This is the time of year most runners dream of. There's still lots of light for most people before and after work for a good run and temperatures are finally starting to cool. (Well, not here in North Carolina where summer is stubbornly holding on with a heat wave.) But the one thing about summer running that I've always loved? You know it's hot so there's not much to think about when it comes to what you wear. Because for the life of me, I can't figure out how to dress myself for colder...
21 days ago • 3 min read
Just like there is no one-sized runner, there are no one-sized answer to running questions. In running, most questions should be answered with "it depends." Except for the one every runner wants to know, which is how to run faster. There are only two ways to run faster: take quicker steps take longer ones Ideally, you want to do a combination of both, but it's not as simple as me just telling you to do it. The problem with longer strides is that you increase the chance of "over-striding"...
28 days ago • 3 min read
One of the most confusing terms we runners have is "tempo." Tempo can be anything from 5k pace to half marathon pace and can feel anywhere from a medium effort to just about all-out. With a pace and effort range like that, no wonder runners are confused! In the simplest terms, a tempo isn't a race pace. It's used to describe the pace you need to run to cross the line from medium to hard effort over a certain period of time. At first, it's not so hard. But by the end, it's really tough....
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Do you count your steps? And I don't mean in the "10,000 steps a day" kind of way. I mean when you are running, do you count how many steps per inhale and exhale? A lot of people do. And a lot of people have never thought about doing that, because to tell you the truth, that sounds a little runneurotic, doesn't it? Now, I'm not telling you that you should or shouldn't count how many steps per breath. It's way more fun to count the number of cute doggos you pass. 🐶 But it's a simple and...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
"I don't really want to run the day before the long run, Coach." This is a comment I get fairly often. This time it was from a new marathoner who was coming back for her second marathon training plan. To be clear, there is no magic formula for marathon training. You can still train for a marathon and not run the day before the long run. (there's also people on the internet "raw dogging" marathons straight off the couch, but that's another story.) But there's a very specific reason I highly...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
It seems sort of obvious that to get faster, you need to run faster. At least some of the time. Yes, slow, easy, aerobic running should be the majority of your training if you are a distance runner, but if your goal is to run faster, slow running can't be the only thing you do. But what if you HATE speedwork? You're not alone. Running hard is, well, hard. Physically, you are pushing yourself to an uncomfortable place, which we are biologically wired to avoid. Mentally, we can feel anxiety and...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
If you're a marathon runner, Michigan isn't just a state. It's a dragon to be slayed. If you've never heard of it, ignorance is bliss. The Michigan is a brutal alternating-pace workout invented by a Michigan track coach in the 1970s, originally built off a Prefontaine session at Oregon, and decades later it's still the workout distance runners bring up like a war story. Marathon pace, then faster, then faster still, then back down, with no rest between any of it. The whole point is to make...
2 months ago • 4 min read
I am not exaggerating when I say my pre-race nerves were almost debilitating. Not quite a panic attack, but close. Heart pounding, stomach turning, shallow breathing and the gun hadn't even gone off. I was determined to solve this mystery of why this kept happening to me. So I fell into a rabbit hole of breathing techniques, visualization, and cognitive conditioning. I began to practice consistently, not just on race morning but throughout training. That combination changed how I raced. And...
3 months ago • 4 min read
"But it's a dry heat," my father always says about the brutally hot climate in his hometown of Pheonix, Arizona. And I know what you are thinking: when it's 114F (45C) it doesn't matter if it's dry or not, it's just HOT! But besides the humidity, there's something else that affects how you feel (and run) in the heat. And it doesn't have anything to do with the weather or even how much you've adapted to it. It's how well you tolerate uncertainty. (I know, you weren't expecting me to say that,...
3 months ago • 4 min read