Search Results for: gi issues

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 →

Kill Some Stress, Run Faster, Be Happier

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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. Continue Reading →

A Gold Medal Mind: My interview with Dr. Jim Afremow

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To run and race your best it’s critical you’ve got the right mindset. Dr. Jim Afremow has made it his mission to help runners and athletes of all sports hone their mental training. Just as important and the physical workouts, an athlete’s mind can create a champion or turn into one’s own worst enemy. I wanted interview Dr. Afremow both because I respect his body of work and level of expertise and also because, let’s be honest, the psychology of our sport in straight-up fascinating! Often time elite athletes have trouble putting into words exactly how they get into gamer mode…so read on to hear a mental game’s coach put words to the ability: JIM AFREMOW, Ph.D.     1)    What got you started in athletics, and what were your favorite sports growing up?   I grew up on sports and physical activity primarily through my father who appreciated the importance of having an active lifestyle. He especially enjoyed hiking, mountain climbing, and participating in Masters track and field. As a youth, my favorite sports included track and field, soccer, and golf.   2)    How did you foray into becoming a mental games coach and working on the sports psychology end of the spectrum?   Sports psychology provides the perfect opportunity to bridge two of my passions: sports and psychology. I have always been fascinated by human behavior and how all of us can learn to reach our greatest potential. I earned a doctorate in sports psychology and a Master’s in counseling, both at Michigan State University.   3)    You work with a variety of athletes in different sports, but in working with runners what are some of the most common mental hurdles they struggle with?   Mental toughness is equally import to physical strength when it comes to shining 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 →

Hydrate Like a Champ: Running, fluids, electrolytes, and Nuun Energy

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Hydration is not something runners can afford to skimp on. Fun fact: by the time you actually FEEL thirsty you’re in a state of dehydration. The key is sipping those fluids consistently, throughout the day, and ensuring you’re urine is rocking the clear-light yellow hue rather than radioactive yellow-orange. With summer fast approaching and the hotter temps that accompany, it’s important runners are issued a reminder just HOW crucial it is to stay hydrated. If you don’t, your performances will suffer but more importantly it could become dangerous. Dehydration can also wreck havoc on your stomach and intestines. For runners, hydration is more than just drinking water. Water is essential but so are electrolytes. When you sweat you lose more than just H2O; electrolytes, like potassium and sodium, are also lost through sweat and are just as important to replace. When electrolytes get unbalanced, that’s when you run the risk of heart issues and other complications due to an overly dilute blood stream. Not fun. Besides, before you even get to THAT dangerous of a point, your running will be sub-par if you’re not hydrated fully with water AND electrolytes. Our good friends at Nuun have been supplying those cool tablets that you can drop into your water bottle, shake, and voila have your electrolyte-infused (and tastified) drink for years. They’ve introduced their new Nuun Energy line and I served it at my Ezzere Launch Party even! Nuun was generous enough to give samples to all of my guests and put together a prize pack for this lucky winner… He’s excited, he’ll never be dehydrated. 😉 Here’s the scoop on the new Nuun Energy: * Electrolytes: These new Nuun tablets have all the essential electrolytes as the pervious Nuun Active Hydration line as well as extra B Vitamins and a Continue Reading →

Just Think What COULD Be on Your Feet

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Imagine a running world much different than our own. Get up, lace up, and regardless of what’s actually on your feet…get running. —— So lots of exciting things to share here! My friend, and distance running’s #1 Fan Girl, Lynn Cox and I just launched Shoeprints Ink!! It’s a greeting card line devoted JUST FOR RUNNERS! Yea!! Go check out all the action and there will be more cards being continually added. Visit: Shoeprintsink.com The first instructional comic book for runners, “Effective Mental Strategy: Race faster by out-thinking your brain”, that I created was just reviewed by author Mark Matthews. He’s an awesome writer and I always enjoy reading his blog, so read my review and then get sucked into HIS writing for hours and hours. My latest Running Times article that ran in the Dec/Jan issues is now online. Go read “The Power of Protein Timing: Three windows to refuel the runner” If you’ve yet to read another seriously awesome blog that I stalk on the daily, The Anxious Girl’s Guide to Dating, (seriously, I think many runners can relate erring a wee bit on the anxious side!) I contribute posts there and you can go read my second one: “Table for Four: Ditching the judging, critical, killjoy” And on Instagram…I’ve been hanging out with Ariel. She likes my latest running shirt a lot. ——- Enough of me yet?? Fine, then go run. 😉 1) Speaking of shoes and spikes, what running shoes are you currently loving at the moment? 2) What kind of food related shoe concoctions would you toss into this comic remix? 3) Anxiety and all that jazz…what do you do when you are feeling stressed, anxious, nervous, etc.? What keeps you sane and balanced? Well, besides what I already shared…can I state the obvious: #runforsanity

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 →

My New Love Affair With Stretching and How it’s Rocking My Running

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I love running (duh) but you may recall I’m not entirely in a Ménage à trois with stretching AND running. Don’t get be wrong, I KNOW how important regular stretching is to prevent injuries and improve your running performance. Heck, I write about it tons HERE and HERE…oh and I harp on it in my Competitor and Running Time articles. But do I love it? Eh…we’ll say I would choke it down. Then the world shook. You probably felt it actually. Remember THIS post where I talked about the BEST MASSAGE THERAPIST in the world?? Al Kupczak (aka also my BFF…all runners should contact him: 303-817-9961) literally solved a string of 3.5+ years of injuries stemming from my car accident. Side-not, getting hit by a car and almost losing your leg isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Well I mean I was able to run…but it was ugly, it never really felt like it used to, I couldn’t go faster than an easy pace without getting injured to where I couldn’t run at all. I saw lots of docs, tried lots of things…yada yada yada…finally got my butt up to Boulder, CO. “Cait, you’re tight as h*ll.” “I know, Al.” “It’s not all your fault, there’s lots of scar tissue and calcifications stopping you from being able to stretch.” “I’ve been TELLING PEOPLE!!! See, it’s not my fault, stretching doesn’t like me!!” “Well now that I’ve broken all that up you CAN stretch now.” [not verbatim but you got the gist] It was an intense 12 days, saw Al Kup every other day, hours on the table, and then…miracle beyond miracles check this out: First day in CO…I’ve never IN MY LIFE touched my toes before. This is only four days later after 2 treatments. I was able to Continue Reading →

Two Truths and a Lie: Running, Endorphins, Depression, and Self-Esteem

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Okay, I’m sure every runner remembers that game “Two Truths and a Lie.” You come up with two stories or facts that are true then one that is, well duh, a lie. Trying to make it tricky for your friends to figure out the lie, usually you pick some pretty off the wall REAL things that happened. Well, here will be a little runner’s version of that. Finally I may have a better shot at pulling one over on you guys, I’m pretty sucky at lying face-to-face, so now I can hide my smirks behind the words. 😉 Running Shoots the Brain Up With Endorphins = Puts You in a Happy Mood Exercise causes the body to release ‘feel good’ hormones called endorphins. When these are picked up by the brain’s receptors it puts you in a happier, more positive mood. But let’s be honest and say that running gives you cooler endorphins than other forms of exercise. 😉 Endorphins released from running give the brain a similar kind of ‘high’ or sensation that people experience doing other not-so-healthy alternatives: drugs, binge eating, gambling…and if we’re going to acknowledge it as a true addiction…sex addiction?? (haha…wow, I’m so mature, right?) So people recovering from other addictions have found taking up running, or other forms of exercise, really helpful. Maybe LiLo should really stick with this running thing. Running, because of the natural ‘high’, and the positive reinforcement of setting goals, putting in hard work, and reaching those goals, has also proven to be helpful with those struggling with depression. Running also introduces people up to a new community and friendships, so those relationships also help with feeling better. Finally, anyone who’s had a runner buddy can attest that some of the best free therapy sessions come from a good, solid Continue Reading →

Runner’s Strip Cartoon Movie Shorts: “Cold Weather Running”

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I love running, but what I DON’T love is running in the cold. Truthfully, I don’t harbor ANY fantasies for a white Christmas (or any day for that matter) for the sheer fact that running outside in the snow, in the cold, in the windy, etc. is not cool. Winter is pretty in a snow globe when when you’re a runner actually out there in that flurry…it aint pretty. When winter comes around, I layer up, and then do all I can to manage the nose situation… I present my latest Runner’s Strip Cartoon Movie Short: “Cold Weather Running” I hope you’re packing tissues or hands are as fleet as your runner feet! 😉 ——– Winter Weather Running tips HERE! More Runner’s Strip Cartoons HERE! ——– 1) Would you rather run in the cold or the heat? 2) How do you stay warm and safe during winter? 3) Do you enjoy your white winters if you live in a state that typically gets them?