Q: It can be tempting to just get on with the running part of running, but properly preparing your body will pay dividends in your results.  A proper warm up can also reduce your chance for progress-derailing injuries, such as a pulled hamstring.  Warm up your muscles for 10-15 minutes before beginning your workout proper.  Start by walking and gradually picking up the pace until you reach a full run. If you choose to stretch before your workout, do it after your warmup, as stretching is more effective on loose muscles.  Some advise eschewing stretching before the workout altogether, instead preferring to stretch for 5-10 minutes after the workout when muscles are at their most pliable.  Stretch your hamstrings by lying on the ground and raising each leg straight up in the air.  This is considered superior to standing toe-touches because it better isolates the hamstring.  Hold for 10-30 seconds. Stretch your quadriceps by pulling each leg up behind you while standing.  Hold for 10-30 seconds. Jogging for longer periods requires greater efficiency, in both your body's utilization of oxygen and your body's motion when your feet are on and off the ground.  Specific types of training can improve the efficiency of each.  Interval training involves running at high speed for short bursts (often 30 seconds to one minute), interspersed with cool-downs of equivalent or slightly longer periods that consist of light jogging or walking.  For more detail on an interval training regimen, see How to Increase Your Running Stamina  Interval training increases your VO2 max, which is essentially the efficiency in which your body uses oxygen to convert calories into energy.  Improving this efficiency through more intense running will benefit your ability to keep up a lighter pace of running for longer times as well. Plyometrics involves using drills such as jumping rope, skipping, one-legged hops, and high-knee sprints to improve explosive power in the legs so that your feet can spend less time in contact with the ground while running.  Maximizing the propulsive power while minimizing the contact time (and thus friction) of each step is one key to more efficient running. Prioritize training your body to jog for a specified period of time -- a half-hour, hour, or whatever it may be -- before worrying about how much ground you cover in that time.  The pace can be picked up further along in the training process.  If you are a beginner and/or cannot jog for 30 minutes straight, take brief walking breaks as you go.  Don't stop until you reach the 30-minute mark, to train your body to keep moving for that amount of time.  Steadily wean yourself off the walking breaks. Find a pace that you feel like you could keep up indefinitely once your training moves beyond the beginner stage. Keeping an easy pace can reduce your risk of injury. Research various running programs and find one that suits your needs, be it an 8-week beginner plan with a weekly schedule, a 10% weekly increase in mileage, or pacing yourself on 800-meter runs to prepare for a marathon. Programs with a good deal of variety can help moderate injury risk while also combating the boredom that can come from doing the exact same training the exact same way over and again.  Such tedium can make it easier to justify skipping one workout, then another, and so on. Jogging for longer periods of time requires increasing your cardiovascular endurance, but to break up the monotony and give your sore shins or other parts a break, switching between jogging and exercises like biking and swimming can be quite beneficial.  As a non-weight bearing exercise, swimming can give a break to sore feet, knees, etc., while providing an equivalent cardio workout.  It also gives you a chance to exercise your upper body muscles. Bicycling is also easier on the joints than running, and thus can make an effective change of pace.  You can also do interval training on a bicycle, mixing bursts of speed with slowdowns just like you do while running.  Consider rotating days, jogging one day then biking or swimming the next, especially if you are dealing with joint pain related to running. “Slow and steady wins the race,” according to the fabled tortoise, but it also describes the best way to build up your jogging endurance.  Injuries are more likely to occur when pushing for results too quickly, and injuries can derail even the best laid training plans.  Don’t expect immediate results or be frustrated when you can’t go from couch potato to marathon-ready in a few weeks.  Remind yourself that you are in this for the long haul, and that every little gain benefits not only your endurance but your overall health. That said, if you never push yourself, you’ll never move forward in your training.  Push yourself to keep going and reach that day’s goal, even when you are sore, tired, or just want to quit.  Unless you think you may be injured, you do need to push through some pain in order to gain.
A: Take time to warm up and stretch out. Employ interval training and plyometrics. Focus on time more than pace while jogging. Stick to your program. Vary your cardio training. Be patient but determined.

Q: Once you have analyzed all of the family members that you plan to include, make a list of their eye colors. This list will need to be analyzed either by hand or using computer software to determine possible eye colors for the baby. If you have no experience with inherited genes, you should use a computer program or consult someone that has knowledge of how genes are passed down. For example:  Father: blue eyes Mother: brown eyes Paternal Grandmother: brown eyes Paternal Grandfather: blue eyes Maternal Grandmother: brown eyes Maternal Grandfather: blue eyes Online calculators do most of the biology and math for you. Enter the eye color of each relative (e.g., parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles) in the indicated fields. When you are finished, the program will analyze the data and tell you the likelihood of each eye color. A Punnett square can be made for eye color by drawing a chart with 2 columns and 2 rows. On top of the columns, list the father’s alleles (genotype) for eye color. Along the left side of the rows, list the mother’s alleles for eye color. If you can determine the 2 genes that each parent has (this is easiest if both parents are homozygous), you can make a Punnett square. This square will tell you the possible gene combinations for your baby, which will indicate the possible eye colors. The Punnett square will also show the probability of each color. There should be 4 blank spaces under the father’s alleles and to the right of the mother’s alleles. In each space, write the father’s allele from the above it and the mother’s allele from the left of it. These 4 gene combinations are the possible combinations of your baby. The 4 boxes represent possible combinations of alleles. Each box represents a 25% chance that your baby will have that combination of alleles, and thus the eye color that it represents. If a certain combination does not appear in any box, there is no chance of having that combination. If a combination appears more than once, the chance of the baby carrying those alleles is greater. In the example above, it is clear that the father is homozygous (because blue eyes are recessive) and that the mother is heterozygous (because her father had blue eyes and could only have passed that gene). This allows you to make a Punnett square with 4 boxes. The likelihood of the baby having brown eyes will be 50% and the likelihood that it has blue eyes will be 50%.
A: List all known genes for eye color. Use an online calculator. Draw a Punnett square. Fill in the Punnett Square. Determine the probability of different eye colors.

Q: Instead of ordering a replacement stylus, look online to find compatible styluses for your turntable. There are 4 main stylus models, and each has their own benefits and drawbacks. Check a stylus manufacturer’s website to find out if a new stylus will fit on your brand of turntable. Keep in mind, unless you have a great ear, you may not recognize much of a difference between your stock stylus and the new needle.
A:
Order a different type of stylus if you want to upgrade your sound.