Ryan

Set reasonable race day expectations

/ Racing / 3 minutes of reading
Racing is supposed to be difficult!

Racing is back! Well, it has been for a while. Some people were even finding races last year. However, this is the first spring or fall racing season in two years where it seems like most races will be back in some version of their normal format. So many of us may find ourselves at least somewhat out of practice.

What should you do about that? Well, if you haven’t raced in a long time, you probably have forgotten how hard race day really is. Even if you have raced more recently, you may go into a goal race thinking that you’re fit, tapered, and this is going to be easy.

Don’t do that.

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Recapping the Olympic marathons

/ Roundups / 2 minutes of reading

This month, I’ll leave the stories to recapping the Olympics. Specifically, the marathons. What stories, one of an athlete everyone expected to dominate doing just what was expected. The other of an athlete nobody expected to be in the mix doing just what nobody expected. Both incredible stories. Both worth reflecting on and learning from.

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Mental health matters

/ Health and Fitness / 3 minutes of reading
Because she took care of herself, Molly Seidel was able to achieve at the highest level

This year’s Olympics really seemed to put a real focus on mental health issues in sports. From mind-body disconnects that could be incredibly dangerous if not life threatening to mental health issues related to high level competition or placing one’s health above performance, the topic seemed to come up in several discussions.

While this is a discussion I would never pretend to be an expert in, I think it is a very important one so I’ll offer a few thoughts and encourage anyone who is facing challenges to seek help and anyone who knows someone facing challenges to be supportive.

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How is Abdi preparing for his 5th Olympics?

/ Roundups / 2 minutes of reading

Welcome to the Olympics! By the time this post appears, we’ll be mere hours away from the beginning of track and field events starting in Tokyo (this evening American time is the start). In honor of the Olympics, I have a couple topical articles to share, along with a couple others.

First up, Abdi Abdirahman will be running the marathon at his 5th Olympics at the age of 44. How did he prepare? There might be some good lessons in here for the rest of us.

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How does the heat affect your running?

/ Training / 3 minutes of reading
Heat is tough, VERY tough

Last week, I did a workout in some extreme heat and humidity on Tuesday, then bounced back with an up tempo run on Thursday in relatively cool weather.

I thought a comparison of paces between these runs was an interesting study in what the heat can do to a runner so I figured I’d share the comparison between these runs with you. It’s not meant to be a study of exactly how one can compare splits in the heat but more an illustration that, yes, it can significantly affect your running and the best thing you can do in the heat is accept slower paces.

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