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5 Tips for Novice Runners

March 23, 2015 by Leave a Comment

As temperatures slowly start to warm, we are all anxious to get outside and active. Even for experienced runners, taking an off-season means coming back slowly. Novice runners are usually very eager to get out and go from 0-60. Taking on too much too soon can often lead to injury and burnout, so I am giving a few pointers getting in those miles carefully.

  1. Start slow. Your pace for all of your runs in the first few weeks should be comfortable. An easy pace should feel comfortable, relaxed, and sustainable. This pace is also sometimes referred to as “conversational,” meaning you could talk during the entire run without huffing and puffing. If you cannot hold a conversation or sing a song, you are going too fast for you easy miles. The purpose of easy miles: active recovery, building weekly mileage, maintaining or building current fitness.

  2. Focus on time, not miles. Start small. Perhaps the goal for the first week is 20-30 minutes of walk/run, 3 times per week. As your fitness increases, you’ll naturally be able to handle more time on your feet. Many folks getting into running want to go out and run a hard 5 miles. While the enthusiasm is great, our bodies take a little more time than our brains to adapt. Look at the big picture, not just what you want to accomplish that one day.

  3. Take rest days. I recommend that when getting into running, focus on 3 non-consecutive days for the first few weeks. For example, Monday-Wednesday-Saturday. Rest days are just as important as your running days, and should be spaced between those running days. While you rest, your body rebuilds and recovers from the stress you put on it while running. You need to take days for the rest and rebuilding process, or you will break yourself down too much and risk injury. Again, the stronger you become, the more you will be able to handle. But start small.

  4. Sleep. If you are cutting back on sleep to train, your rest days become that much more important. Most people need 7-9 hours of sleep per night to properly function day-to-day. Many of us don’t get in that kind of sleep, and often sleep is the last priority for busy people. You need to rethink the value of sleep. There is nothing “badass” or “warrior-like” about averaging 4 hours per night. You are harming yourself, plain and simple. Get some more sleep, and your world will change – especially when running or exercising regularly.

  5. Be patient. It takes some time to settle into new habits. Most of us take 4-8 weeks before a new routine feels truly comfortable. It’s normal to have setbacks, struggle with your new priority, and to juggle everything else in your life and your running goals. However, there is nothing that says one crazy week or an overwhelming weekend will ruin your goals of becoming a consistent runner in a few months. Simply get back at it, and take your time. Don’t try to skimp on rest days, or double up to “make up” those missed workouts. They are gone. Just be patient and take it one day at a time.

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5 Things You Should Expect from Your Coach and Your Coach Should Expect from You

March 9, 2015 by 1 Comment

img_6834-editWhen considering hiring a running coach, there are a few thing you should expect of that coach, and a few things your coach will expect from you. To help you on your running journey, I am outlining 5 things you should expect from your coach, and 5 things your coach should expect from you. Every coach is different, but I think for your running season to be a success, it’s a good idea to understand what you are getting into and what you should expect from your coach.

5 Things You Should Expect from Your Coach:

  1. A clear training plan. This plan should be built for you and your schedule, goals, time, etc. The plan should be easy to understand and follow. If there are terms and paces you do not understand, your coach should be educating you along the way. There should be a purpose for every run, and you should know what that purpose is – time on your feet, active recovery, threshold pace, etc.

  2. Support. Your coach is there to support you and hold you accountable. Your coach should be pushing you towards your goals, with workouts and recovery that fit your needs. Your coach should be someone you can confide in, be honest with, and trust. The kind of support you are looking for and will receive is important. Some runners want a very authoritative figure, while others want to be coddled a little, and want a coach they can view as a “pal.” Be honest about what you need and want, and who can fill that role as a coach.

  3. Credentials. You should expect your coach to know their shit. Basic credentials are a given – including certifications, personal experiences in racing, and a resume of work. Your coach should always be striving to learn more, maintain their credentials, and in an ideal world, be adding news ones to their list. If your coach doesn’t know anything about tapering, strength training, or perhaps hydration – you need to look elsewhere. After all, you are trusting this professional with your body, time and money. You wouldn’t go to a doctor who didn’t understand the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, right?

  4. Motivation. Your coach should be someone who can pick you up when you are feeling down. After a bad workout, a nagging ache or pain, a lack of motivation – your coach should be your cheerleader, voice of reason, and positive resource. There will be times a coach needs to have “the talk” about race day goals that aren’t in the cards (injury issues, sub par training), and those conversations truly suck. But your coach will also be the person who will push you to reach for a higher goal, remind you of all the hard work you’ve put in, and be the voice of reason when we doubt ourselves. It’s fascinating how one or two bad workouts will lead a runner on a downward spiral, questioning everything, while months of fantastic training leaves many runners feeling okay, but never really celebrating their milestones. Your coach will always be on your team.

  5. Success. Success can come in different shapes and sizes, and perhaps your big goal when sitting down with your coach on Day 1 won’t happen that first year. Or perhaps your goal will change – which is totally fine! Success may be: running pain-free, accomplishing a new race distance, lowering your previous personal record, qualifying for a race like Boston Marathon, learning to love to run, fixing running form or nutrition habits, losing weight, enjoying a new hobby – these are all different goals. Time goals are the hardest to achieve, because in order for that goal to happen, the athlete will need to feel 100% on race day, and run a smart and strategic race. The role of the coach will be to keep the athlete as injury-free, well-balanced, and fresh for race day. The coach will also be expected to discuss race day strategies, pacing, fueling, and how to adjust if things don’t go according to plan. The minute that gun goes off, the race is entirely in the hands of the athlete, not the coach. If a goal falls short, the coach and athlete should figure out why, learn from it, and figure out the next step.

5 Things Your Coach Should Expect from You:

  1. Communication. When a coach sends out training, they will only know how it went, how it felt, etc. if you the athlete communicates this. When a coach gets little or no response, they will assume one of two things: training is going so well that the athlete is too busy to send a quick email, or: training isn’t happening or is going poorly, and the athlete is ashamed to tell you. As you may guess the more common reason is the second.

  2. Respect. You hired your coach because this is their filed of expertise, and the presumably know more about it than you.You need to respect your coach’s reasons, training, advice, etc. If and when you question the plan, advice, etc. – ask your coach for clarifications. Making an executive decision to change or simply not do something will often sabotage the plan and end goal. An open dialogue goes a long way. A reasonable coach will be happy to explain, discuss and clarify their reasons, and usually be open to alternatives if they make sense.

  3. Hard work. Your coach expects you’ll do the training. After all, you came to them for help and goals. You cannot cheat your way through marathon training. I’ve tried it. No good. And I’ve had clients do it, and it makes for a VERY long day out there on the course, and unnecessary aches and pains. While you can cheat your way through training for shorter distances, your performance probably won’t be what you set out to achieve. Without the work, progress won’t happen. There are times when training won’t happen – sickness, schedule, injury, lack of motivation – and these are normal obstacles. Your coach can help you navigate around them, modify for time off, etc. Ditching your training in secret will leave you feeling bad and unprepared for race day, and your coach will be frustrated.

  4. Reliability. Your coach expects your work to happen. When hiring a coach for one-on-one time, your coach is etching out a block of time in their schedule for you. A bad night’s sleep, sick, poor choices (eating too late or out the night before with friends), the weather – these are the most common reasons a runner will cancel or ask to change their session. Asking your coach to change your time, hold multiple slots, or cancel last-minute isn’t considerate. For your coach, this is a business. You wouldn’t call a restaurant and ask them to hold three varying reservations when you only intend to use one, correct? That restaurant will lose money operating that way, and so will your running coach. Just because you don’t want to run in the rain or your schedule changed last-minute, doesn’t mean your coach’s other clients would be happy to take that time – rain, sickness or otherwise. Every coach will have different policies on scheduling, and every coach will have different flexibility, but just be considerate of their time.

  5. Feedback. After a race, hard workout, etc – feedback is necessary for moving forward. Some runners will find they absolutely love and/or hate certain workouts. With that communicated, the coach can swap in/out workouts the runner likes and responds to. The same is true with a race – go back to the drawing board and see what adjustments can be made. No two humans are alike, and the same is true for runners. Most coaches love this challenge and really put a lot of time and effort into fine-tuning each athlete’s needs. However, the relationship between coach/runner is a two-way street, and so open communication and feedback is the core of a successful season.

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Frigid Weather? Tips for Training

February 16, 2015 by Leave a Comment

conditions1Winter training can be tough. It’s dark, cold, and icy. Some Winters are easier than others. Last Winter was a real doozy, and this Winter is shaping up to be pretty darn challenging too. As a coach, I am constantly checking the forecast. I keep hoping I’ll see a week where we break out of the single digits or teens for the low, but week after week my hopes are crushed. I keep thinking we need to have a “warm spell” here sometime soon where we stay above freezing or at least around freezing for a week. No luck. And add the wind chill to some days, and it’s enough to feel completely defeated.

Runners, I hear you. At times I’ll say “suck it up.” After all, I didn’t force any of you to sign up for a Spring Marathon, or to set training goals during the Winter. If you want it, you need to work for it. However, I also can totally sympathize. When it is truly painful to be out there day after day, it’s easy to lose focus. Especially if you are battling icy conditions and constantly moving your training to accommodate the most recent storm.

So what can you do? I have a few tips that may help you power through the next few weeks. And hopefully at some point we’ll get a break.

  • You cannot change the weather, so don’t fight it. If you can move your training around bad weather, do so. If you cannot, get creative.
  • Running in extreme cold, snow and ice can actually be fun – as long as you are safe and keep your time out there to a minimum. In ice or snow, wear YakTrax and/or be careful. Abandon any pace goals and simply enjoy your run. In extreme cold, be mindful of how long you are out there and if body parts go numb or become painful.
  • Take your training inside. Perhaps you can swap out a run for a cross training day, or run intervals on a treadmill.
  • Avoid routes that are not cleared. In Winter conditions, some side walks, roads and running paths are commonly cleared, while others are last priority.
  • Be aware of wind chill, and stay away from large bodies of water or exposed routes. Protected routes from the wind will be warmer than routes out in the open or along rivers.
  • If you schedule allows it, run at the warmest time of the day. Even if it’s bitter cold, some sunshine can lighten your spirits and make it easier to see any ice ahead.
  • Refuel with something warm. I’m a fan of hot chocolate, or hot tea with a snack. Drinking cold water will only make you feel colder.
  • Avoid cotton at all cost. I’m am totally a fan of being a runner on a budget, but running in cotton during Winter is a major n0-no.
  • Get out of wet running gear and into something warm and dry or a hot shower ASAP.
  • Make your cold miles more enjoyable by running with a buddy or listening to music. You probably know other dedicated Winter warriors.
  • Don’t panic if your training gets slightly sidelined. If you need to swap in a rest day or cross training day for your “easy” runs, it’s not a huge deal. Focus on accomplishing your “quality runs” and consider that a success.
  • Remind yourself that at some point, weather will improve. Take it a day or a week at a time. Try not to despair because April seems so far away.
  • The odds are that other runners are struggling too. You are not alone. But the ones with big goals are digging deep and getting their miles done – one way or another. When you line up next to them for your race, they will have the edge. Either accept your modified training, or dig deep and be that person on the starting line with the edge.
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Long Run, Dress Rehearsal

February 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Over 30 miles into an Ultra Marathon in July 2012.

Over 30 miles into an Ultra Marathon in July 2012.

The long run. Often intimidating. Rarely easy. It’s the keystone to training for a marathon or half marathon. It’s also the run most folks training get wrong. Here are some things you can do to better your long run, your overall training, and the reasons why you should handle your long runs certain ways.

  • Think of your long runs as dress rehearsals for race day. This means you should practice eating dinner and breakfast the way you would before your race. it also means you should plan mid-run fueling as you would for race day. If you decide to “wing it” on race day, you are foolish. You have weekly long runs between now and race day. Use them as practice.
  • Don’t be scared of bombing a long run. If something goes wrong, LEARN from it. Perhaps you will need to cut the run short due to dehydration, chafing, or take a detour or a bathroom break. Or perhaps you need a walking/stretching break. Or you lose your mental focus and cannot get it back. IT’S OKAY. Figure out why these things are happening, and then we can fix them and never make those mistakes again. A bad long run isn’t a bad thing if you can learn from it.
  • Test out your fueling options. Some folks can take any kind of nutrition on the run and feel great. Other’s find almost every endurance fuel out there leads them to racing for the bathroom. There are dozens of fueling options. Find what feels best for you. Do you love caffeine GU? Do you need to avoid caffeine at all cost? Do you love your nutrition in liquid-form like Gatorade? What kind of Gatorade? Again, the long runs are rehearsals.
  • Take your pace easier than race day on your long runs. This is a hard concept for many runners planning for a marathon. The logic is often that you want to run at marathon goal pace so you know you can. Let go of that ideal. In fact, plan to run most long runs at marathon goal pace PLUS :15-45 seconds PER MILE. Why? Well here’s the short answer: to reduce injury risk. Think about it – when you finally run your 26.2 mile journey, it will be after a taper and you will plan to take at least a week off from running post-marathon. So HOW can you expect to run a 20-miler at your marathon pace and be recovered to run your speed workout a few days later? You cannot. Well you can, but your risk of injury is stupid high. Plus, if you are running speed workouts, running a “fast” long run has no real benefit. If you are sticking to a plan that includes speed workout and easy long runs, the combination will have you prepared for marathon day. I swear. I have yet to meet a coach who recommends you run your long runs at your goal race pace.
  • There are a few times when progressive long runs are beneficial. These should be handled with caution and are only ideal for experienced marathoners. Progressive long runs can vary in formula, but always end with finishing the long run faster than you started. Some will end with the runner finishing the final miles at marathon goal pace. Again, only for the experienced marathoner and with the advice of a coach.
  • Long runs are about time on your feet more than pace.
  • Regardless of pace, cap long runs at 2:30-3 hours. Reason being, injury risk goes up as the hours pile up. Again, totally understandable that a runner aiming for a 4 hour marathon wants to clock long runs of 4 hours, but hang in there. Instead, cap long runs at 2:30-3 hours and perhaps go for a second run within the weekend, perhaps within 24-36 hours – giving your legs the experience of running on tired legs but with the benefit of some recovery.
  • Long runs also give you the opportunity to practice recovery. Take the opportunity to figure out how you feel, what you need to eat and drink, and how your body reacts to the stress of the long run. Some runners are nauseous for hours post-run, while other runners want to eat everything in sight. Some runners have a hard time stretching, foam rolling and taking care of themselves, others are on it like rock stars. We can always make improvements, so budget time to handle yourself as needed after you clock that big run.
  • The long run is also a rehearsal for what to wear on race day. While seasons may change in the course of your training, try to wear what you may want to race in for some of those final long runs. Weather should be pretty accurate, as should your size and how clothes will fit you. Take note of any problem areas with chafing, and if you simply feel good or bad in what you wear.
  • If the long run is mentally intimidating, break it up into smaller sections. Taking on a 20-miler can seem like the worst thing ever, but 4 5-milers, refueling with GU every 5 miles suddenly doesn’t sound so hard. Remember that some miles will feel better than others, and often those middle miles are the hardest to grind through. Once you see mile 17 of 20, the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight.

Lastly, be sure to write down or remember what worked and what didn’t. That information can be priceless. How long did you eat before your run? Were you hydrated enough? How much sleep did you get? What fuel did you use and what was the outcome? Do you love or hate a certain training route? Were there mental roadblocks and what tricks got you past them? These are all clues that can lead you towards a successful marathon.

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Accessing you mental toughness

January 19, 2015 by Leave a Comment

635204708462443579It’s interesting to see and hear what my clients succeed and struggle with, and how that relates to my own struggles as an athlete. One thing a few athletes voiced struggling with in 2014 was mental toughness, which is a topic many of us know all too well. I’ve been thinking about my own relationship with it, and think I may have some ideas, tips and experiences that may help you and your running goals – especially in the marathon.

We are all incredibly strong. Sure, we have varying degrees of the tough stuff, but very few people are truly weak. However many people perceive themselves that way. The good news is that we can always change how we handle those hard moments and our perception. In running, clocking long miles like a marathon tend to really test our mental toughness. Mentally, I think anyone can get through a 5K. I can talk myself into doing anything painful or taxing for 15-25 minutes. Mentally, I’ve got that. That doesn’t mean I won’t hurt, fight towards the finish line and feel mentally spent at the end – because all of those things will definitely happen. But mentally I can always get myself around a 5K. A marathon is a whole different game. And here’s where we get personal:

I am going to assume that every poor soul taking the time to read my blog as experienced some form of hardship in their lives – maybe many. I’m talking the dark, ugly, painful shit. Divorce, loss of a loved one, being bullied, fighting substance abuse, physical setbacks, being mentally or physically abused, experiencing a horrific trauma and suffering from PTSD, rising above prejudices, or simply being told your entire life that you were weak. If you haven’t experienced any of that, you are extremely lucky and should probably start buying lottery tickets. For the rest of us, we have all had to cope with that crap at some point or another, most likely multiple times. Hopefully you have all processed these things in a healthy way. If you haven’t, talk to someone. Anyway, I’m not a therapist, but I do know the power of rising above bad experiences. If you are planning to run or race a marathon, or a distance that is new and/or terrifying to you, use those bad experiences. Why? Because you have forged your way through them and are here today and ready to run. That takes guts. And a hell of a strong brain. That strength is your ace in the marathon.

Personally, I’ll freely admit my triggers. For my first marathon, I used the determination to prove to myself and every girl who bullied me in high school that I was a strong fighter, and a Boston Qualifier. I wanted to prove them wrong. I wanted to prove to myself I could survive an ugly divorce, a sexual assault, and a suicide attempt. I wanted to prove to the world that I was no longer weak, unstable, unhappy, or capable of crumbling when shit got hard. And so I trained hard. I trained with fire in my heart and blinders on my eyes. I trained through plantar pain, long work hours, and rain storms. When I’d reach mile 16-20 of my long runs, I’d fight through to mile 22-23. No, I was not training to be a pro or win awards, but I knew my goal was there if I worked hard for it. When I crossed that first marathon finish line, I wanted to shout up to the clouds all kinds of happy profanities. Not because I had surpassed my time goal, but because I had proved to myself that the weak, uncomfortable, insecure me was gone. Gone forever.

Now I realize that I had a list of really shitty things to propel that first marathon (blessing in disguise?), but use what you have. Dig deep, and find that strength. If you dealt with a messy breakup, had to balls to walk out of a bad relationship, use the strength that action took. If you were ill and needed surgery and pushed through the recovery and rehab, use that. Whatever you have surpassed, overcome, walked away from, fought head on – access that. Don’t be scared of it. Use your demons, and suddenly a marathon doesn’t seem so daunting. I mean yes, you still have to do the work and it’s a LONG ways, but I think you get it.

So if you experienced a long distance race that fizzled thanks to your mental state, go back to the drawing board on those long runs. Truthfully, even the most conditioned athlete can fall apart in the marathon if they lose their head. I’ve seen ladies who finish 7 hour marathons, putting one foot in front of the other slow and steady, refusing to quit. I’ve also seen ladies who aim to run a 2:45 marathon, lose their heads and throw in the towel. What we have going on in our brains has nothing to do with our physical strength, though we are at our best when our brains and bodies are both trained for race day – whatever that means for you.

You are stronger than you realize. All you have to do is accept that and dig deep to that place of strength. It takes practice to access it, so hop to it.

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