Have you heard of the 80/20 rule in competitive running? It refers to the gold-standard percentages for easy and hard running. A general rule of thumb is to run 80% of your miles “easy,” and 20% of your miles hard. This, of course, is relative to the person. Someone who runs a 5 hour marathon has a different “easy” pace than someone who runs a 2:30 marathon. Many runners track their pace efforts through heartrate monitoring, but it’s not necessary to do so, if you’re fairly in-tune with your body. If you are tracking through heartrate, your heartrate should be at about 65-70% of your max on an ..read more

Each one of us – runners AND non-runners – deal with muscular imbalances in our bodies. Both runners and non-runners can benefit from single leg exercises, but I’m specifically going to talk about why single leg exercises are so important for the former. Since none of us is perfectly symmetrical, it’s beneficial to choose exercises that involve strengthening only one leg at a time. Let’s say your left leg is weaker than your right because you’re right-side dominant. Doing compound, bilateral exercises such as squats and deadlifts are incredibly beneficial for many reasons, but if there’s a gla ..read more

Let’s talk post-workout food: the WHAT, WHEN, WHY and HOW of the food you choose and nutrient timing to optimize recovery.   The WHAT: Examples of adequate post-workout snacks or meals include a turkey sandwich, a PB&J, Greek yogurt with granola & fruit, a protein bar with adequate carbohydrates, a slice of toast with banana & almond butter, a smoothie with Greek yogurt or protein & fruit, cottage cheese with fruit, or oatmeal with nut butter and fruit. A good rule of thumb is a 2:1 carbohydrate to protein ratio.   The WHEN: This can vary for men vs. women, as it beco ..read more

Since I’m specially certified in running form and gait analysis, and since I have a few new running athletes I’m working with on this, let’s talk FORM. I’m going to break running form down into the individual pieces that make up the pie for concision and comprehension. ~ CADENCE ~ Cadence, or stride rate, refers to how often one’s foot comes into contact with the ground. The cadence to strive for, according to Dr. Jack Daniels, is 180 strides/minute. Why is cadence important? Well, the faster your cadence, the more time you’re spending in the air, the LESS time your body is in contact with the ..read more

Is metabolic conditioning the new buzzword in fitness circles and what the heck is it?! Metabolic conditioning exercises vary in intensity from moderate to high. Their goal is to improve, and increase efficiency, of the aerobic and anaerobic systems in the body. How does metcon do this?? Through producing more/becoming more efficient at producing ATP (adenosine triphosphate, which fuels each & every cell in your body) and getting rid of metabolic byproducts – also quicker and more efficiently – which leads to better, faster recovery. How do I implement this into my strength training progra ..read more

You’re at the track. You’ve created a workout for yourself or for your athlete. It’s an interval or a rep workout. But – you’re not sure how much rest to give between reps. From one Denver area running coach to another: How do you decide on appropriate running workout recovery & what’s the thought process to get there? First of all, you have three rest options: standing, walking, or jogging. I verbalize standing as “full rest” to my athletes. I tend to use full rest more with faster intervals, and at the beginning of a training cycle or with a beginner runner. I actually lump walking into ..read more

Your Denver area running coach here! Let’s talk HEEL RECOVERY. Have you ever been watching a race – whether on television or live at the track – and you’ve found yourself commenting, “wow! Look at their stride! Their heel is almost touching their butt! They look so smooth!” I know I have. So, I wanted to quickly touch on what that means, and why it’s important. 1. A high heel recovery = strong hamstrings. Strong hamstrings reduce the load placed on your hip flexors. 2. A lower heel recovery = hip flexor dominance, placing more strain and demand on the hip flexors. This can result in more tensi ..read more

While most of us don’t have the privilege of running on soft grass every day, there are definite benefits to fitting in a couple miles of barefoot running + strides occasionally. A few of those benefits include: 1. Increased proprioception. Your brain makes a better connection to what your body and feet are doing when your feet hit the ground directly. 2. Improved foot strength and stability. Those little stabilizer muscles in your feet and ankles are working HARD when you run and stride barefoot. You may also be able to better pinpoint instabilities and muscular imbalances while barefoot. 3 ..read more

As a runner who primarily uses their legs to propel themselves forward, I don’t need to strength train my upper body, right? Wrong. While the legs are, of course, arguably the most significant body part in running, a weak upper body can cause problems. Have you ever seen someone run with their arms at their sides? Not only does it look super awkward, their torso tends to rotate quite a bit to make up for the lack of arm movement, expending much more energy than necessary. It’s also not uncommon to see runners lean back or hunch forward while they run, both of which are unproductive. The runne ..read more