Fitness Goals: Run. Race. Beat the Boyfriend.

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When I look at a fresh calendar and start penciling in races, a lot of things factor into what makes the cut. Did I run the race last year? Do I want to tackle a challenging new course? Is it close to home, or somewhere I want to travel to? What’s the fee? Does it have a cool medal or T-shirt?

Throw in one more criterion this year: Will it give me more race miles than my boyfriend? My boyfriend, the one who says, “I’m not a real runner, I just do this to stay in shape,” beat me by 0.03 miles in 2010. There’s no way I’m letting him accumulate more mileage than me in 2011.

When we met last June, he and I were taking time off from our respective amateur sports — soccer for him, running for me. I was recovering from a hip injury, and most of our exercise seemed to consist of lingering at outdoor cafes, lying on the beach or walking to a bar that was more than a block away.

The start of his soccer season in August coincided with the beginning of my half-marathon training. I said I’d watch his games, and he offered to go with me on my first few long runs. I’d planned them for Saturdays, starting at four miles and ending at 10 in October.

Fine, I thought. I was rehabbing an injury and needed to do those long runs at an easy pace. I welcomed having a novice along, someone who only occasionally ran a 5K, to slow me down, at least at the start of training. He swore he would stop when the runs hit six miles.

Six miles became seven, then eight. The loping 10-minute-per-mile pace I envisioned dropped to 9:30, then 9. Despite his claims, up until my last week of training, that he was not running the actual half-marathon, there he was in front of me on race day, crossing the finish line 30 seconds before I did.

And then I did the math. Earlier in the year, before meeting me, he had run a five-miler, on the same weekend I ran an 8K. Eight kilometers equals 4.97 miles. He was 0.03 miles ahead of me.

I told him I was going to hop into a Turkey Trot, a 5K race in a nearby town, on a day I knew he couldn’t run. “No problem,” he said. He switched his schedule to run the race with me. And beat me. Again.

In December, we went on vacation, then shuffled back and forth between our families for the holidays. I considered jumping into a midnight 5K being run a few miles from his house late in the year. “Sorry, babe, I just have to walk the dog. Don’t mind that I’m carrying a gym bag or that I won’t be back for a couple of hours.” I didn’t think he’d buy it.

So how was it possible that he’d beaten me? I was the runner in the relationship. He started running with me to get to know me better, figuring that long stretches on the road would forge some sort of communication path between us.

It did. We talked about everything, even topics that made us uncomfortable, like his brief marriage and my alcoholic ex-boyfriend. Those long runs forced us to talk, and formed the foundation for our relationship.

But those .03 miles still burn, so I’m plotting. He’ll be playing in soccer tournaments in the spring, so I’ve added an April half-marathon. He’s scheming too, making commitments to summer races, which he knows I hate. I registered for the New York City Marathon lottery; he didn’t. If I’m picked, there’s no way he can make up those 26.2 race miles that I’ll be running without him.

But if I do get in to the marathon, it means I’ll be doing many more Saturday long runs — and, because of his soccer commitments, they’ll most likely be on my own. There will be no one I can tease for complaining that it’s too cold. No one to agree that the driver in the big S.U.V. that almost hit me was definitely in the wrong. And no one to talk me through those last painful miles on a bad training run.

Before I met him, I craved the solitude of those long, lonely runs. Now I want his wry companionship next to me for every mile.

Well, almost every mile.

Jen A. Miller is the author of “The Jersey Shore: Atlantic City to Cape May.”

Remedies: Garlic for Athlete's Foot

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times What alternative remedies belong in your home medicine cabinet?

More than a third of American adults use some form of complementary or alternative medicine, according to a government report. Natural remedies have an obvious appeal, but how do you know which ones to choose and whether the claims are backed by science? In this occasional series, Anahad O’Connor, the New York Times “Really?” columnist, explores the claims and the science behind alternative remedies that you may want to consider for your family medicine cabinet.

The Remedy: Garlic.

The Claim: It can treat athlete’s foot.

The Science: You don’t have to be much of an athlete to contract athlete’s foot. All it takes is a step on a moist floor or a moment in a gym locker room to end up with the pesky and widespread fungus, which causes flaking and tiny cracks between the toes that sting as much as paper cuts.

Treating tinea pedis, as it is known scientifically, can be just as irritating. Those who have it often experiment with all sorts of creams, sprays, gels and prescription drugs that have varying success rates. And the condition has a notorious habit of returning, in part because the fungus often lingers even after symptoms subside, causing many people to end their treatments before the fungus has been completely extinguished.

But one alternative remedy that a small number of studies support is garlic, widely used throughout history for its antimicrobial properties. In particular, studies have looked at a compound in garlic known as “ajoene,” which gets its name from “ajo,” the word for garlic in Spanish. The compound seems to be especially effective against the fungus that causes athlete’s foot.

“Garlic has long been considered a powerful natural antifungal,” said Dr. Lawrence D. Rosen, chief of pediatric integrative medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey and a pediatrician at the Whole Child Center in nearby Oradell. Dr. Rosen pointed out that studies have found garlic effective against a number of fungal infections, including those caused by Candida and other common pathogens.

Tinea pedis seems to be just as vulnerable. In 2000, one team of researchers published a study in The Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology that compared a week of twice-daily applications of mild garlic solutions with topical applications of the popular drug Lamisil in about 50 people with diagnoses of athlete’s foot. Two months later, the scientists found that a garlic solution that contained about 1 percent ajoene had a 100 percent cure rate, compared with a 94 percent cure rate for 1 percent Lamisil. Other studies have found similar results.

Ajoene creams and solutions are not available commercially. But some experts recommend simply adding a few finely crushed cloves of garlic to a foot bath and soaking the affected foot for 30 minutes, or mincing a few garlic cloves, mixing the minced garlic with olive oil, and then using a cotton ball to rub some of the solution on the affected area.

The Risks: According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, side effects of garlic are generally mild and uncommon. But some people can develop allergic rashes or blisters with topical use.

Quinoa: The New Superfood?

Quinoa is healthy and delicious. Up until now, I’ve only enjoyed it as a side dish at fancy restaurants, usually paired with duck, lamb, or veal.

But it turns out that quinoa may actually be the next “superfood.” It may also be quite effective for losing weight (more details below).

But first, here’s a quick video on how to prepare quinoa at home:

Now, if you’re looking to lose weight, and you’ve struggled with other diets, then quinoa may be especially appealing to you.

First of all, it’s 100% gluten-free. If you are allergic to wheat or if you’ve been diagnosed gluten-intolerant, then quinoa is an ideal substitute.

Secondly, this South American grain is high in protein, essential amino acids, and iron. In fact, it contains 14 grams of protein for every 100-gram serving.

And thirdly, quinoa has been used to control weight loss since pre-Columbian days. The Incas even considered it to be a “sacred grain.”

In fact, it was recently called “one of the world’s superfoods” by the United Nations. Unlike its extremely popular friend from Brazil, the Acai berry, quinoa has no sugar and still tastes great, which makes it perfect for diabetics (or anybody else who’s trying to cut back on sugar).

Want to learn more? Then check out the Quinoa Super Diet.

It’s the first diet of its kind that utilizes this amazing grain to supercharge your diet, help you hit your weight loss goals, and possibly even give you the slim body you’ve been dreaming of.

The Quinoa Super diet is packed with health facts, dietary tips, and tasty recipes that are easy to understand, easy to make, and easy to add into your daily life. More importantly, it could be the “missing link” you’ve been looking for to help you lose weight.

Click here to learn more about The Quinoa Super Diet

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How to Haggle With Your Doctor

Laura Pedrick for The New York Times Dr. Jeffrey Kullgren, an internist and clinical scholar at the University of Pennsylvania.

In this week’s Patient Money column, Walecia Konrad asks Dr. Jeffrey Kullgren, an internist at the University of Pennsylvania who researches consumer-driven health care, for advice on how to negotiate with a doctor or other medical provider. “Your physician may be just as uncomfortable with these conversations as you are,” he said. “That’s because — and I can tell you firsthand — doctors are simply not trained for this. I was trained to give the very best care for my patients, regardless of cost.”

Among Dr. Kullgren’s tips:

I would advise not waiting until the last minute to bring up finances. It helps to bring it up early in the visit so you have enough time to talk about it.

Billing people work on getting those services paid for….They are not the ones who can offer alternative treatments that may cost less — say, generic medicines instead of brand-name, for example. Only your doctor can do that, which is why he or she needs to know your situation.

Ask your doctor how he or she feels about the specific test you are about to undergo and if shopping around for a lab with the lowest price is an option.

To learn more, read the full article, “A Talk With the Doctor May Help Trim Fees,” then please share your thoughts in the Comments section below.

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Is a Medical Resident a Student or Employee? Supreme Court Has an Answer.

What, exactly, is a medical resident?

That question isn’t intended to provoke existential angst; it was the center of a Supreme Court decision handed down today. The case pitted the IRS, which said residents were employees and thus subject to Social Security taxes, against the Mayo Clinic, which said they were students and therefore not subject to the tax.

As the WSJ reports, today the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the government. Here’s the earlier WSJ story on the oral arguments in the case, which were heard in November. Mayo’s lawyer argued that the IRS rule was arbitrary, and said residents are primarily in their positions to learn.

An opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, however, said that the IRS “did not act irrationally” in concluding residents were subject to Social Security taxes. The IRS rule went into effect in April 2005, and last year the agency said residents were entitled to refunds on taxes paid before then.

Here’s info on the case from Scotusblog.

The decision means both residents and teaching hospitals will have to split the tax, which is 12.4% of wages. Taxes will bring in about $700 million in revenue annually, the WSJ says. In a statement, Mayo says it is “disappointed” by the decision but that its own medical residents won’t see any changes, since they’ve been paying Social Security taxes as the case has progressed through the courts.

Update: Updates with comment from Mayo Clinic.

Image: iStockphoto

Don’t be fooled by the towel-folding robot video

Robots in motion are a mesmerising sight, even if they are doing a chore that would be very boring if carried out by a human. So it’s not surprising that one of the week’s most viewed videos on YouTube shows a Californian robot picking up towels from a pile of laundry and neatly folding them.

Views shouldn’t be fooled, though, into thinking that robotic deliverance from domestic chores is at hand.

For a start, the robot (made by a company called Willow Garage and programmed at the University of California, Berkeley) is very slow. The YouTube video is speeded up 50-fold, so what the machine appears to be doing in 30 seconds actually took 25 minutes.

Not only is the robotic housemaid maddeningly slow, it is also far from versatile. Can it iron? Sort very similar black socks into pairs from a pile of laundry? Stuff a duvet into its cover? No.

If you want the full academic paper, it’s here, with the splendid title: “Cloth Grasp Point Detection based on Multiple-View Geometric Cues with Application to Robotic Towel Folding”.

Robot researchers are always optimistic, and Berkeley team have been talking about producing useful household robots within five years. Don’t believe it.