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You CAN run through the winter!
Winter is here! At least in this part of Wisconsin, it seemed to arrive on Halloween this year and hasn’t let up since!
That means it’s time, if not a little late, for your annual reminder: winter running can be safe and, dare I say, even enjoyable with a few precautions.
Continue reading “Winter running”
It’s the most simple question that can be asked to assess the usefulness of a training concept: did it work?
However, is that always the right question to ask? What if it appears that it did work but for the wrong reasons? What if it appears to not have worked but some other variable was the problem?
Continue reading “Did it work? Does it matter?”I’ve written a few times about icing and what we now know about it. Let me do it again.
While we used to think icing an injury or even icing sore legs in general was a good idea, we now have enough evidence to strongly believe exactly the opposite is true.
It appears that ice does not help. It might even hurt. The evidence of this is convincing and growing rapidly.
Continue reading “Do you use ice?”
Many of us have wrapped up our racing seasons some time in the last month or so. Those of us who haven’t likely will be in the next month or so.
So the logical question to ask at this point is – what next? What do we do between now and spring?
While I would strongly encourage that you take advantage of the winter to build a solid base in order to make your spring goals more attainable, that’s not what I would recommend immediately after your last race of the year.
Continue reading “Take some time off”
We all have them. Certain times when stress is higher, the schedule is busier, maybe things are so hectic that even your sleep suffers.
Maybe you have a deadline you need to meet at work. Maybe something is going on at home or in your extended family. During the holidays, there are simply so many things going on that we can feel overwhelmed.
When these things happen, what do you do with your running? Do you back off or “just plow through”?
Continue reading “Know your danger zones”
Eliud Kipchoge, arguably the greatest marathoner of all time, did it! This morning in Vienna Austria, he ran a marathon in 1:59:40. Not the world record because this was not a record eligible event but an astounding performance regardless.
Continue reading “Eliud Kipchoge: 1:59:40”
October is my favorite month of the year as a runner. The weather is cool and crisp, the trees are changing color, all seems right in the world.
These past few days have reminded me how much I enjoy October and I’ve made sure to take some time to let it all soak in.
Have you done the same recently?
Continue reading “Take a moment to enjoy”An interesting question to think about: can changing your self-talk actually help you run better? I’m sure many of us just answered “yes”. If you have negative self-talk, that’s not going to help you run faster. Positive self-talk will, though.
What about more subtle differences? Can slight changes in how you think of things during races help you? As it turns out, they can.
Also of note is that more positive references were used in the study. “You/I have to do it” was replaced with “You/I can do it” for example. While it doesn’t seem like this was addressed as part of the test, I have a suspicion this would also make a difference.
This is just one small study but it’s worth trying.
Continue reading “Can you talk yourself into better performance?”
Last week, I mentioned that I had a difficult summer where I made some mistakes. The difficulties were self-inflicted and I wanted to take a few moments this week to discuss my mistakes, with the hope that some of you can hopefully learn from my mistakes and maybe avoid making similar ones yourselves.
Continue reading “Three lessons from my difficult summer”
In May, I made a mistake in training. I knew better but thought the “rules” didn’t apply to me. I then made another mistake in June and repeated it in July.
These mistakes cost me but they also taught (or re-taught) me some important lessons.
What lessons did I learn? For now, they don’t matter. I’ll write about them next week. For now, the important lesson is something else.
Continue reading “Learn from your mistakes”