Holy corn dog! Here’s a Fair hike

Why put up with the hassles of traffic and pay $10 — the going rate based on a drive-by survey of Thursday evening’s State Fair preview — for premium parking to this year’s N.C. State Fair, which opens today and runs through Oct. 25, when you can park for free and encounter zero traffic?  And, you get a 2.7-mile (one way) nature hike to boot. Here’s the deal: read more

GetGoingNC.com — What we’re about

Welcome to your new, fit life! We’re glad you’re here.

Whether you’ve been redirected here from GetOut! GetFit! or TakeItOutsideNC.com, or are a total newcomer to GetGoingNC.com, here’s some background about what we’re up to.

I’m Joe Miller. My job here is to help you find a way of moving that makes you happy. Fitness and good health will follow. Think of me as a kind of personal coach – except I won’t make you weigh in. (Fitness programs pay too much attention to weight and not enough to how they make you feel.) read more

Hikes You Can Do: Panthertown Valley

Every Wednesday through Thanksgiving, GetGoingNC.com will feature a hike in North Carolina that just about anyone can do. It won’t be a long hike (though we may throw in a recommendation for going long), it won’t be strenuous hike (there could be a hill-climb option as well). The hikes will be timed to coincide with the changing colors of fall. First up: Panthertown Valley, a 6,700-acre oasis in the Nantahala National Forest near Cashiers. read more

Read this: PE in a school district that gets it

A story from the Seattle Times reprinted in today’s News & Observer shows how at least one school district is taking physical education seriously. “Stretching the curriculum: Seattle schools standardize PE” describes how the Seattle Public Schools have tossed the laissez faire/lazy fare approach to gym class currently in vogue in America in favor of a more structured fitness program intended to instill a lifelong sense of the importance of exercise. read more

Drink up and avoid leg cramps

Yesterday, I mentioned that my bid to avoid last place in Saturday’s Cry Me A River six-hour mountain bike race was thwarted — in part — by leg cramps early on my fifth lap (a little over 3 hours and 25 miles into the race, to put it in better perspective). I was pit-bound for 45 minutes before finally taking two electrolyte tablets, which gave my muscles a needed salt injection, an injection that let me resume normal function. Or at least move. read more

Explore the outdoors, discover yourself.