A Little Bit of Comedy

Here's a little bit of humor that I see when I read posts in Facebook running groups. Is it just me? Share your favorites!

I’m sure that you have noticed that all posts to running Facebook groups can be divided into a few simple categories:

1. Look at me! LOOK at me! Look at ME!
2. My real friends are not runners and are tired of hearing me talk about it. So now I’m going to talk to you.
3. Something doesn’t feel right when I run, and I’d rather ask a bunch of random people on Facebook who have no medical training whatsoever, for FREE, than to take a few hours out of my time and dollars out of my wallet to visit a trained professional for their professional opinion.
4. My doctor told me to do X, but I don’t want to do X, and I’d rather ask a bunch of random people on Facebook who have no medical training whatsoever to commiserate with me and tell me I don’t really have to do X than to heed the professional opinion of a trained professional.
5. I am planning on doing something that I know I shouldn’t do, but I’m doing it anyway and I’m “asking for your advice”, which really means that I am only looking for people who will encourage me to do this and other things I shouldn’t be doing. No discouraging remarks, please.
6. “I have lost my running mojo.” Translation: I lack the ability to motivate myself to do things that I know are good for me just because they are “hard.”
7. I am feeling sorry for myself because I think that I am {old / fat / slow / out-of-shape} but I want your affirmation that I can still call myself a runner.
8. Gaining Weight:
1. I eat bad food – and way too much of it, and I know it, but I want to hear a bunch of unscientific reasons why I am gaining weight.
2. When I started running I started gaining weight because I was converting fat to muscle and muscle weighs more than fat. What? No, I didn’t know that professional bodybuilders exercise a single body part for hours, take great care to eat the right foods at the right time and get the right sleep, and they struggle to gain one single pound of muscle in a week. Cool! I gained six pounds this week just from turning my fat to muscle by running!
3. I don't run anymore because it made me too hungry and I was justifying eating a lot that I was clearly not burning off even on long distance runs, therefore running makes you gain weight.
4. I was gaining weight while running, so I cut out carbs. I have not eaten a single gram of carbohydrates in the past week and I’m too exhausted to stand up. Let me tell you how great “keto” is!
9. I’ve never run before, but my friends dared me to run a marathon with them. It’s in two weeks. What shoes should I buy?
10. There is no point in paying a coach. Just run more! Pardon me, I see you’re a coach. Could you give me some free training advice?

And, finally, just a few "favorite" posts I've seen recently:

1. So now that I did it and I'm officially a marathoner, I want to commemorate this in my way. I need a tattoo but want something unique, can I see y'alls marathon tats for some inspiration?
2. Q: Just curious. Is it rude to play phone music out loud? What about in a race? I would love to like running without it but I’m not there at this point. And I LOVE running with it.
1. WORST ANSWER: Do what is best for you, its everyone's race and we need to respect that that music helps you. Others cheer, some talk and some just focus and at the end of the day we need to support each other and what helps us reach the finish it's called teamwork. Play on.
2. RUNNER UP: People do it in races. You do you! Don’t worry and enjoy! Everyone is doing their own thing anyways
3. BEST ANSWER: Do whatever you want on a solo run but it's 100% rude during a race. Your right to listen to whatever you want stops at my ears. No one gets to dictate what others have to hear.

Runner or not, this book will be helpful!

I have to share this with my loyal readers. Below is a book review I wrote recently for a new book. It's called "Mind Over Marathon: Overcoming Mental Barriers in the Race of Life." And you know what? I think the stuff in this book WORKS! Read on, then read my comments afterward. Then go do something special for yourself and buy the book. You're worth it!

Mind Over Marathon at Amazon

If you are a runner you’ll enjoy this book, because the author uses examples from her own running career to illustrate the points she is trying to make throughout the book.
If you are NOT a runner – as long as you’re not an avowed anti-runner – I think you could still appreciate the running-related goal setting/reaching applications of the author’s techniques. Additionally, the author provides many non-running examples from her own life, writing about herself, her husband, and her children to highlight tidbits of personal success that are sure to resonate with most people. In fact, the goal-oriented tools which the author provides for her readers would be applicable to ANY goal-oriented situation.

The author writes in a familiar tone that makes me think I am having a conversation with a friend that really cares about me. She continuously uses vivid examples to emphasize the points she is trying to make, and those points kept coming through loud and clear, one after the other. As a runner myself, I really connected to the author’s mention of how successful people see their successes everywhere. In a way, this validated my personality. My wife tells me I’m obsessed with running because I talk about it constantly and relate many things in life back to running. After reading this book, I’m thinking that maybe I’m that way because I always have SOME running goal or another in progress at any given moment. If I take this book to heart, I now know that am doing the right thing towards my running goals by always being immersed in them, always thinking about them. I had no idea!

The book charts a spiritual journey also. If you are a spiritual person, you will enjoy that each chapter begins and ends with a bible verse. Chapter 6 opens with Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” I have recently rekindled my own close relationship with God, and that quote is so true! If you are close to God you can see His ways becoming visible in everything you do. It’s a great feeling to KNOW that He’s got your back!

There are self-helping reflection questions at the end of each chapter, a “further reading” list of applicable bible quotes, and activities! The “Application” section at the end of each chapter leads the reader into a personal reflection on the topics outlined in that chapter. There are some activities that really bring the author’s ideas to life, making them very tangible and leading us to better habits.

The ideas in this book started changing my life before I was even done reading it! If you’ve ever failed to reach a goal (who hasn’t?), I encourage you to read this book. I think you are sure to find an example that you can relate to, and some new tools to forge a new path forward on the journey to a
better you.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)

Blogger's note:

Today's marathon training workout was 5x1200m intervals. I ran them at my fastest-ever pace for this distance - faster than the 1k intervals I ran last week! This past Saturday I ran my fastest-ever 20-mile training run.  Last week, a new 10k PR during my weekly tempo run. The week before that, a new 5k PR. Training is going swimmingly! And I must give some of the credit to my newfound mental strength and positivity after reading this book!  (Training for NYC. IT's in 33 days. Yikes!)

Mind Over Marathon at Amazon

Interview with the author

Please Help Me Support Team For Kids!

I am asking for your help in supporting a special charity…

This coming November, I will be running the New York City Marathon for a charity called Team For Kids (TFK). This race is important to me for a few reasons. First, because I was born in NYC. Beyond that, I want to honor my family heritage. Both of my parents were born and raised in The Big Apple. This year’s race marks the 30^th anniversary of my dad’s passing, but my mom will be 94 years and one month old on race day. Also, race day will be my daughter’s first wedding anniversary. So this is a Big Deal day for my family in more ways than one!

If you know me, you know that I am not only passionate about my own running, but about sharing it with others, hoping to motivate them. I’ve learned that a great way to do that is to support TFK. Funds raised by TFK support a group called Rising New York Road Runners (RNYRR).

Through school-based programs, youth events, and a collection of digital resources, RNYRR brings free running and fitness programs to students across the country. TFK funds help support programs for nearly 250,000 children nationwide. These programs help to build students’ motivation, confidence, and desire to be physically active for life. Funding helps pay for training for teachers and coaches; program and practice supplies; and student incentives. For most of these kids, running through this program is their only opportunity to get exercise or play sports.

My goal is to raise $100 per mile. That would be a total of $2,620.

https://runwithtfk.org/Profile/PublicPage/75553

Why You Should Be Running Strides

What Strides ARE:

·         “Accelerations”

·         A simple and fun way to add speed

·         Not quite maximum effort (85-95%)

·         Less than a minute long

·         Something you add to an easy run once a week

·         Helpful to get you used to running faster

·         A great introduction to strict speedwork

What Strides ARE NOT:

·         Maximum effort sprints

·         Something you do after every run

How do Strides Work?

Strides help a runner to develop and maintain the mechanics of running faster. How? Think of “learning to run faster” like “learning to ride a bike.”

Most of us can’t remember back that far, but first we learned to crawl, then walk. We eventually became very comfortable with walking. So comfortable, in fact, that we could soon walk without thinking about it. We could even walk while doing other things, like chewing gum for example. Then it was time to learn to ride a bike. Oh my! So much harder than walking! So many things happening at once – left foot, right foot, round & round… lean left, lean right... steer left, steer right… oh no, I’m going too fast – squeeze your hands (both, not just one)… or, pedal backwards! Riding a bike was a new, complicated set of body motions that all had to be in sync, or you would not be successful. But very soon, we (most of us) were able to ride a bike without thinking much about it.

Running fast is similar. Learning to run is a little more complicated than learning to walk. One foot in front of the other… how far out do I stretch my legs? Should I land on my toes or my heel? Swing your arms… downhill… uh-oh, speeding up! Uphill… this is getting harder! Is that dog on a leash, or not? Look out – a car! There’s a lot going on here, and once again most of us can figure it out and do something that looks like running, without thinking too much about it.

Learning to run faster is even more complicated. Consider the level of conscious thought involved. When you learned to walk, you had to think real hard about everything. Until you didn’t. Same with riding a bike. Same with running. What’s going on in our brains and muscles? To over-simplify it, we build neuromuscular pathways. Our brain, nerves, and muscles are learning how to interact. When we first start a new activity, it takes conscious thought. When our bodies get used to that – some call it “muscle memory” – it requires less conscious thought.

Right now, you run at some default speed – your easy, conversational pace. But, if you think about it, you can run a little faster than that for a while. Stop thinking about it, though, and your body reverts to the speed it “remembers”, that it can do without thinking. Also, the longer you “run faster”, the harder it gets, because your cardiovascular system is not accustomed to your muscles’ greater need for oxygen. And that means… in order to maintain that “faster” pace, you have to think about it more & more, until your mind and body are both too tired to continue at that pace.

So, strides help us build the neuromuscular pathways required to run faster. Strides help us practice running faster. Strides help our muscles and heart and lungs practice running faster. Eventually, just like with learning to walk, or ride a bike, or running, you are running faster automatically and not thinking about it!

You know what comes next, right? Run faster than that!

How to run strides:

On an “Easy Run” day (NOT a “Recovery Day”!), start your strides work about a mile before the end of your run.

1.       Start at your normal, easy, conversational pace.

2.       Run “faster” (whatever that means for you) for twenty steps (ten with each foot)

3.       Next, run “even faster” for twenty more steps

4.       Hang on to that same “even faster” speed for another twenty steps

5.       Next, slow back down to only being “faster” than normal/easy pace for twenty more steps

6.       Over the next 20 steps, slow back down to your normal, easy, conversational pace.

You should have traveled about 100 yards (the length of a football field), and it should have taken about 40-50 seconds. That’s it. See, I said it was easy. When you first start doing strides, start with just one. If you didn’t hurt yourself, the following week you can try two strides. After a stride, run a few minutes of your easy pace to let your heart rate come back down before doing the next one. Still liking it? The week after that, try THREE strides! Take it all the way up to five or six, but only add one per week. Make sure you leave enough distance on the end of your easy run to finish with a few minutes of your easy pace.

When you get up to six strides at the end of one run, start adding strides one at a time to the end of another easy run per week.

When you get to two days a week of six strides at the end of an easy run, it’s time to consider trying a Tempo Run. That’s another topic for another day, and another blog post.