Search Results for: injury

Ezzere Launch Party Runner Night

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All you AWESOME runners better save the date and make your way to Cali cuz THIS is going down…the Ezzere Launch Party and Runner Night!! Do you have your excited face on? Good. Here are some more det’s: My AMAZING friends at US Cryotherapy are opening up their doors for this runner posse. Haven’t ever tried this subzero temperature recovery treatment? Now’s your chance to come in and try the local treatment. Read all about their benefits for injury prevention, faster recovery after workouts, and injury treatments HERE. Nuun Hydration is also taking part in helping sponsor the event too! They will be keeping all us runners hydrated up right as we party down with their NEW Nuun Active Hydration Drink. We already love their current drink line, this latest formula has those same essential electrolytes but now packed with extra B Vitamins and Caffeine. Still less than 12 calories and sans extra sugar though! GU Energy also knows how important it is to fuel runners right and they’re going to be brining their fine selves and those awesome packs of Pure Performance energy to the party! Not sure of the perfect place to put that hydrating drink or energy gel?? Well never fear, Hydrapak is coming to this Ezzere Launch Party Runner Night too and offering up some of their SoftFlasks to a few lucky runners in attendance! These SoftFlasks are well, soft (duh), and flexible meaning you can easily squeeze them on the run and get your energy gel or drink much better than the hard shell variety of flasks. PRIZES!! Yes, let’s be honest everyone loves some good prizes and SWAG, right? The first 50 people will be gifted AT THE DOOR with one of Nunn’s new Active Hydration Drink Vial. The raffle will include a KICK@$$ Continue Reading →

Escape into Sanity. Run.

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I run to escape. I run to be free. I run for sanity. Go, escape into your run! ——- #CoreAndCake Party!!! So it’s happening THIS Friday and you’re ALL invited. I’ll be sharing a new core routine to help you runners stay strong, build a more efficient running form and reduce injury risk. Talk of cake will follow. Get the gist? I’d also LOVE for any and all bloggers and social media-ites to hop on board. 1) Blog: Get creative and share anything core and/or cake related. Fitness folk that could mean sharing some of your favorite core moves, all foodies you could make us all drool over your favorite cake recipes! Heck, so long as any mention of core and cake makes it’s way in there I’m sold! 2) Social: Snap a pic of you doing a #coreandcake related celebration and Tweet/FB/Instagram it! 3) Link: If you’d like to be included in some blogger link-up partying, email me at: cait@caitchock.com with your link! Looking forward to our runner part. 🙂 ———- 1) Finishing the sentence…”I run to/for…” 2) Share a time when going for a run lead you to figure out a problem, get through a tough situation, or acted as your escape? 3) Favorite dessert?

Hamstring Strengthening Video For Runners: Keep those hammies happy!

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Alright, Runners, time to tell you the brutal honesty about your hamstrings: they’re plotting against you! They’re weak, they’re tight, and they’re cranky! Okay, okay, I’m speaking in the general, so your personal hamstrings (if you’re ALREADY taking care of them properly), may not be secretly plotting away an injury for you in the future…but it’s an ongoing offense we must play. Hamstrings rank among one of the TOP injuries, or underlying issue for an injury for runners. The reason? Partially our lifestyles with too much sitting and also because runners are just prone to tight and weak hamstrings. The solution? Be proactive! I’ve put together a video demonstrating an exercise routine targeting those weak hamstrings (and glutes). It hinges on the bridge exercise, doing them as single leg bridges. Aim to do these three times a week after your run, it will literally take you a minute or two, so no excuses! 3 Way Single Leg Bridges 10 raises each leg 3 Different distances from glutes Avoiding an injury that keeps you from running is an ongoing effort, being proactive in the stretching and core work is your two-pronged approach! These nice exercises are one part of the puzzle and the other is doing the stretching. Do yourself and the rest of the world a favor and keep being proactive…an injured runner on the streets is NOT someone I’d like to cross. 😉 ———– Fun announcement! If you follow me on Twitter you may have caught wind of #coreandcake parties that have been going on. It’s simple, do you core and you get your cake! Runners are human, we work well off of bribes. 😉 I’d like to take this party to the blog world! SOOO…I’m having a #coreandcake party NEXT Friday, March 28th and EVERYONE’S invited!! Here’s what’s Continue Reading →

Where the Magic REALLY Happens

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Bippidity Boppity…moooove over, Magic Wand, these running shoes are far more magical. 🙂 And we don’t need no glass slippers either! Talk about a major injury hazard…who comes up with this stuff?!?! 😉 Personally I like my running fairy tales a bit better with some sweat, endorphins, miles, and runnerchicks and runnerdudes. Speaking of Princesses, no one’s been able to peel me out of my favorite new running shirt yet. 😉 1) What running shoes are you in love with right now? 2) Do you have pretty pick feet? 3) Where was the last awesome place your magic running feet took you?

An Injured Runner’s Psyche: The Sybil Effect

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I’m a runner, I’m injured, I’m not held accountable for my actions. I’m pretty sure this would hold up in court. A runner deprived of their endorphins isn’t quite themselves. Be warned, handle their delicate psyche with care… ———- Staying POSITIVE through an injury is the only way to get through it…my post HERE is all about that. More post ALL about INJURIES Posts for CROSS-TRAINING (trust me, cross-train while you’re injured so you can come back to running stronger! doing nothing will be a cold slap of reality…take some of the sting out. 😉 ) When not injured, sometimes you need to remind yourself how lucky you are. Don’t take your running for granted. ———- 1) The last time you were injured, what was a ‘casualty’ of war? I may or may not have bitten a few heads off. 😉 2) If you’re injured right now, you’re allowed one vent sentence. Then follow it up with a positive affirmation that will get you through your injury. 3) For all you NOT injured, write a sentence on how you’re GRATEFUL for your ability to run and remind yourself never to take that for granted.

Get Out of the Vicious Cycle: Stop injuries from haunting you again and again and again and again…

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Probably the only things runners hate MORE than being called a jogger are injuries. Booooo…hisssss…throw a rotten tomato at stupid injuries! The thing is though, if you don’t know WHY you were injured in the first place, you’ll most likely wind up with the SAME injury again and again and again. A vicious circle, uglier than Groundhogs Day. Why Am I Injured? Sure, an injury can come from some running traumatic event, you stepped on a rock the wrong way, tripped on a root and pulled a groin. A running injury can also come from doing a stupid training mistake, ie: doing too many miles too fast (stress fracture!), doing too much hard running too fast, running in the wrong shoes. Now, the WORST and most common reasons for getting stuck in the black hole of injury cycles are… NOT FIXING A RUNNING WEAKNESS!! Ding, ding. I’ll tell you what you’ve won…an ongoing issue that your body is continually compensating for. The muscles stuck working overtime to cover that compensating are causing your injures. Since you never fixed the underlying issues, no amount of icing the injury or rest will keep you from getting injured again. The injury is the symptom…not the problem. What’s My Weakness? Hey, I’m a Weak Butt: Everyone is different, but there are FIVE top culprits for runners getting injured. Weak glutes, hamstrings, hips, back, and ankles. I wrote a post HERE highlighting each one specifically as well as exercises to help fix that issue. I’m a Tight Runner: Tied into weak muscles are also muscles that are so inflexible they’re tugging and pulling on every other muscle. Being inflexible is setting you up for injuries, and the bad news is the older you get the harder it is to ‘undo’ that inflexible nature. It’s possible, Continue Reading →

A Runner’s Starting Line Confidence

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Sometimes a runner’s already won the race before the gun’s even goes off. Questions. Doubts. Insecurities. None of these belong at the starting line; starting line of a race or a workout. A runner needs confidence. NEEDS it… no amount of physical endurance, speed, or fitness can make up for it. How one steps to the line is what separates the GAMERS from the runners who perform at about the level they do in workouts, and then harriers who self-implode. Confidence is a tricky one, it’s a mental factor of running and training. Once shaken, a runner’s confidence can be quite difficult to fully restore. Injuries, off days, strings of bad races, all of these plant seeds of doubt. Doubt is like a monster that, once you feed it, it grows exponentially in size. It’s a voracious monster that will eat a runner whole. Step to the starting line enveloped in that ugly monster and you might as well not even wait for the gun to crack. You’re already a dead runner ‘running’. By the time you step to the starting line, there is NOTHING you can change about the past. Stop any questions of, “Should I have done…?”, “Did I do enough…?”, etc. You can’t do it, so no use worrying about it. Don’t let that scare you off, if you’ve got some doubts, that’s only natural. And if you’re currently fighting from falling into the pit with that ugly doubting monster, THERE IS still hope for you yet. It works two ways. You CAN restore your confidence. You CAN still step to the line a gamer. It just takes some work and shifting your thinking. Usually doubts start from one of two places: 1) An Event: Events would be after injuries, poor performances, etc…it starts with a legitimate Continue Reading →

Endorphins: Picture a world that much sweeter

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Trust me, there is something special about those endorphins…more powerful than even speed goggles. EVERYTHING just looks and feels better with a brain full of post-run endorphins. Those problems feel just a smidgen less monstrously terrible, food tastes better, even that neighbor you hate is slightly more tolerable. The world is just a better place after you’ve got your run on. Now, certainly endorphins have a shelf-life…gosh, dang it! The answer though is simple…get up, run, get your endorphin shot, go to bed, repeat. Living the life of a runner is like being in one of those revolving doors. It’s not a stagnate state, it’s ALWAYS moving. Tomorrow wipes the slate clean, and you have to start that run all over again. Some people could see that as a negative, “Dangit, I worked by butt off yesterday but when I go to bed I’ve gotta get up and do it all over again.” Wiped clean, but not erased. Let’s look at the many positives of living in the running revolving door: * Injures pass: Stuck in the middle of an injury it kinda feels like that door is stalling out…maybe it’s broken and you’re trapped in injury purgatory FOREVER. But time passes, injuries heal, and eventually you get back to your runs. Then savor them. * Training accumulates: When tomorrow wipes the slate clean, it HARDLY erases all that hard work put in. This is the beauty of training cycles, the runs and hard workouts build upon the next, so that revolving door is more like an escalator. Riiiiide it, baby. BUT…it only goes up if you stay consistent in moving through those doors, you have to be consistent with your running and putting in the work. * Bad races are wiped away: There will always be days that bring Continue Reading →

Running Shorts in Winter

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So you remember how just a few days ago I was saying how running during winter can really suck?? Weeeeeell…that’s not always the case… I honestly DO feel bad for all you running out there in states that actually DO have winter weather. Snow? Sleet? Hail? Crazy-@$$ wind?? It’s not fun stuff…but it does certainly make you tougher. I mean within reason, no use running outside just FOR the torture, sometimes running on a treadmill is the smarter choice. If it allows you to avoid a potential injury and if you’re needing to run faster than outdoor conditions may allow. So treadmills ARE training tools that have their place. That said…I’m not going to lie. I’ve run in snow, I’ve run in sleet, hail, and into crazy winds that blew me to the side. But *please karma don’t come back and bite me on this for writing the next line* not this year. So I’m going to REALLY enjoy wearing my running shorts. The other *perk* of being a runner?? #stronglegs #awesomelegs 1) Treadmill running? How often have you been hitting the treadmill the winter? 2) What are some of your favorite treadmill workouts? Longer repeats or tempo runs on the treadmill…doing 400’s or 200’s sorta freak me out because when the belt gets going I’m afraid I’ll get spit right off! 😉 3) I wear running shorts in public…. anywhere I can.

3 Things Every Runner Needs to Be Told, and Then Re-Told (Repeatedly)

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Not that us distance runners are necessarily forgetful, but there are some thing we tend to lose sight going about our routines. Hopefully it’s not showering altogether…but totally no judgement if you’re still sitting in this morning’s runner clothes. 😉 So just in case your distance runner logic is a tad skewed and you need someone else to remind you of these things… 1) “That’ll do, Pig.” Sorry I could NOT resist the Babe reference, every time I hear ‘that’ll do’ my mind finishes it with Pig. For all those who don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m not calling you guys pigs, I really mean “That’ll do, Runner.” Distance runners are NOTORIOUSLY the hardest on themselves, it’s that kind of type-A personality trait that can push us to be the best or be our own worst enemy. Every now and again a runner needs to hear that they did a good job. That they HAVE worked hard enough, that they ARE mentally tough enough. All of that. Here is one reason why I always recommend runners have a [GOOD!] coach, to get that outside perspective. After a crummy race, rather than instantly jumping to, “Dang, I SUCKED! I must have been a mental weenie today…ugh.” Just stop it and be productive, “Okay, that was rough. Did I give it my all? Can I learn anything from this to do better next time? Take those answers and do with them what you will. But treat your runnerself with some kindness, mmmmk? 2) “This injury WILL end.” In the midst of an injury it’s way too easy to jump straight to cataclysmic-mode, “I’m going to be injured FOREVER!!! FFFOOOORRREEEEVER!!!” [How many movie references can I sneak in here, right?] It can be hard to even imagine a day where you won’t Continue Reading →