500 Consecutive Days on the Run

500 Consecutive Days on the Run

by | Sep 8, 2020 | Article, Guest Perspective, Opinion

By Lucy Chabot Reed

My return to running started on Feb. 16, 2019. That was the day of the Chris Hixon Memorial 5K. I couldn’t remember the last time I ran 3.1 miles, but it didn’t matter. Chris Hixon was killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shootings and his wife, Debbie, had been a colleague of mine. Having a high-school-aged daughter myself, my heart was broken for Debbie, for the MSD kids, for all kids, for my country. This 5K was something I could do.

500 Days

Lucy learned about streaking in Runners World magazine. She started and hasn’t stopped.

I ran/walked that 5K in an hour. Well, just under an hour because as we approached the finish line, the seconds were counting up and my friend and I sprinted for the finish — if you can call it a sprint — and we finished in 59:37. We celebrated!

A few months later, lounging on my bed, I read my very first copy of Runner’s World magazine. The cover story was about the magazine’s annual running streak, set to begin on Memorial Day and run through the Fourth of July — 41 days of running one mile every day.  

Nutty, I thought. Who has the time to run every day? Who would want to? One sentence in that story jumped off the page: Run one mile every day for a year and watch your body change. 

OK. That got me. I was at the heaviest weight I’d ever been (except when I was pregnant) and was eager for my body to change. I was willing to invest the year, and I couldn’t wait for Memorial Day to begin. I started the next day, April 27, 2019.

The first few days were more walking than running, but I did them. And they hurt a little. Why was I doing this again?

So I turned to the #RWrunstreak Facebook page and read about all the crazy streakers running through ice and snow, hitting 500 days, celebrating comma day, streaking for four years! They inspired me and kept me going. When streakers completed their runs with icicles hanging off their eyelashes, no way was I going to let a little warm South Florida rain break my streak.

I soon discovered that my streak worked best if I didn’t think about it first. So I woke up every morning, drink a glass of water, put on my running clothes and sneakers, and walk out the door. Before I can think too much about it or reason with myself to stay in bed, I’m running.

I also discovered — much less easily — that the same philosophy is true of everything in my life. If I stop analyzing things before I do them and just get started, I soon discover things get done. Every day, no matter what, I deserve those 10-15 minutes to myself, to get my heart beating, to be thankful that I can actually get up on my still healthy legs and move them the way I want. I didn’t consider myself a runner. I was just taking part in this gimmick, this streak. But I do consider myself a runner now. I’m not fast or graceful and stuff hurts most of the time, but I run, and that’s all it takes to be a runner.

My body has changed since I started running every day. Not right away, and to be honest, it wasn’t until I changed my diet (no sugar, no dairy) that the pounds fell off. I’ve lost 25 pounds this past year. It was running every day that made me want to stick to a food plan that makes me feel better.

Yesterday, Monday, September 7th, I celebrated Labor Day with my 500th consecutive day of running. Yes, every day. I don’t look too far out. I just run today, every day. It’s a habit now, like brushing my teeth. I don’t think about it; I just do it. And I can’t imagine a day when I won’t.

Post script: This story was written a few days before the completion of the 500 milestone. When I wrote to Lucy a couple of days prior to publication to confirm the streak was still alive, this was her answer: “Yup! I am out of town for the day and forgot my sneakers, so I ran my mile in my Birkenstock sandals this morning!! I\’ll do whatever it takes to keep my streak alive”.

Lucy Chabot Reed is a Fort Lauderdale-based journalist of more than 30 years. She started running in high school but only dabbled in it until starting her run streak. She now competes in triathlons. 

 

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7 Bad Running Habits to Quit

7 Bad Running Habits to Quit

by | Sep 2, 2020 | Article, Coaching

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

Bad Running Habits

As in any activity, we pick up bad habits in our running lives. Let’s make sure we correct them before they become an issue.

Just as in any activity in the real world, in running we get more experience as we put more miles under our soles, participate in more races or bonk in training. And, just as in any other activity in the real world, we pick up bad habits on the way to achieving such experience. In running, those bad habits can either suck the joy out of our activity or, even worse, get us injured and, thus, sidelined.

Here are seven bad habits in which runners commonly fall into. This is not a comprehensive list by any means, but it is a start so we can have an introspection on our running lives to make sure we will keep active in our sport of choice for many, many years to come.

1 – Comparing yourself to other runners – Our sport is individual, and each runner is its own planet. No two are alike. The fact that Jimmy can run a sub-3 marathon o Billy can run 3500 miles a year, has absolutely nothing to do with what I can achieve. Do not fall into the comparison trap, it will suck the joy out of an activity you are supposed to be doing because we enjoy it.

2 – Skipping days off – Rest and recovery are as integral to a training plan as a 20-mile run before a marathon or an interval training session 5 weeks before your goal race. It is common for us runners to think we are invincible, it comes with the territory, and when we realize we are not, it is usually too late. Do not be afraid of scheduled off days, and make sure to take one or two, days or weeks, when you need them. Running burnout is real thing. Make sure you understand this anecdotally and not first-hand. 

3 – Judging your training by pace alone – Who doesn’t want to run faster or go with the leaders on a group run. Maybe you can, maybe you can’t. What is important to understand is that to be able to run a fast pace, you need to slow down and recover on easy days. Do not fall into the trap of attaching your self-worth as a runner to average pace per mile. Unless you have a training plan with specific goals set for you on a certain day, run by feel and change paces often. Improvement will come on its own.

Bad Running Habits

Small adjustments to make your running life part of your life instead of making it your life, will help you avoid burnout and injury

4 – Skipping warm-ups – Sure, we all want to run fast and do so as soon as possible, but we will be setting up ourselves for failure and/or injury if we started our training runs or races at full speed. You may be able to run a 7, 9 or-11-minute mile at peak performance, but that will not be on your first, and most likely second mile of the day. Your muscles and mind need time to get ready for the activity you are about to undertake, so plan accordingly.

5 – Living your running life through social media – Social media is great for many reasons, and it can be bad for as many reasons. Share your accomplishments and share your failures. Share your good time with running friends and the spectacular sunrises or oddities you may see on the route. Just make sure that you are not running solely to improve your likes or the need to hear strangers telling you great you are. It is the wrong reason for running.

6 – Feeling guilty because you took a day to do something important – Unless you are Eliud Kipchoge or Mo Farah, running should be part of a balanced life, not “your life”. Don’t miss the opportunity of moving in your kid into college or celebrating an important anniversary or milestone because, or taking a weekend away with loved ones when you have a 20-miler that weekend. Your family, professional and running lives need to complement each other.

7 – Jumping into your car right after your run – Once you are done with your run, make sure you take at least 10-15 minutes to cool off, rehydrate, stretch and regain a state of calmness before jumping into your car to go home. Do not sit or lay down at least until you have been able to catch your breath. If you feel you don’t have the time to do this, then finish your run a mile short and walk back to your car.

Did I leave anything out? Let me know, below.

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The Importance of Embracing Failure

The Importance of Embracing Failure

by | Aug 26, 2020 | Article

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

 

Embracing FailureA few days ago I got a meme where two people are having a conversation. Maybe a job interview. The meme is the first illustration of this blog post. They talk about the key to success and how to accumulate experience to make right decisions. What was the key? Wrong decisions. Why? because failure is not the opposite of success. It is part of it.

This meme got me thinking on how this applies to our sport of running. It applies to life in general, for sure, but that is beyond the scope of this blog. As runners we are always pushing our limits, both in training and races. We strive for that PR. We sweat to hit the splits on each interval. We suffer the day we feel great but the training plan ordains an off day. We can’t sleep the night before an important 20-miler but still wake up ready for action. Yet.. then… sometimes… we fail.

Common knowledge teaches us to “listen to our bodies”, but as runners, we rarely do. We even struggle with what “listen to your body” actually means. What we need to remember is that the body is a machine. An exceptionally complex, fine-tuned machine, but a machine, nevertheless. This means that it doesn’t always perform at its highest potential. Sometimes it needs maintenance, sometimes a part breaks down, sometimes you forgot to add oil or coolant. Even the best F1 cars fail to finish races due to mechanic failure.

We must understand that failure is an intimate part of our running life. Is not if we will have a bad run or a bad race, it is a matter of when. And we cannot hold this one bad day as the defining moment of our day, our training plan, or our life. Running great Dean Karnazes tells the tale of his failed attempt at Badwater in his book Ultramarathon Man, and he is not ashamed of it. Alberto Salazar also opens himself about facing death after overdoing it in a race in his book 14 Minutes. The key is, as they both tell us, what do you take from those experiences, and then how you apply what you learned while moving forward.

Imagine if we were not going to run another marathon because we hit the wall that one time. Imagine how many people would participate in your local 5K if the failed to set up a PR or place in their age group, last year. How many runners would you see on the track on any given afternoon if they could not hit their splits last week? Not very deep thoughts, sure, but so simple, so real, and so close to us all.

Embracing FailureThomas Edison said: “I didn’t fail. I just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”. This also translates to your 800 repeats, your first-mile pace in that 5K when you bonked, and your stupid decision of pushing too hard at mile 8 on that marathon because you were feeling so good.

As runners, it is imperative to have a short-term memory when It comes to failure so we can keep moving forward. Some need of more encouragement than others. The key is to remember that we run because we enjoy it. We are choosing the suffering. Nobody is forcing us to put ourselves in a position where we may and will eventually fail. We just must extract the lessons from what happened, put them into practice, move on and forget whatever happened that day. If we learned nothing from bonking on that long run, if we learned nothing from going out too fast the first half of that race, if we learned nothing from that day we got dehydrated; then we are bound to repeat those mistakes, and very soon.

Always remember that experience is what we get when we don’t obtain what we originally set out to get. So make sure you take advantage, and even embrace, your running failures. They will be visiting you soon enough and you should be prepared to deal with them.

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Hydration Basics for Runners

Hydration Basics for Runners

by | Aug 19, 2020 | Article, Coaching

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

The basic concepts on hydration have moved like a pendulum through the last century of athletics in general but running in particular. While the earlier runners of the Boston Marathon took it as a matter of pride not to consume water, in later years the thesis of never been able to consume too much came en vogue and was disproven. Now days, we are in the “drink to thirst” phase. The truth is that there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to the matter. What worked for Bill Rodgers in the 1970s, does not work for Eliud Kipchoge, setting the world record and does not necessarily work for you, right now.

Hydration BasicsWhen it comes to hydration, extremes do not work. Not taking any liquids during a marathon is a recipe for disaster that doesn’t require much explanation. The “more is better” can lead to the life-threatening condition known as hyponatremia, whose explanation is beyond the scope of this blogpost.

It is important to understand that if you are running 3-6 miles, 3-4 times a week, your body may have everything it needs to cope with your hydration needs. There should be no need for a hydration strategy per se unless you are running in an oppressively hot and humid environment. A quick 5K around my block is not the same as 5K in the Sahara at noon. But once you are getting up on mileage, or start training for a longer effort, then it becomes imperative that you do something about your hydration needs.

“Hydration is a balancing act—says Andy Blow, British Sports Scientist and founder of Precision Hydration—One thing we can all agree is that once you hit a level of under-hydration, where you lose enough fluids and electrolytes, at some point you will reach serious problems, such as reduced cardiovascular function because your blood gets thicker and thicker as you get more and more dehydrated. Then you dissipate heat less well, you overheat and from there you get into a downward spiral.”

Finding out where in the spectrum you fit; how much you need to drink, how often and what electrolytes you need to replace is your responsibility as a runner. Sure, a coach can and will assist you, but only if you feed him the right data, which is your duty.

Hydration Basics

Hydration Specialist and Sports Scientist Andy Blow

An easy home test to figure out how much you sweat on a specific setting, let’s say on a summer long run; is to weigh yourself naked right before you leave. Run for an hour without consuming anything. As soon as you get home, get naked, wipe yourself off and weigh yourself, again. The difference in weight is how much sweat you lost in an hour. Each gram lost is equivalent to about 1 milliliter of water, as there are other contents in your sweat (in the Imperial measure system, each tenth of a pound is equivalent to 1.6 Fl Oz). This is your sweat rate and the approximate amount of water you need to replace as you run in similar conditions. Yes, it is that simple.

As personal as the sweat rate is, the contents of your sweat are equally individual. You need to know what is in your sweat so you can replace it. If you are caked in salt once the sweat evaporates, then you are losing a lot of salt, 40% of which is sodium, a key electrolyte. So, if this is you, you need to go above the set guidelines for salt intake, as these are not for athletes but for normal, inactive people.

According to Blow, the best approach for hydration on shorter runs (90 minutes or less) is not to have a plan but to drink to thirst. For longer runs, like a 20-miler on a hot summer day, you need to consume not only water but also sodium to compensate what is being secreted and keep your stores as topped off as possible.

There is so much more about hydration. Not all of it can be addressed in just one post. Tim Noakes, the world renowned South African sports physiologist, wrote “Waterlogged”, a book about the topic which is 448 pages long. If you want to dig deeper into the subject, this is my recommended source.

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To Fast or Not to Fast?

To Fast or Not to Fast?

by | Aug 5, 2020 | Article, Coaching

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

It is an ongoing debate between runners, coaches, scientists and onlookers in general if we should run in a fasting state or not. Despite all the science, studies, anecdotal evidence and articles on the subject, the verdict boils down to a simple two-word answer: It depends.

Fasting

Figuring out what to eat and when is the responsibility of each runner.

It depends on what type of runner you are, how long you are running, when you’re going for a run, what are you trying to accomplish, and so many other factors. There are as many answers as there are runners. And what works for you doesn’t necessarily work for me.

If you run first thing in the morning, you can do a simple A/B testing and figure out what works for you. There are people that can’t function without a coffee and there are people that will have to rush behind the bushes if they have a coffee before running. You can try with an apple, or a banana, or a bagel, or toast, and from there find out what helps you out and what upsets your stomach. A running partner once told me she had a bowl of oatmeal before our long runs. If I had a bowl of oatmeal, I would be the one running for the bushes.

The key to this is not to overdo it. You are just looking to top off your glycogen stores before you hit the road. You are not taking breakfast. Digestion uses a lot of blood, same as running does. So when the body diverts the blood to fuel your running, digestion stops. The rest I will leave to your imagination.

Running on a fasting state, you will teach your body to use its own resources without depending on outside fueling. This is beneficial when you are training for a long effort, usually the half-marathon and above. As you your body adapts to the finite amount of glycogen it has available, it learns to use its stored fat as a source of fuel. This becomes invaluable when you go beyond the 18-20-mile mark, so you can avoid the dreaded wall.

I want to make absolutely clear that I am not saying to go run 18-20 miles just with what you woke up with. You should not neglect your fueling strategy (that is a topic beyond the scope of this blog post). What I am saying is that running in a fasting state will train your body to reach that critical point with something left in the tank.

Fasting

The time of the day in which you run is one of the key variables on fasting or not

The time of the day in which you run is key on deciding if fasting or not fasting is right for you. If you run in the afternoon, you shouldn’t be fasting all day. What you must do is adjust your eating habits so you can fulfill your training without interrupting digestion. Once again: A/B testing. You will have to discover what works best for you. You will have to eat something before your run, but what and when is the key. It could be some fruit, or a sandwich or handful of almonds; either two or three hours before your run. Or maybe its just one hour. It is your responsibility to figure that out.

Even if you prefer running in a fasting state, you must prepare for the task you will be facing. If you are running New York, or Boston, where you may be starting at 11AM, you can’t do it in a fasting state. You must eat something hearty for breakfast with enough time to digest (about 4 hours). You breakfast needs to be a low-waste meal so you can avoid number-2 unscheduled breaks. Astronauts for the first Mercury and Gemini missions, when bathrooms were not available in their spacecrafts, used to eat filet mignon, eggs and toast before launch. You may want to switch the filet mignon for another type of protein but in general, this is a great option. One that needs to be practiced before race day.

My recommendation is to start working on your A/B testing right away. Find the benefits and the drawbacks of fasting or not; of eating and eating what; of eating or not based on how long are you planning to go; on when to eat; on figuring out if coffee, oatmeal, fruit, toast or whatever, works best for you; or not. The time to work on this, is now, not when you are tapering for your marathon or the morning of your goal race.

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No Fall Races. Now What?

No Fall Races. Now What?

by | Jul 29, 2020 | Article, Opinion, Personal

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

A couple of weeks ago we mentioned the Abbott World Marathon Majors, whose Series XIII was crippled by the pandemic that has swept the world. And we can pout all we want but the reality is that, most likely, we will not see any racing at least until the Fall of 2021. If your race hasn’t been called yet, be patient and it soon will. It is the new reality so, lets adjust and move forward with our lives, and on with our running.

Fall Races

Images like this one are a-dime-a-dozen these days. But we need to keep in mind why we started running.

As Dr. George Sheehan brilliantly said: “Racing is the lovemaking for the runner. It is difficult to pass up”. I couldn’t agree more. It is a test against ourselves, a friendly competition against our friends, an opportunity to bonk and learn a lesson, the thrill of seeing a finish line on the horizon and crossing it, the justification for a beer with friends at 9AM, and many, many more reasons.

One of the characteristics of races is that with something on the calendar we remain focused on our training, especially during the miserable days of summer. Why run 20 miles in mid-August, starting at 4AM if you are not running a marathon in the Fall? But there is a say that has been doing the rounds in social media: “Races have been cancelled, running has not”, and if we want to keep moving forward toward the main reason that got us lacing up our shoes for the first time, we better keep moving forward, now, so when races resume we are not starting from scratch.

These are a handful of guidelines/suggestions that will assist you in refocusing and repurposing your running during these uncertain months of no-races:

1 – Don’t forget your main running goal: There is a reason why you started running. It could be to have an active social life, or to lose weight, or to get off the couch or to enjoy alone-time away from your professional or domestic setting. Whatever it was, it still applies, today.

2 – Don’t forget your racing goals: You still want to break 30 in the 5K, or BQ or set a PR in your next half marathon. You won’t get ahead by sleeping in, missing runs, or lamenting cancelled races. You can still get prepared now so you can crush that goal when racing resumes.

3 – Follow a plan: It is good to take a couple of months off after a grueling racing season. Run less, have fun, take extra days off. But you shouldn’t remain in a perpetual off-season. Set plans, goals and benchmarks to move forward, even if those are not racing or PR related.

4 – Work on your weak areas: This is the perfect time to get in the habit of strength training, core workouts, balance drills, yoga (even if it is online), stretching, etc. Make the most of your raceless time.

5 – Challenge your running partner: If you have a running partner, set up a buddy challenge. Who can run the fastest 10K six weeks from now? who can go under a certain time a half marathon? or whatever makes you tick. Just be smart so no one gets injured.

6 – Virtual Racing: Yes, the suck. No, it is not the same. But if you need a challenge in your calendar, this is a better-than-nothing option. PRs will not officially count but, remember the “P” stands for personal. And, you may even add a nice medal or shirt to your collection.

7 – Remember that running slow, makes you faster: Multiple studies have shown that running at a slower heart rate effort will develop your aerobic system, thus, make you faster. Document yourself about this and enhance your running engine during the down time.

8 – Above all, don’t be stupid: Yes, sounds harsh, but it is imperative you don’t injure yourself. Imprudent runners will end up nursing their wounds while their buddies return to racing.

These are just eight suggestions to keep you motivated during the pandemic. I bet you can find 100 more. If you do, please share it in the comments section. And make sure these difficult times don’t get to you.

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