by Coach Adolfo Salgueiro | Apr 26, 2022 | Article, Coaching
By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro
In our training, it is not if life will get on the way but when. It has happened to all of us regardless of how committed we may be. Whether to alter an entire training plan or to screw up a single run, if life events havenât gotten in your way yet, keep running and they will. Being confronted with a constant barrage of personal challenges is part of the human experience. Adjusting ourselves to such reality is what keeps us moving forward.
It is important to note that just because life got in the way, quitting your goal-race, or even running altogether, is unnecessary. If we wait for perfect circumstances, we would still be waiting to start our running journey. The key is being smart enough to adapt to the reality you are confronted with so you can make sure you enjoy the benefits of whatever work you were able to stitch together during these grim times.
A well adjusted training plan and a smartly executed race, earned my trainee his coveted unicorn medal.
Letâs keep things in perspective here. If you undergo emergency triple-bypass surgery in the middle of your marathon training or if you split your femur in two, you are not running that race, period.
I started thinking of this concept because I had a trainee in last weekâs Boston Marathon who was forced to make such adjustments. And despite running 14 minutes over his PR, he had a spectacular experience in the premier world marathon. His journey was worth a few tears at the finish line. A result to be proud of.
This runner worked on his BQ for a couple of years and finally got it last year. As the training was about to start, he found himself moving to another state to start a new business. Settling in a new area, changing schools for the kids, finding a home, adjusting his family to a new routine and working longer hours became the priorities. As they should have. No one expected him not to provide for his family because he had to train for Boston. Early in the training cycle it became evident that the marathon training was becoming a challenge. What to do?
Well, runner and coach had lengthy phone conversations in which matters were put into the right perspective. The runner realized that the BQ was taken care of, and he was already in the Boston Marathon. So, instead of feeling annoyed because he wouldnât be able to run at his top capacity, we shifted the focus into finishing the race and enjoying the experience. Completing as many sessions as possible, focusing on distance instead of speed, and working towards a race to remember.
And that is exactly what happened. A well-executed race plan allowed him to finish strong, happy, smiling, with a unicorn medal around his neck and, most importantly, uninjured.
If you are about to start todayâs run and you feel like the person in this image by Engin Ekyurt, from Pexels, you better adjust your expectations, or skip it altogether.
But life not only gets in the way when training for a Marathon Major. Sometimes it is the petty things that can screw up training on any given day. And we better adjust, too.
Last week, one of my trainees had a 6-mile run scheduled but got to the start with indigestion. He had eaten a hotdog about 5 hours earlier and it was giving him stomach trouble. Like the trooper he is, he went for it but at Mile 3, everything unraveled. He felt tired, dizzy and started walking.
As I always preach, we need to take the inevitable bad days as an opportunity. If we donât learn from them, weâll never accumulate the experience needed to confront a similar challenge the next time it is facing us. And it is a matter of when, not if.
On a bad day, you must adapt to the reality of what your body has available at that given moment. Regardless of the reason this is happening. You ate bad food, you didnât eat at all, you just had a rift with your spouse, stressful day at work, you just got bad news, or fill in the blank. It doesnât matter why. Accept that you just donât have it today. If you decide to take the macho route and decide to push through when your body is not ready, you are in for trouble.
You are better off downgrading those 6 miles to 3, intervals to an easy trot, a long run to a mid-distance effort or a tempo to a comfortable walk; than forcing yourself and ending up exerting yourself beyond your limit, thus requiring extra days of recovery. Or even worse, getting injured. That will set you further behind than cutting short one day, or even skipping it.
Remember: It is all about training smarter, not necessarily training harder. Harder is important, but smarter will keep you running.
Live to run another day.
by Coach Adolfo Salgueiro | Apr 12, 2022 | Coaching, List, Reflection
By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro
As runners, we would all like to improve on a weekly or monthly basis. If we could set up PRs in all our trainings, races and in all our distances, why wouldnât we? It must be a lot of fun. But the human body is not set up for an indefinite, upward linear progress. There comes a time when such progress wanes down. And there are also times when you get in a running rut.
Keeping the motivation alive is the key to the success of your running journey (Photo: run-ffwpu, Pexels)
It is easy to lace up and hit the asphalt or the trail when things are going well. When you are running in-the-zone, effortlessly, when the miles pile up without feeling them. But the key to becoming a successful and life-long runner is to be able to keep your motivation up when things are not going well. When you are injured, when you canât figure out why your body doesnât give you more than 4 miles, when it hurts just to think on putting on your running shoes, when everything just sucks.
 Fortunately, there are plenty of strategies to apply to keep that running journey alive. To get back to where you want to be. Here are eight of them:
 1 â Create feasible, short-term goals to keep you focused: Regardless of where you are on your journey, having an achievable goal in front of you is crucial to keep moving forward. The operating adjective here is âachievableâ. Even amid a long-term goal, such as a BQ in 3 years or running 2000 miles this year, you must structure a plan that will allow you small triumphs to keep your dream and your motivation alive.
 2 â Register to a race, now: I am convinced there is no bigger motivation out there than being registered to a race. This way, you know you need to be ready to run X distance by X Day. This will allow you to set up a plan, set expectations and motivate you to keep moving forward during the inevitable challenging times. Even more, let everyone know you have registered, so it is even tougher to back out.
 3 â Find a running partner/group: While running could be the perfect time for introspection and solitude, having a running partner with similar goals to be accountable to, is always a good strategy. You can also join a running group or team where you can find yourself welcomed and become part of your local running community. This will change your running life. Guaranteed.
Diet doesnât have to be fancy. Just eat more of the the good stuff, cut the junk, and you will see immediate improvements. (Foto: Polina Tankilevitch, Pexels)
4 â Dial in your nutrition: If you eat junk all day, there is no training plan able to help you become the best runner you can be. Nobody expects you to never again eat a donut, but you canât eat six them and flushing them down with Coke, every single day. A solid and balanced diet will take you a long way. It doesnât need to be a fancy nutrition plan. Eat your veggies, consume good carbs and fats, take it easy with the alcohol and donât overindulge. That alone, will take you a long way.
 5 â Make rest part of your program: You can work as hard as you want, but if you donât allow your body to heal and repair, you will become overtrained and injured. Not a matter of if but when. Cross training days, when your body works out but doesnât receive the pounding, or a weekly day with nothing in your schedule, should be an integral part of your plan, so you can keep healthy and so you wonât burn out.
 6 â Do not sacrifice sleep: Remember you donât improve when you work out, you improve while you sleep. The long run, the tempo, the weightlifting, or the speed session damage your body. It is when you sleep that your body gets repaired. If you skip on sleep, you wonât realize all the benefits of the training, but you will keep the muscle damage. It is that simple.
 7 â Work with a coach: This is not a self-serving tip. There are reasons why even multi-billion dollar companies hire consultants. Someone who can see things from the outside and assist in maximizing their resources to improve results. Same applies to your running journey. The knowledge and experience of a specialist at your service, can only enhance your experience and thus, your performance.
 8 â Just have fun: If you donât have fun, you wonât last as a runner. It is that simple.
 Any other tips you may want to contribute?
by Coach Adolfo Salgueiro | Jan 25, 2022 | Article, Coaching, Personal, Reflection
By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro
 On Sunday, January 16th, I participated in the 50th anniversary edition of the Chevron Houston Marathon. I want to start by stating that it was one of the most amazing experiences Iâve had in 40+ years of racing. From the organizational perspective, the race is at the same level of any big-city event. It is up there with any Major. On the personal side, it was uplifting. From the coaching side, it was memorable.
About to cross the finish line with a hand in my heart and the other one thanking The One who made this miracle possible
I knew the eventâs center of operations was the George R. Brown Convention Center, which is huge. I never expected it to take the entire place. The execution of the bib pick up was flawless even though a bit more signage would have been welcome for the sake of out of-towners, such as me. I did not visit the expo, though. Friends told me it was a smaller version, given the Covid reality of the world.
Running morning was cold, cold, cold. Thirty-six degrees when we left our Airbnb. But we were able to find refuge, toilets and a place to rest while we waited for our corrals to open. Everything was so well organized and orderly that your only worry was walking to the start. The whole shebang was taken care of for you.
The course was flat, sans an overpass and two, minor underpasses. We ran through beautiful areas of the city and crowd support was solid without being overwhelming. There were so many port-a-pots throughout the race that I never saw a waiting line. There were even urinals at the starting line, first time Iâve seen this in the US. I stopped about mile 14, not because I had to but as a preemptive measure, just because I could and there were no lines.
Last mile, back in downtown, was stunning. Lots of fans and photographers lining up to welcome back the runners. After picking up our spectacular finisherâs medal, we went into the Convention Center to get our finisherâs shirt and food bag. The only unflattering thing I have to say about the race is the shirt. It was a cheapy fabric, fits poorly and the design was nothing to write home about.
I fully recommend this event to anyone interested in a big-city race. This is a Marathon-Major-like organization without the Marathon Major label nor price tag.
COACHING EXPERIENCE
I had a wonderful experience with my four coached athletes in the race. All three marathoners set PRs even though two of them contracted Covid just three weeks before the race. This hindered their expectations and the size of their PRs, but they both achieve their A-Goals through courageous performances. The half marathoner was able to cross the finish line strong, healthy and with a big smile on his face. His goal was finishing after a long hiatus, and that was accomplished, too.
All runners trusted the process, followed their training diligently and executed their race plans to the tee. Thus, the results.
There is nothing more satisfying for a coach than one of your runners telling you: âThank you. I couldnât have done it without youâ. Even though it sounds (and it is) self-serving, it reminds you that, even though they all had in them the ability to achieve what they just did, your guidance made a difference in this runnerâs race. And that is priceless.
MY RACE
On the personal side, I was able to complete the Houston Marathon (my 11th), just 207 days after open-heart surgery. I trained with a race/walk protocol that allowed me to make this a reality, despite having time for just two long sessions (16 and 17 miles). Yet, in just four months, I was able to complete the race in 5:16:45. The time is nothing special, but on my race, time was irrelevant. It was all about crossing the finish line.
Even though it was my 11th marathon, this finish line was special.
The chilly weather was helpful. I ran the first 7 miles biting an 11 pace, and from there started my walk/run protocol of .18/.82 (weird splits, sure, but it was where, after much practice, I felt more comfortable). I reached miles 16, 18 and 20, tired but strong. Legs started to hurt reaching miles 21 and 22 and after the walking break for Mile 23, the legs just stop firing. I tried to restart the running, but it wasnât happening. I ran some quick math and realized that if I restarted now, I could go sub-5, but the legs were shot. Then I realized that being at Mile 23, 30 weeks after OHS, was miracle enough and I wasnât going to let the clock dictate the terms of my happiness or what God was allowing me to do. So I walked most of the last 5K with a big smile, never resenting the time lost or wondering why I didnât go for the half.
I crossed the finish line with teary eyes and a couple of seconds later, I hear the unmistakable screams of my beautiful wife welcoming me. Unfortunately, she was on the other side of the street, and it would take about an hour for me to hug her. But the fact that she witnessed the miracle of my finish, firsthand, uplifted my spirit.
Houston was a spectacular experience in every sense of the phrase. As a runner, as a coach and as the protagonist of something improbable. Because what I personally accomplished is so unlikely that it can only be explained by the divine intervention of God, through me. This is what proves that it is a miracle. Sharing it with my friends from the No-Club Runners multiplied tenfold the experience.
I canât wait to see whatâs next!
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by Coach Adolfo Salgueiro | Dec 7, 2021 | Article, Coaching, Reflection
By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro
All of us runners, regardless how dedicated we are to our craft, at times become experts in creating the perfect excuse to justify not running on a specific day. There are some valid excuses, of course. No one expects you to run during an electric storm or when the temperature is 120 or -50 degrees?
What it is not and will never be a valid excuse is not having a functioning GPS watch. It doesnât matter if it doesnât have enough charge, if you forgot it at home, if the wrist band broke or fill in the blank. There are plenty of options to get around this minor setback and get your training in.
If you your battery doesnât have enough charge for your run, it is your fault. Assume the msitake and go run.
The following is a list of ways to overcome obstacles when it comes to GPS watch issues, so you can go train, anyway:
1 â The watch doesnât have enough charge for my run: That is your fault. Own your mistake. Run on a known course and when you get home, do the simple math necessary to project what your watch was able to record to what you know is the distance you ran. Option B is to run with a buddy and get screen shots of the activity.
2 â I forgot or misplaced my watch: This is your fault. Own your mistake. Your run doesnât need to be recorded for posterity to benefit your health or make you a better runner. What really counts is that you do run. One day without posting it in Instagram or Strava shouldnât hurt your ego that much.
3 â My watch is not acquiring the satellites: It happens. Sometimes you have the time to wait a bit longer or restart your watch. Sometimes your group is leaving, or the race is starting. Get moving without the satellites and when they hit, start your watch. Once at home, do the simple math necessary to project what your watch was able to record and have an approximate run. It is better than not running.
4 â How am I supposed to know my pace without GPS? As many benefits as a GPS watch has, the main drawback is that runners have forgotten to run by feel. Take this as an opportunity to have fun, run by perceived effort for a change, without a gadget dictating your pace and effort. Feel the fun of an easy pace, or the thrill of comfortably pushing if that is your scheduled workout. Have fun with Fartlek or just, for a change, enjoy the view and remember you run because it is fun.
GPS watches are wonderful additions to any runners arsenal, but they have made us forget the freedom of running by feel.
5 â I canât do my interval training without a functioning watch: Sure, interval training without a watch is hard. But if you donât have it with you, most likely it is your fault, and you need to own your mistake and find a solution. There is an alternative, though. Boring but available. It is a treadmill. If you donât have a treadmill, do your intervals based on available landmarks. To the third tree, to the next traffic light or to whatever is accessible and fits your plan for the day.
6 â My dog ate the watch: Check issues 1 through 5 above, overcome your objections, lace up and start running
One more thing. Most of us have additional apps in our phones that can assume on the work for a day: Strava, MapMyRun, RunKeeper, etc. There are many more and most of them have a free version. If you donât run with a phone and canât live with the most updated data, run with the phone that day and voila!!! Issue resolved.
As you can see, all excuses regarding your GPS watch can be easily overcome. So, remember that nobody came back from a run hoping they would have stayed at home doing nothing. Each run is transformational. Donât miss on it because of an inconsequential obstacle.
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by Coach Adolfo Salgueiro | Oct 26, 2021 | Book Review, Coaching
By Garth Gilmour
Reviewed by Coach Adolfo Salgueiro
While names like Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Eliud Kipchoge, Grete Waitz, Haile Gebrselassie or Fred Lebow are known by many as some of the most influential people in the history of contemporary running, Arthur Lydiardâs is less known by the masses. Yet, most of our training plans, including some for the aforementioned runners, are based on Lydiardâs periodization principles. Born in New Zealand in 1917 (passed away in 2004), he is well known among coaching circles and by those curious enough to figure out where the basics of their training plans are coming from.
A well written book worth the time and money for those who care about the history of running.
Arthur was a local running elite who started keeping track of his training and figuring out what worked better for him. He focused on what made him better and discarded that what did not. He was no physiologist, medical doctor, or scientist. He was a shoemaker with a side gig as a milk deliveryman who just loved to run and get better at it.
His main discovery is that gains needed to be obtained slowly over time for the body to adapt and them to stick. That when the body adapts to the stimuli this gains remain and from there you can build on them. He realized that not everybody needs to run 50×400 like Emil Zatopek to become a better runner. The key for any distance from 800 to the marathon is endurance and you could obtain such endurance by developing your cardiovascular system. You do so by taking your time and running a lot of miles while recovering so you can do it, again.
As his New Zealand track and field teams had successful Olympic Games in 1960 and 1964, and Peter Snell, Murray Halberg and Barry Magee became household names in the world stage, coaches from around the world started approaching Arthur. Suddenly, Lydiard was âdiscoveredâ and became a coaching guru traveling the world.
Lydiard epitomized the Luke 4:24 biblical verse: âno prophet is accepted in his hometownâ. Despite his multiple successes taking many compatriots into the top of the world stage, he kept fighting with the local sporting authorities who refused to accept his methods and ended up spreading his knowledge around the globe while New Zealanders were left behind.
Olympic Committees from Mexico, Finland, and Venezuela trusted him with the training of his athletes, some with better results than others. Japanese coaches and runners visited New Zealand to train with him. During the boom of Japanese world-class marathoners of the early to mid-eighties, Toshihiko Seko and the So twins, Shigeru, and Takeshi, were in part, his success.
Thet op runners of the Japanese world-class runners boom from the eighties were product of Lydiardâs principles: Toshihiko Seko, Takeshi and Shigeru Soh.
Lydiardâs periodization principles were so effective and revolutionary, that swimmers and horse trainers adopted them with the necessary adjustments and saw results. It has been used for decades by some of the most successful performers in those disciplines.
The March/April 1992 issue of Peak Running Performance magazine said: Lydiard\’s program epitomizes one general, but very critical concept related to exercise and sports physiology. This broad principle is gradual adaptation. While most athletes would call this \”plain old common sense\”, experience tells us that common sense is not so commonâespecially among runners who have a strong desire to improve their running.
Author Garth Gilmour condensed Arthurâs work in the following paragraph:
âFirst tested and found successful in the 1950s, the Lydiard system has undergone some subtle refinements through the years. But it remains the same elemental theory that first placed a small handful of ordinary runners, from Lydiard\’s immediate neighborhood in an Auckland, New Zealand, suburb, at the forefront of world middle and distance running for more than a decade and then, as Lydiard advanced from being a coach of runners to an international coach of coaches, spread around the running tracks and training centers of the entire world.â
This is a biography on the subject, not a scientific treaty of his findings or the application of his training theories. Sure, Lydiard may not be the sexiest of subjects for everyday runners, but he was an innovator with a legacy worth knowing about. Arthur Lydiard: Master Coach is well written book, pleasant to read. Well worth your time and money if you care for the creator of the core in which most of our training plans are based on.
Â
by Coach Adolfo Salgueiro | Oct 19, 2021 | Article, Coaching, Guest Perspective, Reflection
By Coach Marci Braithwaite*
This is Marciâs second contribution to the Foultips.run blog. She wrote âThe Journey of the Fat Runnerâ back on March 30th, which is by far, the most read post in the history of this blog.
“It’s not a workout if it’s not at least 3 miles.”
“I have to hit the gym for an hour, at least.”
“I run every single day.”
“If I don’t work out for 30 minutes, it doesn’t count.”
I’m guilty of thinking and doing all these things in the past. How about you?
10,000 steps a day is an arbitrary number set by a marketing ocmpany (Photo: Blue Bird, Pexels.com)
Did you know that 10,000 steps is an arbitrary number picked by a marketing company, not by science? 4,500 steps per day is the number found to make a difference in overall health, and the benefit doesn’t increase much, the higher your step count.
American lives are busy. Our culture doesn’t value rest, so we are constantly driven to be productive. We keep our kids in every activity imaginable, we work full time, we are expected to have clean houses and manicured yards, cook “healthy” meals, and, oh! don’t forget self-care! Not to mention, our bodies are held to a physical ideal that most people will never match, no matter how much time we spend in a gym. But we must look like we’re trying, so we add in working out regularly to the list of other productive things we must do each day.
No wonder we’re all exhausted.
As a running coach, there are two questions I get more than any others. One is, “How do I get rid of shin splints?” (not covered in this post). The other is, “How do I stay motivated?”
And it’s no wonder that people feel the need to ask that question, because our lives are so full and so busy that fitting one more hour-long workout into our days can sometimes seem like a herculean task. We forget all the other things we’ve been motivated to do all day and feel worthless and exhausted at the end of the day because that workout just didn’t fit into all of it.
Have you ever considered doing… less?
Fitness isn’t a look, it’s a lifestyle. It’s movement, which our bodies are designed to do naturally. And if you’re one of those people who never has a problem with motivation and gets to the gym or hits the road every day, like clockwork, and never feels a lag in your desire to do so, great! But I’d be willing to bet that something else in that list of societal expectations will suffer sooner or later. Because our bodies need rest, and our societal expectations are waaay too high.
There are a few things I would suggest to help change that.
If you find yourself constantly saying: “The workout doesn’t count if it isn’t ___.â But then you also find yourself skipping workouts because you can’t fit another ___ timeslot into your day, you might consider changing your outlook on fitness. Our bodies are designed to move, but that movement doesn’t have to be in prescribed timeslots or for continuous periods. Fitness should be a lifestyle, which means movement every day WITHIN our days, as a part of our days, naturally.
You can always fit in movement into your office hours if you plan it properly (Photo: Andrea Piacquadio, Pexels.com)
Small bites work. Doing a mobility exercise for two minutes after sitting at your desk for an hour has measurable benefits. Keep a list of easy exercises beside your computer and take 2-5 minute breaks throughout your workday, and you’ll have completed a 30 minute workout by the time you go home. You will feel better in your mind and body, plus you’ll have freed up a 30-minute period to cuddle and read a story with your kiddo.
Other things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or parking further back in the lot help, as well. Setting a reminder on your phone or watch is helpful. Taking a walk or run on your lunch break can be beneficial, but please, don’t skip the meal if your body is hungry (looking into intuitive eating would be a good thing, too).
All these things help to take motivation out of the equation, because the movement becomes a habit, not a requirement. Even running can be done like this (unless you’re training for longer distances, then please follow your coach’s plan). A 5-minute run is better than no run. And you may find that you feel just as good after a quick loop around the block in the middle of the day as you would after an hour-long run after a busy day.
What I’m saying is, be gentle with yourself. Take small bites. Of life, of fitness, of society’s expectations. Start small. You may find that it leads to larger things, but if it doesn’t, that’s perfectly okay, too. We all have our responsibilities – do what you can to fit fitness into your life in a comfortable way. It should never hurt, and you should always feel good about it at the end of the day.
*Maci is a RRCA Certified running coach, who runs âThe Fat Athleteâ website. If you want more information on her groups, you can request it by emailing coach.thefatathlete@gmail.com; or you can follow her in Instagram @TheÂ_Fat_Athlete.
