‘Tips’ Articles at , Page 10

Love Your Running Competition and Thrive in Their Presence

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Cait — 7 Comments ↓

When a runner steps to the line they are never alone. The racers next to you all have goals of their own; some of the goals may be the same as your own…you both will be fighting for that same finishing place. Some of those racers may be your own teammates, your friends, your training partners.

But in the end, when the gun goes off you all become one and the same: racers. All other titles momentarily erased.

Of course if you know some of those racers you may devise a race plan where you work together for some portion of the race, helping each of you through the early stages and setting you BOTH up for a better finish. There can be a team component to track, more-so in cross-country, but there inevitable comes a certain point in the race where anyone running next to you is nothing but your competition.

Embrace your competition because they are what will make you faster, and one of the strongest tools you have to utilize in the quest for your best. They will push you to your limits…or rather they will push you to the point where you will have to decide whether you are willing to go to those limits.

This opportunity isn’t solely in races, and with the London Olympics fast approaching, there are some really great articles highlighting Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher not just as two of the USA’s top chances for medaling in the Olympic Marathon, but also the fact that they are indeed training partners.

Both are excellent reads, and some things you can gather from both are:

* Train For Your Best: Both women have run nearly every workout together; similar to a race situation when you workout with someone who can push you, both of you end up the winners.

* Race Day Confidence: Of course when the gun goes off, both women rightfully acknowledge friendships and training partner labels are completely taken off the table. In the article featuring Goucher they touch on what it means to have Flanagan around her the longer the race drags on. On the one hand, because they have trained together both can get a bit of a confidence boost having the other around with the thinking, “Look, if Shalane/Kara is still here and handling this and we’ve trained together, I KNOW I belong here and can handle it.” The whole, “This hurts, but she’s doing it, so can I” line of thought.

* In The End You’re Running For One: On the flip side, there is the point where you need to drop your competition. There’s nothing more to be said on that one except that rather than ever fear them, be thankful for them…embrace your competition and allow yourself to thrive under their presence.

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Some people get more nervous knowing faster people are in the race, so here’s a look back on a post I did about race day nerves, how to manage them and actually use them to your advantage.
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1) How do you handle your competition, do you tend to get more nervous if you know faster people are in the same race?

2) For training, do you seek out people to run with who you know are at your same pace or a little faster?

3) Do you enjoy a race more if you know some of the other racers or if you have teammates?
I know I did…always fun to have company on the warm-up and cool-down too! 🙂

dont’ fear compeition

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

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Cait — 6 Comments ↓

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…

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.

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?

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

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Cait — 19 Comments ↓

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.

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.

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. 😛

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

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Cait — 15 Comments ↓

“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.

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.

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.

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

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Cait — 11 Comments ↓

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. 😉

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.

* 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?

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

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Cait — 4 Comments ↓

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.

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.

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?

Is It Really That Bad? We’re runners but we’re humans too…are some of those ‘human bad habits’ really doing any harm to our running?

Posted on July 4, 2012 by Cait — 20 Comments ↓

I’m a runner…not a nutritionist, I’m not a super scientific sports physiologist, I admit that the vast majority of what I know is through experience, what I’ve seen and what I’ve learned from others who are experts. I’m not ashamed to admit that, and I think one of the best ways to learn something is to admit your own brainiac limitations and seek out answers from credit-worthy sources.

Now we are all runners here, but we’re also human; that human thing can offer up some battles of internal wills when it comes to our training. Being human means we have that brain of ours to wage the mental battle when the going gets tough. It also means that we have lives and other things that we do, indulge in, and want outside of miles, core work and sweating.

Balance is awesome and some of the ‘being human’ things actually help our running; focusing too much on a single thing leaves us much too one dimensional and over-thinking your training is another way to send it down the drain. On the other hand the human part of us can sometimes want things that may not exactly be the best for our training…we are human, we have weaknesses, but how bad are some of those ‘weaknesses’ really? Here are my thoughts on a few things…

* Soda. I don’t drink soda, I used to guzzle tons of diet but I had a really bad experience once where I think I must have downed darn near a gallon in a meal and I was gassy and bloated for so long after I kicked it cold turkey. Now there are tons of people saying soda is the devil, others that don’t care, and some that still think it’s totally fine. As for regular soda, I think it’s not doing any favors to the overweight masses, for runners though I still think it’s probably best to avoid because it dehydrates you and you could be drinking something far better for you. Diet, yea, the calories aren’t there but it’s still not an awesome beverage of choice. But I don’t think it’s the devil either.

* Coffee. If you’re totally frapa-macho-machiado’ed to the point where your drink is more like a sundae I think it’s like a dessert. But I’m pro-caffiene if done right, I’ve seen/know too many exceptional runners who swear by coffee not to be. I think that if you want the benefits it comes down to how much and when you drink it; if you build your caffeine tolerance to such a high level that you need an absurd amount to get any ‘perk’ then that’s not so good…caffeine may give you a little extra kick for your workouts but you don’t want to have to guzzle coffee to get in enough caffeine to get your ‘fix.’ So try to keep the intake moderate the rest of the day (if at all) so that when you do have that cup of coffee an hour or so before your workout you get the little boost.

* Junk food. This is opening up a whole can of worms, and I could argue back and forth for ages so I’ll try to keep it short. We’ve all read the Frank Shorter pizza and mayo combo, on the far other end we’ve got the vegans who only eat what they grow in their backyards. We all know cases of runners winning title on either ends of the spectrum, and elites too. The thing with distance running is that it takes up a lot of energy, and that takes calories; if you need some ’empty’ junk calories to keep pace with your energy levels than I don’t see the harm in indulging with whatever. I’ve eaten through boxes of Pop-Tarts and know plenty runners who dig through the ice cream by the pints. The thing though is that for most of them they ALSO take in the good stuff (veggies, protein, etc) too…it’s all a balance kind of thing. Then there is the mental and sanity thing. That said, not every runner ‘can’ eat as many calories as others thanks to that little metabolism thing…it can be an unfair card but it’s the truth too and to not say it would be lying by omission.

* Sloth. I actually love this word and try to use it whenever I get a chance, so I did…hey, it’s my blog. Now you may think, “Me, lazy, never!” 😉 For some that’s true, but there are some lazy runner habits that are running rampant. The warm-up skimper: HORRIBLE for your body and your performance, I’m not going to spend wordage arguing, do a real warm-up people. The cool-down avoider: HORRIBLE again, a bit less only because at least the race/workout isn’t sacrificed on that day but your next runs will be. Letting pools of lactic acid sit in your muscles is only going to make you feel worse and hinder your recovery process…move it no matter how tired you are. Standing during your recovery before the next interval: JOGGING is better in my opinion and I wrote on that HERE. Some may not share my opinion but the majority of top runners I know keep moving during their recovery.

There you have it…just a few things, and again my opinion. I’d like to hear from you guys, do you agree, disagree?

1) What are your thoughts on any of these?

2) What are some of your ‘bad habits’ that make you human; how ‘bad’ do you really think they are for your running?

3) Favorite not-so-‘healthy’ food?

4) Own up, do you ever fall victim to the ‘sloth’ runner temptations?? 😉

When Brevity is in Charge: A Running Spinal Tap, Dessert Intervals, and Picking Your Pockets

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Cait — 8 Comments ↓

I’m not one usually short on words; if you think I’m addicted to miles then the rate of which I pound through the English language is probably right on track with what I’ve said of myself many time, “I talk like a chipmunk on crack.” Now, vocal octaves aside brevity is not exactly my strong point.

Okay, not a chipmunk but another furry woodland creature…maybe he ate the chipmunk who wasn’t a runner too??

I trace it back to how my brain operates; way too fast and with a flurry of a billion different things flying around at once. I try to catch them all, and am afraid I usually lose track of most of them. So I feel a bit of pressure to get all these thoughts into words and out of me as fast as possible.

Though, over-explaining things has many a pit falls…mainly you lose your audience. Before I go and prove that point right now, I’m going to say that sometimes all you need is LESS. Being concise can sometimes prove your point the best and actually STICK with you the longest.

“It was kind of like that movie Spinal Tap. I cranked it to 11,” was quoted from Andrew Wheating today in reference to the last 100 meters of his 1500 meter race. He just made his second Olympic Team; and the quote is courtesy of Mario Fraioli, senior producer at Competitor.com and he fired that one out of Twitter on location in Eugene.

I love that quote, hilarity and relatability all rolled into one; Wheating is good with those. While the vast majority of us will never be digging for that extra gear in quest of an Olympic berth, I’m pretty dang sure we all can look fondly of times when the lactic acid, booty-lock onslaught is of epic proportions and we are grappling for one more gear. What is rarer, but the times you will never forget, is when we can surprise ourselves and our bodies seem to offer up that gear…we make it to the line and are still a bit in shock that we did, in fact, pull it off. Makes you sort of in awe of what the body can do when forced; well with proper training and a whole load of working your butt of of course too! You see, all of that, and much more, comes out of me when Mr. Wheating was able to say it all in far fewer words. Brevity.

Hey, pancakes with chocolate chips could totally be dessert!! Or breakfast…or dinner too for that matter. 🙂

“Ahhh, it’s like dessert!” this is something Julius Achon would often say when our coach would have us do ‘surprise intervals.’ You think you’re done with the workout but, no, it’s dessert time and you have one more. I actually love the surprise interval (yea, glutton for punishment maybe) because it tests your mind more than your body. Julius is chock-full of quips, he should write a book in fact, but forever and always anytime an extra interval is offered up I could smile, for a second at least, and think of dessert…then of course it was a grimace of pain. 😉 [I linked Julius to his Love Mercy Foundation, his charity benefitting orphans in Uganda…please check it out!]

“Picture a string attached to your head and it’s pulling you up,” in reference to form from one genius of a coach. I, along with many, suffer from Hunchback syndrome when I get tired in workouts and races. Form can be tricky to work on, but it’s important too…but this string metaphor really did help me. Maybe it was the visual thing, I pictured myself a sort of puppet, “dance, puppet, dance,”…sorry, I’m a dork, bear with me here…strange maybe but it helped me. Try it out.

“Pick your pockets,” again, this is in reference to form. This one aimed at how your arms should be swinging; you want your hands to swing back to about where they’d just be grazing your bum, hence the pocket-picking. Arms swinging way-ward or across your chest is a huge amount of wasted energy; you want them only moving straight forward and back.

Sure, there are times when an onslaught of chipmunk on crack wordage may be needed, though I’ve found when actually running it can be a lot easier to go short and to the point. Easier to remember, and because sometimes it seems that due to all the oxygen being sent to the muscles, the brain gets a bit of the shaft and you can be ditzy due to running. True syndrome…look it up.

1) What’s a short, or to the point, line, mantra, quote or phrase that relates to running that has helped you?

2) Do you use mantras at all, if so which ones work for you?

3) Trials Talk…bring it up people!
I admit, I get myself into trouble because I’m ‘rooting’ for more people than can actually make it into the top three for a race. So it’s like the mixed bag; on one hand your excited for those who made it and feel bad for those who didn’t…but isn’t that always the case with everything?? Have to say though I’m glad there will be a run-off to decide the whole 100 meter tie thing…I mean a coin-toss would have been pretty weak…just my opinion though!

Running to Race, Racing to Win: Three Important Things to Keep in Mind

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Cait — 8 Comments ↓

Can we just say the Olympic Track Trials action came back with a BANG and it only further backs my theory that the rest days are just as much for the fans who get insanely excited and need a break from the action to rest their adrenal glands and cheering voices.

So much to say, and I think the best thing to do is cut to the chase and throw out a few lessons to be learned from today…

* Never forget the importance of a kick. There are two kinds of runners: the ones passing people at the end of a race and the ones getting passed. Sad but true fact, we can’t all win…and while the tricky thing with a kick, and speed, is that to a degree you are genetically predisposed to be a kicker or not. BUT, it doesn’t mean that even us without all those fast-twitch muscle fibers can’t IMPROVE our kicking abilities. It just means that if you’ve got a weakness you need to work on it rather than avoid it and use the excuse, “Well, I just don’t have a kick, oh well.” Work on your base speed (200’s and 400’s) and also work on it when you’re already with tired legs, simulating how you’ll be feeling after the majority of a race already run. To do that, do a workout that is more endurance based (a tempo run or longer repeats) then double back, finishing with some fast 200’s or 150’s.

* Run through the line. Without even bringing up the whole 100 meter tie-snaffu, if you caught the end of the women’s 5k you’ll see my point. How would you feel getting out-leaned for a shot to London…probably not so hot. The thing is it’s one thing to miss out because you got out-kicked and at least were a few seconds behind…but getting out-leaned stings more. Now I’m sure if you sense a runner coming you’ll be high-tailing it and, yes, tired, but never forget that even if you don’t hear someone coming, better safe than sorry. Pretend your shadow is chasing you if you have to and fire all those pistons until you are ACROSS the line.

* Remember the highs and lows. Running has so many ups and downs, and I’ll venture to guess every single athlete at the Trials has hit a point, probably loads more, of times when people around them were scratching their heads and thinking, “Uhh, so you’re going to give up this running thing now, right?” Be it surgeries, horrible strings of races, entire years of set-backs…if you now gathered up the people GOING to London you’d see they all have those lows. They didn’t quit. Now, I’ll argue on the other side and say that yes, there are plenty of runners NOT going to London with those very same lows (those not even at the Trials)…so you want to argue with me. I’ll tell you what all of the people DO have in common, they run because in the end they love running. Their goals and dreams up the ante, yes, and it’s crushing to fall short. BUT, the reason you try is because YOU want to see if you are capable, and to do that you can only know if you try. And if you run because you love it yourself, even if you fall short of your goals you can still ‘fall back’ on that passion…once the sting wears off you’ll still have running for YOU.

The Olympic Trials are awesome peeps…just be careful you don’t cheer yourself to a coronary. 😉

1) What’s a lesson you can take away from the Trials action so far and apply it to your own running?

2) What has been one of your low points, how did you manage it, and how did you keep moving forward?

3) What’s been a high that makes all those lows worth it?

4) All other Trials related fodder…gimmie it!

The Day of Rest: Runners and their rest days

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Cait — 20 Comments ↓

I think they must schedule the rest days during the Olympic Track Trials just as much for the fans as the athletes…it keeps all us crazy track fans from going into cardiac arrest due to over-excitment. I kid, sort of, but there has been plenty to get excited about, stir up some controversy, and rise to your feet cheering for thus far and there is still more action to come. A part of that action will be the 1500’s and in case you missed it, here is my interview with Jordan McNamara who will be competing in those rounds.

Though the topic of rest days, I think I’ll tackle those for now. The rest day can be a bit of a touchy subject amongst us runners. It seems really black and white, you either love them or hate them; I’ve also found that the people who fall one way or the other seem to feel insanely STRONG…you want to stir the pot right away, find a runner who believes the day of rest is akin to the second coming and merely state you don’t take days off. Try it, it can be fun. 🙂

That said, and now you probably know how often I take days off, there ARE more than enough, valid reasons to schedule in days off into your workout routine like you would hard workouts.

* Injury prevention: Running is tough on the body, one of the highest impact things you can do, and it’s repetitive. Everyone is different, ever body is different, and the amount of pounding you can take is unique to you. For some that threshold is very low and for others they can safely run 100+ miles a week. You can’t ever achieve your running goals if you’re constantly hurt, so if you know your body can’t handle running every day then, yes, obviously you should take those days off.
* Mental recharge: Running is very repetitive, some of us OCD people don’t find that a negative, but others do and there is something to be said for needing a mental break in the monotony. If you take your running too seriously you can in fact ruin it for yourself, get burned out, and you NEVER want to dread your runs. So if you know that you need a day to go AWOL to stay sane and wanting to run, by all means.
* Refresh those legs: Outside of injuries, some bodies just need a little more TLC or time to recover from workouts; that’s okay, and with running and training it’s about being in tune with yourself, and those legs. If you start to suspect you’re over-training and your workouts are nose-diving without some days off then maybe your legs are screaming for some rest days.
* Younger in years: I bring this up and it is of PARAMOUNT importance…the younger the runner the MORE days off they NEED. Is that clear enough? Running is a sport where patience wins out in the end and there are years of running to be had; outside of physical safety reasons (growing kids need to be careful of how much pounding they are doing) there are the mental ones with young pups. The younger the runner, even those beginning high school years included, the more the focus needs to be on bolstering a genuine passion and love of running…keep it fun. By doing so, you lay the groundwork for when they cross the threshold to being able to up their training volume. Because they have the passion for running coming from within, they will be self-motivated to continue the hard training.

Please, don’t get up in arms over this one either…let’s all remember sarcastic humor is the best humor! 🙂

So yes, I don’t discount the solid reasons that for some, total off days, or rest days, work for them and are needed. But I’ll tell you why I avoid them at all costs, and mainly for my own sanity…

* OCD runner: Admittedly, it’s probably bitten me in the butt a few times, but I feel my skin crawl on days I can’t get my running fix…I’m one of the people who HATES tapering. I’d do it of course for the sake of a race, but I feel my sanity start to slip. 😉 On the other side of that coin you can be darn sure consistency won’t ever been an issue of me. I love running, just doing it, and I just feel better if I get my sweat on. Also, let’s be frank here too, I love eating…and eating a lot…soooo, you do the caloric math there. 😉
* Distance specific mileage: If you’re a 1500 meter runner you don’t need to be logging the same amount of miles as a 10k runner or a marathoner. I like running longer distances and I feel more comfy in a higher weekly mileage zone. At a certain point you can only cram so many miles into 5-6 days a week, so if you’re looking to hit a certain total you may not feasibly be able to have a day off.
* Your ‘norm’: This one is harder to explain but I’ll take a crack at it. Many of my friends are runners and have been for years, and our ‘norm’ or what we consider business as usual is running every day regardless. Though your ‘norm’ could leave you thinking that I am insane or idiotic…that’s fine we all have our own ‘norms’. I guess it can also be explained by your training philosophy, your coaching theory, and group of runners. No one ‘norm’ is better than the other, it just is what it is.

Look there, I’ve offered up a pretty fair argument for both sides, in my humble opinion. There can also be some middle ground too:

* Cross-training days: Maybe your rest day is a rest for running and you still do cross-training for cardio.
* Outside the ‘week’ cycles: Other athletes don’t work off of the 7-day training cycle but maybe 10-day cycles; so instead of a day off every 7 days it’s one every 10.
* Active rest: This one I’m on the fence about including, but what the heck. For some people they make their ‘rest’ day one that they do something that isn’t exactly regimented working out but they still move. I think I’m on the fence about this one because it’s a double edged sword: if you’re reasoning for a rest day is to let your legs fully recover, but you ‘actively’ rest and are walking around or standing in the sun for 8 hours, I sort of think you’ll be zapped but in a different way…and at least if you had run some miles instead of your ‘active’ thing at least you would have had the running training…but just my opinion.

So maybe we can all just agree to disagree…or rather agree that to each their own! Please, all those who worship the rest day don’t come hunt me down, throw rotten tomatoes at me and explain that I’m both wrong and crazy. I mean, I already will agree with you on that second one. 😉

1) Rest days…do you schedule them in, do you embrace them, or do you hate them?

2) Give at least one reason as to why you feel the way you do about rest days.

3) Trials talk…let’s hear it! Some awesome first rounds in both the steeple and the 5k’s yesterday!
I have to say, I like too many people for only the amount of slots that can be filled, just saying…so it’s a bittersweet thing. Isn’t life always like that?