The site for everyone who loves running.
This past weekend, both my daughter and I ran races. We both had in mind times we thought we could hit and wanted to target. However, as race day neared, it became clear that the conditions were going to be challenging. Because of that, I repeatedly reminded both of us that we shouldn’t worry about our times. Just compete.
Continue reading “Difficult race day? Focus on competing”
It’s that time again! Your chance to ask me anything you would like. As I always seem to mention, this is always one of my favorite things to do.
Almost nothing is off limits. Feel free to ask me about training, racing, my thoughts on training and racing as race calendars begin to fill up, what’s going on at HillRunner.com. This is my invitation to you to ask whatever you would like.
Continue reading “Ask me anything”We’ve probably all heard these ideas. Over pronation causes injuries. Strength or flexibility imbalances or simply lack of strength or flexibility cause injuries.
Heck, these are things I’ve said. But are these things true? Maybe not.
Well, there are some interesting caveats offered in that article but the short story is, on the whole, it’s hard to pinpoint any specific things that increases overall injury risk. Interesting to think about.
Continue reading “How to predict running injuries?”
It’s starting to feel like summer!
With the crazy year or so we’ve just come out of, hopefully most of us are training hard and looking forward to some racing getting back in our schedules. It’s going to be an interesting summer, to say the least.
We all think of winter as the challenging and dangerous season for runners but there are challenges and safety considerations we need to keep in mind during the summer also. As well as the adjustments that we need to make not for our safety but to ensure we’re getting the most out of our summer time training.
Continue reading “Summer running”
I was just talking with a runner I coach about racing plans for this year. She’s not into racing frequently, instead picking and choosing races when she will be ready to really get after it. The easy call for her was to target a race this fall, build up to it over the summer and be in real good shape.
However, in talking, we commiserated about neither of us having run a real race in over a year and a half and I immediately thought she needs something else.
I told her to definitely pick out that target race in the fall but also think about finding something in the summer. Know she’s going into it not fully ready to race but practice the act of racing.
Continue reading “Racing is a skill – practice it”
It’s definitely a frequently asked question and one I’ve seen even more frequently over the past month or so for some reason. “What shoes do you recommend?” Alternatively, someone might ask “What is the best shoe?”
Either way, the correct answer is the same: I don’t know.
Continue reading ““What shoes do you recommend?””Do you set big goals for yourself, then get upset at yourself if you fall short?
If so, you’re increasing your risk of burnout.
I’m a fan of setting big goals at least sometimes. However, you have to be careful about how you respond when the inevitable happens. When you set big goals, you will sometimes fall short, quite possibly more often than you reach them.
Continue reading “Are you a perfectionist?”
Some time ago, I was listening to a podcast interview of a high school coach with a PhD in exercise physiology. He pointed out that his athletes could be using watches that measure heart rate, oxygen saturation, cadence, ground contact time, and a crazy number of other values. However, while some had these watches, he didn’t have them paying attention to those values while running. His runners learned how to run by feel.
I wrote down a few notes from that interview and came across them last week, which prompted this post.
Continue reading “Don’t get lost in science”
Last week, in discussing strength training, I pointed out why I think most runners should probably not do what the elites are doing. I wanted to expand on that thought some this week because, while it’s good to look at them to get an idea of what works, it can be risky for several reasons to simply replicate what they do.
Continue reading “How much should you emulate the elites?”
I’m going to tag the date on this because our knowledge changes and I’ll probably post an update every once in a while. Hopefully, more than once every 20 years.
I’ve been having discussions with a few runners on strength training recently and I’ve realized that my very old post about strength training, while not entirely invalid, is outdated. Of course, I wrote that somewhere around 20 years ago so what should we expect?
So it’s time for an update. Is strength training good for our running and, if so, what should we do?
The answers are yes and it depends.
Continue reading “Strength training for runners in 2021”