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Freedom is an interesting thing. We know it’s concept and we get the gist of it all, but many of us are busy functioning amidst our daily routines and we think of freedoms only on their grandest of scale. We are grateful for the rights we have living in a free Country, but we don’t think about the smaller freedoms. The freedoms that our routines, namely being stuck to them, may be stripping away from us.
[From my Instagram]
Routine. Trust me, I’m like you and love a good routine. Routines are good, they keep us focused and working towards goals; consistency is the foundation of every major accomplishment. We NEED certain routines, yet routines are a tricky double edged sword.
Routines keep you focused. Routines can also hold your prisoner. The issues that dictate which is which are: the routine, the basis for it, and how much flexibility you allow yourself within it.
I can parallel this to running because it’s an easy example; training should become a routine. You need to KNOW you’re going to do it, don’t think of it like a ‘maybe’, you know your goals and you know you need to be consistent to reach them. You need that routine to keep you focused because running and training is hard. Frankly it’s painful and there will be times when you need to know you’re going to just have to put your head down and grind through. BUT, there are times when grinding will only leave you a broken, dull stone, so there needs to be a degree of flexibility. There are times when rather than pushing you need to step back.
Freedom outside your routine is also a state of mind. Being so busy usually means you’re perpetually distracted, or so focused on the task at hand you’re not opening yourself up to anything else. PAUSE. A mere pause, and opening yourself up to the possibility of…well, the possible.
You can’t see an opportunity if your eyes aren’t even open. What’s funnier still is that when you’re busily distracted you’re not even aware of the potential that you’re missing something!
That’s not some kind of riddle there, and it’s meaning is only best exemplified through actual experience. If you’ve had a moment where you cognitively shifted your focus, veered slightly outside your routine, and you had a MOMENT, experienced something unexpected that just, made you smile. That momentous experience of freedom is what I’m describing.
You chose to be free and in that moment you opened yourself up to have that smile….however small the experience was that brought it to your face.
You see, to get that smile, that satisfaction, doesn’t require you to veer wildly off course to the point where you recklessly abandon all goals or tasks at hand. No, it can be as simple as putting the other shoe on first…the tiniest change of routine just to show yourself that you CAN do it out of order. Who knows, you may like it. Just knowing you CAN often causes a much larger shift in perspective. You wonder what else you CAN do.
So be free. Think with an open and free mind. I challenge you to do tiny things outside of your routine and see if, by Jove, you like it.
When you close your eyes, may you dream of lanes, miles, and splits.
It’s never too early to dream of track, or any running goals for that matter. But at a time in the season where your next race may night be quite close enough to ‘taste’…the motivation to brave the elements (Hello, Winter, I was over you last month.) can wane for some runners.
I often take the snarky, or sarcastic, side to life, even when it comes to a ‘kind’ kick in the right direction. Here are some ways I suggest keeping yourself consistent until it IS close enough to ‘taste’ your next race.
1) That Runner Guilt Factor: I’ll be totally honest, this is usually my BEST way to combat a motivation lull. I remind myself that skipping a run usually is not worth feeling that ‘runner guilt’ later. No joke, you know it’s not fun going to bed tossing and turning because you caved to an instance of laziness.
2) The Endorphin Factor: Close to the above, I also remind myself that even if I feel tired/sluggish and the last thing I want to do is run…that usually changes after the first 5 minutes or mile. Once you get into the run those endorphins kick in, and I’ve never finished and thought, “Wow, I really wish I woulda just kicked it on the couch.”
3) Play Antagonizer: Mental dialogue, “C’mon, don’t be a weenie. Suck it the heck up, lace it up.”
4) The Buddy System: When in doubt, call a friend, arrange a run, join a group, social media that you ARE going for a run. That way if you back out, you’ve got to deal with the ‘Tweet of shame’ later. Good peer pressure and all that jazz.
5) Training Program: If you’re training to PR, I have to say I honestly recommend you have a coach, or are knowledgeable enough yourself to coach yourself. But self coaching is HARD…and it’s a lot easier to not have to ‘think’ about your training. That way, you have someone to tell you what to do, BAM, your job is just to run. Trust me, running is hard business, taking some things off your plate is nice. Plus, if your coach gives you the workout, no arguments, lace it up, Buddy!
6) Dream of Goals: Even if race day IS far away, write it down and know your goals. Like the picture above, if you VISUALIZE what you want and put it OUT THERE, it makes things feel more ‘real’ and you know what you’re working towards. It’s harder to blow off a written goal, one you dream about, right? Methinks yes. 7) Bribery: It’ll get you everywhere. Bribe yourself with new running gear, think about dessert, splurge on some cool new shoes, dream of pancakes on your run, create a cool playlist…whatever. When it doubt, donut it out…you just have to run first.
8) Identity: Okay, some people may be all judgmental and say you shouldn’t DEFINE yourself as a runner…but I’ll be honest, a big part of who I am (or at least the parts I tend to like the most! haha) is that I’m a runner. It’s not just a passion of mine, but it’s a way I connect with people, my friends, and a mentality. I know if I’ve run for the day I feel better and am a happier individual. So race or no race, get my miles on.
9) Money in the Bank: Think of all these miles and workouts as money in the bank. The stronger you are going into the ‘meat’ of the season the better you’ll race. Doesn’t that sound logical? Picture your competitors, who do you think will do better come race day, the ones gettin’ ‘er did, or the sofa’ing ‘er did? The uglier the day/workout, the more excited you should be when you tackle it…it’s making you that much tougher.
10) Superiority: Remember that runners are just better. So go run, don’t you want to be part of the cool kids?
Snark, goals, tough love to yourself…whatever it takes. Dream of miles, and remember you HAVE the support of the entire (awesome) runner community to give you a motivation boost when you need it.
Magic doesn’t come out of thin air, the moments that ARE magical are born from will, work, determination, and often times a bit of absurd belief that you’re capable of goals far greater than anyone sane would believe. Magic exists, it’s just only the insane are lucky enough to find it.
While I may play running shoe favorites, you get the idea. Get running and in any shoe that meets your fancy…cuz ‘stopping’ just aint all it’s cracked up to be.
This weekend they will be running the NCAA Cross Country Championships. The pinnacle of excitement for college cross country, I’ve done a few pieces highlighting a few of the front runners vying for the individual title: Shelby Houlihan, Crystal Nelson, and Patrick Tiernan.
Whether you ran cross country in college, or even went to college, or not I urge you to read them because among all of there runs a similar theme: cross country is unique because it blends the individual component of running with the team aspect. As every runner knows, ultimately, a race is against beating yourself, and while track does have a team scoring element, it is in no way like cross country’s.
Here, there is a team of seven, five runners score but don’t think the sixth and seventh man (or runner woman) don’t count. You need all seven because: 1) You never know: We’ve all had days where the gun goes off and it’s clearly not your day. If you’ve got one of your ‘usual’ top five runners amidst a horrible race, you better hope you can rely on your sixth or seventh to step up. 2) The tie: There are classic stories where it comes down to a tie breaker and a win was decided on the number sixth runner…you can bet that runner who proved a win for their team was celebrated that night!
Most importantly, while running is a test against yourself, there is an incredible bond that is formed between training partners. We’ll call is a bond build on suffering, and when you ‘click’ with certain training partners or groups that’s where the magic happens.
A partner, or team, can pull you to YOUR best.
Through the training season, time miles, the work you put in, if alongside a person/team, therein breeds a remarkable enthusiasm. The success of one is a success of the whole, and in the middle of the pain of race day you can dig a little deeper knowing that you’re racing for yourself but also for your team, your friends, the ones who are pushing through their own pain for you too.
Runners graduate, move on, change teams, but the component of having a training partner there to push you remains the same. Out in the ‘real world’ runners have many options in terms of running: solo, with a friend, with a group, finding a team, etc. Each runner decides where running fits into their life and also what ‘kind’ of running they’re doing.
Some crave the solace of a run with no one but themselves, their thoughts, and the pounding of their feet. Ample time for thinking.
Sometimes it is important to be able to grind out a tough workout by yourself because there is an important part of mental training that must occur.
But…I will say if you want to stretch yourself I urge you to try meeting with at least another person for some of those hard workouts. Ideally, a person a tad faster than yourself.
You see, running is ultimately a test against yourself…BUT, it’s because your MIND is (most often) your greatest obstacle. Having another running there ahead of you, giving you chase, is usually just enough to trick your mind into shutting up and letting your BODY prove you are capable of more.
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Lots of other new articles on my WRITING PAGE
To purchase prints of my artwork head to my ART tab! Thank you for respecting the amount of time and creative work that goes into my drawings and not using them without permissions.
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1) Did you run for a team ever, be it in high school, college, or beyond?
2) How often do you run by yourself? With anyone else? With a team?
3) Will you make a goal of meeting someone for a hard workout in the not-so-distant future?
I have no idea when I perfected it. The snot rocket is an art boys learn early on. We had our share of cold winters in Kentucky where I grew up. Winter, where the snot rocket is born…
You might say there is no skill involved in expelling phlegm from your nose. That’s where you are wrong. Anyone’s nose can run. The question is: can hold your nose just right, tilt your head and force it out properly so that it doesn’t land on your face or clothing? Because that would be embarrassing. Further, can you aim it while on the run so it doesn’t freeze and become a dangerous icy patch to those who come after you?
I can.
I don’t mean to brag, but I’m pretty good – darn good. I feel like if we could get this added as an Olympic sport, I could medal. Where is the SRAA (Snot Rocket Athletic Association) to champion this cause? Imagine that, a Southern boy winning gold in the Winter Olympics.
I got to test my skill Sunday. It dipped to freezing in Georgia for the first time this winter. I love cold runs. In fact, I planned on doing 8 miles and stretched it into 10. There weren’t many people on the greenway with me while I plied my phlegmy craft. Unbeknownst to me, there was a new factor at play.
Kylie has decided that she no longer likes the shape of my head and wants me to cover it with hair again. In fact, she decided she would like me to cover my face, as well. I don’t know what that says, but I am happy to comply. Just like I had always wanted to shave my head, I have always wanted to try to grow a beard. My lovely wife objected to both, but we do pretty much whatever Kylie wants while she is in treatment. So I have a week’s worth of stubble on my head and face.
I think it is going to come in. It looks slightly patchy on the cheeks, but a goatee will not be a problem. All the online beard-growing advice I’ve found says you have to give it a month before you decide. I can hold out. I’m actually kind of excited about it. Right now, with stubble all over, I feel dangerous – like a European bad guy in a James Bond film.
This new growth plays havoc with the snot rocket, however. I didn’t know it when I started running. I launched away for the 5 miles out. When I turned around, more people had joined the run and I noticed quite a few stares. I chalked it up to my new shady appearance. They must be afraid – wondering if I was planning dastardly deeds that only MI6 can thwart. Dangerous.
Little did I know until I got to the truck that I was stockpiling snot rockets on my new facial hair. Like twin demented antlers, they had collected and grown in a downward spiral shape from my upper lip. Yuck…
I have a challenge before me this winter of adapting the game to my new look. Don’t worry, part of being a professional is overcoming obstacles that stand in the way. And if the SRAA comes calling, I will shave and probably wax my upper lip to be competitive. Nothing can get in the way of an Olympic dream.
Here’s an excellent question I got from a reader recently. If you’ve got any running related questions for me, feel free to drop me a line: [email protected]
Q: Hi,
I came upon your page regarding running and could not help but be very impressed. I am a 23 year old dental student in my final year and the stress of exams has got my anxiety to higher than average levels. I am writing to you regarding advice and techniques on how to relieve such stress/anxiety through the sport of running. I previously ran 5km a day, however due to recent time constraints I have been unable to match this goal. What would you suggest in terms of distance to ensure I do not spend too much time on recreational running? What intensity do you recommend I perform? And finally what supplementation would you suggest to help me improve and relieve said anxiety.
Regards,
Dr. To Be A: Hi Dr. To be,
Thank you very much for your kind words and I’m happy to hear you’ve enjoyed my site! I’m doubly excited to hear that you’ve experienced just how much of a rush, escape, and release running can be. So much more to running than just the physical benefits it gives us!
Wow, I’m stressed just thinking about all the school and exams you’ve got going over there, congrats on pursuing your degree and making it to the final stretch! Now on to your questions.
It sounds like you were able to become rather consistent and felt comfortable with the 5k a day, but I understand that your schedule is becoming more busy. I’ll offer some tips on ‘finding’ that extra time but in regards to you wondering what the ‘right’ amount of time spent running is, there is not ‘right’ amount for everyone. Running is great because it’s incredibly individual and that means training and racing is all fit to the person, and it’s a matter of discovering what is right for YOU. For some that could be 70 miles per week, for others it’s 20. Always remember that some running is better than no running, so for your situation I’d suggest making a goal to fit in your 5k at least 4-5 times per week. That’s a good amount to make sure you keep your fitness maintained and offer you those times to get ‘out’ of school/stress/work mode and find your escape.
Some tips I have for finding that time:
1) Run first thing in the morning. Sometimes that means waking up a little earlier but it also ensures that no matter what comes up later in the day you’ve got your run done. Take the time the night before to lay out all of your running clothes and shoes so you can roll out of bed and hit the road!
2) Packed and Alarmed. If you can’t run in the morning take a bag packed with all your running gear with you to school and capitalize on ANY free moment you have between classes or find a break. You can also schedule your run time in your day and view it as any other important meeting, it’s YOU time and important.
3) Night Runner. Some people thrive off of running out the stress of the day and like to run at night. If that’s you, instead of Netflix or TV, get some miles.
4) Multitasking. I know runners who do their studying while running, be it flashcards on a treadmill, listening to recordings of lectors or study notes recorded.
Usually there are free minutes in the day, you just have to look for them.
I also wanted to let you know that the endorphins released from running actually improve creative thinking and problem-solving. Actually taking a break to run when you’re stuck with a problem or project you can’t solve will help your work. When you come back you’ll be more productive and re-energized. So you shouldn’t feel like your running time is ‘wasted’ time that you ‘should’ have been spent studying.
For workouts, if you’d like to push yourself then start by adding some pick-ups, or fartleks, into two of your weekly runs. Make sure you have at least one easy run between them. For some fun workouts, do 1 mile easy, then alternate running 1 minute harder and 1 minute easy. Come back next time and do 2 minutes hard/easy…the combinations for fartleks are endless. I have more workout suggestions HERE.
Lastly, stress management and anxiety. A really powerful tool is visualization, which I wrote about HERE, and you can apply that tactic to all other areas of life. If you’re stressed about exams, then close your eyes and picture yourself arriving to the test area calm, relaxed, and confident. You ultimately want to get in the habit of being able to put yourself into a relaxed state, with steady breathes, and then when the actual event is happening you’re able to recall that feeling of being calm. It take practice and time, but with practice you’ll become better and better at it…just as with running!
Running offers you a unique mind-space; the chemical release of endorphins plus the feeling of freedom, lays the foundation for a happier, more productive mood overall. You may find that some of your best ideas come on the run, that is the case for me! You may also find that over time, and when you’ve got more time in your schedule, you’d like to push yourself by adding more miles and different workouts. As, I hope the relationship you’ve got with running turns into one that is lifelong.
Thank you for writing and happy studying AND running!
Running takes you away, into another world.
One you control.
Here, time is warped.
Shifted, ticking excruciatingly slower or insanely, much too fast.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The watch can be a cruel master.
No one can truly see this world…
except for you.
The agony of the inner war waging,
workouts and races, outsiders don’t see.
They don’t FEEL.
But we do. Runners feel,
feel things others can’t imagine…
or would just rather choose not to.
Running’s world is at times painful,
torturous, warped,
but always magical.
Freaking magical…
addictive, alluring.
Control.
Is a finicky world.
In the end we don’t fully control this world,
but merely, the decision of whether to enter it or not.
——– UPDATE!!! Do not fret, the Arty Runnerchick is still alive and kicking. I’ve been working on quite a few exciting projects which I will be sharing with you soon!
While that means I haven’t been able to update the blog as frequently as I’d like, I AM updating my INSTAGRAM page daily…so be sure to follow me there to catch everything there first! I’m also on Twitter
In case you’ve not checked it out, I’ve got new articles published on the WRITING page, particularly a lot under the RunBlogRun section.
Who would have thought a 5k race could nearly lead to an arrest? I guess if you’ve been reading my blog long enough, you’ve figured out I can blunder my way into anything.
So it was Sunday when I ran a 5k for a benefit. The issue was not the run, I breezed through that with a typical mediocre time. The problem was that my daughter was one of the benefactors of the event and we needed to stay a long time after. A run on humid day for one who sweats profusely can lead to smells that disgust even my dog. I needed a change of clothing before I could reenter society.
Unlike most of my life, I planned ahead and brought a few towels along with a change of clothes. The race was held in an upscale shopping center that didn’t seem to accommodate porta-potties or any other proper facilities for a sweaty runner to disrobe. I couldn’t traipse through a fine dining establishment, dripping along the way and my planning stopped just short of a reconnaissance walk to find a bathroom.
Here’s where things went awry – the only thing I could think of was the back seat of the mini-van. No problem, I had towels that could allow me to be properly covered the entire time. When I got in the backseat, I looked around and noted I was in full view of the patio of three crowded restaurants. Again, no problem, the windows are tinted.
My problem? The key fob. Some people butt-dial and make innocuous phone calls. Not me. No, that’s not nearly stupid enough. No, I butt-press both sliding doors to the van open while I’m well into the disrobed portion of the clothes change. Fortunately, my posterior wasn’t into multi-tasking and didn’t hit the panic button.
There I sat, wide-eyed under a towel wondering why my display coincided with the dismissal of church leaving a sea of blue-haired ladies waiting for tables at the nearby restaurants. Members of the local fire department, who were standing by in case of a race emergency, took note of me also and began speaking into their radios. The police couldn’t be far behind.
I fumbled for the elusive key fob, cursed myself for laying it on the seat, and closed the doors. In a matter of seconds, I threw on my new set of clothes and wound my way through the gaggle of old women with my head held high. During the rest of the afternoon, I kept a paranoid eye out for the long arm of the law that was sure to be clamped on my shoulder at any minute. But it never came. The firemen must have been phoning friends to laugh about my situation and not alerting the police.
In today’s day and age, these things aren’t ever over. Someone could have been fast on the draw with video and my hiney might be splattered on Youtube. Until then, let me give you some advice – if you are doing something dicey in your car, know where your key fob is at all times. Those things are evil!
Within every runner live the Yin Yang twins…the grinder and the ice-cream loving, sloth who lives to watch cartoons. We’ll call the latter the ‘recovery champ’.
While I jest, because it’s not just ice cream they love but pizza, donuts, burritos, french toast [insert runger fantasies here], there is truth to it.
In order to run hard you’ve got to allow your body to recover just as ‘hard.’ It often takes runners awhile to learn this, often the hard way. Typically everyone goes through the stage where they race every run, a run doesn’t count unless you’ve maxed out, right?! While this usually leads to improvement in the short term, eventually going hard every day will lead down the road of an injured, over-trained, mess.
Without adequate recovery you’ll be too tired to actually run fast. Easy days are important, as are other ways to speed up your recovery. In order to NAIL the days that count, your hard workouts and races, you’ve got to ensure your muscles are able to rebuild and repair themselves between hard sessions.
So there IS an excuse to laze around in your sweats and hit up a Netflix marathon. Recovery is more than just an easy day too, for most mortal runners of the world running isn’t your job so lifestyle choices and how you spend the non-running hours of your day will play a big role in your ability to recover.
Even for the elite runners, they are continually looking for ways to improve their recovery…because chances are there is ALWAYS room for improvement somewhere.
Take a look at your own habits and look for areas you know you could be better at. I’ve made a handy little checklist to give you some ideas of where to start:
* Make sure your easy days COUNT: rely on effort, don’t wear a watch if you have to, you should be able to hold a conversation between breathes on these runs. * Proper Workout Scheduling: every runner needs to learn their body and how many hard workouts they can handle in a week. As we age we need to learn how to adjust, that may mean turning your ‘week’ into a 10 day cycle. * Cross Training: I did a whole post HERE about how to maximize training if you know your body can’t handle too many running miles. Cross training on your easy days or as a ‘second run’ can help keep you healthy and allow for an ‘easier’ workout for recovery purposes. * 30 Minute Refuel: eat a combo of protein and carbs IMMEDIATELY after your runs…especially your hard workouts. Miss this window and recovery rates drop upwards of 60%. * Nutrition:eating to perform means opting for quality foods, timing them around when you run, and ensuring you get enough nutrients. This means protein, carbs, healthy fats, and overall enough calories to fuel your training demands. Eating to perform also means LIVING, if you’re training hard enough and want a freaking donut, you’ve earned it. Balance comes into play, so I’ll use the analogy of a silo. Fill your body with all the quality nutrients first, then any extra ‘energy demands’ needed to fill the rest of the silo should be up to you. A world without french toast is a dark one. * Self massage: whole post on that HERE, flush out that lactic acid, keep your body knot-free. * Hydrate: this is incredibly important regardless of the season, obviously hotter weather requires you to hydrate more and with electrolytes but even in a snow storm you’re losing moisture. Drinking after massage is also important to flush out all that ‘junk’ worked out of your muscles. * Stretching: tied into self-massage, stay loose, limber, and avoid injuries. * Time on Your Feet: it’s draining on your legs and energy-zapping, if your job requires you to do lots of ‘work’ know that you may need to adjust your training or learn how it affects you. * Time on your butt: yea it’s important to rest, BUT office jobs can lead to problems too…too much sitting leads to weak glutes, tight hamstrings, and reduced blood flow. Not good for recovery, so be sure to move around and at least walk around a bit between Netflix marathons. * Sleep: while I may leave this one for last, this is HUGE!! Sleep is when the body REALLY restores and repairs itself. Skimping on sleep will hamper your recovery, professional runners guard their sleep time and usually take naps too. Make sleep a priority. For those with sleeping problems and insomnia (ugh, join the party!) look for ways to improve the situation or figures out what can sometimes help. Restless nights add up to tired legs and eyebags.
I think that’s a solid list of ways to improve your recovery habits. Start cracking! To let that grinder perform at it’s best, that recovery-er needs to be doing it’s job right too!
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New ART is listed and available for prints on my page there…restructured to make things a little easier. As always, anything not shown, email me a request and I’ll get you a print.
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1) What are some ways you make recovery a priority?
Last week may have been New York Fashion Week, but the 2014 track season was Maggie Vessey’s Fashion statement.
No need to say more.
Vessey took the opportunity of being a ‘free agent’ to prove she’s got the creative talents to match her performance prowess on the track.
“I do want to draw attention to the sport and maybe give people who aren’t necessarily interested in track and field a reason to be interested,” Vessey told Runner’s World. “But it is a very authentic expression of who I am, and I now have this opportunity to be able to put that out there, be bold, and take a risk.”
To all those eating her fashionably savvy dust, heed the words: look good, feel good.
I always love getting mail from readers and I often get questions which, because I could talk/write/draw about running all day, I’m always happy to answer. The other awesome thing about bloggy-land and our cyber-culture is constantly making new friends. I enjoy hearing updates back from the runners I’ve ‘met’ after they’ve sent questions and it’s always cool to watch them go on to run healthy and set new PR’s.
Well because great minds think alike, or at least I’m certain questions I’m emailed are ones others probably have, I decided to share a few. If you’ve got a questions feel free to email me at: [email protected]
Without further adieu:
Q: Hi! Do you do your calf strengthening exercises before or after running or on days off? Just curious… I am 45 and returning after a 2 month hiatus. After a 14 day streak (7 @ 20 min and the 7 @ 30 min, my calfs are starting to get cranky)
Do you think everyday is good for us over 40 runners or should I be taking days off?
Thank you so much. Your pages are very helpful?
~ Dan in Portland, OR
A: Hi Dan! Thanks so much for your readership! First off, CONGRATS on finally getting back to running!!
As for your questions: I’d suggest doing the strengthening exercises every other day, but do lots of stretching every day. Always post-run on both of those, for the stretches do the standing wall stretch both standing with your leg straight and and then with a slight bend in the knee, that will work both calf muscles. Also do one with a heel drop, so stand on a stair and just let your heel drop, slowly working deep into that achilles stretch.
As for your running, every single person is different, so it’s a matter of figuring out your running ‘sweet spot’. For now, with being cautious for your cranky calfs, tailor back to 4-5 days and you can totally do some cross training that doesn’t bother it. Then as the calfs calm down, gradually try increasing total time running, be that either running longer OR with added days running. Aim for only increasing 10% total miles each week, then let those calfs be your guide.
Finally, don’t overlook that the body is a whole unit, so be sure to check out if you’ve got other imbalances that could be setting you up for calf pain, and stretch the whole body. Check your biomechanics and you might need some insoles for added support. Also, make sure you’re running in the right shoes and they’re not ‘dead’…you’d be surprised how ‘easy’ things like needing to replace your shoes can totally clear up your symptoms!
Hope that helps, sorry for the novel reply, and say HI to Portland for me…miss that awesome city!
Runners are constantly climbing. It’s in our nature to always have a goal we’re working towards, always wanting to push ourselves to do better. Whether it be chasing new PR’s, challenging yourself to expand your race distance range, or even after we’re past our ‘PR-PR’ years, redefining the times and bests (weekly, yearly, masters, etc.) bests.
Diversity. Fitting as it is now cross country season that we talk about diversifying your running and climbs. Cross country thrives on both. I’ve done posts on just how awesome hills are at improving your strength and power, which translates to speed. What I haven’t talked too much on are prolonged hill climbs.
The long climb, yup. We’re talking taking your tempo runs to the trail, or inclined treadmill if you don’t have a stretch long enough outside. I’ve previously featured the man-beast that is Michael Wardian and he’s no stranger to treadmill running.
While he’s one of the World’s best ultra and trail runners, a major chunk of his miles are done on the treadmill so he can fit his runs in around his family’s (namely his kids’!) schedules. Wardian loves a good, long climb.
He makes sure to do hill work a few times a week and, “for me that means hours of running up vertical inclines, sometimes fast, sometimes just a long grind, but always pushing to get better.” Wardian is an ultra runner after all.
Another big fan of prolonged uphill runs is Sage Canaday, a staple workout for him is an uphill tempo run. Canaday is another World leading ultra runner [check out my feature on him HERE], residing in Boulder, CO he has no shortage of trails to mountain goat up.
Yo, that’s my rockstar dad running 50 miles! :)
Even if you’re not one of the best in the World, taking advantage of prolonged hill climbs will benefit you. Coach Brad Hudson of the Hudson Training Systems, coaching both elites and all levels of runners, regularly incorporates uphill tempo runs for his runners.
Try It:
Take your next scheduled tempo run to a hill, keep the distance the same and adjust based on effort. [Captain Obvious: Your times aren't going to mean much, so go off of effort.] I’d suggest going 4-5 miles.
No hill? No problem…take it to the treadmill. For a moderate climb set the grade to 4% for your tempo run and again, go off of effort. Do your warm-up and cool-down at 1.5%, as that’s the equivalent to running outside on the flats…after you jack that incline up and finish your tempo run, upon lowering you’ll see just how much ‘easier’ the same pace will feel at 1.5%!
If you’re looking for a steeper incline, Captain Obvious tells us you can just elevate the treadmill.
Another twist courtesy of Coach Hudson would be to make your hill climb tempo progressive, begin the workout at a 2% grade and have it up to 6% by the time you finish.
Life’s a climb after all. For runners, we take that both figuratively and literally.
I love what Sally Bergesen, founder of Oiselle, recently posted HERE. Fashion is chasing us. Atfter all the original leggings were running tights I’m sure.
Run. Life. Fashion
I couldn’t be more on-board with this, at last the fashion mavens and my world intersect. Would it too brazen to say that my runnerchick friends and I helped cause this shift with our #SweatsintheCity movement? Possibly, probably, but who cares?
Running clothes are comfortable, if others want to call it fashionable (and I’ve given you GOOD REASON to find them fashionable…Bergesen does too in fact), then that’s awesome.
But outside of comfort, may I tell you that for me, running clothes represent much more than a fashion statement. The love runs much deeper.
Running makes me feel special. It’s not the only thing, but it sure does make me feel special. No matter what happens in a day, if I’ve gotten my run on I feel accomplished. Most ‘regular’ people flee from discomfort, I run towards it, embrace it because it’s a test.
I wear my running shorts in public and they are a token reminder that I worked that day.
Running has introduced me to my best friends, opened me up to an entire community of people that, without even knowing them or needing to say a word to them…we GET each other.
The running shirt I’m wearing feels especially fashionable after a hard workout. I want to eke out every second of the feeling that comes with pushing my body.
Running gives me focus. Creativity. The best ideas always come to me on my run, or the loose thoughts finally connect.
My running shoes are more comfortable than heels.
#SweatsintheCity may have moved to the bona-fide runway, but unlike the thin legged models, fashion moguls, or masses of those donning these duds purely because it’s now ‘cool’ to do so…I, WE, are not posers.
My fashion is legit. Because within these running shirts, tanks, shoes, beat the hearts of real runners. With legs that could crush a runway.
I also really love this latest design because I created it inspired by/for my amazing friend Lindsay of Cotter Crunch.
This begins my venture into adding more performance-based designs to the line. You already love the cozy, uber-soft Ezzere shirts that are great at wicking moisture…these sleek new shirts kick it up a notch. These babies are meant to REALLY do work…get you all the way to race day, toeing the line looking fierce and strong, motivate you to dig to the finish…then in true #SweatsintheCity style rock them the whole day after.
Being patient sucks. Waiting for what we want isn’t fun, but the reality is that often times we are forced to wait. Even more often is it that rushing things will ultimately leave us more frustrated in the long term.
As runners, wouldn’t it be awesome if we could just lace up and make our next race/workout/run a PR? If only, right?! The natural tendency to want those faster times and better fitness TODAY is the breeding ground for injuries, overtraining, and slowed progress. Beautiful irony there, right?
Every runner has been guilty of it, and hey, some things you just have to learn yourself the hard way. (Sometimes a few times to really NAIL that lesson home.) Being patient sucks…but we need to learn to embrace it.
Yikes. Where’s the spoonful of sugar to wash that down? Well that comes when you actually ARE patient and watch your goals materialize…eventually.
The sweetest victories only come after enough struggle and work, after all.
Convincing yourself to wait it out and be patient is tough and often an on-going battle. Incidentally a large part of being able to stay patient comes from confidence. How so?
Being patient means BELIEVING in yourself, what you’re doing, and the process. A runner who lacks confidence is the one who tends to rush things, an example of that is going out way too fast in a race. It takes MORE confidence and patience to go out controlled and then pick up the pace, and close fast. A runner who tries to ‘make a buffer’ by going out too fast is subconsciously affirming they are going to slow down. See how that’s not a good way to think? It takes more confidence to be patience, wait, and then respond to your competitors (or go faster) as the race progresses.
New runners can be a little less than confident in their abilities as they venture into a new sport. That’s natural, but it’s dangerous to go into information overload and want to do EVERYTHING and anything they read about training and incorporate it right away. This usually leaves them injured or too sore/tired that they lose any desire to continue running.
Even if you’ve been a runner for years and years, it’s quite easy to fall into the same trap of wanting to add in XYZ all at the same time…to rush the process. You know what, the same road leads to the same place.
Avoiding injuries and reaching your best takes time. Waiting is hard and it can suck at times, but if you try and rush things too fast it will, in the end, it will suck even more. (nightmares of time off or on the cross trainer missing your race should help keep you patient. )
There really ARE tons of training elements to keep you improving and progressing through the years. This should be exciting news, it’s just imperative not to rush things.
I will say that the BEST way to stay patient and keep yourself honest on the right track (in the moment it can be REALLY hard sometimes to know you need to be patient) is to a have a coach. If not a coach then at least an educated source or training group to bounce things off of. Today it’s important to recognize the source of the training advice you’re getting and if it’s actually got merit.
Being patient can suck in the moment, but eventually it is oh so sweet.
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Some of those ‘extra’ training elements to help you improve: CORESTRETCHINGDRILLS
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1) How do you remind yourself to stay patient when you really don’t want to wait?
2) What keeps you honest/patient when it comes to your training?
3) When is an instance where NOT being patient made things much worse for you?
Running is all about dealing with discomfort. It teaches us that we are capable of handling more discomfort than we think and it always increases our tolerance for pain discomfort.
Running strengthens us and skews our perception of just what is uncomfortable.
A non-runner complains about a stomach ache, a runner doesn’t start complaining until they are projectile vomiting. But the reason that runner’s complaining is probably because it’s in the middle of a long run and they NEED to keep that gel/drink down because they need the energy, not because it hurts.
Pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zone is the only way to keep growing as a person, as an athlete, as a runner. In FORCING yourself to push, you’re setting yourself up to achieve more. The beautiful thing is that whether you wind up hitting XXX goal or not (if there’s not the danger of failing then you’re not setting high enough goals!) you’ll no doubt have improved in some way. You’ll have made progress.
The journey to progress is just as important as the end results.
Now I said it was a beautiful thing, fancy that, discomfort being beautiful. It may yield beauty but living through it is hard, painful, grueling at times.
Discomfort tests us. But when you open yourself UP to that feeling of discomfort you’ll discover that it DOES get easier. And you’ll be inching your threshold to withstand discomfort ever forward.
Running teaches us so much about life, and one of the strongest lessons is that, yes, we are much more resilient and tough than our minds want us to believe.
It’s a coping mechanism, our brains don’t really like feeling uncomfortable. So we have to just trick it, PUSH, and force it to keep going.
Pushing yourself to step outside your comfort level in running can be achieve in a myriad of ways outside of hard workouts. Test your range and set your sights on a short and fast 5k instead of a marathon. Improve your flexibility and REALLY start stretching, build your neuromuscular system to be more responsive and reactive with drills. All of the above may leave you feeling awkward, out of place, frustrated even…but that’s good. Stick with it and eventually things will get less uncomfortable.
You’ll wind up getting faster and becoming a more balance, performance-driven runner.
Apply that to life. Learn a new skill, be prepared to feel like a total idiot at first and BE OKAY with it. A runner’s natural tendency is to want to be the best, but you have to start somewhere. Be CONFIDENT enough to accept you very well may suck, and be SECURE enough to ask for help. Ask others to teach you. Then learn.
Finally, life and running will test you in ways you didn’t actively seek out. You’ll be pushED rather than be the one pushing. That’s scarier because you feel out of control on top of it. But you know what, discomfort is discomfort and the same rules apply.
Know that you are stronger than you are wont to believe. Embrace the discomfort and keep moving forward. You will survive, progress will come.
And at the end of the day you have the peace of mind in knowing, “I can handle it, I’m a runner for crying out loud!”
I challenge you: How will you step out of your comfort level?
Hey everybody! It's Louisa again. This book I am reviewing The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen, one of my favorite books of all time.
If I was stuck on a desert island and could only bring one book, it would be The Running Dream, by Wendelin Van Draanen. This book is one of those books you could read a billion times, and never get tired of. Jessica Carlisle is sixteen years old and loves to run. She's a record breaking member of her high school's track team. On the way home from a meet the team bus is involved in a horrific accident. The collision kills one girl, and causes Jessica to lose a leg. Jessica's world is turned upside down. Running is her life! She doesn't know what to do without her leg. Some days, Jessica wonders if the girl who died didn't get the better end of the deal. No pain, no recovery, just peace and quiet. Finally, Jessica plucks up the courage to go back to school. She befriends Rosa, a girl with cerebral palsy who helps Jessica with math, and inspires her to look towards a future full of hope and new beginnings. Jessica has always been very determined, and so she naturally begins to wonder if it would be possible not only to learn to walk, but learn to run, too.With the help and support of her family and friends, she makes progress with her leg, and learns a lot about herself along the way.
Hope you enjoyed it, and be sure to check out this book because it's amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Louisa
0 Comments on The Running Dream book review as of 8/7/2014 4:36:00 PM
Nothing unites complete strangers more than discovering they are both, in fact, injured runners. Because let’s be honest, no one REALLY understands the agony us runners go through when we’re deprived of our ‘fix’. Miles give us endorphins, take those out of the equation and you do the math. It sucks.
Run long enough and you’ll get injured. It’s a fact. Darn these humanoid bodies not quite engineered to put up with everything we want them to do in training and racing. This isn’t to say there aren’t plenty of ways we can limit our injuries, and yes, us runners can be quite stupid sometimes in getting ourselves injured, but at a certain point you will get injured despite doing everything you can do right.
But don’t think of that last line as a free pass to just go willy nilly, throw all caution to the wind then, when you do wind up hurt, pretend you have no clue why. Let’s start with the stupid:
• Denial: Oh we’re the queens and kings of denial, us runners. “It’s not really that bad, it doesn’t hurt that much” thought as we hobble around the house in search of more ice. • Grimace Face: We know running hurts, but when every stride sends a shooting pain (which you’re of course denying exists) your face gets twisted into a grimace that would make Frankenstein look beautiful. • Random Prayers: You go to bed praying you’ll wake up and magically everything will just go away. No other logic there but a runner clinging to any shred of hope. • Eff It, I Can Finish: Said during any run or workout, you’ve denied the shooting pains for as long as possible, somehow still believing that if you just muster on through this run, get done, things will still be peachy keen.
Clearly we all have to learn from our stupid mistakes. We’ve all been there, hopefully the older we get the wiser we get. Because let’s be honest, denial doesn’t change the situation.
Over the stupid, here are the proactive: • Self-massage: Runners if you’re not in a love/hate relationship with your foam roller, I urge you to get cozy with it. Give him or her a name even. • Stretch: Static and dynamic stretching post run. • Core and Strength:Strengthening your core and WHOLE body to limit the compensation issues resulting from weak muscle groups. • Ice, Smart, Recovery, Etc: You know the drill there. • Form Work: Ties right into strength, run more efficiently and you’ll be doing less wear and tear on your body.
I’d like to take a minute to emphasize that if you’re not doing some kind of core or strengthening routine you’re not addressing issues that WILL eventually get you injured. Not a single runner in the world pops out perfectly balanced and with perfect biomechanics. Most runners have tight hips and weak glutes, just two major issues that cause many a runner heartache come injury time. What’s more is there tends to be a little too much emphasis on stretching alone. YES you need to stretch, but save some of that time for core work because you can’t stretch away a weak muscle group if you get my gist. I’m not talking about hitting the weight room like a Jersey Shore’r (a little dated reference but I was watching a comedy earlier that did a bit on that so it’s on my mind), and in fact many of the most effective exercises for runners can be done with bodyweight or with a swiss ball. I did some posts HERE with some of those.
Crash Course: Mentally Surviving an Injury
Back on topic. So you do your preventative but like I said injuries will occur. When you’re laid up you’ll most likely experience a few emotions. • Rage: Like wanting to literally rip off your leg just so you can smash it against a wall, infuriated that ‘it’ let you down. • Remorse: I abstain from the word depression, but it’s like a hair away. • Anxiety: Is this going to EVER end? Will I EVER be able to run without pain, ever? Getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and you sorta ‘test’ jog down the hall, “Crap! Still hurts!” • Envy: Oh that lovely runner envy. Daydreaming about hopping out of your car and slapping in the face the person you see running down the street. It’s not something to be proud of, but every injured runner thinks it. • Rage: Yea, you circle on back to rage.
I blame it on the lack of ‘proper’ endorphins for our crazy train ride of emotions and THESE are the things that our family and friends tend to have a hard time grappling with. To every runner who’s gotten, “But it’s just running” and you have to literally hold your arm down from punching that person in the face…yea, that’s a normal runner reaction.
The thing is, while I like to joke and jest and be comedic about Runner Rage (it’s totally legit and an excuse that I think should hold up in court, “Sorry, I’m not fully in control of my actions, I’m a runner who’s not able to run at the moment”) I’m also the first person to say this:
“Force that positivity down. Choke it down and keep it there. Fake it.”
Yup! That’s the only way to get through an injury. You keep yourself OUT of that depressive and overly-anxious mindset because if you don’t you’ll stay right there…stuck.
How I deal with Runner Rage is making fun of myself and being sarcastic. Rather be laughing than wallowing in sadness. What also helps is to feel proactive during your recovery meaning: cross train, core, massage, find out where your weaknesses are and target them. Come up with a recovery plan and start the execution. The other really important thing is:
Take it ONE day at a time.
Think only through the day. Because thinking of weeks and weeks of the elliptical or bike is, well, depressing, right? So just get through the day.
And there is always this: you’re not alone. There are other injured runners out there. And there are non-injured runners who know EXACTLY how you feel and what you’re going through and they sympathize and are sending you heal up fast vibes!
Long runs and long workouts tend to scare people. It can feel intimidating looking down the barrel of a double digit run or mulit-mile repeats. We’re distance runners, we love this stuff, but large quantities of miles (especially faster miles) still intimidate us.
Running and that mental component, can’t escape the mind games. Our bodies are apt to surprise us and prove our limit-setting minds wrong…BUT it’s a matter of pushing past the mind crap (doubts/fears/discomfort) before we can be ‘pleasantly’ surprised.
The best thing about running into new territory, be it your longest run, the most number of long intervals, or the most volume of hard running, they’re all scariest before you do them. Once you’ve conquered the best you’ve proven you’re capable of it and you get a new frame of reference.
Example: You’re afraid of running 10 miles because you’ve never run that far. You then run 10 miles and flash forward a few weeks and 10 miles doesn’t scare you at all. But 14 miles does…sooo, you run 14 miles and the cycle continues.
See how DOING something takes the fear out of it. Let’s up the ante.
You can run 10 miles but now you’re supposed to run them hard. EEK!!! New challenge. Time to fight through it:
4 Steps to Get Through the Grind
1) Relax:
the first part is you gotta stop building the run or workout up into epic proportions. Say with me, “it’s just a workout (or race), all I can is my best, so that’s the goal.” Deflate some of that pressure and take the power away from the workout…give yourself the power by realizing that you’re going to give it your all and THAT is all that can be expected. Times are there for guidance and motivation to push…but you can’t let them put so much pressure on you that you implode. 2) Start: easy peasy, right? Funny how fear sort of get muted the second the gun sounds and you just START freaking running. It has a way of shutting your brain down for a bit or at least taking it down a few notches.
3) Segments: your runner-brain gets overloaded thinking about the WHOLE run (26.2 miles…holy crap!!!) so you break everything down into smaller segments. Think of it like a meal with a zillion courses if you have to. Get through the plate, the miles, the quarter mile, the repeat.
4) Fight and Lie: running isn’t easy and training is painful. You break it down into itty bitty ‘plates’ but even each bite is still hard. (can I push this metaphor any further?) You need to just cycle through the above three steps on repeat…relax, roll, be confident, be smooth…start, click the watch on that next interval and go, make it until you hear the magic Garmin beep of another mile and keep going…segment, make it 100 meters more, run until you pass that guy, stick like GLUE behind the person in front of you and don’t think how far the finish line is in front of you.
Doing all of the above is really a series of lies. The good lies that you use to ‘trick’ your limit-setting brain into proving itself wrong. Your body CAN keep going, you just have to fight like h*ll long enough to show yourself you can do it.
The cool thing is once you get through the grind you’ve just re-calibrated what’s ‘suuuper scary’. Whatever you just did won’t scare you so much next time…
The last few days my Adobe was acting up, legit like a two year old heck bent on crippling me. I couldn’t finish work that NEEDED to be done, I cursed the computer and slammed some fists. It had turned ME into a toddler. Hot mess.
Stress. Frustration. Anxiety. We can’t avoid it in life and we can’t avoid it in running either. There are ALWAYS going to be things totally out of our control. My tantrum wasn’t going to solve the computer issues, and neither is the wildest of fits going to cure a stress fracture. Sometimes sh*t just sucks but you NEED to deal.
In the moment that can feel impossible but our fast-paced lives have gotten to a point where the stress, anxiety, and frustrations churning through us are destroying us. Making us sick. Clearly even if you’re not on the verge of a stress induced heart-attack or breakdown, I dare say everyone and anyone has some sh*t going on that they would do well to unburden themselves with.
What do I mean by unburdening? You most likely can’t take away or change every situation, you can’t make money float down upon you or force so-and-so to get back to you with a quote that you NEED because your article deadline is hours away.
Unburdening can be more like shifting how YOU are dealing with the situation. Adjust and learn to let go. I’m sum it up:
Do EVERY single thing you can to control the situation and make it work how you’d like it to…from there, heed to the ‘que sera, sera’.
Injury?
You get hurt, injuries come with the territory in running. Do what you can to reduce your risk but you can’t avoid them. Here are your three steps: 1) Throw your dang tantrum. You deserve it. But put a time limit on your baby breakdown. Ten minutes, a day max. 2) Get proactive. Shift to problem-solver mode (logic and reason side of the brain, move out of emotional/reactive side). Come up with a cross training and rehab routine. 3) Do it. Move through that routine and ONLY take it a day at a time. Don’t dwell on XXX weeks or months. Look at your rehab like taking your medicine…spoon full of sugar that crap down.
Bad Race or Workout
Also comes with the territory in running. Ironically the steps are eerily the same as above: 1) Mild upset is allowed. You deserve to be disappointed and that’s the same feeling that will motivate you to work harder next time. But don’t be a pouter, don’t be one of those jerks who ruins everyone else’s workout/race/day/etc. Cry on the inside like a champ. Haha. 2) Get proactive.Learn anything you can from the experience, is there a reason it was bad? Reassess your training if need be. 3) Move on. Keep on trucking. Some days your legs just don’t show up for whatever reason. Learn what you can the move forward.
Never let a bad workout or race turn you into a pessimist. That kind of perspective is what kills peoples’ passion and could ruin your love of running. No one wants that.
All that stress and anxiety [psst...don't get too nervous before races either, here's my post on that.] only makes things more of an uphill battle for you. So don’t make things worse on yourself. Unburden that sh*t.
Ironically, the more balanced and less stress you put on yourself in running the better you end up performing. There’s a little thing called over-thinking, My Friends.
Back to life because 99.9% of us aren’t running for our jobs. Which means our jobs and life events are brining us the most stress. [that extra stress will effect our running too...so if you're also wanting to run better you'll do well to unburden some life stress...logic holds there. Haha] But far too many of us let things that shouldn’t stress us out THAT much, well, stress us out THAT much.
I challenge you to let go of some little things. Lots of those things include wondering what someone else thinks about you OR complaining about someone else. A tip there, years ago I adopted the thing of not saying anything about someone else that I wouldn’t just say right to them. I’m a straight-shooter so rather than complain, isn’t it better to just go to the source and [strategically] say whatever you need to? Problem solved there.
Now for the curveballs and bigger things life will deal you often, we’ll circle back to what I suggested we do in running. Hey, like I say EVERYTHING circles back to running, right?! 1) Baby tantrums. You can be entitled to a fist pound on the laptop but put a time limit on yourself. 2) Proactive mode. Do EVERYTHING you can to set yourself for the best outcome. 3) Move the heck on. You can’t control lots of things in life, namely other people. So…”let it go.”
Stress makes you unhappy, it will also make your running harder. All the more reason to unburden some of that crap!
1) What is one little thing you’re going to unburden yourself with TODAY?
2) How do you handle BIG life stress?
3) Do you consider yourself a highly stressed and anxious person?
I had a fun dialogue with a friend and editor the other day:
“‘How to Train for a Marathon in 5 Minutes a Week’ and ‘Eat 20 Apples a Day to PR’ (clear exaggeration but you get the point). I know a lot of people like those types of articles but over the years I’ve have my fill.”
“Thank goodness you hate the ‘fluff crap’ kinda articles too. I die a little inside every time I’m asked to do one, writing that stuff makes my brain numb.”
There were more little barbs in there and witticisms but you get the picture. The ‘fluff’ crap; it’s all over the web and even in the magazines and websites ‘we’ us ‘real runners’ read and subscribe to. We can’t escape it and let’s be honest the masses are looking for a kind of ‘quick fix’. So, the headlines screaming BIG rewards LITTLE work draws people in. It sells. Websites and magazines are businesses after all, so even though I’m sure it kills a few editors and writers every.single.time they must do a ‘fluff crap’ article, they do it. Gotta put food on that table.
The thing is though, which ‘we’ ‘real runners’ know is:
* there’s no magic bullet
* no super secret way to getting better and stay fit
* eating an apple at 3:19pm to drop 30 seconds off your 5k PR aint gonna do it
Most people don’t want to hear that it takes:
* a h*ll of a lot of hard work
* motivation
* motivation even when you aren’t motivated
* pushing yourself
* hurting in workouts and races
The sufferfest that is training and racing…that probably wouldn’t be a magazine the general public would just LOVE reading about. Better to think that a protein smoothie with chia seeds is all that’s required and will do the trick. Training and all that stuff, well…that’s second tier, right?
The ‘training fluff crap’ I think actually parallels what writer, coach, sports nutritionist, and athlete Matt Fitzgerald, writes about in his latest book DIET CULTS. I literally devoured that read in two days so do check it out, I think most fitness minded folks will relate to a lot of what he’s saying and laugh because as athletes we’re able to ‘sniff out’ lots of the ‘diet fluff crap’ mainstream media and individuals try to get us to buy into. I will revisit this book later because I’ve got both an article on RunBlogRun coming out and after that is published do a review on this blog. So hold tight, but in the mean time check out DIET CULTS.
Getting back to the fitness and running ‘fluff’, I find that it really is only doing a disservice to the individuals who really are motivated or the ones just starting out in the sport. Coming to the realization that it’s hard work over really anything else is a learning curve all runners go through. Experience teaches us that.
Every single runner has their own journey, the progression of getting crazier and crazier more experienced and for lack of a better term ‘hardcore into’ our sport. That journey makes each runner who they are and it’s important to learn lots of those lessons yourself. At the same time, it’s a shame that falling into the misconception that certain foods or cramming 4 months of training into 2 weeks doing a run only every other Tuesday WILL make you a better runner. Because by hiding the truth you’re only stunting the progress of the runner who really does want to be their best.
Certainly the ‘fluff’ sells and the driven, self-motivated folks who are ‘real’ runners [I only define 'real' runners not based on speed at all, but in spirit and how motivated they are...if you're a runner you know it in your bones.] are the minority. But the numbers of runners are growing and it proves there are eager, motivated people looking to embark on their running journey.
Welcome to crazy town.
So here’s some straight shooting for you:
* It’s going to hurt.
* There’s no ‘secret’ to getting faster and staying fit.
* Motivation is your weapon, consistency reigns supreme.
* Patience sucks but it’s required.
* Learn that unnecessary suffering isn’t going to make you better. Oh running, filled with all those fine lines we must tread.
But here’s the BEST part: * There’s a sick sort of high and remarkable afterglow to that hurt when you’ve pushed through it.
* Nothing is more rewarding than watching yourself get faster and more fit.
* Realizing your body can DO things you never dreamed possible is far more satisfying than any pack of abs or what your vehicle of performance looks like.
* Running will effect, and improve you in all areas of life.
* Runners are tough as s*t.
It’s important to realize that clearly certain foods and a healthy diet will help your training, lifestyle adjustments (hello more sleep!) will too. But even a healthy diet with 10 hours a sleep at night is useless sans training. Take your ‘fluff’ and shove it. #run
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Good luck Mark. Lol
Oh that is so disgusting! Eeeeuuuu said in my best Susie voice.
Thanks, Levi. MI’m working hard on it.
It’s an unfortunate reality of boydom. I like Susie voices
that is so gross and fantastic and amazing all rolled into one. you would fit in perfectly with my kinders. america;s got talent?