Training

Not long ago, I was listening to a podcast about goal setting. It brought up an idea that I found interesting and made an interesting case for it. To be honest, it goes against what I’ve done in the past but I see the argument in favor of it.

The idea is that goals should be set so you can achieve them at least 80% of the time. Essentially, don’t chase incredibly tough goals. Instead, set yourself up for success most of the time but sometimes challenge yourself with a tough goal.

Goals: set them so you will succeed most of the timeRead More »

It’s that time of the year again. Fitness advice is flying around everywhere.

As with most fitness advice you can find in December and January, there’s a lot of bad out there. One of my favorites: what’s better?

What’s better: very long runs at a slow pace or shorter long runs at a faster pace? What’s better: short intervals or long intervals? What’s better: interval workouts or tempo runs?

My personal favorite. What’s better: long, slow endurance or interval training?

What’s better?Read More »

Two weeks ago, I ran 65 miles. Last week, I ran 50 miles. Which week was better?

Trick question. I didn’t give you enough information.

Now, which week was better?

The numbers don’t tell the whole storyRead More »

This past weekend, I was at a high school cross country meet. I spent a good amount of time watching the runners go both down a good hill and then back up it after looping around a bit.

It’s amazing to see the various teams go down the hill. You can really see which teams give downhill running a good focus and which ones don’t really worry about it.

So, if you’re going to give some focus to downhill running, what should you work on?

Downhill runningRead More »

After last week’s post about racing on hills, I realized I should share some thoughts on running hills in general. So let’s go over good form for running hills, whether training or racing. I’ll start this week with running uphill, then cover running downhill next week.

So, what do you need to know about running uphill? Primarily, just two things: keep your stride rate up and your hips forward.

Uphill runningRead More »