How to joggle an entire marathon without dropping

Although I have touched on this subject before, I keep getting asked how it is possible to joggle an entire marathon without dropping by both fellow jogglers and non-jogglers alike. Although I have only completed one marathon without dropping(I dropped at the other 2 I did), these days I can often joggle for 20 miles without dropping. I hate to sound like I’m bragging; there are other jogglers who can joggle entire marathons without dropping, and I’m not a world record holder. So what is my secret? Here is how I do it:

1. Get plenty of practice. I usually joggle 6 days a week, which adds up to about 40 to 50 miles of joggling per week. Even on the days I don’t joggle, I practice juggling for at least 20 minutes.
2. While joggling, relax, and always maintain your posture. Take deep breaths. Approach joggling as an active meditation. Keep movements smooth, think of it as a form of dancing, or martial arts. It’s inevitable that people will try to distract you while you’re joggling, but stay focused on what you’re doing.
3. Strength-train your upper body. In order to build endurance in your arms to enable you to juggle for many hours, you will have to strength-train your upper body about once or twice a week. I mean exercises like push-ups, curls, and pull-ups. Doing a little core work like bicycle crunches or planks may help too. I find that just a few minutes is sufficient for improving muscle endurance and circulation in my arms.
4. Occasionally practice juggling(or joggling) with heavy balls. This is almost the same thing as #3, except it combines improving muscle memory with endurance work by targeting the muscles you use for juggling. Juggling with heavy balls for a few minutes is also a great warm up exercise before joggling, since it increases circulation to your arms.
5. When practicing juggling, work your way up to juggling 4, 5 or more balls. Just about all jogglers are 3 ball jogglers, but if you can juggle 4 or more that will help improve your arm speed and hand eye coordination. Once you can go a few minutes without dropping, try occasionally joggling with 4, 5 or more balls. I often practice with 4 balls as part of a routine I like to call “juggle chi”. It’s basically combining juggling with T’ai Chi movements.
6. While training, learn to do lots of tricks while joggling. This will improve your hand-eye coordination and balance. At races, keep tricks to a minimum, if you’re doing them at all, unless you’re really good at them.
7. Joggle with fruit occasionally. This can really challenge and improve your hand-eye coordination to the point that you won’t even feel like you’re joggling when you go back to joggling with regular balls. To take it to the next level, joggle with different types of fruit or fruit of different weight and do tricks with them.
8. Do balance work. When juggling at home, stand on one leg. Better yet, juggle with heavy balls or do lots of tricks while standing on one leg while spinning around. Or combine balance work with strength training by doing planks or other exercises on an exercise(stability) ball. Balance and coordination go hand in hand, since you are more likely to drop if you are off-balance.
9. Hit the trails, especially hilly ones. This is the ultimate joggling challenge since hilly trails can challenge everything all at once. If you can master this, joggling on flat surfaces becomes a piece of cake. Once you become proficient at this, take it to the next level by joggling trails with fruit or heavy balls.

Joggling lemons

What’s next after joggling oranges? Why joggling lemons, of course! I managed to do this for 4.8 miles yesterday, dropping them a bunch of times. Although they weighed less than the oranges I joggled a few weeks ago, their shape makes them a little more difficult to handle. The protruding ends of the lemons would sometimes stab the palms of my hands a bit, causing a little pain. This isn’t an issue with most oranges. The lemons averaged about 4.75 ounces each, just slightly more than my usual Sil-X juggling balls(a little more than 4 ounces). The oranges I juggled a few weeks ago were nearly twice as heavy, and because of this, they really slowed me down.

With all the drops, and stopping to take photos, my timing is irrelevant. Besides, this was also a strength-training day, and I usually can’t run fast on strength days. I had Led Zeppelin’s “The Lemon Song” playing in my head during this run.

One of the things that I like the most about joggling fruits is the novelty of it. I am so used to joggling with the same old balls, it gets a little boring at times. It’s no longer as challenging as it used to be. So it’s nice to be able to joggle with something different for a change. It feels like it is more brain stimulating, to juggle fruits that are each slightly different in shape, weight, and texture, unlike a set of balls which are uniform. So I have to focus a little more on my juggling pattern while running, and make the proper calculations and adjustments. This may help improve my joggling.

As the old saying among jogglers goes, “When life throws you lemons, joggle them!”. In case you’re wondering, I am not sure who was the first to say this.

I’m also not sure what I am going to do with the lemons. Make lemonade? Lemon pie? I appreciate any suggestions!

Besides being a lot of fun, lemons are an excellent source of vitamin C. For more nutrition facts about lemons, check out: Nutrition Data on Lemons

Joggling Oranges

Now that spring is in the air and I have recovered from my injury, I thought it was time to experiment. I decided it was time to joggle some fruit, instead of my usual juggling balls, to make things a little more interesting and challenging.

I have juggled oranges many times, because their size, shape, and skin texture makes them perfect for juggling. So they seemed like the best fruit to go joggling with. In fact, I have joggled with oranges before, but mostly while running back from the market which is less than half a mile away. Today, however was the first time I ever joggled oranges or any food for more than a few miles. Before I get to the run, let us look at how to pick oranges for juggling or joggling.

The most important thing is for the oranges to be all about the same size, shape, and weight, unless you’re really looking to challenge yourself. Make sure they are spherical and solid. If they are too oblong, they may be difficult to juggle with. About the size of a tennis ball or a little larger is ideal. Since you or someone else will eat them later, be sure they are ripe and fresh, and heavy for their size. Avoid oranges that are discolored. I think navel oranges are best for juggling in my experience.

The oranges I selected were about 8 ounces each, which is double the weight of my preferred Sil-X juggling balls. While joggling these oranges, I could feel the difference and they slowed me down. I managed to run with them for 10 miles, and much to my surprise, I only dropped them once, and that was at the 2 mile mark. So I managed to run 8 miles straight with them without dropping, even while running up and down a 150 foot hill twice, and doing juggling tricks. It took me 1:42 minutes to complete this run. A 10 mile run from last week with my regular juggling balls in warmer weather took me 1:30 minutes.

While running with them, I tried playing in my mind the Sergei Prokofiev opera, The Love for Three Oranges, but couldn’t, since I have no idea how it goes. Oh well, I don’t like opera that much anyway. This very orangey journey got exhausting after a while, especially on those hills, but I kept pushing myself. I couldn’t run in shorts today because it was cold(mid 30s) and very windy, the last gasp of Old Man Winter. It should be very spring-like next week.

In a way, this was like a strange ritual both for challenging myself and for connecting with my food. I have a newfound respect for oranges and Mother Nature, who provides us with these natural, somewhat heavy juggling balls, which also happen to be a good source of some vital nutrients. Granted, it also took thousands of years of selective breeding to produce the orange as we know it today.

I’ve been wondering if joggling fruit would encourage onlookers to eat more of them. I really have no idea. I often wear a vegan T-shirt when the weather is better, and while I like to think I am making an impact, it’s not always easy to tell what people think. Since the only joggler in the immediate area also happens to be a vegan, I hope it gets people thinking.

Of course, besides using them for juggling, you can eat oranges. I hear this is what most people use them for anyway. These particular oranges were so sweet, juicy and fresh, though it felt kind of weird eating them after joggling with them for 10 miles. The juggling didn’t damage them at all.

Oranges are a great source of vitamin C, and fiber. They are also a good source of phyto-chemicals which may also have some health benefits, but the research on this is still preliminary. Most people need to eat more fruit, and it can’t hurt to juggle them too, since most people could use at least a little more exercise.

In case anyone is wondering, I will slowly work my way up to joggling with cantaloupes. Whatever you do, make sure you have fun exercising in the warm, wonderful spring weather.