Search Results for: warm up

Need Motivation? Run Today, Avoid a Butt-Kicking Later

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It never pays to be a slacker. Let’s be honest, running in the middle of a snowstorm, heading out into sub-freezing temperatures, when the wind is blowing in your face THE WHOLE way…it’s not all that appealing. Love running, love running in ALL weather conditions, maybe not? But for those poor folks living in States with crueler than cruel winter weather conditions, gain strength and know that being a baller NOW will pay off big time come Spring and Summer. The penance for slacking off is steep…the reward of being the one DOLING OUT that punishment is sweeter than chocolate cake. #365RUN ——- Winter is no joke, and don’t look at running on a treadmill as the ‘weenie’s way out’…READ WHY. More tips for staying warm and safe during winter HERE ——- 1) Finish this sentence: “It might suck training right now but I’ll be rewarded…” …really any time I finish a run I know it was for the better. I chant that during the runs that suck really hard. 2) What’s winter running weather like for you currently? I feel SO horrible, and a little bit like a hypocrite because I’ve been running in shorts. Hate me? Move to Cali. 3) What races are you looking forward to?

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?

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 →

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 →

Distance Running: A world far crazier (better) than anything past the looking glass

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Running is a crazy, paradoxical, numerical-obsessedo, backwards world. Just when you don’t think you can run another step, you push through five more minutes, then instantly you feel like your legs have transformed into two totally different running entities. You go on for miles. The first interval for a runner can sometimes feel like the worst. That’s where the nerves are, getting started. Races are even crazier, poised at the line, in the seconds before the gun is about to CRACK you feel certain if they take any longer to fire it you’ll explode. Then, CRACK, and the whole world slips away. “Back to those intervals…ya, suckers say the hardest is the first one…plowing through miler number three of five HAS to be more painful,” you think. You then say, “Legs, don’t worry, this is the last interval we have to so…promise.” You say that after every one. Until you finish. Scr##w honesty. Funny how a running partner that you train with feels like a war partner. You come to know them so well, read their breathing and stride as well as your own. You become intrinsically linked in the shared quest for your best. Easy days can feel like the epitome of hypocrisy sometimes. Out of nowhere getting blessed with one of THOSE days is a special kind of euphoria a runner never forgets. The good days, the slog runs, the meh ones, the mentally tough workouts you’re proud of, the long runs that you wish never end…all of it. It’s crazy stuff. But it’s runner crazy and we wouldn’t have it any other way. 1) Just before you start a race, what makes you feel confident on the line? 2) Best lie you’ve told yourself/legs to get through a workout? 3) One of THOSE days, how many do Continue Reading →

Distance Runners Getting Their Speed Work On: The multi-level approach to getting faster

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Getting a runner to be faster is an interesting undertaking. It’s actually a concept that coaches and athletes have been trying to perfect for centuries. As science has improved, training has evolved, we’ve created training phases and workouts that push the runner and train their body. Simplistically it’s easy to sum it up like this: if you want to run faster, run faster. This is true of course, doing speed work and improving your base speed, is going to enable a runner to run a faster pace as the distance gets longer. As in, if you improve your mile time you’ll be able to run a 5k and 10k faster. If you don’t do speed work you’ll never improve your speed. Though as I said, that’s overly simplistic, and if a runner is truly wanting to see how fast they can be they need to open their eyes and expand their training logs to include ALL of the factors that make a runner faster. You see, the body is an interconnected machine, you can’t just concentrate on straight running workouts. I’ve been working on a series for Competitor.com tied to speed work and the other techniques that enable a runner to, well, run faster. There are drills, strength work, and a neuromuscular component to getting faster. Check out the series so far: What Distance Runners Can Learn From Sprinters The Neuromuscular Component to Speed Work Distance Runners Staying SHARP During an Injury In reading each of them you’ll see that the first step to getting faster is working on your shorter-repeat speed. You shouldn’t avoid those 200’s even if you’re a 10k and above runner. But that’s ONE step in the process. After that you’ve got to build the synapses and teach the nerves to fire faster; your brain is Continue Reading →

Let Track Season Bring Out the Gamer in the Runner: Each event, different variables to master

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Lately it feels like my brain is running way faster than my legs could ever keep pace. That’s a darn shame, because one would certainly opt for running a new PR rather than mentally shouting, “SHUT UP!” to your brain at 2am and imploring it to go to bed. 😉 Speaking of PR’s, track racing season is getting to be in full swing. Some people have a bit of a phobia when it comes to the track, others find the monotony of double-digit laps, well, monotonous. The thing with track though, is it BLEEDS speed…as a runner, how can you not love that? Each distance is unique, duh, the number of laps to the race you’ll be running presents its own challenges. The ratio of speed to endurance, the contrast between utter lactic ONSLAUGHT from the gun versus the more gradual building of the pain in the 10k. Both grueling, just in a different way. Each race has a ‘volatile’ factor. This would be the crucial moments and laps that can make or break your race. The margins of time where if you’re not ON IT you may have very well lost the race even if you’re still got laps and laps to go. There’s not just ONE moment in time of course, but for the sake of brevity let’s highlight a few of the volatile factors for the events: * 1500/Mile: That dang third lap. Here is where the pain of the pace has already set in, the ‘taste’ of the finish isn’t quite close enough to kick in. Your mind starts to dauntingly anticipate that grueling last lap. COMBAT: Know that third lap is going to suck, know that it will make your race if you can pass the people letting their brain wander. * 3200: Right around Continue Reading →

Combat Excuses and Run Mentally Tough Even When Things Suck

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It’s ‘easy’ to run fast when everything is going right. Ideal conditions, you’re hitting perfect splits, the legs have POP. The thing is though, the real test of a runner and their mental toughness is how they respond to all the other days. There will workouts in heat, wind, and rain. Runs where, for whatever reason your legs just don’t ‘show up’…they are flat. Other times you’ll be left gutting out a really tough workout but forced to run it solo. But you can’t take those things as EXCUSES. FACTORS, certainly, perhaps you’ll have to adjust the workout, but don’t start looking for a cop-out. See, your mind is an expert manipulator. It’s already looking for ANY kind of excuse, viable reason to tell you to stop this silly running, ease up, slow down, cut yourself some slack. A runner’s constantly working against that sort of ingrained human trait, to push past the limits the mind is imposing on the body. A runner must combat the voices of doubt and complaining already…think of it like a basal level of white noise in the background that you must ignore just to get out the door and running the first few steps. Hard workouts up the ante, taking that constant background chatter and giving it a megaphone; you’ve got to not only ignore it but COMBAT it by telling it to, “Shut the h*** up!” Gearing yourself up to run hard takes extra mental reserves, through the course of the workout the amount of positive self-talk escalates as you tire, as the pain REALLY sets in. Running that hard workout when things are all falling into place, the momentum of hitting the splits and you’re clicking, is infinitely easier than when even ONE thing is off. (ex: it’s hot out) That single 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 →

Running and Bunhuggers: All part of sensing it’s GO time

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Runners, when the bunhuggers come out it’s GO time. People not in the sport of track and field, or non-runners, have asked, “Why in the world would you want to run in those?!” I’ve heard little kids giggle and balk, “She’s running in her underwear!” Even body conscious women have sneered, “Oh, look at her, who does she think she is?” Let me explain…bunhuggers are not * worn in an attempt to steal your boyfriend. * meant as some kind of ‘in your face, runners are HOT and we know it!’ statement. * stupid. Think of running in bunhuggers like running in your spikes. You know the second you slip your feet into those spikes, lace them up, and head to the line it’s RACE TIME. I’m sure there is the element of wind resistance, and yes, bunhuggers are comfortable. Trust me, there is nothing worse than racing with a wedgie…or running with shorts that bunch up in the front. My friend used to have a term for ‘those’ kinds of shorts, “My thighs eat them.” A large part of racing is mental. Part of distinguishing a RACE from any other run is making it FEEL different. The energy, the electric buzz of the spectators, the nerves, the excitement, the competition, all of the feed into the race atmosphere. Running your warm-up is just as much physically preparing your body as it is MENTALLY prepping you, getting into the zone. When you kick off those bulky training shoes and slip on the spikes, you FEEL the race coming. As you strip off those sweats to the bunhuggers underneath you SENSE it…it’s almost here. Run that final stride, poised and set at the line, it’s ON! “Look good, feel good.” 1) Female runners, what do you prefer to race in? Do Continue Reading →