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.

You Can’t Beat the Heat by Avoiding It

All summer long I’ve been reading the social-media complaints of so many runners this summer about the heat and humidity! But now, the sun is rising later and setting earlier. August is over. September is coming. That means autumn is coming too – in about 23 days! If you haven’t figured it out by now, you have a very short time left to reap the benefits of “heat acclimatization.”

The common phrase is “beat the heat”. But when most people say that, they mean ‘stay inside in the air conditioning.” I like to beat the heat by meeting it head on. During the week, I run around noontime – all year long. But aside from that typical late-April heat wave, the heat doesn’t bother me. Don’t get me wrong, it does wreak havoc on my performance; that’s just plain physics. But by taking advantage of heat acclimatization (i.e., running at noon every day as spring turns into summer) I don’t mind being out in the heat of an August afternoon. I’m also looking forward to the aftereffects, as the days cool off and I still have the superpowers I built up during the summer.

Super powers? Do I have your attention now? OK, science time! Heat acclimatization is the adaptation of your body in response to heat stress in a natural environment. These adaptations include reductions in heart rate, body temperature response, skin temperature response, and perceived exertion. These adaptations also include increases in sweat rate, sweat onset, cardiovascular function, and overall ability to perform in the heat.

You become a better sweater: You start to sweat sooner, and you sweat out more. Also, the sodium content of your sweat decreases, which helps prevent dehydration. The result of better sweating? Better cooling!

Your cardiovascular function improves: Your body develops an increase in plasma volume, improved blood flow, a decreased heart rate, and an increased blood volume per heartbeat. What’s the point of all this? When you exercise in the heat, there are two conflicting duties for your blood: 1) oxygenate the muscles; 2) dissipate heat from the skin. Obviously, when you are exercising in the heat, your need for both increases. With an increased blood volume, your heart has more blood to pump around your body so it can do both of these better at the same time.

The good news: if you exercise for about an hour a day in the heat, it takes an average of two weeks to acclimatize.

The bad news: heat acclimatization goes away just as fast (or faster) than it arrives after the stimulus of training in the heat is gone.

More good news: Imagine for a moment your body all hopped up on heat acclimatization, and suddenly it’s no longer that hot. If you time it right, you will still have all those cardiovascular benefits when its time for those key fall races! Training for a spring or summer race during the winter? Trick your body into early heat acclimatization by over-dressing so that you’re very warm even though the weather is still cool.

Finally – be smart! Don’t start by going out in the noon heat to get acclimatized! You’ve got to work up to it. Start off during the cooler parts of the day and gradually work up to full heat. And stay properly hydrated and electrolyted. Weigh yourself nekkid before and after your exercise; for each ounce of weight lost, drink an ounce of water. And dress for the weather in wicking, technical fabrics.

You’ve got three weeks until autumn arrives. Let’s see if you can head into fall with a full supply of heat acclimatization!

Here are some scientific references if you are so inclined:

https://www.sportsci.org/encyc/heataccl/heataccl.html

Streaking!

What I learned during a running Streak of 38 days (so far, as of today, 07/13/2018):

First, a few statistics:

·         202 total miles

·         Average of 5.4 miles per day

·         3 runs of double-digit mileage (six days between each)

·         Longest 14 miles, shortest run 1.03 miles

The official definition of a running streak, as adopted by the Streak Runners International, Inc., and United States Running Streak Association, Inc., is to run at least one mile (1.61 kilometers) within each calendar day. Running may occur on either the roads, a track, over hill and dale, or on a treadmill.

The United States Running Streak Association recommends that potential streakers should have been running on a regular basis for at least six months.

Random facts I learned along the way:

·         The First Mile Is A Liar.

·         Sometimes you feel better after running a mile than you did before running a mile.

·         Sometimes you feel better after running a morning mile than you do upon awakening.

·         You need to learn to run slow enough that it’s “resting” for you.

·         How to get dressed, warmed up, and out the door more quickly.

·         Even if you don’t take your smart phone with you, the run still counts (I wore my Garmin watch)

My first (and only other) running streak was during 2013. It started when I read in Runner’s World magazine about joining their “RW Summer Streak” from Memorial Day to July 4.  I gave it a go. When I got to July 4, I didn’t want to stop. I took it for 180-something days all the way through October 19, the day I ran my first marathon. I did not run the day after that.

Give it a try and comment back with your streak stats.

Happy streaking!

https://runeveryday.com/

https://www.runnersworld.com/training/a20833483/rw-running-streak-faqs/