End of Year “Bests of 2009″

Best Meme: Exercise is Medicine. Trademarked and owned by the American College of Sports Medicine

Best Public Domain Meme: Exercise is good for what ails you. It’s mine and probably someone else’s too. You can have it for free as an open source code for life.

Best Runner of The Year: Usain Bolt

Best Marathon Victory of The Year: Meb Keflezighi bringing it home at the New York Marathon.

Best Running Magazine: Runner’s World. (with Runner and Marathon & Beyond close by)

Best Secret of Success: Avoid over training and the terrible too’s. Too much, too soon, too fast,  too often, with too little rest. Khalid Khannouchi, says that rest is the secret ingredient for success for the aging runner. Of course, I’d guess good genetics, and a lot of hard work helps too! This past summer Khalid received the Golden Foot Award of the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine. He is also deserves to be known as one of the nicest people of the year.

Best Running Politician: And controversial in this slot would is Sarah Palin. But as a marathoner, and one who isn’t sure what papers she reads daily, she did know that George Sheehan is one of her favorite authors and philosophers. Bonus points for that put her over the top.

Best Basketball Playing Politician: Barack Obama. Now, Barack needs to publicly announce he has given up cigarettes and taken up running and he has a chance at the position above this one.

Best Book: Born To Run, by Chris McDougall. Best running read for a long time and  clearly dominated in the running world.

Best Fitness Book For Nonrunners: The Body Fat Solution, by Tom Venuto. While I’m more of a fan of cardio, and cardio out of your comfort zone more than HIIT, Tom Venuto has much advice for those trying to lose weight. Motivation, often a weak point, is well covered here.

Best Quick Workout Book I Haven’t Read Yet: Cardio Strength Training by Robert Dos Remedios. It’s new and it’s on order. I’m sometimes forced to get a workout in with only 20-40 minutes available. Coach dos Remedios has written up a bunch of short plans including some 15 minute plans. That may be a bit short, but I like to see what others are thinking of and I’m sure there are plenty of fine ideas here for those who like to mix in strength training. His text on “Power Training” is incredibly thorough.

Best Humor Running Book: The Runner’s Rule Book by Mark Remy

Best Out of Print Running Book: Running and Being by George Sheehan

Best Vacation Spot: Hawaii. Clearly the choice on both the right, left, and center. Pick an island, any island. You can’t go wrong.

Best Publisher: Rodale Press. Rodale publishes Runner’s World, Runner Magazine, and tons of books on fitness and health topics.

Best Game To Quit: World of Warcraft. How many games could keep so many people playing for so many hours? 5 year anniversary just passed, time for a change and the rest of life. Besides, sitting still for 5 hours in front of a TV screen or computer monitor has serious adverse health effects.

Best Revealed Wisdom: Hip strength and core strength is important. Abductors help ITB syndrome and gluteal muscles can help Patellar tendinitis (tendinopathy) and resistant patellofemoral pain sydnrome.

Best New Thought On Exercise: Exercise isn’t only good for what ails you, but sustained movement may have driven evolution of the hominid brain.

Best Sports Medicine Publication: Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. Official publication of the ACSM

Best Science Magazine: Science Magazine. (Nature is right up there too.)

Best Must Read Running Humor Blog: Mark Remy’s Daily Views Mark occasionally takes some hits on his blog, but he is consistently funny and occasionally controversial. And this summer, he pointed out a new member of the running community: Eminem, seen on the Jonathan Ross show. Jonathan is occasionally involved in controversies himself.

Best Running Blogs: Runner’s World Blogs. There are others, but overall the blogs at runner’s world are a great assortment and worth reading. Read them all and pick your own favorites, if you haven’t already. There is something for everyone. If you’ve missed Amby Bufoot’s two blogs, put them on your list: Foot Loose and Peak Performance. General fitness blogs: Leigh Peele’s Diet, Fitness, Life is also worth a look. Leigh tells the truth about diet, fitness, and trends at her new and likely permanent domain.

Best Music Video of The Year: Ima let you finish, but Beyoncé’s “Put A Ring On It” is it. This, it should be noted, was also selected by that exemplar of fine taste, Kanye West.

Best New Music Act: Florence and the Machine.

Best Commitment: Work on fitness and health. Made by many, kept by many, and in line to be the best commitment for next year too!

Best Thing Avoided: The Tiger Woods/ Mark Sanford life style. Thanks to those who helped with this one. More reasons why working out, running, and staying home is better than golf and politics.

Best Connector: The Internet. Intertubes, interwebs and all!

Happy New Year, everyone. I hope your year gets off on the right foot! Make your plans and commitments and get off to a good start!