It’s a Public Service Announcement

For a richer, fuller life…RUN.
running psa
I happened upon this old school public service announcement:
reading psaSource
While I do love to read, I think I love running more. You should too. 😉
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Just sent out some more ‘Get Chicking’ shirts! Be sure to get yours. 🙂 The amazing Julia is currently running the Ragnar Relays in hers…LOVE IT!!
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1) For a richer, fuller life…[fill in the blank]

2) Were you much of a reader growing up? Were you much of a runner/sports person growing up?

3) Name one thing running brings to your life outside of anything physical.
Sanity. [well, it makes me at least more sane. :)]

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The Running Detective: Figuring out what works for you can feel like solving a mystery

Sometimes running forces you into the role of Sherlock Holmes. You may feel like you’ve been plunked down into any number of these must-read, classic runner tales of sleuth…

missing legs

Harrier Holmes and the Mismatched Taper

When Watson’s GI Distress Wrecked Havoc

The Quest for the Missing Pair of Legs

The Pace That Shouldn’t Have Felt That Hard

The Reverse Splits Crawl Through He##’s Gates

The Last Race…or So He Thought

Running and training is a fickle little beast, just when you think you’ve figured something out it sends you for a loop. There is always more to be learned and also getting to know how that knowledge applies to YOUR own body is another part of the journey.

In running you are forced to become more attuned to your body, learn the ways it sends you signals…then you must choose how to interpret them and decide how to listen. We all go the trial by fire learning method plenty of times, but over the years hopefully we wise up and don’t repeat the same mistakes over and over again. Because if you get stuck in that same Sherlock story it can get rather boring, redundant and maddening. 😉

The thing tough, is that there are coaches, sports physiologists, training partners, competitors and the blokes who write about running to accompany on your quest for the answers to all of those ‘mysteries.’ To help keep you on track to PR’s, epic races, the next workout, next run…and to make sure you have some laughs along the way too.
keep running
Sometimes those running detective novels may feel dark (The Colossal Injury of Blistering Hall) at points, but you get to some pretty awesome passages too. For our little running mysteries I’d also like to write in that most of them end as happily ever afters. Or at least they end as cliff-hangers so that you are FORCED to read onto the next one…to keep going…

And don’t ever forget some of our favorite Sherlock Runner Sleuth books:

The Man Holding the Stop-Watch (spoiler alert it’s reading a PR)

The Mysterious Kick That Came From Nowhere

A Run So Perfect You Can’t Fathom it’s Your Legs Doing the Running

For that last one, trust me, when you’re in the middle of that one you know it and there is no WAY you can put that book down. 😉

1) Do you have a Sherlock Runner Sleuth book to add?

2) What are some mysterious you’ve ‘solved’ for yourself? (ie: best pre-race day warm-up, best fueling, GI Issue remedies, etc.)

3) Is there a book you are in the middle of ‘solving’ right now?

4) Which was the last book you ‘finished’ and how did it end? Did you wind up discovering the answer or was it a cliff-hanger?

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Runners Going Gluten Free: Could making the switch work for you?

Running on a gluten free diet may seem like more work than structuring your training regime. Though there are no shortage of runners ditching the gluten and raving that they are far better for it. Admittedly some were ‘forced’ into because they have an intolerance, celiac disease, but there are others that willingly did a diet overhaul.

running pancakes

Are those pancakes gluten-free?? 😉


I’m not going to lie, I’ve got friends who are gluten free (But being that ‘going gluten’ is basically trending on Twitter who doesn’t have friends who are eating this way?!) and I don’t envy the way they have to interrogate the kitchen staff and be extremely cautious when reading food labels. I honestly have no worries when it comes to the restaurant thing, it’s not that I mind it at all, I totally understand how important their questions are. To be frank, I think it just comes down to me being too ‘lazy’ to put in the work to get gluten-free savvy.

But I’m curious, just as many others, and had heard the benefits of going gluten-free for possibly reducing the amount of inflammation in your body and solving various GI problems. In case you missed it I wrote an article all about this over at Competitor: ‘Gluten Free = Inflammation Free?’. I also included a three day gluten-free sample menu.

The truth is, it’s not THAT incredibly complex, trust me 400 meter repeats are a far tougher pill to swallow. I’d say the hardest part would be the initial learning curve and getting used to what you ‘can’ and ‘can’t’ eat, remembering to double check labels and mostly getting used to how to travel and eat out without gluten sneaking in there.
running fast
I tapped into some AWESOME sources for this one, Krista Austin Ph.D and Amy Yoder Begley who has become sort of the poster runnerchick for going gluten-free. After you read the article, I’ll add a few more thoughts and tips that didn’t make it but I found interesting and worth mentioning.

* Amy’s Top Restaurant Picks: “For really important races, I try to go to places with a GF menu like PF Changes, Outback, etc. However, you need to make sure they have gluten-free prep not just gluten-free food. Things can’t be fried in the same oil as breaded items or grilled in the surface as bread. Cross-contamination is a word to know and ask questions till you feel comfortable, even if it takes 45 minutes,” Amy Yoder Begley explains that cross-contamination is probably the biggest hurdle when dining out.

* Kitchen Overhaul: The same issue applies to your own home kitchen and cooking habits, “To begin with GF eating you need to get rid of the old toaster, really clean down the grill or get new grill plates, and buy new cutting boards. I would also clean out the cupboards, wipe down all surfaces and read all ingredient labels until you know for sure what is in each item,” Yoder Begley explains. I actually roomed with Amy for a while and while her husband does not eat gluten free they are extremely well practiced in making sure none of his gluten products even come near Amy’s plate or food.

* Inflammation and Gluten: Austin explains that while gluten may cause extra inflammation, the biggest reason an athlete’s inflammation may go down as a result of a gluten-free diet is because you’ll be cutting out most of the overly-processed junk, “Usually if you do a gluten-free nutrition plan right, you end up replacing these [processed foods]…as a result, it automatically reduces the high percentage of unneeded trans fatty acids (most hydrogenated) and bleached, nutrient-less flour is removed from the diet. The extra chemically produced fats (think hydrogenated) are what fuel inflammation in the body, so if we eliminate them we will reduce inflammation. Bottom line: we eat cleaner more naturally found foods and thus inflammation goes down.”

* No Diet is a Magic Bullet: That said, I’ve talked a lot about how jumping into a certain style of eating, or overly-cleaning it up isn’t always the ‘best’ thing for your running or your sanity, and it really comes down to WHY you’re switching to a new style of eating. There is something to be said for both moderation and the old adage, ‘if the engine is hot, it’ll burn.’ Austin is frank about this, “However, as a side note, I know many an Olympic athletes, etc in the sport of running that eat horribly and still get the job done, (Although yet to medal so maybe this is why?) …in fact they are the guys on top! Eeeeek…so at the end of the day, the message is this: it’s how you train that matters most…however, if your fuel intake is too low or not adequate in some way, just know training is suffering and we are not optimizing performance.”

I think I’ll end or reiterating that fact: “It’s HOW you train that matters most.”
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Check out Amy’s excellent resource for eating gluten-free at her site, Gluten Free Olympian: GFOlympian.com

Check out more from Krista Austin at her own site: PerformanceAndNutritionCoaching.com
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1) Do you eat gluten free? Have you tried a gluten free diet for any sum of time and what was your experience?

2) What have you heard about eating gluten free? Benefits, drawbacks, etc.

3) What’s your stance on your running diet, how do you approach the fueling issue?
I make sure to get in enough calories, so that means eating things I want and aren’t exactly the ‘healthiest’…but at the same time I think of the ‘junk’ as ‘bonus’ after I’ve made sure to get in the good stuff and enough proteins and such. 😛

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Running in the ‘Wrong’ Kind of Tired: Diagnosing and solving a constant state of fatigue

“There is no tired in distance running,” Alberto Salazar said this. The completely OCD runner in me loves this quote because it succinctly sums things up pretty well, namely that being tired is more just a given, it comes with the territory.
tired runner
That said, there are LEVELS of tiredness. The longer that you’re a runner the better you are able to distinguish the levels of fatigue. There is the sort of tired you face the day after a hard workout that kicked your butt…you sort of ‘dread’ that easy run because you know it will not be easy in any sense of the word. But you work through that tiredness and just suck it up.

There is the feeling of tired during a hard workout, as the gruel-fest drags on you’re not really tired so much as suffering. That’s another thing you just accept, it’s part of the game.

Then there are the levels of tired that are different, wrong, you know it’s wrong because it’s not tired so much as bone-marrow deep fatigue. Where you’re struggling from the first steps, and you know something is off. This kind of fatigue isn’t ‘normal’ and the longer you live in this state you start to hope something is wrong because at least then you can pinpoint why your running, and your body, seems to be going AWOL on you. At least if there is a ‘problem’ you can look for an answer.

Digging for that answer is tricky because it can be one of many factors, or many of the many factors.
What makes it more difficult is that because us distance runners are completely used to feeling tired, figuring out that you’re running in the ‘wrong level’ of tired can take some time and by then your problem, and your mental sanity, could be getting worse for the wear.

Common ‘wrong levels’ of fatigue sources:

* Medical: I’m going to put this one straight up first because it’s usually the ‘easiest’ thing to pinpoint or at least get the ball rolling. Get a blood panel done and check for some common ailments.
– Low iron: I did a whole post on that one HERE. Bottom line, make sure the doctor reading your tests is one used to working with athletes. A runner may fall in the ‘normal range’ for iron levels but that’s for the sofa surfing normal person…a runner will want to fall on the higher end of that range. I also take a supplement in addition to any food I eat…better safe than sorry.
Hypo-thyroid: I had/have this fun one too and trust me it is NOT a fun road to travel. You talk about tired; again seek out a professional who knows runners. Your Free T and T-4 levels NEED to be more up to code than the normal sofa person.

* Over-trained: This one is quite common; with us type-A’s we tend to go with the motto ‘more is better, even more is even better.’ But that’s not always true, and doing needless ‘more’ for the sake of doing more is a fast way to dig yourself into an over-trained hole. It takes a while to dig, but if your hard workouts and race times start to nose-dive this is one of the first places to look. Look over your training log, taper back the volume and intensity for a day or two and if things start to improve you’ve got your answer. I did an article on this for Running Times you can read HERE.

track runner

Tired from exertion is one thing…but sometimes you KNOW something is off.

* Under-fueled: I’ll cut to the chase, weight and runners, food and runners is a land-mine of a topic. We know being lean is an unavoidable fact when tied to performance, but taken too far and your performance will also nose-dive. Running also burns a heck of a lot of fuel and if you’re training volume is way outpacing your intake you’ll feel the similar symptoms of over-training. Actually, sometimes just bumping up your caloric intake rather than cutting back the training at all can sometimes do the trick.

* Mental burn-out: There is the physically over-trained state and the mentally tapped out state I’ll call burn-out. Running is incredibly mental and ‘hyping yourself up’ into the hard workout and all-out race scenarios takes a lot of mental energy. You use too much of that mental energy and you can be left mentally zapped by the end of the season. Again, refer to my Running Times article for more on this but also remember that if you come to literally dread your runs you may be treading into mental burn-out land. Maybe you’re getting too obsessed with splits and times and putting too much pressure (read more on that HERE) and chucking the watch for some workouts or your easy days can help with that. Also make sure to get back to WHY you started running and keeping it fun.

* Training adjustment phase: I’ll quickly address this, if you’re new to a particular coach, running group or program it’s very common for the adjustment phase to wipe you. Even if the volume is the same, a different training philosophy (maybe you’re doing a lot more core/weight work) means different kinds of workouts. Be patient, sometimes you’ll have to take a few steps back to, in the long term, make big leaps forward.

* Not recovering: This actually is a ‘baby-category’ of the over-training but I’ll re-emphasize it here. If you’re not taking your easy days EASY then you’re blur all the lines between hard and easy days and then when you want to HIT those hard days you won’t be able to.

Pinpointing 1) that you’re in the ‘wrong level’ of tiredness is the first battle 2) finding a way to turn that feeling around so you can get back to the ‘normal’ constant tiredness that comes with running is the second. It may take time, but be patient, because once you’re back on track you’ll be running much better and your entire outlook on your running will too. You should never hate your running…it’s too good to hate. 😉

1) Have you ever experienced any of these ‘wrong levels’ of fatigue?
PAH-LEEEZ…sometimes I feel like I’ve written the book on them. 😉 There’s that sarcastic humor of mine.

2) Is there a few I missed, do you have any to add to the list?

3) Was there ever a time you hated your running?
I will say I never hated my running and I thank the running gods for that, many people who get stuck in a ‘wrong level’ type of situation can end up sucking the passion from their sport. I never lost that…I did however hate feeling super-tired, flash to hypo-thyroid days.

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5 Running Flash Factoids: Keeping it short and to the point for us lazy runners

Runners and Sundays; for some it’s the delegated long run day which then means: license to be totally lazy and slothful for the rest of the day. You don’t even have to move hand to mouth if you don’t want to, just train Fluffy to grab the spoon, Ben & Jerry’s and learn to shovel. 😉

runners

Eat the ice cream before it melts!!! 🙂


Just kidding, but to be fair to B&J cold ice cream isn’t the worst kind of post-run refuel, I mean there’s the whole chocolate milk movement…ice cream seems like a logical piggy-backer onto that, right? Regardless, Sundays are also known to be a little lazy and lackadaisical so in tribute I’ll spare your eyes much reading and give you some flashes of brain nugget wisdomisms.

* Running’s mental but not THAT mental. Running usually comes down to a battle of wills, but sadly you can’t totally imagine your workouts into fulfillment…there is visualization to improve what could be but you have to follow up with DOING it. Motivation wanes but when in doubt, kick yourself in the tush to get the first mile done…the first interval done…and get ‘er done.

* Lean, mean, protein machine. I’m a carbo-loving freak like none other; running burns lots of energy so for a long time I didn’t actually think about my carb to protein ratio and dived into Pop-Tart gluttony. BUT that changed after I graduated high school and once I made a conscious effort to up my protein (I still didn’t slack on the carbs though!) I noticed a big difference in the amount of lean muscle I had.
run for cake
* It’s a gas. Runner’s are always fun to chat up GI issues with…not in the moment though. Gas, the runs, bush dives, 6 pre-race port-a-potty stops, you name it. Don’t be shy about speaking up because we all struggle with it and if you don’t talk about it you may miss out on a possible remedy to your…runs. 😉

* My feet are SUPER! Actually, I’m a huge pronator, like the majority of people, and while I rock out supportive shoes I also have arch support inserts. I use green SuperFeet and they help. But shoes are incredibly personal to the runner so BE SURE to know your foot type before just diving into the discount shoe bin…mkkk!

* Always laugh. You can be a grouch on the inside after a bad run, horrible race, nasty workout, but pretend that whenever you’re around others, teammates, competitors, an audience…that you’re on the Miss America stage. Put some Vaseline on those teeth and bust out the fake smile. The thing is, negative attitudes are infectious, and if you happened to win a race and start pouting, think about how the person you beat would feel to see that…like they must REALLY suck. When you’re by yourself, or with coaches/close family, feel free to vent and reflect on the race…sure…but in the end learn from it and move forward.

Sorry if that last one got a little too wordy for Sunday! Get back to making Fido spoon shovel feed you! 😉
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Get Chicking shirt update! I’m down to my last handful of shirts so if you want one before I have to make another order act fast you speedy peeps! 🙂
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1) Do you have a flash factoid to share?

2) Is Sunday your long run day?

3) Do you make sure to get enough protein in your diet? Do you make sure to also get that full quota of carbo-loving goodness too?

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The Moment of Truth: The watch tells no lies

The watch tells no lies.

runner
There is that moment,
Less than a moment even.
The split second that hangs in the balance
Between crossing the line and looking to the teller of no lies.

Baited breathe, you hope for good news,
Slightly anticipate bad…
You pause…
Toeing the line between wanting to know and not
Unsure if you do, indeed, really want to know the truth.

All in less than that tenth of a second…
The decision is already made,
Because deep down you know
that you HAVE to know.

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Genetics Will Only Get You So Far…From There the Running is Up to You

daRUNism…survival of the fastest. 😉 The topic of running and genetics…talk about opening up a can of sperm worms.
running sperm
FACT: Genetics will invariable play a role in how fast someone has the potential to become. It will effect which event they are predisposed to compete the best at.

FACT: You can’t change genetics.

FACT: Using the excuse of genetics alone for accounting that so-and-so is able to achieve an athletic feat is a cop-out.

The last one there is what gets under my skin when people make any kind of remark, “You’re lucky, I wish I were a runner.” It really gets me fired up when people blame ‘good genetics’ as a sort of cop-out for runners who set records, win races or beat them. Like because they ‘look like a runner’ and may make it look easy while they run that somehow diminishes their accomplishment. Yes, I’ve jested along with all others that I may harbor the ‘wish’ to be a bit more Kenyan or Ethiopian…but I know that genetics alone will only take a person so far.

FACT: Even the most genetically blessed super-human, say we created it in a lab, would not be a record holder if they didn’t have the will, drive and dedication to do the training.

With running, mentality and work ethic are something that can’t be genetically programmed or forced onto a person. They are also what, I believe, will take you the furthest. If I could draw it to a metaphor of walking that Yellow Brick Road…

Genetics may take you TO the Yellow Brick Road by some freak, chance-happen twister and at least kill one of the witches to make your journey easier. But after that you’re on your own to chase those monkeys, make it through the poppies and get to your OZ.

runner

Follow that Yellow Brick Road…


Running isn’t easy and while yes, you can’t really change your muscle fiber ratio (I’ll never be able to sprint to save my life) you can always make the best with what you’ve got. Further, with hard work you will be able to pass up those ‘lucky twister’ genetically blessed runners who slack a bit.

Don’t let genetics to be your excuse crutch to not believe you can do better. Finally, do not ever, for one second, believe that the runners you see on TV, the ones heading off to the Olympics got there from a ‘lucky twister’ alone…if you saw how hard they work you’d learn that they are willing their way through those blasted poppies and bringing it when some crazy, flying monkeys try to get in their way.

1) Genetically, do you feel you are a little lucky with the gene pool in at least being predisposed to running? Which event do you feel you are best suited for?

2) I see genetics as sort of taking you to that ‘glass ceiling’…yes people can skate by off of talent alone but it does catch up to them. When do you think most people hit the ‘I can’t skate by any longer’ ceiling and have to decide to either ante up or settle?
I’d say mostly after graduating high school and working their way through college.

3) Have you ever used genetics as an excuse or crutch? OR if are really ‘lucky’ genetically and happened to skate by for awhile, what changed in you to make you be more accountable to your training?

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The Interconnected Human Running Machine: All those bones, tendons and muscles are working together not separately

The human body, the running human body, is a unit. It’s all interconnected and working together, it’s not some hundreds of bones, muscles, tendons and tissues working separately. When one muscle is shortening its counterpart is lengthening, eccentric and concentric muscle contractions. If something is off with one piece of this puzzle, even the tinniest of tendons, it’s surprising the ramifications this ‘weakness’ can set off. It’s all a chain reaction people.
women running
I’m not shy about saying I’m horribly tight and know I need to stretch more. My hamstrings are a glaring example of this. So when after a run where I tried to nudge the pace up one notch from ‘gimply kankle runnerchick’ and afterwards I was rocking the extra gimpy post-run walk because the back of my knee and upper calf was not happy, I knew the culprit wasn’t my calf…it was my hamstrings.

Those tight hamstrings staged a protest; they were tight and tugging extra hard right where they insert behind the knee. The trickle down effect resulted in my calf muscle getting upset and joining the revolt. So even though I wasn’t sore one bit in the actual hamstring muscle region and my lower leg was begging for some icing, I also knew that it was a not so subtle reminder that I’ve been slacking on my stretching.

Thus in addition to giving the icing TLC to my calf I got on those leg swings and hamstring stretches. The bugger though is that I best keep myself ON doing those stretches long after the sorenesses go away; ahhh, us runners tend to get lax when there isn’t a higher level of ‘injury’ threat on the horizon. More on that for another post, but a warning there is to stay on top of the ‘little’ rehab type things even if the ‘problem’ isn’t screaming at you over a loud-speaker anymore.
running foot
Back to the interconnection issue, muscle weaknesses and imbalances are ever-present. Everyone has them, to different degrees…we can’t be perfect after-all. Though avoiding these weaknesses is going to come to bite you in the bum eventually. This happens a lot when people fail to do any core work, then wind up straining some crazy, small muscle they never knew they had or that it could hurt that bad. (Cut to the psoas, adductors, and abductor muscles smirking on this one.)

Taking it down to the feet; an insane amount of injuries and issues can be traced back to those bipeds. Namely shoe issues; not having the RIGHT shoes for your foot type. Did you know that things so far up as back or neck problems can be traced back to not enough arch support? Not so fun fact.

The lesson here, folks is know your weaknesses and work on them. Also, the next time you have a pull, niggle, pain, or outright screaming pain that stops you from being able to run…stop for a moment and take a closer look. THINK while you ice that calf muscle, because the real problem may very well not be that calf at all. The calf is just a symptom…a muscle that got talked into joining the revolt so to speak. 😉

1) What is one of your weaknesses, imbalances, or issues that you need to stay on top of to stay injury free?

2) Do you tend to slack off, get cozy, after an actual injury or bad soreness goes away? C’mon, own up, we all are guilty sometimes!

3) What’s one example of a time you had an injury or soreness resulted in one area or muscle but the problem was traced back to another?
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Warning: These legs are faster than your’s

These running legs should come with a warning label. No, not mine but you get the quip. 😉
running legs
So thanks to sue-your-pants happy America, coffee cups with the whole ‘Warning: beverage is HOT’ label. We have the Happy Meal toys wrapped in the plastic sleeve marked with ‘Plastic bag is NOT a toy.’ What pushed me over the edge and warranted a laugh yesterday was when I went to grab a paper towel after washing my hands in a public restroom the container read: Step 1: Put soap in hands Step 2: Turn on faucet Step 3: Lather for 20 seconds Step 4: Rinse…I think you get the picture.

We get it. Do we need to be talked to like idiots? I guess it’s for our ‘own protection’…sort of like the words written across the toilet seat cover dispenser, no?

It got me thinking of warning labels or instructions that could be related to us runners and this little miles addiction we have going on.

On a shoe box for racing spikes/flats: Warning: Contents of box are not a toy, they are weapons to be used against the fools lining up next to you.

On the shoe box for trainers: Step 1: Insert foot Step 2: Lace up and double knot Step 3: Get to standing position Step 4: Left foot forward, right forward, left, right Step 5: Ensure that for at least some time both feet are off the ground at the same time, this separates running from speed walking Step 6: Continue running, never stop

Your new racing bib: ‘ME’- Numbers are for training logs, you’re not a number, you’re simply the best, right? And let’s be honest if you’re number is on your front no one is going to see it for long, they’ll only see your back. 😉
track
Sign at the track: If you’re not hurting you’re not doing this running thing right.

License a coach must carry: I am a coach. I want the best for you, but at times you probably won’t be able to see that. You may not understand; you can ask, I may answer, but if this relationship is going to work you have to trust me. Believe in me and what I’m having you do. If you can’t believe in what you’re doing then you are free to go; I’m okay with that, I said I want the best for you. And in the end a runner that is going to succeed has to have CONFIDENCE. Confidence comes from knowing you are doing what will, in the end, make you the best you can be. That comes from believing in what you’re doing.

To be inked onto your legs: These are awesome.
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In case you missed yesterday’s HUGE news…get in on it HERE! 😉
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1) Warning labels, instructions, licenses, signs…something of that nature, do you have one you’d like to add here?

2) When you slip into a racing flat or spike, do you instantly ‘feel’ the difference, the mental shift?

3) Training programs, coaches, running groups…how do you come up with your running ‘plan’ if you have one? How do you have belief in what you’re doing and then use that to bolster your confidence?

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