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Internal Thoughts of a Morning Runner

by Coach Adolfo Salgueiro | Oct 5, 2021 | Guest Perspective, Opinion, Personal, Reflection

By Coach Shelby Schmidt *

Note from the Editor: I am subscribed to the “Running and Schmidt” blog by Coach Shelby. A few weeks ago she wrote a funny post. It was funny only because it was real, and somehow reflected the true nature of every morning runner out there. Every runner will be able to find a little bit of him/herself in these random thoughts. I am publishing her post with her permission.

Feel free to contribute with your own thoughts in the comments section. Enjoy!

\"There — There are countless tihngs that go through the mind of morning runners. Some, funnier than others (Picture by libreshot.com)

If you wake up at ungodly hours to run countless miles, you can safely fall into the category of *\”crazy morning runner\”.* You know them, you see them, you are them: we are the ones with headlights, neon vests, half opened eye lids and enough coffee in us to fuel a small rocket.

Morning runner — There are countless tihngs that go through the mind of morning runners. Some, funnier than others (Picture by libreshot.com)

If you wake up at ungodly hours to run countless miles, you can safely fall into the category of *\”crazy morning runner\”.* You know them, you see them, you are them: we are the ones with headlights, neon vests, half opened eye lids and enough coffee in us to fuel a small rocket.

Most of us don\’t run with headphones at that time of the morning, for safety, so we have A LOT of time to think. Have you ever run more than three miles without headphones? I don’t love it. It allows me to have WAY too much time to think and my mind is like black hole with no end in sight.

While my endless thoughts just won’t stop, every once in a while, I come up with some gems that I can’t help but share.

So, with that being said, I present you:

Internal Morning Running Thoughts

WHY am I up this early!?!?
When does the time change for it to be brighter earlier? (Then repeats “spring forward fall back” and try to do math at 5am to what time it would actually be).
Passing the same house you did earlier but now they have lights on: “Ohhhh look who’s awake now.”
Seeing someone’s garbage/recycle full to the top: “Damn! did someone have a party?”
When you see another runner like you crazy enough to give up sleep: “Did we just become best friends?”
Seeing a dark object that I can’t fully make out: “Is that a human/dog/ wild animal.”
When a car seems to be slowly coasting along past every house: “What is that car doing? I’m gonna break out my ninja moves—watch out!!!!! Oh it’s just paper delivery l, carry on.”
Literally, every time I bump my pepper spray against myself: “Please don’t let me pepper spray myself.”
Passing houses with lights on: “Doesn’t anyone sleep around here!?!”
When there is a mound of tree clippings taking up half the sidewalk or road: “Do they have any trees left?!?”
When anyone comes around a corner, otherwise of the street or basically into existence remotely near me: “Stay awayyyy!”

I know I can’t be the only one to have these thoughts and I’m sure that everyone has their own!

What are some of the thoughts you have?

*Shelby Schmidt is a running coach certified by RRCA. You can follow her in Instagram at @runningschmidt, and read her blog at https://www.runningandschmidt.com/

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8 Tips for Out-of-Town Racing

by Coach Adolfo Salgueiro | Sep 21, 2021 | Article, List, Reflection

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

As the fall racing season gets into full swing, the Marathon Majors are ready to finally return (sans Tokyo) and runners are excited to stand at starting lines, again, many of us are ready to reward ourselves with a race beyond the boundaries of our immediate area. Exploring the great cities of the world; or celebrating for a few days, sipping margaritas at the beach; or discovering the less traveled paths in lesser-known parts of the world, is always a bonus for our efforts.

But traveling to a race, especially if it is your goal race, doesn’t come without its challenges. It requires planning and additional preparation. If something doesn’t go according to plan, and it will, the chances of fixing it on-the-fly diminish considerably.

Always carry your race-day gear in your carry-on. You don’t want a lost luggage derailing your race (Photo: Pexels.com)

So, if you are setting out to a running/travel adventure, these are a few tips that will help you perform the best at your race while getting the most out of your trip:

1. Do not check your running gear: If traveling by plane, whatever you are wearing on race day, goes in your carry-on. The last thing you need is lost luggage derailing your race plans. You don’t want to run with brand new shoes purchased at the expo or borrowed short.

2. Run first, be a tourist later: Take care of the running portion of your trip, first. Don’t arrive too much in advance before the race. Save the tourist plans for after the race. This way you will be well rested at the starting line, and ready to enjoy as much alcohol and unhealthy food as you want.

3. Plan your pre-race meals: Never take your food intake for granted. Make sure that what you need eat it is available nearby. It happened to me once, that after identifying the restaurant I wanted in Philadelphia, I went pre-race night, and I needed a reservation. If you are staying at a relative’s house, make sure you let them know exactly what you need to eat and at what time.

4. Know how you are getting to the starting line: Do not improvise. Plan for the wort-case scenario. If you are taking a cab, know the phone number and confirm they provide service at the time you need it. Have a B plan in case there are no Ubers available. If you are taking public transportation, have the tickets purchased in advance. If a relative is driving you, be aware of any road closures due to the race

5. Make sure family and companions understand why you are there: If you are traveling with family or friends, make sure they understand that the first few days is all about you and your race. You are the protagonist. Everything else can wait until you cross the finish line. Remind them you wouldn’t be in Berlin, or Buenos Aires or New York if it weren’t for the marathon.

Preparing for time-zone changes is one of the biggest challenges for out-of-town races (Photo: Pexels.com)

6. Prepare to adjust for time changes: Never underestimate jet lag and time zone difference. They can screw your sleep and derail your race. Find out in advance how to adjust to the time zone in which you will be competing. Research what are the best ways to adjust to the number of time zones you need to adjust. There are plenty of online resource for this.

7. Pack for any weather: Remember you are not home, so you can’t just go back to your closet to pick up something. Be prepared for any weather changes and don’t rely 100% on your phone weather app. It is always better to bring back something unused than to need that pair of gloves you left at home.

8. Don’t do anything you wouldn’t do at home: Pre-race is not the time to be adventurous. Trying new, exotic foods; white water rafting, Segway tours, or running a beautiful trail when all you know is the asphalt. Those are recipes to guarantee a bad race. Hold all thar for after the finish line.

Any other recommendations from your experience travelling to races?

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What Motivates Runners

by Coach Adolfo Salgueiro | Jun 22, 2021 | Reflection, Science

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

I was recently having a conversation with a group of friends regarding the reasons we lace up our shoes three, four, or five times a week. It became obvious that even though most of us may have the same basic reasons, if we dig deeper and list the top five things that motivate us to engage in this sport, the lists will be as unique as the uniqueness of each runner.

When it comes to running, we all have a main reason why we do it. The answers can fit into a wide spectrum ranging from “because I like it” through “I just can’t stop”, with infinite shades in between.

As I was recently re-reading “The Science of Running” (a book by Steve Magness, which I highly recommend to anyone wanting to delve very deep into the subject of the title), I was surprised to see a section with an array of scientific studies that classify runners according to their motivations.

Three of them caught my attention, and thus, I share them with you here, so you can find where you fit based on each one of them.

According to a paper titled “Motives for Participation in Recreational Running”, published in The Journal of Leisure Research by Peter Clough, John Shepherd and Ronald Maughan, back in 1989, runners’ motivations could be divided into six groups:

a.    Well-Being
b.    Social
c.    Challenge
d.    Status
e.    Fitness/Health
f.     Addiction

According to this study, while most leisure activities include one or many aspects of the first four aforementioned reasons, the last two separate running from other activities. Interesting to me is the last one. I am sure we all know someone we consider “addicted to running”, but to realize there are scholarly studies that actually classify addiction as a real motivation for the sport, puts such compulsion in a new light. At least for me.

In his latest book, “A Runner’s High”, Dean Karnazes states: “If running is a drug that threatens my life, let me have it”.

Magness also cites a study titled “Motivations for running and eating attitudes in obligatory versus nonobligatory runners” by Heather Slay, Jumi Hayaki, Melissa A. Napolitano and Kelly D. Brownell, published in 1998 in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

As the title suggests, runners were separated in two groups based on the reasons they participate in our sport. This study separated those who run because they want from the ones who run because they must. The “Obligator” group is motivated by negative or external factors. These are the runners that if they take a week off will start thinking they are letting themselves down or the pounds will start creeping in by tomorrow. On the opposite side are the ones who just run because they want to. That is where I fit in, and I just prefer it this way.

The third study that caught my attention is a paper titled “A typology of marathon runners based on cluster analysis of motivations”, published in 2003 in the Journal of Sports Behavior by B.M. Ogles and K.S. Masters. In this one, marathoners are separated into five categories based on their motivation:

a.    Running Enthusiasts
b.    Lifestyle Managers
c.    Personal Goal Achievers
d.    Personal Accomplishers
e.    Competitive Achievers

Runners train in Ngong, Kenya, in 2012. The country has produced the world’s best distance runners for decades, and most belong to the Kalenjin people.

Of course, there are many more motivations for running. According to a study by Professor Vincent Onywera in 2006, the main motivator for Kenyan Elite Runners is financial gain. Lower in their list are talent and national tradition.

If you read the recently published book “Out of Thin Air”, by anthropologist Michael Crawley, you will realize that Ethiopian runners have the same financial motivation, even those who are still far of the “elite” label but working towards it.

Financial is not a motivation for 99.9% of the readers of this blogpost. If anyone fits into the 0.1% remaining, please identify yourself.

This blogpost ended up a bit denser on science than I what I originally intended, but I found this subject fascinating. Somehow, I am sure we can all find ourselves in each one of these studies and understand a bit more why we do this. Because if you are a runner, it doesn’t matter what motivates you, as long as it keeps you moving forward.

Any thoughts? Leave me a comment, below.

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7 Additional Bad Running Habits to Quit

by Coach Adolfo Salgueiro | Apr 20, 2021 | Article, Coaching, List

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

Back in September of 2020, we published a post titled “7 Bad Running Habits to Quit”. I was surprised by the response it got, but especially how so runners identified themselves, including myself, as being guilty of one or more of these bad habits.

The more I thought about the list, and the more feedback I got, the more I realized there were plenty of missing bad habits that were not mentioned in the previous posting. Of course, neither that list nor this one, or the combination of both, is meant to be a comprehensive one, nor the final word on the subject.

So these are 7 additional bad running habits to quit:

No runner is immune to bad habits. We always have to be on the lookout to avoid them

1. Allowing fear of failure to derail your goals: Failure is inevitable. If we learned something from it, it will always be worthwhile. Always remember that when we don’t obtain what we originally were looking for, we gain experience, which can be used in the future, making future goals attainable, feasible and possible. Coach Steve Magness puts it this way: “Making failure something that isn’t big and scary, but something that leads to growth, goes a long way in helping dissipate the fear surrounding it”. So, never fear failure. Embrace it.

2. Running too hard on easy days: This is the cardinal sin of running. For some reason, most runners have a Superman complex that make them (or us, since I am included) believe that they are indestructible. An easy recovery run is not scheduled because your coach hates you. It is there to get the oxygen/nutrient rich blood circulating through your muscles so they can recover quicker, and you can then go for another enjoyable, hard session sooner while avoiding injury.

3. Pushing for Results instead of letting them happen: When your program states 8×800 at 3:45; or a 30 -minute tempo run at 9:30/mile; these are guidelines. Nothing else. Of course, we all want to hit our targets and they are there for a reason. But we need to know when to quit. There is nothing to gain on a bad day by pushing on the last couple of repeats and needing a week to recover. We must know our bodies enough to understand where the fine line between being a badass and doing something stupid, lies.

4. Controlling every parameter through your watch: Science fiction writers from just 25-years ago could not even imagine what wrist watches can do, today. We still call them watches only because they are on our wrist. They are advanced computers. They measure pulse, oximetry, quality of sleep, recovery, resting heart rate, route, etc. And if that wasn’t enough, they can even tell us time. As great as all this is, we can’t become slaves to the graphs and let them overtake our training. They are but guidelines to consider, not the Gospel of running.

Complicated graphics you can’t even understand are not going to make you a better runner. Concentrate on a few parameters you can control and understand.

5. Thinking the unsexy stuff is worthless: Our training program will often call for easy recovery miles, or for an easy long run on a day we know we can push, or a foam rolling session, or a day off when we are still feeling strong. But never underestimate the importance of the boring stuff. It is there for a reason. To help you recover, to make you stringer, to make you versatile, to make you patient, to avoid injuries. All worthy qualities in a runner.

6. Focusing on a system instead of the whole person: Anaerobic work, hill repeats, tempo runs, the weekend long run, or lactate threshold runs are staples of a well-balanced training program. But none of them work individually and this is not the time to look for personal bests. All parts all need to work as a well-tuned machine to provide the results you are training for. It is not in your best interest to set up a 5K PR in a tempo run when you are training for a marathon. Remember that the whole is always better than the sum of the parts.

7. Believing that only running can make you a better runner: Cross training is basic for our running. If the only thing you do is run, you will most likely suffer overuse injuries. If running is our main sport, such cross training needs to be in support of our running. Yoga, strength training, core workouts, stretching, biking, swimming, etc., can be beneficial by providing aerobic capacity, strength, flexibility or core stability. If you want to be the CrossFit champion in your gym, a marathon may not the best option at this point.

In the future I will most likely publish “7, Even More, Bad Running Habits to Quit”. Let me know if you want to contribute with one of them by leaving a comment, below.

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10 Guidelines on Runners Etiquette

by Coach Adolfo Salgueiro | Mar 16, 2021 | Article, List, Opinion, Reflection

By Coach Adolfo Salgueiro

After years of running, 100+ races and thousands of miles under my soles, I have all developed my very personal running habits. Just as you have developed yours. Some good, some bad, some questionable. At the same time, we have all established our running pet peeves.

Even though there is nothing written, there are some basic guidelines that every runner must keep to be part of an ever-improving running community. One where friends and strangers can be proud of being a part of. Some are to keep us safe, some to make the running experience more fulfilling and some to have more enjoyable races.

These are my 10 basic guidelines on running etiquette:

Slow runners are no less of an athlete than fast runner. Each group needs to be aware and respectful of the other (Photo Pexels)

Be mindful of other runners around you: It doesn’t matter if you are fast, slow, walker or if you are so tired you are crawling. Most of the time you are not the only person on the road, so you need to be aware of other runners. The last thing you want is to get injured, so make sure you are not the one responsible for someone else getting injured.
Respect slower runners: Both in training and in races, you will cross paths with slower runners. The fact they can’t run as fast as you, doesn’t make them less of an athlete. No need to be rude or discourteous. Be aware and respectful of the fact they are also putting their best effort forward.
Respect faster runners: Just as you expect to be respected as a slow runner, if you are in this category you must respect the presence of runners faster than you. Don’t crowd the corners, don’t take the inside lane on the track, don’t clog the path by running side-by-side with too many people and be aware of your surroundings when stopping to walk.
Acknowledge other Runners: Nobody expects you to stop what you are doing or change your pace to say hi to a stranger. But as runners, I think we all agree that acknowledging each other’s presence is the most basic form of good running etiquette. Tip your hat, make eye contact, nod, grunt, lift your arm or say an audible “hey”.
Don’t interfere while taking selfies: They have become ubiquitous in running. If there is no selfie, it didn’t happen. We get it! You can take all the running selfies you want as long as it doesn’t interfere with other runners, especially during a race. Go to the side of the road, get out of the way and then knock yourself out with as many selfies your phone can handle. But always remember that your selfie is not another moving runner’s priority.
Just because you isolate with your headphones doesn’t mean I am not there: it is your prerogative to run with headphones. If it provides you with a better experience, go for it. But it is your responsibility to be aware of your surroundings, not mine. I don’t know if you are wearing them or not so don’t expect anyone to be on the lookout for you while isolated.
Do not stop abruptly at water stations: I am not sure where this walk-break at water stops trend began. This is a place where lots of moving people congregate simultaneously, many eyeing the same cup of liquid, and it is usually very slippery. If you need to stop, take your water, move out of the way, check your surroundings, and then stop. It is basic, common sense.
Carry your own trash: Even when running we usually produce trash. At races, your entry fee includes trash pick up at water stop, but when training, it is not the case. Just as you carried your gel or your water bottle with you, make sure you carry their byproduct trash until you find the proper way to dispose of it. During a race, this is the water stop.
Act like an adult when it comes to bodily functions: They are inevitable when you are running. Burping, snot rockets, spitting and farting are commonplace and a normal part of a healthy functioning body, especially when running. Don’t make anyone feel bad. Be mature and just let it go. Because it is a matter of time before it is your turn.
Respect your membership in WhatsApp and Facebook groups: Most runners are in more than one social media group, and most groups have way too many people to keep track of multiple conversations. Limit your interactions to group related postings so your group can become relevant. I bet you are member of plenty of other groups where you share your non-running memes, jokes and political commentary.