heart disease, the #1 killer of women. Heart disease directly impacted my family, I never knew my grandfather because he died of a heart attack before I was born, when my mother was only 12. My grandmother had a stroke and died when I was very young. I was talking about her the other day and my two year old said “I want to visit your grandmother.” I wish that my grandmother had lived to see her only great grandchild, the sweet little girl who is named for her.

My family history stinks when it comes to heart disease, my dad was only 55 when he had a heart attack and quadruple bypass. So that’s one big reason I run. I really want to live long enough to see my grandchildren and maybe even run a race with them.

Running is just one thing you can do to keep your heart healthy, check out Go Red for Women to learn more.

This is something for your mellow mix from one of my favorite singers, it’s a little something about hearts.

Despite evidence to the contrary (I almost took a swig of olive oil last night since I wasn’t paying attention to what I was grabbing), running might be a brainbooster. Turns out exercise might help your cognitive function so add another thing to the “pro” column for exercise.

After a couple months of casual running after my marathon, I’m starting to ramp up my training. I am going to run the Zooma half marathon at the end of March. If you live in Austin, Annapolis, Atlanta, or Denver and want to run a fun race, check out this series. I ran it last year and for the first year, they put on a pretty well organized race. The race shirt was cool – pink and a technical tee, they had a post race brunch at the hotel that served as race headquarters (side note, this year my friend and I are going to spend the night at the hotel for a fun escape), and everyone got a necklace at the finish. It’s a women’s race series but open to men as well, though the women runners tease them in their pink shirts. Ok, I made that up but they do allow men.

Now that it’s training season again, Sundays are long run days. If you are training for something, here’s something for your long run mix.