As you might know, I live in the mountains.

My house sits on a ridge about a mile up from the river. Unless I want to run back and forth on the same 2-mile stretch over and over, all my runs are going to have some hills.

And it's always uphill to get home.

You would think that I would love hills at this point. (mmm, can't say I do)

But they definitely made me a stronger, more resilient runner.

Even if you are not training for a hilly event, you should be training on hills once or twice a month.

Here's how and why.

climb on up

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from the team

“Honestly, I felt great.”

Before joining the PR Team, Suzie* told me why she finally decided to sign up after happily lurking on this mailing list for years.

She had just run her spring marathon and a few days later, her legs felt normal again.

So she opened her AI-powered app (you know the one) and followed the next run it gave her.

Five miles. Fine, totally reasonable.

Then a workout a couple days later. Sure thing.

Until a small ache turned into something that didn’t go away.

Eventually she was forced to take weeks off running and couldn't figure out what went wrong.

Suzie didn’t do anything reckless. She just trusted what she was told to do.

This is where those apps quietly get you.

Especially when you feel good enough to do more.

The AI-app doesn’t know what your body is ready for.

It doesn’t know how deep you went on race day, what’s still lingering in your legs or when your body is lying to you.

It just gives you the next run.

And it looks smart and so cheap! But there’s no nuance or restraint.

So you start stacking runs that all seem fine… until one of them isn’t.

I hear stories like Suzie's almost every day.

You think you’re saving money by following something simple and structured.

But you’re the one absorbing the cost when a small issue turns into missed weeks right when you could have been building momentum.

Avoid Suzie's mistakes and join the PR Team. You're a good fit if:

• you’ve just come off a race and aren’t sure how to train right now
• you’re following something generic and hoping it’s right
• you want to keep improving without guessing
• you’re tired of small setbacks derailing your consistency

Not to mention, the team has something AI simply can't replace: real humans having a ton of fun!

show me

*team names are changed for privacy

ask me anything

Q:

I had a great time at my race last weekend, but there's something holding me back. My fitness is there, but when I got to the hills, I just didn't push as hard as I know I can. This is not the first time this has happened to me. How can I improve this?

A: ​

When you get to a tough spot in a race, it can often feel like a battle of wills. There's the part of you that wants to keep pushing and do your best and then there's that sneaky part of you that wants to slow down or even stop.

It's even harder when the voice telling you to slow down is nice and sweet to you, saying things like "honey, it's okay if you take it easy. You're loved no matter what!"

That's the Negative Nana voice--gentle like an over-indulgent grandmother, but not always good for you.

If you listen to Negative Nana and slow down, even though you know your fitness is there, she can sweet-talk you right out of your goals.

To counter-act this, you need to remember that Nana's going to show up on race day, no matter what. So you better prepare what you are going to say to her.

This takes practice and you can work on this during hard workouts in training.

When you get to a tough spot in a workout and Negative Nana tells you "sweetie, this is too hard. You can slow down, it's okay," you can begin to recognize it's not you that's really speaking.

This helps compartmentalize those thoughts as something different than what you really want, and helps take away their power.

"Hi Nana," you might say. "I know you're here to protect me. But I've got work to do."

The negative voice will quiet and you'll get back to crushing those hills.

Have a question? Reply and you could be featured next week.

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podcast

Are you a runner that eats half a banana before the run and half the fridge after?

This pattern is most certainly affecting your running performance and can lead to unwanted weight gain.

So how can you fuel properly and break this cycle?

​On today’s episode, we’re going to break down one of the most common and misunderstood fueling patterns I see in endurance runners and how to actually nourish your body for performance and for life.

You’ll learn

• why this happens in the first place,
• how underfueling is quietly sabotaging your performance and recovery, and,
• how to fuel all day long so your runs and your life are just better.

Don’t forget to stay tuned all the way to the end of the episode for another Mental Strength Minute. Fortify your mind in 60 seconds or less.

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inspo

“The world only exists in your eyes. You can make it as big or as small as you want.”

—F. Scott Fitzgerald

Have a great run today, Coach Claire

Thank you for being a part of the Planted Runner community!

My mission is to help runners just like you reach goals they never dreamed possible through science-backed training and plant-based nutrition.

Since 2016, I've helped thousands of every day runners become fitter, faster, and stronger with truly customized training and coaching.

I also love to share what I have learned from my own journey starting as a non-runner to a 2:58 marathoner at age 42, as well what I have learned coaching runners, completely FREE. I do that every week in this newsletter and on the Planted Runner Podcast.

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