Search Results for: stretch

5 Rules for Runners and Self-Massage: Stave off injuries, don’t cause them

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The longer that you’re a runner the more time it takes to keep yourself healthy to run. I know I’m not the only one with a laundry list of to-do’s to keep this creaky body on this side of moving. Soon it becomes that the time you actually spend running is outpaced by the outside ‘extra’ work you do to keep you running! My latest article up on Competitor: “3 Things Under 5 Minutes Every Runner Should Do Daily” explains the importance of including these strength, flexibility, and injury-preventative work into your day. But let’s be straight-up, lots of people have lives and getting the time to just RUN is pushing it. (I’m boring and don’t really have a life, juuust kidding…I have to work and pay ‘dem bills too, bummer. And I think I still have one or two friends rolling around this green Earth.) But I’m betting you can find a spare 5 minutes SOMEWHERE during the day…waiting in line at Starbucks could take longer. Am I asking you to bust out some planks right there in line? If you do and take a picture of you rocking the core routine in line I’ll totally post it, so send it my way! Injury issues aside, getting a stronger core and increasing your flexibility will translate into running faster too. Get stronger = Get more efficient = Get faster. I harp on that enough around the blog too. The self-massage part of the injury prevention is also really important, it gets more-so the longer we run too. I may be 27 but I’m strapped in the body of a geriatric, I’ll probably be rascal-bound by 30…but I’ll take getting my miles fix up until I’m legless. I wish I could afford a professional massage therapist on my ‘staff’, but Continue Reading →

Three Traits of ‘The Best’: Be it in business or running

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I’m a runner, but to pay the bills I’m a writer. In doing some reading for work I came across an article highlighting a few of the traits that the author felt made Steve Jobs the incredible innovator that he was. The thing is, be it a creative dreamer in the business world or a motivated runner with aspirations, many of the traits that will get you to the top in one apply to the other. A goal is a goal after all, being goal-driven and having the ability to persevere comes down to pretty much the same things. The Entrepreneur article was a good read, but I found myself hearing echos of themes I’ve written about right here. PASSION. Do what you love and regardless of outcome never forget that you love it. Running is wrought with highs and lows, to get through the tough times you need to remember that underneath it all, you really do have a genuine love for running in the purest form. Running fast is awesome, but running as a stand-alone needs to be your passion. CURIOSITY. I’ll stretch this to mean more having the ability to wonder, “What can I do?” Run curious. Run for the journey of finding your best. Dream epic goals and go for them. Even if you fail you’re still better off than being moved to shoot for it. NO FEAR. They say Jobs wasn’t afraid of failing, good. Because you shouldn’t be afraid, failures happen. They are unavoidable, you learn from failures and the epic fails of races and workouts make you BETTER. Or rather, they’ll make you better if you’re able to learn from them and apply those lessons going forward. Running may be better different than business in a number of ways, but getting to the Continue Reading →

The Distance Runner’s Warm-up: Get your body and your mind prepared to run FAST

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The runner’s warm-up is a unique time. Before a hard workout, and even more-so for a race, there’s a lot that needs to happen both physically AND mentally. A warm-up tells your legs to ‘wake up’ because they’re about to start running fast. Gradually notching down the pace, starting with the relaxed running, prepares the legs, rather than a complete SLAP in the face…the shock of a hard 400 off the bat. Got a bit of the lazy bug or backwards thinking towards the warm-up? (ie: Thinking that you’re ‘saving energy’ for the workout/race is backwards logic…hehe) * Physiologically: Those super expensive cars can brag about going 0-60 in seconds, but your body doesn’t work that way. Sort of like you wouldn’t want to get ripped out of bed and chucked into the middle of a tempo run, your legs need time to adjust to, “Okay, time to run,” then “Okay, time to run FAST!” The science behind it can get wordy, but basically muscle function and glycogen burning (sourcing energy) works most efficiently when done through negative splits. Start slow (ie: running a warm-up) and work into those faster paces. * Feels ‘easier’: Thanks to that science, your muscles, once introduced/eased into that pace, will make the same times feel relatively easier. You will be able to then run faster off of a proper warm-up. I think all runners are down for that. * Mentally prepare: The warm-up is also a time for runners to get their heads on straight. Visualize what you want to accomplish during the workout, quell those nerves and keep them in check. Remember that you will stay relaxed and controlled when the pain is setting in. What is a ‘real’ warm-up? Studies are proving there should be more elements to your warm-up routine than Continue Reading →

Runners Managing Emotions: When the human in you is being tested

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Running can be emotional. Ask the injured runner how it feels to be on the elliptical stationed behind the row of treadmills and you’re putting yourself at risk for a major @$$ whooping. 😉 On the contrast, approach the runner who, physically spent after crossing the line after a new PR is miraculously able to overcome full lactic acid overload and jump around like a giddy school girl. Something about all those endorphins coursing through a runner’s veins can sure bring out the emotions. Running just makes everything else feel more ‘real’. ‘Normal people’ can’t quite understand the unique ecstasy experienced after a run that was just ‘on.’ Conversely, ‘normals’ can’t wrap their heads around why a bad run can put you in such a crappy mood. “It’s just a run, right?” they ask scratching their heads. But it’s not…it’s more. At least it FEELS like more. Running isn’t most of our jobs, it doesn’t make us billionaires, it won’t snuggle us late at night (but we can spoon with our Nike running shoes), but dang-it it sure brings a nice sense of purpose to things. Running is black and white. It’s a constant when all other things may feel totally off the wall chaotic. It’s about working towards something, watching progress, seeing hard work PAY OFF. Not in the monetary sense, the worth of miles is, as MasterCard can tell us, ‘Priceless.’ I often say running keeps me sane. It’s reliable. You can always count on the run being there, it’s YOU that has to show up. Injuries are unavoidable, as are set-backs, but eventually the run will be there for you. It’s like the welcome mat that never gets tossed out. Dealing with the emotional side of running is what tests the HUMAN in us. Struggling with an Continue Reading →

Running is Repetitive, So Avoid Reinforcing Bad Habits

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If I’m on an easy run I usually get something random stuck in my head. A phrase, a word, the same song lyric running a loop over and over until the run is over. It can sure drive a person mad when it’s of course a song you hate. Be it as it may, I usually can’t get the lyrics to most songs right anyways, so why not make them up? It all plays in time to the music, I mean that’s all we really care about, right? 😉 “(S)he’s going the distance…(S)he’s going for speeeeed!” Won’t lie, Cake you have my heart and I don’t care what music comes out until the day I die this will forever by my favorite song. It’s not about racecar driving either. “Don’t you worry, don’t you worry, Child…the track has got a plan for you.” This is a newer one and it comes on the heels of two thoughts: 1) I need to get something other than radio in my car and 2) overplaying a song leads to psychosis. True fact. Whatever it is looping through your brain to get you through those miles is just fine and dandy. Running couldn’t get any more repetitive…haha…but that’s got to be a part of the reason we love it! Some not so hot things that come with a repetitive motion: 1) Body Adaptation: The body is sneaky and starts to adapt, meaning if you’re running wonky, with bad form that just get ingrained in the body’s ‘muscle memory’. Keep practicing a bad habit and over time it will bite you in the bum. Probably literally. 2) Wandering Mind: Having random thoughts through easy runs is totally fine, a nice distraction. But you don’t want to be counting blades of grass during hard repeats at Continue Reading →

Running Patient Keeps You In the Sport and WILL Reward You…In Time ;)

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Running is wrought with the ‘two steps forward, one step backward’ tests and trials. I’d call it logic, but let’s be honest, most runners lost all logic about 5,000 miles ago. 😉 Progress forward is HARD fought, once you’ve been running for awhile it then come in seconds and tenths rather than minutes. Each new PR ushers you into another realm, and in order to break through and run through to that next level it takes more work than before, and the cycle continues. Eventually you’re working to improve by 1 or 2%, and by that time it takes more than just running harder and running faster. One must run harder and faster of course, but also SMARTER, be more ATTUNED, and then PATIENT. All that patience sure does wear on a runner’s mindset. Typically we want those rewards, those PR’s NOW…but failing to be patient and look long term usually winds you up either 1) hurt or 2) limited. * Hurt: By running harder and faster smartly that means allowing the body to recover between those hard and fast workouts. If you don’t recover on your easy days then you start greying the line between HARD and EASY. You might think that going harder more often will help, but in fact you wind up being too tired to really NAIL those hard workouts. A bunch of grey running just leads to a bunch of grey racing, not sharp, quality races and workouts. Well, that is if you don’t wind up injured first. I’ll include overtrained under the hurt category, because watching your times slip really does hurt too. * Limited: By limited I mean you’re not looking at the BIG picture. To gain those ‘little’ percentages forward means you need to widen your scope beyond just running miles. It Continue Reading →

Rule Your Running Terrain: Because races aren’t done on a treadmill

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Unless you’re racing on a track, there’s SOME kind of terrain you’ll need to be prepared for come gun-time. Even during track season athletes have much to gain from varying the terrain on their workouts. Power and Speed: Hills build strength and when taken to flats that translates to speed. That same kind of logic applies to doing repeats on grass, the times may be ‘slower’ but you’re working harder and building strength. Injury Prevention: Running on softer, more forgiving surfaces helps reduce impact and thus lowers your chances for injuries in the long-term. Diversity: Running is a very repetitive action and mostly only working in a single, horizontal plane. At least by varying things slightly you’re able to give your body a bit of diversity; if you fail to do this, smaller muscles get weak and imbalances become injuries in waiting. Those are all general reasons why mixing up your running terrain is a good idea, but if you know your actual race course will have key elements you’ll need to be prepared for, it’s even more important to introduce those same obstacles in training. Hilly Courses Uphill Repeats: It take power to get up those hills; including uphill repeats into your routine may seem like an obvious but not all runners actually DO hill work, or they don’t mix-up the kind of work that they do. Think of hills in a three-pronged approach, similar to your regular running workouts. 1) Do 100-200 meter hill bursts, allow for full recovery between each repeat; this is your speed session for the week. 2) Longer, 600-1600 meter hill repeats for your endurance-focused interval sessions. You could also do tempo runs uphill (on a treadmill set on a grade if you don’t have an actual course). 3) Including rolling hills into your Continue Reading →

Runners Saying it Like it Is: “PR’s are fun”

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After running the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half-Marathon in New Orleans Shalane Flanagan Tweeted something all runners can relate to, “Running PR’s are fun!” Succinct. To. The. Point. Flanagan followed it up in THIS Competitor recap with, “I think anytime you can run a personal best, that’s something special. You can’t take those for granted.” So true. The thing with PR’s is they become quite rare. Elusive like that unicorn that poops out gold bricks. 😉 They are especially rare as you improve and get faster. Sure, you start running and the improvement curve is such that you could lop minutes off of successive 5k’s like it’s nothing. That incentive to keep stepping up your game becomes more enticing, you cross the line fresh off of your last PR and think, “Okay, bring on the NEXT!” From there the PR’s probably still come, but they are in shorter intervals, no longer full minutes. They become more hard fought, you must start reaching into new levels of mental toughness. You get more calloused as a runner both physically and mentally. It then gets to the point where those PR’s stick for awhile. Weeks, months, years maybe. Funny how much HARDER you must FIGHT and PUSH for single seconds. Tenths of a second. Hundredths even. Regardless of level, elite or mortals of the world, everyone is fighting for those dang seconds. Time hangs in the balance, the irony is that as you watch the clock tick down as you barrel for the home stretch on the cusp of what could be a new PR, the seconds FEEL excruciatingly long but they seem to TICK OFF much too quickly. Will you make it to the line in time? Then there are the days when you know you are a much better runner than the Continue Reading →

The Greatest Test of a Runner’s Mental Toughness is an Injury

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For an injured runner, the HARDEST part of recovery is all mental. Okay, yes, there will be the cross-training, the physical therapy, any necessary strengthening exercises, stretches, icing, massage, etc…that stuff is never easy but the TORTURE is all mental. Strip the miles from a runner and they feel naked. Half of themselves. A shell. The mentality a runner takes and holds throughout their recovery will either make them stronger or cripple them. Running is wrought with highs and lows, injuries are unavoidable, as are the lows. Retaining sanity entails keeping the right perspective during the lows and the crappy injuries…because an injury never comes at a ‘good’ time. Faking Rainbows I just wrote an article for Competitor.com: “The Mental Side of Recovery”. Do read it but what I’ve said time and time again is that a positive outlook allows an injured runner to 1) be proactive in their recovery 2) gather the strength to keep moving forward 3) makes them even tougher when they do get back to running. * Staying Productive: Hey, cross-training does suck; but it’s the medicine we suck down. It feels overwhelming imagining yourself ellipticalling away for months, so DON’T. Think of making it through this single workout and that’s it. Deal with this moment before you tackle the next. * Money in the Bank: Doing that cross-training makes a world of difference when you get back to regular training. You can bust out some dang hard workouts on a cross-trainer; remember EFFORT is what counts. * Appreciation: These injuries should give you a renewed appreciation for healthy running. When you eventually DO get back to regular training, when you catch yourself feeling ‘greedy’ take a moment to remember that your running is NEVER a given. Also remember on the days you’re thinking about wimping Continue Reading →

Runner Time: The difference a single day makes

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Yesterday I ran the hardest, fastest I ever have before. …today I crawled my way through four miles that PER mile were 3 minutes slower than yesterday’s and they felt 300 times harder. Only yesterday I was still recovering from stress fractures. …today I RAN the sweetest 6 minutes of my life. At this time yesterday I was horribly lost, should have been done with my long run three miles ago and not sure if I was going to be able to make it home. …today I’ve ran my longest run to date; it’s the one I’m most proud of because I DIDN’T ever stop running until I was home. Twenty-four hours ago I jogged 20 minutes, did 6 strides, and stretched like a fiend. ..Right now I’m standing at the starting line, poised and ready, nervous because I don’t KNOW what lies ahead but I sure hope it’s a PR. Oh, and a win would be nice too. 😉 It’s incredible how much a day makes in ‘runner time’. The bitter-sweet rewards of a hard workout are the tomorrows where you’re walking like a geriatric. Tear the muscles down to rebuild them stronger… …the tomorrow’s after the tomorrow’s after the tomorrow’s are then the fully sweet rewards of that work. Time will always march forward. Hold this truth close to your runner heart in times of injury. Cling to it in the moments after horrible races. Stay steadfast to the runner course…tomorrow will ALWAYS come. Sure, it may be sore or slow, but it could also be fast and euphoric. Either way, there will be another tomorrow for you to try again. Yesterday I was a runner. Today I still am. Tomorrow I will be too. ——- The site’s had an overhaul, so peruse the pages and check out Continue Reading →