To run is to pray Find happiness through exertion -Navajo Prayer I need to be more careful with what random ideas I put out into the universe. A few weeks ago, I was talking to someone in my running club about the Running in the Midpack book I’d just finished. After we talked about various running books for a bit, one of us said – we should start a running book club! My first reaction (as an introvert and non-joiner of things) was absolutely not. But I also couldn’t get the idea out of my head, so next thing I know we are making plans to kick it off. If nothing else, it will give me an excus ..read more

Note: The publishers gave me a copy of Running the Midpack for this review. All thoughts are my own.  When the publishers of Running in the Midpack: How to be a strong, successful and happy runner by Martin Yelling and Anji Andrews asked if I’d like a copy of the book, I was all over it. I love the premise of this book – I’m a middle of the pack runner who coaches middle of the pack runners, so on paper, it’s perfect. But the more I thought about it, the more I found myself getting ready to hate this book. All too often in popular running media: “Improvement” = getting faster ..read more

I know, I’m a cliche of myself sometimes with all the running journal posts, but I’m a true believer in spending some time pondering life and how I feel about the things going on in it. I joke about it, but it’s true – I often don’t know what I think about something until I’ve spent some time journaling about it. And since running is such a big part of my life, running – my experiences with it, my feelings about it, my ruminations about the highs and lows of running and training – don’t escape my journaling gaze. Keeping a Running Journal Choose a prompt, pick up a pen and a journal (or a note ..read more

I know, I’m a cliche of myself sometimes with all the running journal posts, but I’m a true believer in spending some time pondering life and how I feel about the things going on in it. I joke about it, but it’s true – I often don’t know what I think about something until I’ve spent some time journaling about it. And since running is such a big part of my life, running – my experiences with it, my feelings about it, and my ruminations about the highs and lows of running and training – don’t escape my journaling gaze. Keeping a Running Journal Choose a prompt, pick up a pen and a journal (or a ..read more

I know, I’m a cliche of myself sometimes with all the running journal posts, but I’m a true believer in spending time pondering life and how I feel about the things going on in it. I joke about it, but it’s true – I often don’t know what I think about something until I’ve spent some time journaling about it. And since running is such a big part of my life, running – my experiences with it, my feelings about it, and my ruminations about the highs and lows of running and training – don’t escape my journaling gaze. Keeping a Running Journal Choose a prompt, pick up a pen and a journal (or a noteb ..read more

Taking a rest day from running seems so easy – it’s a day off from running. And it is just that easy… and it isn’t. Runners fall into one of two camps: Those who love rest days and those who hate them. Personally, I love them. I’ve used the Hal Higdon Novice 2 marathon training plan as the basis of my marathon training for over a decade, largely because it has two rest days per week. I like to give my brain and my body rest and a change of pace. For me, taking the occasional day off makes coming back to running feel like more of a treat. Whenever I read a story of a run streaker who has run ev ..read more

There are many things ‘they’ say about running. Things you may have heard from someone, somewhere, about running. Bits of common wisdom that might be true, might be a lie, or might be once-upon-a-time truths that have been debunked. Then there are some things that sound like they should be true – even if they aren’t. Time for a little running myth-busting! Running Myths & What to Believe Instead Myth: You have to be ‘fast’ to be a runner Truth: There are no pace or time prerequisites to be a runner If you put on running shoes and move forward, you are a runner. Period. End of story. Sure ..read more

One of the most common excuses for not getting a run in or not accomplishing a goal is ‘I don’t have the time,’ but not all running improvements are the result of long-term goals and a months-long commitment. Tiny actions, done consistently, can have a huge impact on your running. 10-Minute Run Add-Ons To Improve Your Running How about 10 minutes? Surely you have 10 minutes. Run one less mile, or tack on an additional 10 minutes to the end of your regular run to fit in one (or more!) of these run add-ons. Full-Body Stretch Stretching is a critical component of your fitness, mobility, and reco ..read more

Both as a runner and as a coach, I think a lot about motivation. What will get me out the door to run today when the weather is crappy? How do I convince a client to keep running when they feel like they aren’t making progress? With races sidelined last year, many runners have struggled to find a motivation to run other than races. There’s No Universal Running Motivation There will be days when you really don’t want to run. Being a runner means running anyway. Read More Doing that requires motivation – a strong why. When I went through the training to become a running coach, the instructor re ..read more

The #1 reason I don’t get things done (in life or on the run) is ‘I don’t feel like…’. As in: I don’t feel like going for a run this morning or I don’t feel like eating kale instead of pizza for dinner. A few years ago, I came across a quote that kind of blew my mind: You don’t have to feel like getting something done in order to actually get it done. – Melissa Dahl I suppose I’ve known this for a while without realizing I knew it. I’m a marathoner because I’m a planner. I long ago realized that when I’m training for a marathon, I’ll set up my training calendar and I’ll proceed to do nearly ..read more