Search Results for: stretch

Embracing Discomfort: True rewards are only met when you’ve been pushed

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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 Continue Reading →

Misery Loves Company: Surviving a running injury

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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, Continue Reading →

Runners Three Tip Tuesday: Work on getting faster in tri-fecta form

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Good things can come in threes, but then again plenty of awesome things come in twos and fours. Runners have two legs, four laps make that perfect mile…though do those four laps REALLY feel all that perfect when doing mile repeats?? 😉 Brain: “FOUR laps, let’s call a mile one lap!” Juuust kidding. Well good things can come in any number but today you runners are getting a three-pack. Here are some Training Tips in Triple for your Tuesday: 1) Runners Who Skip: Runners can become a little too linear for their own good. Example is looking only at their running workouts to improve and taking that little metaphor to the literal: running is a repetitive, linear, single-plane action. If you don’t work your body in a variety of ways it gets tight. Tight will equal restrictive, bring you injuries and impede your speed. Offset that by doing things OTHER than running: core work, flexibility, and agility drills. Move in the horizontal, even do some skipping to ‘dilly around’ with your neuromuscular thought patterns. Your brain actually has to be ‘played with’…it gets stuck in a pace/pattern run with just running. So as crazy as it sounds doing things like skipping, backwards skips, crazy feet drills give it a little ‘reset’ and make it more ‘sharp’ when you come back to running steps. Oh, and those fast feet, like chili pepper jump rope things, those will help your neuromuscular training too…get those feet conditioned to FIRE off the ground faster = faster speed and sprinting. 2) Be Quiet I’m Sleeping: Sleeping should really be an Olympic sports…or at least one of everyone’s favorite past times. Want to have a sleep-off? Just kidding. But seriously, for the runner in training you should guard your zzzz’s with just as much ferocity as Continue Reading →

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 →

My Issues With ‘Fitness’

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I don’t visit many fitness sites. Not because I’m a runner snob or purist, but because I don’t like the ‘business’ side of ‘fitness’. Those who instantly ‘get’ what I’m talking about separates the ‘fitness’ minded from the FITNESS minded. I’m not the running riddler, but the reason I don’t go to lots of fitness sites is because I really don’t like the hypocrisy of it all. I’m a straight-shooter, telling it like it is, kinda gal. ’12 Minutes to FLAT ABs’…’Workout in 8mins or less!’ EIGHT minutes? Seriously? I don’t even consider 8 minutes enough time for a proper warm-up. So I guess I should define what a workout is. I’m not talking about a ‘follow-up’ core routine, stretching, weight circuit. For a runner or anyone who is truly FITNESS minded some of those routines can certainly be on the quicker side, maybe all you need IS 8 minutes because you busted your butt doing 800’s and cardio earlier. When I’m talking workout I mean EVERYTHING. Start to finish, if you do double sessions, those minutes count as rollover. Newsflash: the ‘fitness’ celebrities touting those ‘8 minutes is ALL you need!’ workouts, they for DARN sure don’t do THEIR workouts in only 8 minutes. It’s the business that peeves me. If you’re going to tell people what to do, be upfront. Yes, I know the MAJORITY of Americans DO NOT want to hear they’ve got to bust a sweat doing cardio for at least 30 minutes and follow it up with some core and ab work. Waaaa…I’d rather be watching the Kardashian! Well, you could do both running on a treadmill…haha. So the 12 and 8 minutes things sell, they are hot keywords, they attract the masses like flies to a bush post runner emergency dive. The same also Continue Reading →

A Special Running Valentine

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Whether single or alone, you can always find love. Okay, Happy Valentine’s Day…whether you find this a jank holiday or not probably has more to do with your relationship status than anything else. But we can all agree that the love between a runner and their legs is something sacred. To be cherished and adored, to be respected and never taken for granted. Love what your runner body can DO for you, that it’s far more powerful than merely something hot and pretty to look at. Be grateful for the incredible way a body can adapt and repair itself…build it stronger. Celebrate the rush of endorphins. If love is making your heart race…look no further. Be you loving your legs in pairs or rocking solo, grab a chocolate heart and bite it’s flipping head off…you ran, you deserve it!! 😉 [Hearts may not have a head, but you get the picture.] 1) Finish this sentence: I love my legs and today I will show them that love by… Forcing them to run. They know they like it…bwahahaha. 2) How are you treating your legs right so they rebuild and repair? Stretching, Baby! 3) Favorite chocolate treat? Any and all. S’mores Pop-Tarts are always a choice I fully endorse!

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 →

Run-Arta-Gram: An arty brain game for runners

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These days it aren’t just our feet that are running like crazy, the whole world runs at about a mile a minute. Peoples’ attention spans are fittingly just as blitzy, it’s no wonder social media sites like Twitter and Instagram are so popular. In T-minus 2 seconds you GET THE POINT. In keeping with short, to.the.point nature I’d like to test out a new theme for some of my posts here. I got the inspiration HERE from an artist, Maria Fabrizio, who takes current news stories then creates an image for viewers in what she calls ‘Wordless News’. I loved how she explained many of her subscribers enjoyed the ‘figure it out’ part, a little brain game to see if you’re hip to the latest news tidbit. Clearly most of the news I’m reading is running or fitness related, and I’ve no desire to rip her ingenious idea off completely, her work is amazing. But I think it would be a neat creative and artistic stretch for myself to cut out the words and see if I can’t provoke in my readers a similar mind puzzle in grasping the concept. I’ll call it a Run-Arta-Gram Challenge; every picture will be related to running, fitness, and health either news or a tip. Below each image will be a link to the news headline or article I got the inspiration from. Without further wordage…the first Run-Arta-Gram: Article Inspiration: NY Times

Two Whole Running Legs: Gratitude and kicking motivation lulls in the @$$

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Far too often we take things for granted. You wake up feeling ‘meh’, the run for the day not looking like the most appealing option. I mean running was there for you yesterday, in today’s motivation lull you assume you can blow it off today and running will still be waiting for you tomorrow. It happens with everything, the random lamp in the house that’s just always been there. You don’t even notice it anymore. It just blends right in, ignored, the act of flipping the switch an unconscious act. You don’t even REALLY care about the lamp, say, until the power goes out. You flip the switch and suddenly think, “WTF?!?!” Taken for granted. Never treat your running like a stupid, random lamp. I was having my own ‘meh’ moment not too long ago. I was about 1 minute into my run, forced myself to at least that point, but the endorphins had yet to really kick in, you know? Then I passed a house where a man in a wheelchair was working to get himself into a car. He didn’t have legs from the knee-down. BAM…it hit me, I was too lucky to be feeling ‘meh’ about my running. I was so freaking lucky I COULD use my two legs in such a way. On my way back home I ran past the man’s house; he wasn’t there, but his car was. I could see the wheelchair lift rack in the back. Now every time I run past that black van I say a thanks to my two, whole legs. I remember to be grateful I am able to use them in suck a way and run. Don’t feel guilty about your own ‘meh’ moments. Runnerchicks and runnerdudes, we ALL get them. Feeling complacent versus lovey-dovey and excited Continue Reading →

Runner Legs Are Complainers: 5 important ’tissues’ to avoid a total toddler-level tantrum

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“If you’ve got an issue, here’s a tissue.” Certainly that fits with the ‘runner mentality’ for many things. Intervals hurt, well, they’re going to hurt until we finish all the repeats. Long runs are…long. Yup, that’s how it goes. Just keep telling yourself to make it one more mile, one more mile, etc…until your done! Then the legs start having their issues. They’ll start begging for their own tissues. The way to stave off some total toddler-level tantrums from the legs are to supply them their tissues on a consistent basis BEFORE their demands are too high. * Tissue 1: Warming the heck up. Don’t go into a workout with ‘cold’ legs. Don’t immediately blast like a bat out of he**, your legs like a little warning. “We’re going to workout now”…gradually lower into the pace and you’ll feel better, wind up running faster, and avoid the lactic acid booty-lock shuffle home. * Tissue 2: Stretching. Yea, stretching is NEVER as much fun as running but if you want to run better you need to be loose. You’ve got to have the flexibility to open up your stride, you want as much range of motion as possible. So suck it up, get your stretching and yoga time in, your legs will thank you with faster times AND less injuries. * Tissue 3: Massage. Look, I’ll be honest and say I’m as not-rich as the next person, so I self-massage regularly but I’m ALSO re-learning how imperative it is to see a professional massage therapist when I can. Running is pretty abusive on the body and to un-do some of that damage you need that massage work. Look at it as an investment in YOURSELF. Namely your sanity (my sanity hinges upon my endorphin fix) because the longer you run the Continue Reading →