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I Run For Bribes…Bribes and Blackmail too I Guess
I tell my legs that if they run the miles I want I’ll like them better. Apparently they are suffering from such low self-esteem that they will put up with anything to be my friend.
I’ve promised these same legs that if they carry me through that last mile, don’t slow down, just make it to the finish line, then I’ll reward them with a break. I leave out the part about the cool-down.
My lungs sometimes are upset that I’m not sucking air in fast enough, in enough volume to keep pace with the muscles screaming for precious oxygen. So I’ve bartered with the lungs, agreed that they only have to put up with me for the duration of my long run and then for the rest of the day I’ll walk around mouth agape, like a fish. That certainly would be enough O2.
My body gets annoyed when I continue to ignore it when it whines, “I’m tired.” So I ante up this, “Okay, fine, put your miles in for the day and then I promise to be a sloth. Just give me my run.”
There are points where a run *gasp* feels a bit like a chore. I fall back on bribes…and blackmail. My carrot is the pint of Ben & Jerry’s, my blackmail is reminding myself I’ll only be stuck with my runner guilt if I were to skip the miles. On go the running shoes.
I’ve written down a time, nothing more complex than numbers. Black and white digits. But these are some of the most powerful bribes. No need to embellish the naked truths that lie within these numbers: the truth of work, pain, suffering in the sickly addictive way. I think these are my favorite bribes.
Bribes seem to work well for runners; you see, some things are much more enticing than money. The rewards so much more fulfilling than anything of actual monetary value.
1) What’s a bribe you’ve used to get what you want for your body in terms of running?
2) What is an example of a bribe that is more motivating to work towards than if you were offered cash money?
3) Is there a time when the bribe didn’t work, or you had to resort to blackmail instead??
Runner guilt…proven and effective blackmail!
Coaching a Runner is an Art
Figuring out this whole running and performance thing is tricky business. The planning, the workouts, the tapering, the peaking, the knowing when to rest or back off, when to push it and when to hammer the crap of of your body; all of this is the science behind our sport.
I’ve always been in awe of great coaches. Coaching, or rather coaching well, is an art. I’ve been incredibly privileged to meet and talk to coaches for whom I believe are the Picassos or Maya Angelous of coaching. Toss in Albert Einstein in there too.
Alberto Salazar is one of those coaches and being a runner nerdette I could listen to running stories and training all day long. What I’ve come to realize though, is that the best coaches are intuitive; you can’t really pinpoint WHAT makes them so great, just like you can’t explain how to paint to someone, with great coaching it comes down to a sense.
The sense isn’t dissimilar to running and racing; there are some athletes who are just naturally about to step up their game and get hyped when the gun goes off. They are gamers and will race above their training level because they are able to best utilize the endorphins and electric energy that comes with race day.
Coaching is sensitive to each athlete, it has to be individualized because no two runners are exactly the same. That seems logical enough, but even then the unique coaching sense comes into play on a daily, even hourly level. I’ve watched training plans get switched around about three times in an hour; with training you set up a long term running plan with workouts and the key races. But you know this long term plan isn’t set in stone, you then tweak it as you go through the weeks, adjusting depending on how your body is responding.
Sometimes you need to adjust mid-workout; you can never foretell months in advance how your legs will feel on any given day. At times your legs will just NOT have that tempo in them, and it would be more effective to switch to a speed or hill session to make the workout more productive.
But how do you know when to change, when to suck it up and motor through, when to rest because you’re overly fatigued, or if that is just the kind of fatigue that comes with callousing the body and you still need to do that double day?
No one has exact answers to any of those questions; that’s what makes our sport so incredibly fascinating. Fascinating and frustrating as HE## at times. But there are those among us who have a better sense of these; are able to just feel when to push, back-off, change or stay steadfast. They are the artists of running and performance. They are the great coaches.
There may be no greater gift to a runner on the quest of becoming their best, of preforming to their utmost highest degree, than having a coach who is an artist in our sport. Running is one of the most brutal sports and concentrating on just doing the workouts takes an incredible amount of energy, both mentally and physically.
The reason so many athletes thrive with a coach, (and not even taking into account the obvious of having an experienced, skilled advisor with a sound training philosophy giving you workouts that they know work) is because the coach is the one who can do all of the thinking. Thinking and running is a tricky combination; you think too much and you can be your own demise. I love this quote that a coach once told my mom, “I do the thinking. That’s my job. You just run.”
When you take running and turn it into training you’re making a different kind of commitment to yourself. It’s putting yourself out there, being brave enough to dream lofty goals, an agreement to work your butt off even on the days you don’t feel like it, of also being smart enough to take your easy runs easy so you can hammer your hard days.
Training takes intuition too. Running is an art. Coaching is an art. The relationship between a coach and an athlete is also one quite unique from any other.
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This post will be one in a series on coaching and finding the right kind of coach or training program that works for you. I just had an article in Running Times published: ‘Coaches That Inspire and Coaches that Cripple’ and I urge you to check it out. Not all coaches are great, not all coaches will sync with every runner.
In upcoming posts I will cover tips to finding the right coach for you and also college recruiting tips for high schoolers looking into schools. If you’ve got any coaching related topics or questions you’d like covered leave a comment or send me a note!
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1) Do you have a coach? Are you self-coached or do an online kind of training program? Do you consider coaching a kind of art and the really great coaches have an intuitive sense?
2) Have you had good and/or bad coaching experiences? How have one or the other effected your running? How did it effect your other areas of life?
3) With running training, what fascinates you the most? Or which area could you talk/read about all day? (ie: actual workouts, mental toughness, stories from runners, etc.)
Your Runner Foot Type and the Quest for the Perfect Running Shoe
It may take some searching but eventually we all fall in love with the perfect pair of running shoes. How’s that for living happily ever after? 😉
A great thing about running is that you really don’t need that much: a pair of shoes and please some running clothes too. However, what those supplies lack in quantity numbers they make up exponentially when it comes to their needs in the quality factor. Reread that sentence a few times until it makes sense…haha.
Running shoes are of insane importance, many new runners (and even not so new runners) aren’t able to grasp just how crucial having the right kind of shoes for THEIR foot type is. The three major foot types are: pronators, supinators and neutral runners; the majority of runners are pronators. We all fall on different variances of the foot type spectrum, but if you don’t know your foot and it’s specific needs you really need to school up.
Prontators. These are the guys who’s arches ‘sink’ in and roll to the ground as they walk. If you were walking in sand you’d see a ‘fatter’ footprint. This is the majority of the public and it’s important to find shoes with support in the arches. If your REALLY cave in at the arch you need motion control shoes, a step below that would be stability shoes. Sometimes people need arch support inserts or orthotics in addition to their shoes, I run in Super Feet and those would be my top suggestion for over the counter shoe inserts.
Neutral Feet. These are the people you should love to hate because they have the biomechanically ‘perfect’ foot strike. If they walked in the sand they’d have that cutesy little foot print, not a wide, fat arch. They can get away with those lighter shoes because they don’t need a lot of arch support and the cushioning materials are usually lighter. [That’s changing thanks to new materials and the whole minimalist shoe movement…all those Nike Lunar shoes are being made with some crazy light materials that can still offer.]
Supinators. These are what some people call ‘dancer’ feet, they tend to roll out and away from the arch so in the sand they have suuuper skinny prints. They are also more ‘delicate’ because typically the bone structures are very rigid and a bit fragile so these runners need to be hyper-conscious that their shoes have a lot of cushioning. Sorry guys, this usually means you’ve got to shell out for more expensive shoes with a ton of cushioning. But if you don’t you’ll wind up hurt…soooo, it’s worth it.
Okay, let’s make it a little more equal opportunity for all brands. 🙂
Outside of being intimate with your foot type you’ve got to stay diligent on tracking how many miles are on your shoes and be sure to replace them regularly. The general rule of thumb is a shoe is ‘dead’ after 500 miles, but that’s the law of averages and I did a whole post on why you may need to replace your shoes more often.
Walking into Big 5 and just snagging a box of shoes marked ‘Run Shoes’, then figuring you’ll be set for a year is on the fast track to getting hurt. Even if the pains aren’t in your feet you’d be surprised what ailments can be tracked back to the wrong pair of shoes…it could be as far away as your neck, people.
If you’re still having trouble deciding which kind of foot type you are or what kind of shoe to get, go into a running specialty store and ask one of them to watch you walk. Any good, running specific store will have instructed their employees how to asses a runner’s foot type from their walk and then be able to offer assistance.
Okay, yes, I’m Nike biased but only because I dream of spooning with my Tempo shorts in the night; hence the first caption. [So if there is anyone Nike people reading this and wnat to give me a little what’s what please don’t hesitate to reach out! Hehe.] But, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that there are other awesome shoe brands out there too. 🙂
1) What kind of foot type are you? How or when did you find this out?
2) What kind of shoes are you running in now? How do you like them?
3) Do you have any kind of shoe inserts or orthotics?
4) Finish this sentence and make it sort of tied to running: “You have to kiss a lot of toads before you find the perfect…”
The Great Running Shirt Race!
It’s summer, we run, we sweat, but in an awesome running shirt even a drippy, sweaty beast like me looks cool. 😉 This Arty Runnerchick has been working away on new designs and is excited to announce that I’ll be expanding on the line! You can check out my very first shirt, of the Get Chicking movement, in cased you missed it…or mosey on over to the store.
BUT…I need all of your help first! I want to know which designs you like, which ones you love, and which ones maybe not so much. You’ll be the ones deciding which running shirts will be the new additions. So if you could please take a few moments of your time and fill out my survey, I would greatly appreciate it. Also, it would be a huge help if you do like what you see to then pass this survey onto your friends…make sure the shirts YOU like the best make the cut!
Enjoy the SNEAK PEEK of what is to be coming soon!! 🙂
***I’m sorry for the technicial difficulties, the stupid javacode isn’t giving me the non-scrolling dimensions I want so if you find the scrolling annoying you can visit THIS LINK and fill the survey out there. Thank you for your patience!***
Happy Friday!! Go get your sweaty beast run on. 😉
Tackling Your Long Run: Always easy or is there a time to put the hammer down?
Oh, the long run. I’ve always loved long run days and the feelings of entitlement we get for the rest of the day: slothful laziness and inhaling as much food as we want. With distance training the staples of the week usually shape up to be one or two key workouts and the long run.
Lots of current running sources will say that long runs should all be done at an easy pace, similar to recovery days. I can see that, hammering out double digit miles each and every week could be a quick way to dig yourself into a hole or wind up hurt. If you keep going into the next hard workout still not recovered and then your speed and interval work starts to suffer…there goes the snowball effect.
However, and this is just my opinion and past experience, getting out there and making those legs work on that long run every so often can do some really great things for you too. The key is being smart with your overall training. If you’re going to use the long run as a quality run, don’t do it the day after or before another hard session. Common sense people. 😉
Kick-up That Long Run Effort
* Progressive Long Run: Just like the name implies, think of this as just a longer progressive run where you keep cutting down the pace as you go. Take the first two miles at your easy pace and from there pick it up. Depending on how hard you want to make it, you could be moving darn near all out towards the end. But if you do that, reserve at least one mile at the end to cool-down to at least start flushing out the lactic acid.
* Middle Interval Play: It’s easy to turn your long run into just an extended workout; using the early and late stages as warm-up and cool-down do mile repeats, 2-mile repeats or slow/fast 800’s. Examples: warm-up and cool-down then 6xmile with 3 minute recovery; warm-up and cool-down then alternate the middle miles with fast/easy half miles. As you get more advanced and fit start putting more pressure on those ‘easy’ portions.
* Middle Tempo Run: The name is pretty much a dead giveaway here, for newer and younger runners you may stick to 2 or 3 tempo miles within your total long run but for more advanced runners, and those planning to race longer, you should aim for more. The benefit of turning your long run into a tempo style run rather than doing a straight tempo workout, is that you go into the hard tempo with more miles already in your legs and the fatigue is more in line with what you’ll be experiencing come race day. Examples: 14 miles total with first 6 easy/moderate, 7 tempo, 1 mile easy; 14 or more miles total doing a 10 mile tempo, to make the tempo harder add more miles to the front and extend the first easy phase.
The Mental Component: Another reason I like making long runs hard is that they test you mentally, and, especially if you’re planning on racing longer (10k, half, marathon, etc.) they simulate what you’ll be going through on race day much better than doing all of your long runs easy.
You still don’t want to make each, weekly long run hard and you want to be smart with your overall training. Don’t do a hard long run workout the day after or before another hard workout…you obviously won’t be recovering. Rather, think of your training in three week cycles and maybe do a long run workout every third week.
It’s base season for lots of runners before cross-country, so here is a point in your training where some long, hard runs would fit right in. Though, the last little disclaimer I’d like to add is that for new runners (those still only in their first, second or third year running regularly) and younger runners (through high school, an exception could be juniors or seniors who have been running for years), it’s very easy to get incredibly motivated and want to do EVERYTHING hard, or go the more-more-more route; but running is a sport where patience wins out in the big picture. For you guys, stick to them easy long runs…enjoy them while they last. 😉
***Tip For Beginners: If you’re still not yet ready for long run workouts, you can start out experimenting by adding in some short surges or strides within your long run. Sprinkle in some 30 second strides within those middle miles.
Be smart. Be patient. Then go attack some long runs. 🙂
1) How do you approach your long runs?
2) If you like making some long runs also workouts, what are some of your favorite ways to do that?
3) What point in your training cycle/season are you in? Cross-country coming up, late track, road racing?
Running in the ‘Wrong’ Kind of Tired: Diagnosing and solving a constant state of fatigue
“There is no tired in distance running,” Alberto Salazar said this. The completely OCD runner in me loves this quote because it succinctly sums things up pretty well, namely that being tired is more just a given, it comes with the territory.
That said, there are LEVELS of tiredness. The longer that you’re a runner the better you are able to distinguish the levels of fatigue. There is the sort of tired you face the day after a hard workout that kicked your butt…you sort of ‘dread’ that easy run because you know it will not be easy in any sense of the word. But you work through that tiredness and just suck it up.
There is the feeling of tired during a hard workout, as the gruel-fest drags on you’re not really tired so much as suffering. That’s another thing you just accept, it’s part of the game.
Then there are the levels of tired that are different, wrong, you know it’s wrong because it’s not tired so much as bone-marrow deep fatigue. Where you’re struggling from the first steps, and you know something is off. This kind of fatigue isn’t ‘normal’ and the longer you live in this state you start to hope something is wrong because at least then you can pinpoint why your running, and your body, seems to be going AWOL on you. At least if there is a ‘problem’ you can look for an answer.
Digging for that answer is tricky because it can be one of many factors, or many of the many factors. What makes it more difficult is that because us distance runners are completely used to feeling tired, figuring out that you’re running in the ‘wrong level’ of tired can take some time and by then your problem, and your mental sanity, could be getting worse for the wear.
Common ‘wrong levels’ of fatigue sources:
* Medical: I’m going to put this one straight up first because it’s usually the ‘easiest’ thing to pinpoint or at least get the ball rolling. Get a blood panel done and check for some common ailments.
– Low iron: I did a whole post on that one HERE. Bottom line, make sure the doctor reading your tests is one used to working with athletes. A runner may fall in the ‘normal range’ for iron levels but that’s for the sofa surfing normal person…a runner will want to fall on the higher end of that range. I also take a supplement in addition to any food I eat…better safe than sorry.
– Hypo-thyroid: I had/have this fun one too and trust me it is NOT a fun road to travel. You talk about tired; again seek out a professional who knows runners. Your Free T and T-4 levels NEED to be more up to code than the normal sofa person.
* Over-trained: This one is quite common; with us type-A’s we tend to go with the motto ‘more is better, even more is even better.’ But that’s not always true, and doing needless ‘more’ for the sake of doing more is a fast way to dig yourself into an over-trained hole. It takes a while to dig, but if your hard workouts and race times start to nose-dive this is one of the first places to look. Look over your training log, taper back the volume and intensity for a day or two and if things start to improve you’ve got your answer. I did an article on this for Running Times you can read HERE.
Tired from exertion is one thing…but sometimes you KNOW something is off.
* Under-fueled: I’ll cut to the chase, weight and runners, food and runners is a land-mine of a topic. We know being lean is an unavoidable fact when tied to performance, but taken too far and your performance will also nose-dive. Running also burns a heck of a lot of fuel and if you’re training volume is way outpacing your intake you’ll feel the similar symptoms of over-training. Actually, sometimes just bumping up your caloric intake rather than cutting back the training at all can sometimes do the trick.
* Mental burn-out: There is the physically over-trained state and the mentally tapped out state I’ll call burn-out. Running is incredibly mental and ‘hyping yourself up’ into the hard workout and all-out race scenarios takes a lot of mental energy. You use too much of that mental energy and you can be left mentally zapped by the end of the season. Again, refer to my Running Times article for more on this but also remember that if you come to literally dread your runs you may be treading into mental burn-out land. Maybe you’re getting too obsessed with splits and times and putting too much pressure (read more on that HERE) and chucking the watch for some workouts or your easy days can help with that. Also make sure to get back to WHY you started running and keeping it fun.
* Training adjustment phase: I’ll quickly address this, if you’re new to a particular coach, running group or program it’s very common for the adjustment phase to wipe you. Even if the volume is the same, a different training philosophy (maybe you’re doing a lot more core/weight work) means different kinds of workouts. Be patient, sometimes you’ll have to take a few steps back to, in the long term, make big leaps forward.
* Not recovering: This actually is a ‘baby-category’ of the over-training but I’ll re-emphasize it here. If you’re not taking your easy days EASY then you’re blur all the lines between hard and easy days and then when you want to HIT those hard days you won’t be able to.
Pinpointing 1) that you’re in the ‘wrong level’ of tiredness is the first battle 2) finding a way to turn that feeling around so you can get back to the ‘normal’ constant tiredness that comes with running is the second. It may take time, but be patient, because once you’re back on track you’ll be running much better and your entire outlook on your running will too. You should never hate your running…it’s too good to hate. 😉
1) Have you ever experienced any of these ‘wrong levels’ of fatigue?
PAH-LEEEZ…sometimes I feel like I’ve written the book on them. 😉 There’s that sarcastic humor of mine.
2) Is there a few I missed, do you have any to add to the list?
3) Was there ever a time you hated your running?
I will say I never hated my running and I thank the running gods for that, many people who get stuck in a ‘wrong level’ type of situation can end up sucking the passion from their sport. I never lost that…I did however hate feeling super-tired, flash to hypo-thyroid days.
Get Your Get Chicking Shirts!!
Watch out runners, you’re about to be CHICKED! 😉
They are here, my ‘Get Chicking’ running shirts have arrived so let’s start the chicking! Can you tell how in love I am with that word?
For those that didn’t pre-order or aren’t aware of the details you can school up HERE or read the recap below:
* Asics Core Running Tech Tee
* Sizes XS-L
* The Damage: $30 + shipping
I’ve added a new tap at the top of my page, Store, and you can always order there.
Thanks to all you fast runnerchicks already chicking, without the term would have no meaning. Runnerdudes, you’ve been warned. 😉
If You Loved Me You’d Make Me Run Faster
True love waits…for you to finish your run.
Well, being the forever pathetic runnerchick in the whole love department (can I at least say I try to make up for that last tag-line with doubling up on the running portion?? Hehe.) I can’t exactly off up all too much insight into the topic of whether it’s easier to have both people as runners in a relationship or not. Though I still tend to be able to yammer on about anything regardless, so I’ll offer up some keen words of wisdom.
I’ll say that runners are quirky. In some cases that’s an understatement; now I know everyone, runner and non-runners alike, have their own quirks, but the thing is many runners share the same quirks. If not the exact same quirk, something similar and they can at least see where the other person’s insaneness is stemming from. They may know it’s totally illogical but they can at least SEE the other person’s line of reasoning. (Umm, even the person with the quirk usually knows that just because something isn’t rational doesn’t mean they don’t have to still harbor the desire to do it…mmmmk.)
That said, I’ve heard from couples of the mix-matched running pursution that having a non-runner helps balance out the insanity…so who really knows. I guess in the end “all you need is love, love. Love is all you need.” Before I start tasting that yummy chocolate chip muffin for the second time, I’ll cut to some things that, love aside, I think any kind of partner for a runner addict enthusiast should be able to understand…or at least see the line of reasoning of it.
* I love you but the watch comes first. Now this may sound horrible, but let me explain myself fully before you judge. When you’re on a run, with anyone for that matter, there is an agreement that barring some insane, brutal attack (bear mauling) if one person has to stop or slow down the other person doesn’t necessarily have to do the same. If a person has to make a pit-stop, their running buddy doesn’t need to stop running, they may circle around but it’s not like we are to share a bush! Sometimes on easy days one person’s pace may not be exactly the same as the others and if there comes a point in the run where a person wants to slow down, their partner can of course choose to do so as well, but they can also choose to do their own thing. It’s then understood it’s nothing person.
* You trip the switch I’ll kill you. I harbor this insane amount of fear that for some reason there may be a power surge while I’m in the middle of my run on a treadmill and the machine will stop. I try to zone out if I can and not stare at the screen so I’m afraid that I’ll then not know how far I went and…gasp…will have to guess. I’m also afraid that if anyone is around the area of the cord they will somehow trip on it and it will be unplugged. (This happened once to me, and is my explanation for this ridiculous phobia of mine.) Even worse, if I were in the middle of a hard workout and the cord came unplugged, I’d probably kill the person who did it.
* Understand the fartlek. The whole fast slow thing really gets annoying if you’re on a bike path and there are other people, strangers, around you running at a pace that causes you to keep passing them on your fast part and then having them pass you on the easy part. You of course try to get faster on the fast part, and bump up the recovery pace, but through the course of the workout that gets tougher and sometimes the other person is thinking, “wtf” and tries to amp up their pace. I guess I bring this up because if the ‘stranger’ is the kind of person who would do that and not understand what the fartleking running was doing, then said person is stamped un-date-able (maybe un-friendable…jk.) off the bat.
* What’s said/done mid-hard workout can later be ‘taken back’ without explanation. Sometimes that little inner beast of a person can rise up out of nowhere in the middle of a bad run, a really tough workout, heck, just because. I’ve seen athletes actually flip their coaches the bird and scream upon being told they were running another ‘surprise’ interval…they of course ran the interval and five minutes later chumming it up with dear coachie. The episode never needed to be talked out, it wasn’t anything person just one of those things that you run the risk of encountering when there’s suffering (the good kind) involved. The bottom line is the workout got done; if there had been a refusal that’s a totally different story…complain if you want but you know you’re going to do it.
* No pity clap. The only thing that makes a bad workout or race WORSE is the pity clap or ridiculously over-board encouragements. Such as, I was once running a tempo, it was crash and burn stlye and by the end there, running so far off pace the only reasonable explanation would have been that I was running backwards…sadly I wasn’t. My coach offered up the logical form tips and such but another coach standing track-side started pulling the way, over the top cheerleader, “Looking AWESME!!! Great job!! Keep it up!!” He was actually smiling and clapping like a little kid looking forward to birthday cake. The thing is, we all knew the truth and that wasn’t it. In cases like this, please don’t pretend we don’t all know that what is going on is ugly…doing so only makes the workout/race worse.
* If you love me you’ll kick my @$$. There are many runnerchicks blessed with some faster hubbys and can rope them in enlist them for pacing duties. Here is where you couldn’t ask for a better situation, at least from the girl’s perspective. Or if the runnerchick was able to chick her hubs it would be working to his favor there…rock on. Having a pacer right there would be awesome so long as they understood that when the going gets tough they better keep on pushing…true love knows in the quest for our best we gotta get our @$$’s kicked in the best, most painful way. 🙂
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If you like that first picture up there, I just added it to my Etsy store so you can snag a copy there if you like! Feel free to check out the others up too, and let me know if you have any requests for images not already posted!
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1) Got any insights into the running couples situation…where do you stand, better to be both runners or not?
2) What’s one thing, a quirk or line of reasoning, you’d like to add here to the list?
3) Do you have a story to share about an infuriating fartlek experience?
4) Trials talk…we’re all open for that here too!
Running a Mile a Minute: Multi-tasking and sneaking into your day ‘little’ things to improve your running
We live in some pretty manic times, and for most mortal runners that means fitting in training when it’s possible. Realistically this looks like runs at 5am, parents pushing jogging strollers or doing intervals around the track while their kids use the long jump pit as a sandbox. (I have vivid memories of making sandcastles back when I was a kid!)
Multi-tasking isn’t so much a nice way to stay ahead of the game anymore, it’s evolved into a necessity, a way to survive. The law even has had to step in banning cell phones or eating while driving. For runners we KNOW there are other things we ‘should’ be doing outside of just putting in the miles; the stretching, the core work, the icing, the weights. Though for many, life seems to get in the way of the ‘little’ things.
BUT, I’ve been floored by how much can actually be crammed into those 24 hours by some people; it can be tricky finding the windows of time but for the highly productive individual some of the keys seems to getting creative, organizing a system, and then making a routine. Here’s just a few tips I can share:
* Roll your foot on a tennis ball to keep your plantar fascia happy – do it double time if you’ve got a really long tube and work two feet at once. (I’ve used an old shipping tube that you’d send posters in) Super easy to do as most of us are sitting at some point during the day.
* Sit on a tennis ball or golf ball and similarly work out knots or kinks in your glutes and upper hamstrings.
* Foam roll your IT Band and other areas while watching TV
* Memorize on the run – I passed all of my Spanish classes because during lots of my easy runs I’d get my vocab or conjugations stuck in my head and work on memorizing. The same thing worked for my physiology classes where I’d have to memorize all the muscles, their origins, insertions, and function.
* Plan the day en-route – like above a lot of people use the brain time during a run to figure out what they need to do for the day, work out carpools, mentally ‘write’ emails (I do that!) so that when they get home they can physically write that down and then get to work on the rest of the day.
* Cooking stretch – I can’t cook but I can microwave and use that timer to bust out some stretches. We know that we need to hole a particular stretch for at least 20 seconds for it to count so just follow the clock, do some hamstring, quad, calf, etc. stretches and then get your grub on.
* Planks, core and crunches anywhere – Many watch TV at some point…get sweating during commercial breaks. Also, hear me out, this one may not be so much for the shy runner, but I’ve been able to squeeze in some core work in some random places while I’ve been traveling or I just am stuck waiting somewhere. (Airport terminal, park, etc.) Seek out a more secluded spot if you’re embarrassed, but especially if you’ll never see these people again, who really cares? 😛
* Babysitting duties – Parents are master multi-taskers and summer is out so the kids are home. Michael Wardian does the vast majority of his runs on the treadmill while babysitting; getting up early is an often used run time, doing loops around a track or playground allows you to do your workout while still making sure your kids are okay. This is also a chance to get your family involved in fitness…just say, “Do like Mommy and Daddy are doing.” 🙂
* Get it together – Be efficient by laying out all your running gear, clothes, and shoes the night before so you can literally jump into them and get going. Same works if you pack your gym bag and go run at a work break; set an alarm and jet out, don’t dally.
* The Social Network – I’m a runner and I have lots of friends that are runners, not that you have to follow suit, but if you’re on a team or meet a running group you will find that connecting on a run is actually fun. You don’t have to turn your entire social life into running, but at the same time even if most of your ‘free time’ is spent running or with running people that doesn’t always leave you socially deprived.
Other fun facts that should relieve any guilt you feel about going for a run when there is ‘other things’ you could do. Just because you’re running over something else it doesn’t ALWAYS make you selfish and here’s why:
* More productive: Either starting your day with a run or taking a break during the day to exercise makes you more productive on the whole. Companies have begun hosting workout classes for their employees and encouraging them to go for just this reason. I know I’ve gotten some of my best creative inspiration or solved other problems while running.
* Happier: Runners are happier in general, partly because of endorphins, partly because of seeing their hard work pay off and being motivated. That’s why it’s not selfish if you need that run time because it probably makes you better to the people around you.
* Save on therapy: Tied into the happier thing, there are some therapists now who do their sessions while working out or moving. It’s been said that the brain is able to work through emotional problems on another level, better, while actively DOING something. Hmmm, go for a run and save on paying for a shrink, sounds cool.
Whew, okay I hope some of these have helped debase the idea that you can’t sneak in a few of the ‘little’ things into your day…or if nothing else made you think I’m crazier for doing planks in the airport. Oh well, either way the joke is on you because I already knew I was crazy. 🙂
1) What are some of the tips or tricks you have to make the most of your time or work some of those ‘little’ things into your day?
2) If you’re a parent how do you manage your training with parenting duties?
3) If you run with a team or have a running group, do you feel that the time with them also helps leaving you feeling fulfilled socially?
4) What’s something interesting you’ve recently heard about how running makes the rest of your life either more productive, happier, or just better?