T h e L i t t l e R e dB o o k o f R u n n i n g

Scott Douglas

Amby Burfoot

Copyright © 2011 by Scott Douglas

Foreword © 2011 by Amby Burfoot

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To the hundreds of fellow runners whohave shared the road and their thoughtswith me over the last three decades.Thanks for the run!

T a b l e o f C o n t e n t s

Title PageCopyright PageDedicationAcknowledgmentsForewordIntroductionPART ONE - Running More: 45 Tipsto Help You Safely and SuccessfullyIncrease Your Daily and WeeklyMileage

1 - A Crucial Opening Thought2 - A Crucial Second Thought3 - The First Step in Running More4 - The Right Effort for Running

More5 - When Trying to Run More, Let thePace Come to You6 - In Fact, Always Let the PaceCome to You7 - Take a Lesson from Kenyans8 - Strength Builds Speed9 - The No-Brainer Approach toRunning More10 - More Days of Running or MoreRunning Per Day?11 - Now for More Specifics12 - Keeping Track13 - Log On Regularly14 - Minutes or Miles?15 - Rough Estimates16 - Keep Gadgets in Their Place17 - Be an Honest Accountant18 - Some Days, Leave the Watch at

Home19 - Increasing Weekly Mileage20 - Ignore the 10 Percent “Rule”21 - A Better Way to IncreaseWeekly Mileage22 - Hold On to Your New MileageLevel23 - Down Weeks24 - When More Is Too Much25 - Add New Stresses Judiciously26 - Love the Long Run27 - How Long Is Long?28 - How Long Is Too Long?29 - Making Long Runs Longer30 - When to Go Long31 - Where to Go Long32 - Make Your Long-Run DaysSpecial33 - How Fast on Long Runs?

34 - When a Long Run Isn’t GoingWell35 - It’s a Run, Not a Feast36 - Pre–Long Run Nutrition37 - The Whys of Post–Long RunNutrition38 - The Whats of Post–Long RunNutrition39 - The Rest of Long-Run Recovery40 - Double Your EndurancePleasure41 - When One Run a Day Just Isn’tEnough42 - Handling Double Duty43 - Doubles Will Shorten YourRecovery Time44 - Doubles on Easy Days?45 - Final Thought on Running More

PART TWO - Running Faster: 63Tips to Help Build Your Speed, EvenIf You’re Never Going to Race

46 - First of Two Main Reasons AllRunners Should Do Some FasterRunning47 - Second of Two Main ReasonsAll Runners Should Do Some FasterRunning48 - We’re All Slower ThanSomebody49 - Great Training, Not GreatWorkouts50 - A Crucial Few Types of FastRunning51 - Improve Your Basic Speed:Striders52 - A Variation on Striders:Diagonals

53 - Another Variation on Striders:Pick-Ups54 - Improve Your RunningEconomy: Short Repeats55 - Improve Your Pumping Ability:VO2 Max Workouts56 - Improve Your Speed Endurance:Short Tempo Runs57 - Improve Your FatigueResistance: Long Tempo Runs58 - Hit the Hills59 - Good Uphill Running Form60 - Hill Sprints61 - Short Hills62 - Medium Hills63 - Long Hills64 - Treadmill Hills65 - Going Downhill Fast66 - The Mental Side of Running Fast

67 - Relax, Relax, Relax68 - Group Benefits69 - It’s a Workout, Not a Race70 - Scheduling Fast Workouts71 - If You Feel Good, Go72 - A Workout Variation: Ladders73 - Another Variation: Fast Finishes74 - Yet Another Variation: Fartlek75 - “Half” Workouts76 - Current vs. Goal Pace77 - Paces in Perspective78 - Where to Run Fast79 - Horses for Courses80 - When a Workout Isn’t GoingWell81 - More Support for Off-TrackRunning82 - What’s a Good Warm-Up?83 - What’s a Good Cool-Down?

84 - Post-Workout Nutrition85 - Get Faster Without Running Fast86 - How’s Your Turnover?87 - Shoes for Running Fast88 - What Does Running Slow Haveto Do with Running Fast?89 - The Best Use of a Heart RateMonitor90 - Determining Your Max HeartRate91 - Important Concept for RacePreparation92 - A Meaningful MantraRegardless of Race Distance93 - Ignore Others the First Third ofthe Race94 - Race Pointer: 5K95 - Race Pointer: 10K96 - Race Pointer: 15K to Half

Marathon97 - Race Pointer: Marathon98 - What’s a Good Race Warm-Up?99 - Not Every Race Is the Olympics100 - Races as Workouts101 - State Your Race Goals102 - Tapering Your Training103 - Race Distance ≠ Your Worthas a Runner104 - About Those Early Race Starts105 - Maintenance Mode106 - Feel Better by Running Faster107 - Sorry, but Speed Is a Use-It-or-Lose-It Phenomenon108 - Final Thought on RunningFaster

PART THREE - Running Injury-Free: 50 Tips to Help You Avoid,

Treat, and Beat Injuries109 - What’s a Running Injury?110 - A Medical Model111 - Beware of Modern Life!112 - Training Through Injury113 - When to Run, When to Rest114 - Dancing the Injury Limbo115 - The Doctor Will See You Now116 - Pop Pills Prudently117 - Ice Is Nice, Heat Can Be Hell118 - Massage, from Others andYourself119 - Home Help: Plantar Fasciitis120 - Home Help: AchillesTendinitis121 - Home Help: Shin Splints122 - Home Help: Runner’s Knee123 - Home Help: Iliotibial BandSyndrome

124 - Home Help: Hamstring/GlutePain125 - Home Help: Stress Fractures126 - Cross-training Caveat 1127 - Do Something! Anything!128 - Cross-training Caveat 2129 - It’s Always a Good Time toEstablish Good Habits130 - Running Form and Injury131 - What’s Good Running Form?132 - Form Flaw: Tight Shouldersand Neck133 - Form Flaw: Head ThrustForward134 - Form Flaw: ExcessiveForward Lean135 - Form Flaw: Excessive LateralRotation136 - Form Flaw: Splayed Feet

137 - Essential Extras138 - Why to Stretch139 - How to Stretch140 - Other Types of FlexibilityWork141 - What About Yoga?142 - When to Stretch: Part 1143 - When to Stretch: Part 2144 - The Obvious Stuff to Stretch145 - Feet and Ankle Flexibility146 - Upper-Body Flexibility147 - A Stronger Runner148 - Leg Strengthening149 - Upper-Body Strengthening150 - Midsection Strengthening151 - General Strength Exercises152 - Running Shoes and Injury153 - Minimalism: Is Less More?154 - Modern Minimalism

155 - Barefoot in the Park156 - Tossing Your Trainers157 - Orthotics Aren’t a Cure-All158 - Final Thought on RunningInjuries

PART FOUR - Running Consistently:43 Tips to Help You Run More Oftenfor the Rest of Your Life

159 - Number One Foe of Runners:Inertia160 - Finding Time161 - Not If, but When162 - Running Ain’t Needlework163 - If, on the Other Hand, YouHave All Day164 - Something Is Always BetterThan Nothing165 - I ◉ Running

166 - Gotta Get a Goal167 - It Doesn’t Have to Be a RaceGoal168 - The Greatest Running InventionEver169 - Dancing with Your Partner(s)170 - Running Partners of a DifferentSort171 - Sick and Tired (But Not ofRunning)172 - Diet and Regularity173 - Weather the Weather174 - Weather Wimpiness175 - Running Hot176 - Stay Cool177 - To Drink or Not to Drink178 - In Between Hot Runs179 - Warming to Winter Running180 - Winter Wear

181 - Got Traction? Running onSnow182 - Running After Dark183 - Running in Rain184 - Withstanding the Wind185 - Love, Hate, and Treadmills186 - Treadmill or Dreadmill?187 - Should You Grade YourTreadmill?188 - Ignore Your Treadmill Console189 - After the Last PR190 - Mentally Reboot Frequently191 - Mentally Reboot YourCalendar As Well192 - Don’t Get Injured193 - Build Your Running Body194 - Stay Speedy195 - The Kids Are All Right196 - Travel Regulations

197 - Packing: Always Be Ready toRun198 - Why Wouldn’t You Run onVacation?199 - Morning Business200 - Runner in a Strange Land201 - Final Thought on RunningConsistently

PART FIVE - Running Miscellany: 49Tips on Shoes and Safety, Attitudeand Altitude, and Everything ElseThat Matters

202 - It Doesn’t Always Get Worse203 - Running: The Numbers204 - Rise and Shine Before MorningRuns205 - When You Gotta Go ...206 - Transferable Running Virtue:

I’ll Make Do207 - No Need to “Break In” NewShoes208 - Shoe Rotation209 - Shoe Drying 101210 - Of Shoe Reviews and Salt211 - Tread Lightly Around In-StoreAnalysis of Your Running Form212 - They’re Your Shoes, So Haveat Them213 - Transferable Running Virtue:Now Is the Time214 - Lessons from (Your) History215 - Running as Commuting216 - Running Errands217 - Know Your Serum FerritinLevel218 - Other Medical Matters219 - Don’t Run to Your Medical

Appointment220 - Black-and-White Appeal asYou’re Graying221 - Wanted: Good RunningPartners222 - Transferable Running Virtue:Chip Away223 - Embrace Non-RunningExertion224 - Eat and Run225 - How’s Your Balance?226 - Trail Running Technique227 - Trail Running Times228 - When the Love of Your LifeDoesn’t Love Your Running229 - Streaking Runners inPerspective230 - Be a Running Ambassador231 - Counsel on Coaches

232 - If You Find Yourself atAltitude233 - Let the Children Play234 - Run Away from Ruts235 - The World Can Wait236 - Yond Cassius Has a Lean andHungry Look237 - Sedentary Now ≠ RunningFuture238 - Midday Dashes239 - Transferable Running Virtue:Endure240 - Stay Flexible (Not JustMuscularly)241 - Safe Crossings242 - Let the Idiot Drivers Yell243 - It’s Nice to Have Level Hips244 - Nobody Likes a One-Stepper245 - Nobody Likes a Martyr

246 - Four Key Words for Running247 - Running Through Data Smog248 - At the Risk of Making YouDiscount This Book249 - An Important Note About YourMorning Coffee250 - The Most Important Tip

A c k n o w l e d g m e n t sThanks to Bill Wolfsthal of SkyhorsePublishing for bringing this project to life;to Amby Burfoot for honoring me bywriting the foreword; to Meredith Freimerfor listening to me babble on about thisbook during long runs together; and to thephotographers whose work hereincaptures the spirit of enjoyable running:Jonathan Beverly, Stacey Cramp, BrianMetzler, Alison Wade, and Joel Wolpert.

F o r e w o r dWhen I was a kid, one of my favoritebooks was The Little Engine That Could.As a high school runner and beyond, Ioften recalled the “I think I can, I think Ican” message of the book, especially onseemingly long hills. It sounds so silly, butthe message was motivating for me longbefore I knew other expressions of asimilar theme. It was a simple little thingthat helped me more than a hundred-pagetreatise on sports psychology ever could.

In high school, I had the good fortune tobe coached by John J. Kelley, a two-timeOlympian and the winner of the 1957Boston Marathon. In many hours at his

kitchen table, I heard endless quotes fromhis fellow New England skeptic, HenryDavid Thoreau. One was “Our life isfrittered away by detail. Simplify,simplify.” This one had a strong effect. Itook it to mean that I didn’t have to do alot of talking or thinking to be a goodrunner. I just had to do the work.

Running is simple. When we keep it thatway, we generally have the best chance ofenjoying it and reaching our goals. Often,it’s a little nugget of wisdom, or a way tothink about something, that’s more helpfulthan a day-by-day six-month trainingprogram handed down from MountOlympus. That’s certainly been myexperience, from high school to winningthe 1968 Boston Marathon and in the

decades since as I’ve made the inevitableadjustments to age. A few words from atrusted source who’s been in your shoesgo a long way.

That’s what you have here with TheLittle Red Book of Running. ScottDouglas has an encyclopedic knowledgeof running, and the clarity of mind tosimplify, simplify and pass on theessential information. I’m sure you’ll findmany of the tips in this book to be justwhat you need to get the most out of yourrunning at different points in your runninglife.

Amby Burfoot Editor at Large, Runner’s World 1968 Boston Marathon Champion

I n t r o d u c t i o nI wrote this book during the winter of2010/2011, but I’ve been working on itsince 1979.

That’s the year when, as a ninth grader,I started running. Immediately I wasenamored. I loved the sense ofexploration, of challenging myself, ofbeing outside in all kinds of weather. Iloved the time alone, time to think aboutwhatever came to my head. I loved seeingif I could go farther than I ever had, or runa loop faster than I did the week before. Iloved how I felt physically while runningand how I felt mentally when I was done.

When I joined the high school cross-country team that fall, I learned to loverunning even more. Training with friends,racing against those friends, buildingtoward a long-term goal—all this andmore about being a competitive runneradded a whole other layer of attraction tothis most natural act.

In that first year of running, I sought tolearn as much about the sport as I could. Iwent to the library and checked out everybook and magazine I could find. (Little didI know I would one day work for one ofthem.) I pestered my coach nonstop aboutworkouts and mileage and racingstrategies. I asked my teammates aboutwhat running felt like to them to see what Icould take from their experiences and

apply it to my situation. When I startedroad racing later that year, I talked withanyone who would spare a few minutes:How much did they run? How fast? Whatwas their favorite workout? What did theydo when their knee hurt, or it was hot, orsnowing? What did they eat the nightbefore a race? And a million otherquestions about the little things that canhave such a big effect on running.

Throughout high school, college, andthen when running on my own after school,I kept talking to pretty much any runner Ithought I could learn from. Eventually,starting in the early 1990s, I found my wayinto writing about running. Now Isuddenly was talking with some of thebest runners and coaches in the world, and

I took full advantage of the opportunity.Through applying what I learned and adedicated but not obsessive work ethic, Iwas able to run above-average times, suchas 30:48 for 10K and 51:01 for 10 miles,that were much faster than I “should” haverun given my fairly average natural talent.

I’ve been fortunate enough to learn fromhundreds of world-class distance runnersand coaches through talking with them,observing them, and running with them. Bynow it’s become second nature to takewhat I learn from those encounters and runit through the filter I first used in highschool: How can I use this information tomake my running more enjoyable andsuccessful? And by extension, viamagazine articles and the four books on

running I’ve coauthored, how can I sharethis information with my fellow runners atall levels so that they, too, can get moreout of their running?

The result of the last three decades ofthis curiosity is this book. It’s not meant tobe the ultimate treatise on running or aday-by-day guide to peak performance. IfI’ve learned anything over the last threedecades, it’s that success in running oftencomes from one or two tweaks to yourtraining or mind-set. This book is full oflittle such nuggets that can have largepositive effects. I hope you find itsdistilled wisdom useful in making yourrunning more enjoyable, satisfying, and aregular highlight of your life.

Scott Douglas

Senior Editor, Running Times

P A R T O N ER u n n i n g M o r e : 4 5T i p s t o H e l p Y o u

S a f e l y a n dS u c c e s s f u l l y

I n c r e a s e Y o u r D a i l ya n d W e e k l y M i l e a g e

“How much do you run?” Every runnerhas been asked that question, even fromnon-runners. It’s an implicitacknowledgment that when we think aboutrunning, we fundamentally think in terms

of volume, both for individual runs and forlonger blocks of time. “How much do yourun?” can mean on an average day, or howmany times a week, or how many milesper week, or how many hours a week.You could even answer the question (andblow the questioner’s mind) by sayingsomething like, “Last year, I ran 2,715miles. That was down a few hundred fromthe year before because I had a calf strainin February and some hamstring issues inthe fall.”

So the first thing most runners want toknow is how to handle running more.After all, even if your main goal in runningis to see how fast you can run, first youneed to be able to cover the distance. Andyou need to be able to cover that distance

reasonably comfortably so that you’regood to go on the next run, and the oneafter that, building that baseline of fitnessyou need for running to be enjoyable.

At some point, every runner gets towhat seems to be their running set point, inone or more of the ways to answer “Howmuch do you run?” It might be the length ofthe average run, or the duration of thelongest run, or number of runs per week,or miles run per week or month or year.It’s fine to stay at that set point, of course,but most runners want more. (Youwouldn’t have become a runner in the firstplace if you’re the sort who’s easilycontented.) The tips in this chapter areabout how to get past those set points.They’re about how to advance your fitness

by running more, whether that’s on a daily,weekly, or yearly basis.

1

A C r u c i a l O p e n i n gT h o u g h tThere are no junk miles. You may haveheard otherwise from well-meaningpeople. Junk miles, they’ll tell you, aremiles that you do just to do, maybe toreach a more impressive weekly mileagefigure, maybe just because you’ve noticedthat good runners tend to run a lot andyou’ve therefore concluded that more isbetter. Junk miles, they’ll say, are wastedtime, because they don’t help you reachyour running goals.

Don’t believe them. Allow me torepeat: There are no junk miles. If you’renot injured so badly that you’re alteringyour form, or so sick that you feel muchworse after running, then it’s all good.

Brian Metzler

People who warn of junk miles often

point out the law of diminishing returns.“After x number of miles per week,”they’ll say, “the benefit from any one runreally starts to decline.” And they’re right.But diminishing returns are still returns. Ifyou’re motivated enough to run a littleextra in search of a little more fitness,have at it.

Even if you think a run doesn’t advanceyour fitness, it has other benefits—promoting blood flow, clearing your mind,getting you away from the computer,burning calories, getting you out in nature,helping you spend time with friends,giving you muchneeded time by yourself,maintaining the rhythm of good training,and infinitely so on. These aspects ofrunning that have little to do with peak

performance are usually ignored bypeople warning of junk miles. There amillion reasons to go for a run today thathave nothing to do with running faster nextweekend. The more of them that appeal toyou, the less reason there is to believe injunk miles.

2

A C r u c i a l S e c o n dT h o u g h tLet me be clear from the outset: I’m notsaying that more running is always better,either for your running performance or therest of your life. Obviously there’s a pointwhere running more is an overallnegative.

But most of us are never at risk ofreaching that point. Even among longtimeambitious runners, most of us are in shapeto get in shape—we’ve never really testedthe limits of our running potential. And

that’s fine. Certainly most of us haveseveral other claims on our time andenergy, and working twice as hard toimprove another 10 percent as a runnermight not make sense to you.

But it doesn’t follow from thatacknowledgment that anything more thanwhat you’ve become used to is a waste oftime, or that experimenting with bumpingup your set point will inevitably lead toinjury or burnout. How do you know ifyou’ve never tried? Again, no one issaying you have to try. But if you want to,don’t be scared off by vague warnings of“overtraining” or “staleness.” Yes, whenyou try to push past your current limits,you might get tired. That will pass. Aslong as you go about advancing your

running fitness intelligently, you can avoidinjury while becoming fitter than youmight have thought possible.

3

T h e F i r s t S t e p i nR u n n i n g M o r eSlow down. Most people who feel stuckat a certain level of running are simplyrunning too many of their runs too fast.

Try this thought experiment: Let’s sayyou want to tack on an additional 15minutes to most of your daily runs. Wouldyou be able to do so by doing your normalrun and then sprinting for 15 minutes? No.Would you be able to do so by doing yournormal run and then walking for 15minutes? Of course. Would you be able to

do so by doing your normal run and thencontinuing on at that pace for 15 minutes?Probably, but it would be difficult, and ifyou tried to do it every time you ran,you’d either start to be unable to hold thepace or you wouldn’t even try becauseevery run would have become too much ofa challenge. So the right pace in thisscenario is somewhere between a walkand a little slower than your currentnormal pace.

Stacey Cramp

Apply that thinking to your running as awhole when you want to run more. If youwant to run more on each run, run at leastthe first half of the run slower than you donow. If you want to run more days perweek, run each day a little slower thanyou have been when running fewer daysper week.

4

T h e R i g h t E f f o r t f o rR u n n i n g M o r eIn saying to slow down to best be able tohandle more running, I’m not talking aboutminutes per mile slower than normal. Imean to ease back from your usual effortlevel to where you have a good balancebetween feeling like you’re running withyour normal form and feeling like yourperceived effort is lower than usual. Youshould have the feeling of storing upenergy more than slowly leaking it. Asopposed to the feeling of “I could keep

going at this pace if I had to, but I’d rathernot, and anything much faster would be areal strain,” aim for “I could keep going atthis pace for at least as long as I’ve beenout, and if I had to pick it up for the next 5minutes, I could easily handle that.”

When you’re trying to bump up yourmileage, be mindful of your breathing. Itshould be easy and light throughout theseruns. Let the duration be the limitingfactor. That will be manifested more inmuscular fatigue, the sign that you’reproperly pushing your limits ever soslightly. If you’re breathing hard for mostof the run, you’re never going to be able torun far enough to reach that desired stateof muscular fatigue.

First cover the distance. Then worry

about covering it faster.

5

W h e n T r y i n g t o R u nM o r e , L e t t h e P a c eC o m e t o Y o uThe best way to be at the proper gentleeffort when you’re trying to run more is tostart more slowly than you think isnecessary. Instead of forcing things so thatyou’re at the pace you “should” be by thetime you’ve gone around the block, start ata trot. As your heart rate increasesgradually and your muscles start to warmup from a gently increasing blood flow,you’ll naturally feel like running faster,

without even having to think, “OK, now Ifeel ready to run faster.” Within 10 or 15minutes, you’ll find that you’re runningmuch faster with almost no increase inyour perceived effort.

6

I n F a c t , A l w a y s L e tt h e P a c e C o m e t oY o uEven if you’re not trying to run more, startout a lot slower than you’ll be runningwhen you finish. Easing into runs andgradually picking up the pace as feelscomfortable is one of the keys to makingmore runs enjoyable and fruitful.

This isn’t how most of us go about it, ofcourse. We have an idea how fast we“should” be running, and we do our

damndest to get to that pace as quickly aspossible. Otherwise, we think, we’rewasting our time. We think we’re almostcheating, like we’re not working hardenough to get in a real workout.

7

T a k e a L e s s o n f r o mK e n y a n sA few years ago I spent a month in one ofKenya’s running hotbeds. Every run I didthere with Kenyans began at a glorifiedstumble. On the first few, I couldn’tbelieve how slowly we were going. Andthis was with some of the best runners inthe world—two of the guys I did severalruns with have broken 13:00 for 5K, andmany of the high school students I ran withhave represented Kenya in internationalcompetitions.

Inevitably, the pace quickened. But itdid so organically, not because someonechecked her watch a mile into the run andsaid, “We’re running too slow, we betterpick it up.” Over the first 15 or sominutes, I could tell we were runningfaster, but my effort level was the same.(We were running at 8,000 feet ofelevation, and I live by the ocean inMaine, so I was acutely aware throughoutmy trip of the effects of altitude on myperceived effort.) By the last third of therun, we would be out and out moving,with the last few minutes at close to a racelevel of effort.

I’m certainly not saying to finish everyrun at a sprint. But these runs in Kenyawere a revelation: There was never a

point in the run where you could say, “Ah,now it’s suddenly gotten harder.” Dayafter day, some of the best runners in theworld let their bodies tell them when itwas time to go slow and when it was timeto indulge in faster running.

: Joel Wolpert

8

S t r e n g t h B u i l d sS p e e dAnother thing to keep in mind if you thinkyou’re running too slowly for it to beworthwhile: Your basic aerobic fitness isthe main determinant of how fast or slowfeels comfortable on a typical daily run.The fitter you are, the faster will feelcomfortable. And for almost everyonereading this book, the best way to advancethat fitness is to run more, rather than yournormal amount at a faster pace. As you getfitter through more mileage, what feels

like a comfortable everyday pace willeventually become faster. By slowing a bitnow while building your mileage, lateryou’ll be running more, and at a fasterpace, than might seem conceivable now.

9

T h e N o - B r a i n e rA p p r o a c h t o R u n n i n gM o r eOut-and-back courses are a great way tosort of trick yourself into extendingindividual runs. If your goal for the day isto run for an hour, head out for 30 minutesbefore you turn around for home. You’repretty much guaranteed to succeed. You’llprobably still feel fresh at the turnaround,and then there are no temptations toovercome in the second half when you’remore tired, as can be the case if you’re

doing a loop that has ways to shorten it oryou add on by running past your housewith 12 minutes to go.

1 0

M o r e D a y s o fR u n n i n g o r M o r eR u n n i n g P e r D a y ?When you’re trying to up your mileage,should you run more often or run more onthe days you run?

The best answer to that specificquestion is a general answer that appliesto so much of running: Do whatever ismore likely to more often lead to success.

1 1

N o w f o r M o r eS p e c i f i c sIf you’re running a few days a week, isthat for time reasons? If so—for example,if there are only three days a week whereyou currently can find the time to run, buthave a bit of wiggle room in thosewindows of opportunity—then run moreon your running days. If your schedule issuper crammed, you’ll probably moreregularly run more by adding 15 minutesto each run than by carving out a devoted-to-running block of time on another day.

If you’re running a few days a week butcould find the time on other days, thenstart by adding another day of runningeach week, and keep the distance of yournormal runs the same. Once you adapt tothe increased workload (which probablywon’t take more than a few weeks), weekswith four days of running, or five days, orwhatever the new amount is, will feel likethe new normal.

If you already run pretty much everyday, then start adding additional mileageto your medium-effort days of the week.On days when you do hard workouts, youcould add a mile or two to each of yourwarm-up and cool-down. Then you couldmake your longest run of the week a littlelonger. Tack on mileage on these days

before running more on your easiest days;keep those really easy so that they serveas true recovery days instead of becominganother medium-effort day.

: Alison Wade

1 2

K e e p i n g T r a c kEvery runner even slightly interested inperformance should keep a running log.Unless you have an amazing memory,you’ll benefit from recording what you ranwhen before it slips out of mind. Overtime your log will reveal patterns that canguide future decisions, such as how manydays it takes you to feel recovered from ahard workout or which types of workoutsseem to consistently lead to a given bodyache. Logs are also great for remindingyourself how you trained before a givenperformance so that you can have

objective information on what you neededto do to reach that level and insights onhow to exceed it.

Include in your log whatever detailsfrom runs are necessary for you to be ableto benefit from entries upon review. Inaddition to distance and/or time, thatcould include the type of course, theweather, time of day, what else happenedin your life that day, etc. Beyond thebasics, I always note anything that madethe run different: Did it have a lot ofdownhills? Then that’s worth putting in sothat if two days later my quads are reallysore I have an obvious explanation. Did Ido a track workout? Then my times from itwill help me know what to shoot for infuture workouts. Was it really hot for my

long run, and did I then plug away as perusual on subsequent days? Then a coupleweeks later I might have an explanation ifI’ve been feeling flat. Was work crazy thelast week? Did I sleep poorly? Did I runwith Jim and go faster than usual?Anything from the run that might affect youon subsequent runs is worth recording.

1 3

L o g O n R e g u l a r l yFor your log to serve its purpose as atraining tool, you should write in it at leasta few times a week. Sitting down andrehashing your running twice a month isn’tgoing to lead to a log that helps youdiscern patterns and learn from mistakes.

It’s also helpful to keep track of longer-term matters, such as weekly mileage anda monthly summary of miles, number ofdays run, number of stretching sessions,things like that. Having these detailsrecorded keeps you honest—it can be easyto think you’ve done more than you have.

Good information on your long-termpatterns is also helpful because success inrunning comes not from occasional greatdays, but by steady progress over time.The principles that underlie successfullong-term financial investment apply torunning.

1 4

M i n u t e s o r M i l e s ?Whether you keep track of your running bymiles run or time run doesn’t matter aslong as you have a system you useconsistently that works for you.

Most people keep track by countingmiles. That’s true even for people whokeep track of individual runs by minutes(e.g., “I ran for 42 minutes today, so it’sgoing in the log as 5 miles”). Even thoughit has no intrinsic meaning to the humanbody, a mile is our standard unit ofmeasurement, so we might as well go withit. (An American friend who lived in

Europe for a couple of years startedtracking his running in kilometers andjokingly noted how much more fun it wasto say, “I’ve been hitting 150 a week”than, “I’ve been doing 90 a week.”)

Alison Wade

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R o u g h E s t i m a t e sMost of your runs are going to beguesstimations based on how fast youthink you typically run and how long ittakes you to cover one of your courses onaverage. When improvising a course,you’re relying totally on what generalpace you think you’re running that day.And that’s fine—it really doesn’t matter ifwhat you say is your 10-mile loop is 9.8miles long, or if you call a run 5 mileswhen it’s longer than that.

Online mapping tools can be useful tosee how far your courses are. Don’t get

too hung up on their degree of accuracy—I’ve seen the same program give adifferent distance for the same course onconsecutive days. They also aren’t goingto measure a course exactly as you ran it,and they don’t account for things like hillsand wind. So be content with getting aclose-enough measurement.

When in doubt, err on the side ofunderestimating. It’s more common tothink we’re running farther and faster thanwe really are than it is to shortchangeourselves.

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K e e p G a d g e t s i nT h e i r P l a c eThe top runners who lean heavily ongadgets like a GPS system are theexceptions. Most elites have their courses,assign a distance to each, and leave it atthat. They’re secure enough in theirrunning that they don’t need the constantexternal feedback from a Garmin orsimilar gadget. They know that whatmatters on a run is achieving a certaineffort for a certain duration. Most of thetime they base that on the signals they’re

getting from their bodies, not from apotentially faulty device on their wrist.

Granted, it can be nice occasionally toknow exactly how far you ran at whatpace. GPS units are great if you’re doingsomething like a long run with the lastseveral miles at your goal marathon racepace. That’s valuable feedback about yourprogress toward a specific goal thatcombines the elements of time anddistance.

But too many runners overrely on theirmeasuring gadgets during normal runs,when it’s not important to hit specificcombinations of time and distance. Tothem, a run is successful only if the gadgetspits out the right numbers. It’s worthmaking this point again: A mile has no

meaning to the human body. You’reimposing artificial definitions of successon your running by letting a device thatspeaks only in those measurements tellyou if you had a good run. Learn todistinguish between information aboutyour running that has merit andinformation about your running that’s justinformation for the sake of information.Learn to interpret and be guided by thesignals from your body about proper effortlevels.

:101° West

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B e a n H o n e s tA c c o u n t a n tWhatever your system, keep it on the upand up. Padding your log to produce moreimpressive figures serves no purposeother than self-delusion. You can tellyourself you’ve been running x number ofmiles per week all you want, but if you’reconsistently getting to x via fuzzy math,what’s the point? Your body will tell youit’s really been less than x, especiallywhen it comes time to race. (Besides, ifyou can’t be honest with yourself about

how much you’ve been running, in whatother ways are you deceiving yourself?)

One Olympic marathoner I knowspecialized in inflating his log. He’d beout with a group on, say, a 10-miler, andsay, “Hey, guys, let’s slow it down, I wantto get 11 for the day.” That is, he wasgoing to run the same distance, but bymaking the run take more time, he thenallowed himself to count the run asfarther. He even claimed in a runningmagazine that putting down that he’d run120 miles for a week instead of the 100 heprobably ran gave him more confidence.I’ve yet to find anyone else in the fifteenyears since he stated this who thought itwas a good idea.

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S o m e D a y s , L e a v et h e W a t c h a t H o m eAt least a few days a week, decide whatcourse you’re going to run, and then leaveyour watch at home. Other days, runwherever, guided by total time on yourwatch. The thing to mostly avoid is timingyourself over the same courses day afterday. That way lies the madness of beatingyourself up for running slower than you“should” or forcing yourself to pick it upbecause you’re 6 seconds slower at your45-minutes-into-it checkpoint than you

were yesterday.

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I n c r e a s i n g W e e k l yM i l e a g eAt some point, “running more” prettymuch becomes “increasing weeklymileage,” because that’s how most runnerstrack things.

Weekly mileage might not be the bestframing device for tracking how much yourun. You might make the common mistakeof viewing each week as its own entity,with things that “have” to happen in thatweek for the week to be successful.Similarly, you might tend to view your

training primarily in blocks of a week,rather than a broader view that moreaccurately reflects how your bodyresponds to the stimulus of running.Tracking monthly mileage so that youdon’t artificially force certain things tohappen within each horizontal strip of acalendar might be a more prudentapproach.

But most of the rest of our lives areshaped by the week’s seven-day cycle, soit makes some sense for a week to be thenext unit of training after a day.

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I g n o r e t h e 1 0P e r c e n t “ R u l e ”You’ve probably heard that, when uppingyour running volume, you shouldn’tincrease your mileage by more than 10percent a week. You have not only mypermission but my encouragement toignore this “rule.”

For starters, as I’ve mentioned, the unitof a mile has no meaning to the humanbody. Neither does the seven-day cyclewe call a week. Neither does the base-10number system, our use of which is where

the “rule” comes from. (Did theBabylonian coaches of antiquity dole outadvice about increasing volume in units of60 because they happened to grow upusing a base-60 number system?) So itstands to reason that combining these threevariables doesn’t make for any sort ofsound guidance.

Alison Wade

Even if the intent of the “rule” is moreright than wrong—i.e., increase yourrunning volume gradually to allow yourbody to adapt—its literal application canhave comical consequences. Say someoneis running 4 miles a day, 3 days a week.He decides he wants to run more than 12

miles per week. He’s in good health, hasno injury problems, and simply wants torun more to feel that much better and getfitter. Applying the 10 percent formula, hewould move to 13.2 miles per week, then14.5, then 15.9, and finally 17.4 by the endof the month. For most people, this is likelocking your house every time you go nextdoor to borrow an egg—safe, certainly,but verging into letting fear of somethingbad happening overwhelm everythingelse.

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A B e t t e r W a y t oI n c r e a s e W e e k l yM i l e a g eIf most weeks you’re running less thanfour times, then simply add another day ofrunning, with the distance toward theshorter end of what you usually run. So inour example above, our hero could add afourth day of running to his week andimmediately be at 16 miles per week. As Inoted earlier, keep the pace easy on boththe new run and existing ones.

If you run most days of the week andaren’t interested in additional runs, thenadd a mile or two, or 10 to 20 minutes, toeach run in a week.

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H o l d O n t o Y o u r N e wM i l e a g e L e v e lAnd now here’s the important thing: Holdthat new level for two or three weeks.Give your body time to adapt to the newstress. This is another area where the 10percent formula falls short. Asinfinitesimal as some of the increases itcan lead to are, they’re still increases.Your body never has a chance to adapt tothe new workload before you throwanother increase at it.

Let’s say you’re running 30 miles a

week. Instead of going from 30 miles aweek to 33.3 to 36.6 to 40.2, jump upimmediately to 40, then hold at 40 a weekfor two or three weeks.

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D o w n W e e k sHere’s the second key to increasingweekly mileage in a safe but meaningfulway: Take occasional down weeks beforelighting out for the next milestone.

In the example from above, you’ve gonefrom 30 to 40 miles a week all at once,then held that new level for two or threeweeks. Now, go back down to the weeklymileage you used to run; in this case,follow a few 40-mile weeks with a 30-mile week. This “down week” will giveyour body a chance to consolidate thegains you made in increasing your

mileage. During the down week, keepmost runs easy, even if you start to feelraring to go by the end of the week. Savethat energy for when you return to yournew higher level of mileage.

After the down week, you could eitherhold at your new level for a few moreweeks, or take another leap in mileage,like up to 45 a week for a couple of weeksbefore taking a down week of 35–40miles. Keep working this stress-and-recovery approach to your weeks as awhole until you’re at the level of mileageyour body, mind, and outside life agree isbest.

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W h e n M o r e I s T o oM u c hExpect to feel tired when you first moveup to a new level of mileage. Thesensation you’ll likely have will be ofyour legs feeling a little heavier ordeader. It might take you a bit longer onruns to feel like you’re in a good rhythm.You might feel a little lethargic duringyour non-running hours. Increased (oroddly, decreased) appetite might alsoaccompany a bump up in mileage.

These signs are normal and will pass if

you haven’t increased your mileage tooquickly. Some signs that you’ve taken onmore than you can currently handle: Newacute running-related pains (as opposed tosome generalized soreness or tightness); aprecipitous drop in your performance (asopposed to being a little slower, whichyou should purposefully do anyway);and/or otherwise inexplicable signs of acold or other illness. If any of theseaccompany your increased mileage, goback down to your previous mileage untilthey pass. Then shoot for a new highermileage level that’s below your firstattempt at an increase.

: Alison Wade

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A d d N e w S t r e s s e sJ u d i c i o u s l yIf at all possible, time attempts atincreasing your mileage for when the restof your life is on a relatively even keel.Your chances of adapting to the newrunning stress will be greater if theincreased mileage doesn’t coincide withyour crazy time at work or a family crisisor absolutely atrocious weather.

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L o v e t h e L o n g R u nDoing one run a week that’s significantlylonger than most of your other runs is agreat way to simultaneously boost yourmileage and your fitness. Your mainmotivation for regularly doing long runsshould be the latter—building yourendurance so that all of your runs becomemore manageable. But I’m not going todeny that starting the week with a long runis a killer kick-off to meeting your weeklymileage goal.

Near-weekly long runs are, of course,one of the backbones of marathon-training

plans. Almost all runners looking to racewell from 5K on up know the value of thelong run. The internal changes in yourmuscles caused by long runs—basically, avastly improved “plumbing” system forgetting oxygen to and removing wasteproducts from working muscles—carryover to all your runs. There’s also a greatmental benefit from these runs devoted tomaking yourself more resistant to fatigue,in that your normal runs won’t seem nearlyas daunting. When you’re used to a 2-hourrun most weeks, a 45-minute run on eventhe most stressful day of the week is easyto imagine.

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H o w L o n g I s L o n g ?For people who run almost daily, a longrun should be between 20 percent and 30percent of your total weekly mileage. So ifyou run 40 miles per week, have one run aweek be at least 8 and up to 12 miles long.

Another general guideline is for yourlong run to be at least one-third longerthan any other run that week. Thisguideline is more useful for people whorun a moderate amount a few days a week.So if you typically run 5 miles four days aweek, lengthen one of those to closer to 7miles. It’s fine to cut back one of the other

runs if you want to stay at the same weeklymileage. You’ll gain more fitness byvarying the lengths of your runs.

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H o w L o n g I s T o oL o n g ?If your longest run of the week is morethan twice the distance of any other run ina typical week, it’s too long. This is oneof the problems with the training programsused by many first-time marathoners—they quickly bump up their long run, andsoon it constitutes the bulk of their weeklymileage. The run is so long relative towhat their bodies are used to that theyspend the rest of the week recovering fromit and do just a couple token jogs. In this

case, the solution is to bring the runs in aweek more in line with each other. Bumpup your weekly mileage by making one ofthe other runs during the week longer, andget your longest run of the week backdown to no more than twice as long as anyother run you do.

Stacey Cramp

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M a k i n g L o n g R u n sL o n g e rTo bump up your long runs, try adding 1or 2 miles per long run for twoconsecutive long runs, then come downevery third long run to your earlierdistance. So if your long run is currently12 miles and you want to increase it, youcould go to 13 for the next one, then 14 theone after that, but then back down to 12for the next one. This will better allowyou to adapt to the longer long runs thanplowing ahead with longer and longer

ones week after week.

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W h e n t o G o L o n gWhenever! The weekend long run is astaple in most training programs, butnowhere is it written in stone that youcan’t go long on Tuesday morning orThursday evening. For most people on anormal work schedule, a weekendmorning is the easiest place to find thetime. But have I impressed upon you yetthe great value in not tying your running toartificial parameters? Good, then feel freeto go long whenever works for you.

Along those lines, there’s nothingsaying you have to go long every 7 days.

Perhaps you’ll find a 5-day training cycleworks better for you. Or maybe you’ll findthat weekends are indeed the only timeyou have to go long, but doing so everyweekend is simply too much, either foryour body or your outside life. That’s fine.If you can get in two or three long runsmost months, you’re getting enough of thelong-run stimulus to significantly boostyour endurance.

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W h e r e t o G o L o n gIf you can swing it logistically, do yourlong runs on your nicer routes. It’s onething to suck it up and run wherever whenyou’re getting in a short run after astressful workday. Try to make your longruns a more pleasant experience. With theextra distance, you get to roam fartherafield than usual. Explore the places youdon’t get to as often.

Don’t feel guilty about drivingsomewhere special for your long runs.Long runs in an aesthetically pleasingenvironment, like a network of trails, go

by a lot more quickly mentally. Also, themore forgiving surface of a trail or dirtroad will lessen the pounding on your legsand lengthen your time to fatigue.

Try to include some hills in your longruns. The extra work getting up them willresult in more of the improvements to yourplumbing system that you want from a longrun. In addition, the slight change in formyou’ll use going up and down will spreadthe stress across more of your leg musclesand lengthen your time to fatigue. A longrun on a pancake-flat course will have yourunning with the same form throughout andyou’ll probably tighten up sooner than ona route with more variety.

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M a k e Y o u r L o n g - R u nD a y s S p e c i a lAnice course goes a long way (ha-ha)toward making a long run enjoyable. Ifyou can, include other elements so thatlong-run days are ones you really lookforward to. Run them with friends. Go outfor brunch afterward. Schedule a massage.Have a soak in a hot tub or bath. Do themon unharried days so that you can relaxafterward and enjoy that pleasantlyfatigued mellow feeling.

Most days you’re going to scramble to

fit your running around the rest of yourlife. Try to have long runs be one of thecenterpieces of your day once in a while.You’ll be reminded of the many things youlove about running.

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H o w F a s t o n L o n gR u n s ?If there were ever a type of run to easeinto, it’s the long run. When people haveto slow at the end of a long run, or cut itshort, it’s almost always because they’verun the first half of it too hard.

Fifteen minutes into a long run, youshould be running no faster than the paceyou can honestly tell yourself you can holdto the end. If you get to a few miles to goand are itching to pick up the pace, that’sthe time to run faster. There are few

running experiences more unpleasant thancrashing and crawling in the last third of along run.

Unless your long run is a key part ofpreparation for a long race—which we’lllook at in the next chapter—keep yourpace at a relaxed, conversational effortthroughout. The challenge is simplycovering the distance. The range of effortat which the physiological changes you’reafter by going long is broad; increase yourchances of finishing the long run feelingstrong by keeping things at the gentler endof that broad range.

If you plan your training in terms ofminutes per mile relative to race pace, trythese rough guidelines: Do your long run aminute per mile or slower than your

marathon race pace, or 90 seconds to 2minutes per mile slower than your 5K racepace.

Stacey Cramp

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W h e n a L o n g R u nI s n ’ t G o i n g W e l lSometimes it’s just not your day. When isit OK to pull the plug on a long run?

If you have an acute running-relatedpain that’s getting worse as you run, stop.If you started the run with slight symptomsof a cold or illness and they’re gettingworse as you run, stop. (Easier said thandone, of course, if these things happenwhen you’re 5 miles from home. It’s notagainst the law to ask to use someone’sphone and call home for emergency taxi

service.)

Other cases are more of a judgmentcall. If by “not going well” you mean youjust don’t feel like it, but you’re finephysically, you should probably see itthrough. One of the benefits of long runs islearning to persevere mentally. Cutting along run short because of a mental lapsewill make it easier to make the samedecision the next time it happens.

Brian Metzler

Get through tough mental patches bybreaking the run into smaller segments.Instead of obsessing over the fact that youstill have an hour to go, concentrate on thenext 10 minutes, then the 10 minutes afterthat. If you’re running with a friend, gether talking. Ask about something youknow will set her off; by the end of theanecdote, you’ll be that much closer to

home.

If your form is starting to deteriorate,it’s OK to stop and collect yourself.Gently stretch areas that are tightening.Then ease back into the run. Sometimesthe solution is to run a little faster,because that can get you running withbetter form. Try picking up the pace for aminute, then back off for a few minutes,then pick it up again for a minute.

If you started the run really tired andthings haven’t improved in the first hour,stick it out in most cases, but be awarethat you’re probably going to need somesolid recovery time later that day. If thingsare such in the rest of your life that youneed to be “on” for much of the rest of theday, then this might be a good day to cut

your losses and try for long-run successanother day.

If you’ve bonked and have to slowsignificantly the last few miles, finish itup, and resolve to start the next run better-fueled and at a more manageable pace.

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I t ’ s a R u n , N o t aF e a s tMost people don’t need to take in calorieson long runs. One of the purposes of longruns is to slightly deplete your muscles’stores of glycogen, the stored form ofcarbohydrate that’s their preferred fuelsource for distance running. When you golong and run down your glycogen stores,your body adapts by becoming better atstoring glycogen. This adaptation resultsin having a bigger gas tank for the nexttime you go long. Running low on

glycogen also makes you more efficient atburning glycogen—at a given pace, you’llburn less glycogen and more fat. Thisadaptation means you can make yourbigger gas tank last longer. Theseadaptations make you a better runner notonly on long runs, but on all runs.

Those adaptations don’t happen asreadily when you take in calories everyfew miles, as many runners have starteddoing in recent years. Downing gelpackets and energy bars throughout yourlong run will certainly help you not bonk.But by sparing your glycogen stores,they’ll limit the long run’s ability to makeyou a more efficient runner.

If you feel you can’t get through yourlong run without repeatedly drinking sport

drink and eating gels or bars, then you’retrying to run too far for your currentfitness. A well-trained runner should beable to get through 18 to 20 miles with noreal decline in performance withouthaving to take in lots of calories.

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P r e – L o n g R u nN u t r i t i o nThe real fueling for a long run takes placethe day before, not during. Do yourself afavor and make sure you’re starting yourlong run with a full gas tank. Eat a high-carbohydrate dinner. Becausecarbohydrate metabolism requires waterto store what you ate, make sure you’rewell hydrated before you go to bed.

If you’re going long first thing in themorning, experiment with what foods youcan eat soon before running without

stomach duress. You don’t need muchmore than a few hundred calories, tops—this will help replenish the glycogenstores in your liver and brain that dippedwhile you slept. A little snack like a pieceof dry toast and a banana will elevate yourblood-sugar level so that you start the runfeeling stronger.

Regardless of your taste for water in themorning, have a couple glasses. Yourbody will thank you over the last half hourof your long run.

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T h e W h y s o f P o s t –L o n g R u n N u t r i t i o nAfter, not during, a long run is the time totake in frequent calories. In the first halfhour after a long run, your muscles areextraordinarily receptive to refueling.Glycogen resynthesis occurs at three timesthe normal rate during this recoverywindow. After the first half hour, yourmuscles’ receptivity to refueling starts todecline, but remains elevated for another90 minutes.

This is important for two reasons. First,

beginning to refuel while this above-and-beyond resynthesis is possible will induceyour leg muscles to produce the desirableadaptations I described above. Given thatcausing these adaptations is one of themain reasons to go long, why wouldn’tyou want to reap the maximum benefitfrom your hard work?

Second, the sooner you start refueling,the faster you’ll recover from your longrun. It might not seem important at thetime, but trust me, if you lag on refuelingafter a Sunday long run, you might well bekicking yourself come Tuesday. Whenyou’re lackadaisical about post–long runnutrition, it’s common to find yourselfzapped later in the day. The next couple ofdays, you might realize you’re more tired

than you think you should be, and yourenthusiasm for running will be low.You’re also more likely to feel sore theday after a long run if you didn’t startrefueling soon enough.

: Joel Wolpert

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T h e W h a t s o f P o s t –L o n g R u n N u t r i t i o nThe first order of business is rehydratingwith water or sport drink. If your stomachtends to bother you after long runs, go withsport drink so that you’re sure to get somecalories in during that crucial first halfhour after you finish.

Aim for a few hundred calories within30 minutes of finishing. A carb-to-proteinratio of 4:1 at this time will increaseglycogen resynthesis, so something like abagel with hummus, peanut butter, tuna, or

cheese works well if your stomach cantolerate it.

After the immediate aftermath, have alarge carbohydrate-rich meal 2 two hoursof finishing. Keep rehydrating throughoutthe day—if you find your energy laggingseveral hours after a long run and yourefueled properly after, then it’s probablybecause you’re still dehydrated. If youhave a headache later that day, that’s alsoa sign of still being dehydrated.

Include a good source of protein withdinner to help with muscle tissue repair.Many people find a glass of red wine or abeer with dinner after a long run helpsthem sleep better, thereby furthering theirrecovery.

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T h e R e s t o f L o n g -R u n R e c o v e r y

There’s more to optimizing recoveryfrom a long run than eating. (Sorry.)

While you’re rehydrating and refuelingin the first half hour after, do some gentlestretches for any areas that got tight duringthe run. That’s probably going to meanyour hamstrings, hips, and lower back.This is especially important if you’vedriven to run and are about to get back inyour car. If you drove, do more lightstretching when you get home to undo

sitting in the car while your muscles werecompromised.

If you can find time later that day for alonger, more thorough stretching session,you’ll speed your recovery. Ten to 15minutes several hours later will increaseblood flow and leave you feeling less beatup and laggardly the next day. A walk orswim that afternoon will serve the samepurpose. You might not feel like theselittle extras are making much of adifference at the time, but they’reguaranteed to contribute to your feelingbetter in the days after. That will allowyou to maintain a better training rhythmand pile fitness gain upon fitness gain.

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D o u b l e Y o u rE n d u r a n c e P l e a s u r eHere’s a trick from the world ofultramarathoning: Do long runs onconsecutive days to get a big enduranceboost.

As with running twice a day, this ideaisn’t as crazy as it may sound. If youfollow them with a few true recoverydays, back-to-back long runs can lead toabove-average endurance gains becauseof super compensation, wherein your bodyreacts to an extraordinary stimulus by

preparing for its recurrence.

A decade ago I was preparing to runMaryland’s C&O Canal in a week. To getready to average a marathon a day for aweek, I did regular back-to-back long runsof 20 to 22 miles. After the first coupletimes, I had adjusted, and the second ofthe two long runs was no more work thanthe first. Knowing that I had to go longagain the following day kept me fromrunning the first day’s run too hard, and itgave me great motivation to do all thelittle things afterward to optimizerecovery. I definitely felt moreaerobically strong after a few weekendsof consecutive long runs.

Back-to-back long runs work well intraditional training programs in the early

to middle phases. For example, if you’retraining for a marathon and have a fewgood long runs under your belt, you coulddo back-to-back long runs two of theweekends in the coming month. Keep thepace nice and gentle on both; justconcentrate on getting the distance in. Asyou get closer to your marathon, youwould want to move back to one high-quality long run per week for morespecific preparation.

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W h e n O n e R u n a D a yJ u s t I s n ’ t E n o u g hMost top runners run twice a day mostdays. This isn’t as crazy an undertaking asit might sound.

Running twice a day (a.k.a. doubling) isa simple way to increase your mileage.Just three additional short runs a weekwill boost your weekly mileage by morethan 10.

Here’s the potentially counterintuitivething about doubling: it can be a less

taxing way to increase your mileage thanmaking all of your runs longer. At somepoint, adding to individual runs can meanfinishing most of those runs a little toofatigued. That’s especially undesirable ifyour form starts to deteriorate, at whichpoint the pounding of running will takemore of a toll. By splitting some days’running into two sessions, you spread thatstress over more time and are more likelyto have good form throughout the day’smileage. If you’re to where you’re runningan hour or most days, breaking some ofthose days into two runs will leave youfresher while giving you the same fitnessbenefits.

Alison Wade

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H a n d l i n g D o u b l eD u t yThe first thing to consider about doublingis the time factor. Two runs of 4 and 6miles will take more total time out of yourday than one run of 10 miles, because ofthe attendant preand post-run activities. Soif you already struggle to find time for onerun a day, forget doubling.

But if you can find the time two or threedays a week, experiment to see if doublingworks for you. Start by adding a short,very easy run on days when you do your

hardest workouts. For example, if youhave a group track workout every Tuesdaynight, do an easy jog of a few miles thatmorning. Once you adjust to the generalconcept of doubling, which shouldn’t takemore than a few weeks, you’ll feel better,readier to go fast, on that day’s hardersession. If your hard workouts are in themorning, then a short, gentle jog thatevening will speed your recovery; anotherround of increased blood flow will bringmore nutrients and general looseness toyour muscles, sort of like a massage on thego.

Stacey Cramp

Next you could add a second run on oneof your standard distance days. Instead of,say, doing one 8-mile run, you could do a3-miler and 6-miler. It’s usually best tokeep one of the runs longer than the otheron a double day. That helps you to sort ofsneak up your mileage totals with lessstrain while best advancing your fitness.

Add doubles to other days as your

enthusiasm and schedule allow. Max outdoubling on all other days instead ofdoubling on your long-run days. After along run, your priority for the rest of theday is recovering so that you can resumegood training as soon as possible. Whenyou’ve purposefully done a long run toinduce muscular fatigue, running again thatday will delay getting over that fatigue.

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D o u b l e s W i l l S h o r t e nY o u r R e c o v e r y T i m eWhen you first start doubling, expect tofeel a little more tired on most runs,especially on double days. But if you addthem gradually and wisely, soon you’llnotice that you recover quicker from allyour runs, even on days you don’t double.Your body gets used to running again 6 or8 hours after a run instead of 24. Your“recoverability,” for lack of a betterword, improves. In turn, that should allowyou to train harder even on days when you

don’t double—with better recoverability,you can push hard one day and not be astrashed the next day.

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D o u b l e s o n E a s yD a y s ?Twenty years ago, the day after a long runwas one of the days of the week I wasleast likely to double. I slept in, then ran 8to 10 miles after work. Now that I’m inmy midforties, the day after a long run isone of the days I’m most likely to double.Because I’m used to doubling, two runs of30 to 40 minutes each result in less totalfatigue for the day than if I were to run thatmuch all at once.

Similarly, I’m not alone among aging

longtime runners in finding that followinga hard workout day with a day of a 4- and8-miler takes less out of me than doingone 10-miler that day. Because of age,there’s a greater energy cost associatedwith that single longer run. For one thing,that 10-miler takes me 10 minutes longerthan it used to, so it’s more likely thattoward the end of the run I’ll be fairlyfatigued and my form will start todeteriorate. As a result, the day is morelikely to make me more tired rather thanhelping me recover from the previousday’s hard work.

You don’t have to wait to be my age toget this benefit from doubling. Onceyou’re accustomed to running twice a day,doing so on your recovery days is a great

way to make sure they serve their purpose.

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F i n a l T h o u g h t o nR u n n i n g M o r eSeveral years ago, a training partner ofmine lost some motivation and went fromrunning 70 to 80 miles a week to half that.After a couple years at the lower mileage,he got inspired to return to his formermileage. When he got back to his oldmileage, we were out for a run one daywhen he voiced a great truism: In someways, he said, it’s easier to run more thanless.

What he meant is that as you get fitter,

each individual run becomes less taxing.As you get fitter, your normal workadayruns feel more like they happen on theirown, and you’re just along for the ride.

You pass through certain thresholds offitness as you start running more. Whatused to be a big deal, maybe a 10-milerun, becomes more like a normal day. Themiles just sort of start accumulating ontheir own. If you run significantly less thanusual for even a few days, you start to feeloff, you start to lose the overarchingrhythm to your running, and your bodybecomes eager to get back to what hasbecome its higher-mileage set point.

If you’ve never experienced the feelingof being so fit that it’s easier to run morethan less, let me assure you it’s worth

working for.

P A R T T W OR u n n i n g F a s t e r : 6 3T i p s t o H e l p B u i l d

Y o u r S p e e d , E v e n I fY o u ’ r e N e v e r G o i n g

t o R a c eAll other things being equal, pretty muchall runners would like to be faster.Wouldn’t you? Even if you have no plansto race in the next however long, thethought of being faster than you currentlyare probably has more appeal than thethought of being slower than you currently

are.

Of course, if you do plan to race, thenwanting to go faster is a given. You wantto know what to do in your daily trainingto be able to cover a given distance in lesstime, and you want to know what to do onrace day to run as fast as you’re capableof that day.

That’s what the tips in this chapter areabout. We’ll look at the main types ofworkouts that make you faster, as well ashow to best build those workouts into yourtraining, how to race to best make use ofyour fitness, and other things you can do toget faster. We’ll also look at some of themental aspects of running faster. First,though, let’s start with why all runnersshould do regular fast running.

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F i r s t o f T w o M a i nR e a s o n s A l l R u n n e r sS h o u l d D o S o m eF a s t e r R u n n i n gRegularly running at a variety of paces iswhat should be considered the norm, notan exception that only runners interested inrunning as fast as possible should botherwith. Like a cook who can master a widerange of dishes and techniques, coursesand cuisines, a runner who’s comfortableat a variety of paces acquires a broad

range of proficiency that makes every runbetter.

What I’ll call multipace training simplymakes you a more complete runner.Multipace training gives you greaterrunning-specific muscular strength, movesyou through a greater range of motion,fully develops all of the internal processesthat underlie running, and optimallyprepares you for whatever sort of runningchallenge you want to take on.

I’m not saying that people who don’ttrain at a variety of paces aren’t “realrunners,” whatever that tired phrase mightmean. You can lead a satisfying runninglife by running exactly the same pace forthe same distance every day. But there’s awhole other type of fitness available to

runners who regularly rotate throughseveral types of workouts. It’s a fitnessthat will make your running moreenjoyable regardless of whether you everplan to test it in a race.

: Stacey Cramp

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S e c o n d o f T w o M a i nR e a s o n s A l l R u n n e r sS h o u l d D o S o m eF a s t e r R u n n i n gThere’s no better way to keep yourrunning interesting than to have peaks andvalleys of intensity and duration woventhroughout your training weeks. Multipacetraining naturally builds a structure intoyour running that makes it more enjoyable.

When you regularly do all sorts of

workouts, from long runs and basic speedsessions to slow recovery runs and tempoworkouts, the variety keeps the days fromall blending together. The days havemeaning not only in regard to themselves,but to what precedes and follows them. Ifyou’ve done a long run on Sunday, thenyou’ll probably go slow and short onMonday. That sets you up for a hardworkout Tuesday, followed by a recoveryday Wednesday. By Thursday maybe amedium-effort run followed by someshort, fast quasi-sprints to rev you up for atempo run on Friday will be the ticket.Then you could finish the week off with aneasy day on Saturday to ensure you’regood to go long again on Sunday.

To continue our cooking analogy, most

people who like to cook find doing somore interesting the more they switchthings up, from complex creations tosimple stir-fries, from quick scrambles todishes that take hours to make. In runningas in most things in life, not having everyday seem like the previous one ismotivating.

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W e ’ r e A l l S l o w e rT h a n S o m e b o d yThere’s nothing to be gained frombelittling yourself over how fast you canrun; banish all thoughts of “Oh, I’m soslow, what’s the point?” People getlapped even in world-class 10Ks on thetrack.

There will always be lots of peoplefaster than you. That fact detracts not awhit from your efforts to get faster and themeaning you can find in that pursuit. Anythoughtful runner who has set performance

goals and worked hard to reach them willrespect any other runner’s quest to do thesame. Your effort, not your pace at thateffort, is what really matters.

: 101◦West

4 9

G r e a t T r a i n i n g , N o tG r e a t W o r k o u t sOne more conceptual frame before welook at specific workouts to get faster: AsPete Magill, the oldest American to break15:00 for 5K, puts it, there are no greatworkouts, just great training. Magillmeans that training is a series of puzzlepieces that link one day’s, one week’s,one month’s efforts to the next. Youadvance your fitness by gradually buildingand working steadily toward your goal.Some days that might mean a hard

workout, but some days that will meanrunning very easily to recover from onehard run and prepare for the next.

That’s a different, more mature mind-set than the one that says, “I need to go tothe track today and run as fast and far as Ican to prepare for next week’s race.”Hard workouts at race pace or faster arenecessary to run your best, but they’re justone of many building blocks. Focusing onthem too much, both physically andmentally, means never reaching yourpotential.

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A C r u c i a l F e w T y p e so f F a s t R u n n i n gPotential oversimplification alert: I’mnow going to describe some main types offast workouts. I’m choosing these fewtypes because they’re each a targeted wayto improve an important aspect of runningfaster. Nitpickers will say that you can’tcompartmentalize running like that; they’llsay that all faster running improvesseveral aspects of running fitness. Andthey’re right—you can’t say that somethinglike a 3-mile run at the pace you can hold

for an hour has only one narrow, easilyidentified benefit.

At the same time, there are a few keytypes of workouts that the best runners inthe world do over and over again. Each ofthose workouts are among the mosteffective ways to improve an importantelement of running performance. Whenyou understand those few key types ofworkouts, you can better understand howand why to do them all to become a morecomplete runner.

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I m p r o v e Y o u r B a s i cS p e e d : S t r i d e r sAll runners should do striders. Yes, all.By “striders” I mean runs of 100 meters orso, done on flat, level ground after an easyrun, at the pace you feel you could holdfor a half mile or so. A typical sessionentails 8 to 12 striders, with as muchrecovery as you want in between so thatyou can run the remaining striders withgood, relaxed form.

That “relaxed” part is key. Striders areabout learning to run fast but free of strain.

They’re about moving quickly but lightly.Because they’re so short, you shouldn’tfind yourself tying up during them, andyour breathing should return to normalsoon after.

Striders build your running-specific legstrength and take you through a muchgreater range of motion than an averageeasy or moderate run. They’ll also helpyou maintain a light, quick cadence.Striders build a smoother running form,which is then yours to benefit from on allyour runs.

: 101◦West

Striders should leave you feeling good,like a kid dashing down the street.American 10K record-holder ChrisSolinsky once told me he often doesimpromptu striders because they’re soenjoyable—once you’re used to doingthem, it’s simply fun to run fast.

Do a session of striders once or twice aweek, and I guarantee that within a monthyou’ll feel better on most of your runs.

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A V a r i a t i o n o nS t r i d e r s : D i a g o n a l sDiagonals are a Kenyan specialty thatbuild striders into a slightly morestructured workout.

The name comes from the fact that youdo them on a rectangular field, like the oneinside of a track. You run fast from onecorner of the rectangle to the oppositecorner, jog along the baseline to the nextcorner, run fast again across the rectangleto the opposing corner, then jog along thebaseline to bring yourself where you

started your first fast run. (Imagine an Xwith lines along the top and bottom of theX; the fast runs cover the lines of the X andthe jogs cover the lines along its top andbottom.) As with striders, the fast runs areabout 100 meters long. If you’re on arectangular field, the jog between fast runswill take about as long as your fastsegments.

Go by time rather than number of fastruns with diagonals. A 10-minute session(counting both fast runs and short jogs)will have you doing about the samenumber of fast runs as a standard series ofstriders. If you do 20 or 30 minutes ofdiagonals, then it’s becoming a bit more ofa workout that’s the focus of your runningthat day (as opposed to doing a normal run

and following it with a quick set ofstriders). I’ve done up to 40 minutes ofdiagonals and can testify that this countsas hard training.

But no matter how long your diagonalssession is, running fast but relaxedremains the most important thing. You’restill working primarily to improve yourbasic speed, turnover, and range ofmotion; those benefits don’t come if youallow yourself to get too tired to run thefast parts with good form.

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A n o t h e r V a r i a t i o n o nS t r i d e r s : P i c k - U p sInstead of doing an easy run and thendoing a series of striders, you cancondense things by rolling the striders intothe last portion of an easy run.

Say you’re out for a 6-miler. With acouple miles to go, you could startalternating 30 seconds at strider pace with90 seconds of easy running. Repeat that 8or 10 times and you’re home. You couldleave things more unstructured by goingfast for short stretches as the muse strikes

you and jogging to recover until you feelyou’re ready to run the next pick-up withgood form and no strain. This latterapproach is better if you’re on anundulating course and want to run fastprimarily on flat stretches.

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I m p r o v e Y o u rR u n n i n g E c o n o m y :S h o r t R e p e a t sMoving up from striders and pick-ups, thenext main type of faster running is burstsof 60 to 90 seconds at what feels like thepace you could run for a mile. The pointof these are to improve your runningeconomy, or how efficient you are (interms of oxygen consumption) at a givenspeed. Targeted efforts at this effort levelwill make you more efficient at all speeds.

Traditionally, this workout is done bydoing one-lap repeats of a standard 400-meter track. But there’s nothing magicalabout the distance of 400 meters; it’ssimply convenient to do one-lap repeats.The important thing here is the amount oftime, 60 to 90 seconds, at that intensity ofroughly mile race pace. A standardrunning economy workout would totalbetween 2 and 3 miles worth of hardrunning, such as ten 400-meter repeats ortwelve 300-meter repeats.

These repeats quickly become taxing.So that you can do them all at the rightintensity level, you’ll need a goodrecovery jog between. A convenientparameter is to jog for the same distanceas your hard bouts. If you’re doing the

workout based on time, do recovery jogsthat last 50 percent to 100 percent as longas your fast runs; for example, 80 secondshard followed by a 2-minute jog.

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I m p r o v e Y o u rP u m p i n g A b i l i t y :V O2 M a x W o r k o u t sThe next main type of fast running is whatare called VO2 max workouts. I’ll spareyou a lengthy physiology lesson and saysimply that these are a targeted way toimprove your heart’s ability to pumpblood and to deliver it efficiently toworking muscles.

A typical VO2 max workout consists ofruns of 3 to 6 minutes at the pace you

could hold for between 2 miles and 5kilometers; it’s convenient to think of themas repeats at 5K race pace. Three to fourmiles’ worth of hard running is a goodtarget, such as six 800-meter repeats orfive 1,200-meter repeats. Recovery jogsin VO2 max workouts should last between50 percent and 100 percent of the time ofthe repeats. On the track, a one-lap jogbetween repeats is typical, but for longerrepeats like 1 mile, a lap-and-a-half jog ismore suitable so that you can run the nextrepeat at the right pace.

VO2 max workouts are what mostpeople think of if you say you’re doing ahard workout. And hard—but effective—they are.

Stacey Cramp

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I m p r o v e Y o u r S p e e dE n d u r a n c e : S h o r tT e m p o R u n sThere are almost as many definitions of“tempo run” as they are runners. What Imean here are runs of 20 to 30 minutessomewhere between the pace you couldhold for an hour to a half marathon. Thepoint of these workouts, often calledlactate threshold runs, is to improve yourability to hold a solid pace before havingto slow. They do this by making you betterat clearing lactate, a by-product of aerobic

metabolism that forces you to slow whenits presence in your blood becomes toohigh.

Running for 20 to 30 minutes at the paceyou could for an hour to a half marathon isa fairly broad range, and that’s fine. Theeffort level you’re after here is whatlegendary coach Jack Daniels calls“comfortably hard.” You’re working andhave to concentrate to keep the pacegoing, but you’re not under the sort ofduress you feel during VO2 max workouts.You should be able to speak in completesentences on short tempo runs.

Brian Metzler

Tempo runs are fantastic at building thatfeeling of solid aerobic strength, whereyou feel on most runs you can keep goingat a strong pace without having to slow.Race performance aside, it’s satisfying toknow you can do more than run easily forsustained periods. That’s why I think evenrunners with no race plans should doregular tempo runs (and striders!).

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I m p r o v e Y o u rF a t i g u e R e s i s t a n c e :L o n g T e m p o R u n sThe last of the main types of faster runningare also known as rhythm runs ormarathon-pace runs. The latter name tellsyou what you need to know about thedesired effort level—the fastest pace youcould sustain for two to three hours (yes,even if your marathon time is slower thanthat). These efforts combine some of thebenefits of shorter tempo runs with thoseof long, easy runs. The result is overall

improved aerobic strength, in part becauseof your leg muscles becoming betterequipped to receive and make use of theoxygen in your blood.

Long tempo runs can last from 40 to 80minutes, or 6 to 10 miles if you’re thinkingin terms of distance. They’re typicallydone as the second part of an otherwiseregular long run. But you can also makethem their own entity on other days,sandwiching them with a warm-up andcool-down just like you would other typesof hard workouts.

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H i t t h e H i l l sMore runners should do hard workouts onhills more regularly. Running hard uphillgives you all the benefits of running hardon flat ground, and then some—greaterrunning-specific leg strength, more musclefibers recruited (and therefore given aninducement to adapt to a higher workcapacity), and of course, specificpreparation for tackling hills in races.

Everyone knows intuitively that runningfast uphill is hard work, but I don’t thinkthat’s why ambitious runners avoid hillworkouts. After all, they’re ambitious

runners, so are willing to do almostanything to get faster. I think many peopleavoid hill workouts because it’s not aseasy to quantify your workouts on them. Ifyou do a series of 800-meter repeats on atrack, you know exactly how “good” of aworkout you had, in terms of how yourtimes matched what you were aiming forand what you’ve done on similar workoutsin the recent past. Hill workouts aren’t aseasily comparable. Even if you always dothe same workout on the same stretch ofhill, how do you know how that workoutcompares to an equivalent session on thetrack? And what about the fact that youmay be running hard, but not particularlyfast, given the grade?

As a result, runners who might be a

little insecure and in need of constantdata-driven feedback on their fitness tendto shy away from hill workouts. And that’sa shame, because there are several typesof hill workouts that are highly effective atmaking you faster.

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G o o d U p h i l l R u n n i n gF o r mWhen you’re running hard uphill, it’s easyto focus so hard on getting to the top thatyou neglect good running form. Staymindful of your mechanics on hard uphillruns (and easier ones, for that matter).You may have heard, “Lean into the hill.”That’s not handy advice if it means youbend forward at the waist; doing that willmean you’re fighting gravity even morethan the hill is already causing you to.

Maintain a tall running posture, with

your chest up, not moving toward yourknees. Concentrate on keeping a slightcurve in your lower back and your hipsforward. My college coach always gavethe “pecker out” cue for how to hold ourmidsection. (He apparently never coachedwomen.) Keep your shoulders low andrelaxed. Imagine your hands pulling up arope that’s secured at the top of the hill. Aquicker, lighter foot strike will get you tothe top faster than purposefully reachingfor more ground.

: Stacey Cramp

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H i l l S p r i n t sHill sprints are like striders in that they’llimprove your running form and basicspeed. They’re also like striders in thatthey’re short enough that you can do themon otherwise easy days and they’ll leaveyou feeling more, not less, ready to runhard the next day.

Hill sprints are runs of only 10 to 15seconds up the steepest hill you can find.On each one, you should attack the hill“with the mentality of a sprinter,” the greatItalian coach Renato Canova onceexplained to me. In other words, all out,

as fast as you can. Hill sprints are done“without care for recovery” in Canova’swords; that is, recover completely beforedoing the next one. Walk down the hill,and then walk around some more at thebase until you’re ready to run the next one“with the mentality of a sprinter.” Theworld-class marathoners Canova coachestake 2 to 3 minutes between their hillsprints.

These are basically like doing squatsusing your weight and the hill instead of abarbell. Hill sprints strengthen all yourrunning-specific leg muscles, improveyour explosive power, and train your legsto recruit more fibers as they tire. That’sall good stuff!

The first time you do hill sprints, do

just a few, especially if you haven’t trulysprinted for awhile. Add one or two persession until you’re at 10. There’s noreason to do more than that, becauseyou’ll be unable to reach the properintensity. Hill sprints can take the place ofstriders in your schedule. Once you’reused to them, you can do them the daybefore a hard workout, because they’llprepare your central nervous system towork harder the next day.

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S h o r t H i l l sFairly steep hills that take you between 30and 60 seconds to get up can also replacestriders as a way to improve your basicspeed. These are a staple of Kenyans’training; everyone from milers tomarathoners do, say, 15 repeats up a 30-second hill. It’s OK on these workouts tonot be fully recovered between repeats sothat you can also get cardiovascularbenefits from the session. As always,though, you want to be getting up the hillwith quick, efficient form, and that’s notgoing to possible if you run the first few

all-out.

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M e d i u m H i l l sHills that take about 90 seconds to climbare great for running economy workouts.The grade should be less than for hillsprints and short hills. Your effort shouldbe at about mile race pace; 8 to 10 reps isa good target. Because you’re nowclimbing a fairly lengthy hill, the jog downshould give you plenty of time to recover.If, however, you get to the bottom andaren’t yet ready to go hard again, jogaround a bit more. Hitting the properintensity is much more important thansimply being out of breath the whole time.

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L o n g H i l l sHills that take two to four minutes toclimb can serve many of the purposes ofVO2 max workouts. And of course ifyou’re preparing for a long race withseveral hills, like the Boston Marathon,you’ll want to be used to sustained uphillefforts.

: 101° West

The tricky thing with hills this long isthe jog down. First, you’ll probably befully recovered by the time you get to thebottom. That’s fine, but you need to besure you’re running the uphill part hardenough to keep your heart rate elevated

high enough throughout the workout.Second, there’s the issue of pounding—jogging down a half-mile hill six timeswhen you’re tired can put a lot of strain onyour legs. Stay mindful of your form asyou jog down so that you’re not crashinginto the ground with every step.

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T r e a d m i l l H i l l sHere’s one place where a treadmill canbe better than “real” running. You cansimulate any hill workout on a treadmillwithout having to deal with potentialproblems from the repeated jogs down.Just don’t set the incline so high that yougo flying off the back!

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G o i n g D o w n h i l l F a s tIf you want help building your basicspeed, why not enlist gravity? Doingstriders on a slight downhill can enhanceall the benefits of doing them on flatground, especially your ability to maintaina relaxed, quick cadence at high speed.

The key is to do downhill striders on arelatively gentle descending grade. If it’stoo steep, your form will be too differentfrom how you run on flat or slightly uphillstretches. A 1 percent or 2 percent gradeis good.

As on regular striders, focus on runningfast but relaxed. Hold back a bit on thefirst couple to make sure you’readequately warmed up, and then let ’er rip—on the last several of a set of 10striders, see how fast of a turnover youcan maintain without your formdeteriorating. Walk or jog gently up thehill in between. After a month of weeklydownhill striders, you should noticeimprovements in your form on your hardworkouts and in your speed at the end ofraces.

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T h e M e n t a l S i d e o fR u n n i n g F a s tLet’s not neglect the mental benefits thatregular fast running bring to the rest ofyour running. Pushing yourself as you doon hard workouts will help you learn howto dole out your mental capital on otherruns and will show you that you canusually keep going even when the urge toquit or slow significantly isoverwhelming. Tempo runs are especiallygood at developing your ability tomentally see things through and wait out

physical sensations that are more wearingthan acutely painful.

Stacey Cramp

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R e l a x , R e l a x , R e l a xWatch the best runners in the world race,and you’ll notice that almost all of themlook supremely relaxed at almost alltimes. The grimacers and grunters andstrainers are the exceptions (and usuallythe ones finishing behind). Sprinters areespecially adept at running relaxed andletting the speed come out.

It might be natural to think that becauseyou’re working harder you should feeltenser. But it’s not helpful. Straining whileyou run causes unnecessary muscletightness and fatigue, and wastes energy

that could better be used on getting to thefinish line faster.

Everyone can get better at running fastbut relaxed through practice. On yourharder workouts, frequently run through amental checklist: Are my shoulders lowand even? Are my hands cupped loosely?Is my face, especially my jaw, free ofstrain?

Doing striders is an excellentopportunity to consciously work onrunning fast but relaxed. On each strider,think about one element of a flowing,relaxed running gait. Over time, practicingthese desirable movement patterns willcome naturally, even when you’re underduress in the last third of a race.

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G r o u p B e n e f i t sIf there’s ever a time to seek the companyof other runners, it’s for your hardworkouts. Even paragons of mentaltoughness find they more often meet theirhard-session goals by doing the workoutswith one or more partners.

In addition to helping you get throughthe session mentally, workout partners canhelp you practice race tactics, such astucking in behind someone else anddrawing off her energy. You also get thephysical benefit of others breaking thewind if you have different people lead

different parts of the workout.

Doing workouts with others can alsohelp you run more within yourself if youtend to push too hard in most hardsessions. Which leads us to ...

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I t ’ s a W o r k o u t , N o t aR a c eThe purpose of any workout, even thehardest, is to advance your fitness towarda performance goal. That means ameasured effort that’s hard enough toprovide the desired stimulus, but not sohard that you’re so trashed that the nextfew days of running are a waste.Remember Pete Magill’s counsel: greattraining, not great workouts. Elite runnersgo to the well seldom if ever in theirtraining; they save their racing for the

races.

Brian Metzler

You should finish hard workouts withmore in the tank. If you’re doing repeats,you should be able to run a few more atthe same pace. If you’re doing a temporun, you should be able to run another

couple miles at the same pace without amarked increase in effort.

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S c h e d u l i n g F a s tW o r k o u t sA good training program regularlyincludes all of the above main types ofworkouts. Blending them together ensuresthat you’ve developed in a targeted waythe key components of sustained fastrunning. If you’re really focusing on aparticular race distance, you’d want togive one type of training more emphasis(such as tempo runs if you’re pointingtoward a half marathon), but you shouldstill do all the other workouts regularly. If

you’re aiming more for general racefitness to be able to compete well at avariety of common distances, then rotatingthrough them all regularly is perfectpreparation.

An ambitious runner during a non-raceweek would typically aim for a longer andshorter fast workout, plus a long run and aday with some work on basic speed(striders, pick-ups, hill sprints, short hills,etc.). In planning your hard training, thinkmore in blocks of a month than a week.Planning in seven-day cycles can lead youto try to cram too much in every week andskimp on your recovery days, rather thando the hard work and see how yourecover.

Over a month, you can more

realistically and fruitfully plan where toplace the key elements of multipacetraining. If in a month you can do threegood long runs, two tempo runs, two VO2max workouts, two running economyworkouts, and four basic speed sessions,you’re doing great. And you’ll probablybe able to repeat that level of quality thenext month, and the month after that. Longperiods of training a little less hard thanyou could are much better long-term thanoccasional killer weeks interspersed withsignificantly more modest training.

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I f Y o u F e e l G o o d , G o“Don’t waste good time” was the adviceof Kenyan John Ngugi, who won anOlympic 5K and five world cross-countrytitles. He meant that you needn’t feelconstrained by a written training schedule.If you plan to run hard on Wednesday butfind yourself champing at the bit whilerunning Tuesday, go, get in a hard runthen. If you were to wait until the next day,you might not feel anywhere near as full ofrunning.

Ngugi was in his twenties when he said“don’t waste good time,” but his advice is

especially useful for older runners. Withage, the day-to-day changes in energylevel become more varied andunpredictable. If you happen upon anunexpected feeling of vibrancy, takeadvantage of it. Many of my tempo runsthese days come about by heeding Ngugi’sadvice—I’ll be 2 miles into a run anddecide it’s the right time to run hard forthe next 20 or 30 minutes.

The only day not to take this tack is theday after a hard workout. Err on the sideof caution on those days, no matter howincredible you feel, by keeping the pacegentle.

7 2

A W o r k o u t V a r i a t i o n :L a d d e r sInstead of doing a workout where all yourrepeats are the same distance, do ladders,where you start short, get longer, and thencome back down. A typical ladder whendoing repeats at 5K race pace would berepeats of one 400-meter lap, then twolaps, on up to four laps, before comingback down one lap at a time to finish witha 400-meter repeat. Ladders are a goodway to ease into a workout physically andmentally. On the way back down, you

could run the last couple repeats a bitfaster to practice picking up the pacewhile already very tired.

A potential drawback to ladders is thatthey get mentally easier once you’recoming back down. In races, of course,there’s no such easing of the mental strainas the finish approaches.

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A n o t h e r V a r i a t i o n :F a s t F i n i s h e sFinish some of your longer repeatworkouts, like miles or kilometers, with afew 200s or 300s. You’ll be pleasantlysurprised at how fast you can run the shortsegments once you’re fully warmed up. Ionce set a 200-meter PR on the last of four200s done impromptu after a set of six800s.

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Y e t A n o t h e rV a r i a t i o n : F a r t l e kWhen most people talk about fartlekworkouts, they’re really talking aboutdoing a structured workout, like ten 2-minute repeats with a 2-minute recoveryjog, elsewhere than the track. True fartlekis in the spirit of its translation from theSwedish, “speed play,” and isn’tstructured. You go hard for as long as youfeel like it, recover for as long as youwant, go hard again, perhaps for adifferent distance at a different pace, jog

until you feel ready to go again, and stopthe workout when you feel like you’vedone enough hard running for the day.

Fartleks are great for runners who needto get better at accurately judging how todole out their hard efforts. They’ll teachyou how to sense when you’re ready topush and when you need to back off.They’re also a needed counterweight tothe tendency too many runners have tojudge their fitness solely by the readingson their watches.

: Alison Wade

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“ H a l f ” W o r k o u t sNot every “hard” workout has to be akiller session. You can sneak in morequality without going to the well bystopping by a track or hill or obstacle-freestretch of road toward the end of a run anddoing a few up-tempo repeats of between200 and 800 meters.

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C u r r e n t v s . G o a lP a c eDo almost all of your fast running at yourcurrent race paces, not your goal racepaces. That will ensure that you’re runningwithin yourself and working at the properintensity, rather than straining to run timesthat might have no relation to your fitness.After all, if it really worked to pick anarbitrary time and start training at that racepace and inevitably run that race time,well, then excuse me while I go startdoing all my hard workouts at sub-4:00

mile pace.

First, do the training at your currentcapabilities. That will advance yourfitness. That will lead to faster race times.Adjust your workout times only afteryou’ve run the faster races that justifythem.

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P a c e s i n P e r s p e c t i v eWhen you hear people faster than you talkabout their training, translate theirworkouts into efforts relative to race pace.A 20-miler with the last 8 miles at 5:00per mile sounds really fast—and it is—butfor an elite man, it’s a long run with thelast portion at marathon race pace. That’sthe sort of workout most people preppingfor a marathon can and should do.

Focus on the general patterns and effortlevels in others’ training, not the precisenumbers that happen to coincide withthose effort levels for a given person.

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W h e r e t o R u n F a s tWe tend to think of hard workouts in termsof repeats of a 400-meter track. Certainlytracks provide objective data on how fastyou run for how far, and that data is easyto compare to how you did last week orlast month for the same workout.

But doing the bulk of your hardworkouts on a track can be a crutch. It’seasy to get used to getting split timesevery 400 meters, or even 200 meters, andthen adjusting the pace if necessary. Butmost of us run most of our races on theroads. When was the last time you got

400-meter splits in a road race? Doing toomany workouts on the track and judgingyour success by how well you hit yoursplits means you don’t develop as good asense of judging your effort using yourbody’s feedback. Yet your body’sfeedback is mostly what you’re going torely on in your races: Am I going out toofast? Starting too slow? Can I push it a bitmore on this hill? Can I hold this effort tothe finish?

A good compromise if you’re starting atraining cycle is to do your first few hardworkouts on a track to get a sense of whatyour basic paces feel like. Then do mostof your hard workouts by time away fromthe track; for example, instead of six 800-meter repeats with a one-lap recovery jog,

do six hard 3-minute runs at 5K race effortwith a 2-minute recovery jog. You caneasily translate all the main types of hardworkouts into minutes instead of distance.

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H o r s e s f o r C o u r s e sAnother reason to do many of your hardworkouts away from the artificial settingof a track is to practice running hard onthe types of courses you’ll race on. Hardsessions and tempo runs on roads meanyou’ll be running on flats and aroundcorners and up and down hills and all theother elements you’ll encounter in atypical road race. You’ll also betterprepare your muscles and tendons forhandling the increased pounding thataccompanies fast running on asphalt.

: 101° West

8 0

W h e n a W o r k o u tI s n ’ t G o i n g W e l lThere will be tough days at the office. Aswith triage on a nongreat long run, how toproceed depends on what’s happening.

If you’re not hitting your goal timesbecause of an acute running-related pain,stop. Trying to run fast is going to makethe nascent injury worse.

If your times are off because of theweather, carry on. Accept that your timesare going to be slower than you want and

focus on getting in the right effort.

If your times are slightly off for noobvious reason, carry on. You don’t wantto get in the habit of cutting a workoutshort simply because it’s not going as wellas you think it should.

If your times are significantly off fromwhat you’ve recently run in similarworkouts, then you should probably pullthe plug on the workout. By “significantlyoff” I mean “what the hey is going on?”off, like a difference of 5 seconds a lap.You’re either carrying too much residualfatigue from your running or the rest ofyour life to put forth the right effort, oryou’re on the verge of getting sick. Youneed to rest up until you’re ready tohandle hard training again.

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M o r e S u p p o r t f o rO f f - T r a c k R u n n i n gNotice that all the above scenarios stemfrom a track setting. Here’s another reasonto do many of your hard workouts by timeand effort away from the track: You don’thave to have these conversations withyourself. If your workout is six 3-minuterepeats at 5K effort on the roads, thenthere are fewer ways to tell yourself,“This isn’t going well.” You simply get inthe effort at whatever pace turns out to beappropriate that day for the combination

of your energy level and environment.

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W h a t ’ s a G o o dW a r m - U p ?The need to prepare your body for fastrunning is intuitive. What might not be soobvious is what makes a good warm-up.A jog of 1.5 to 3 miles is the first step, butnot the only step. On the jog, start slowerthan you usually do on typical runs. This isreally the day to gradually bring your bodyto life. By the end of your warm-up jog,you should be moving fluidly and fasterthan you were at the beginning without anyreal increase in effort.

Follow your warm-up jog with somedynamic stretches, like leg swings andskipping. Right before fast running, theseare better than static stretching atpreparing your muscles to work hard.Then do 4 to 8 striders of 80 to 100meters, building into running faster oneach one. Don’t worry that this fastrunning will detract from your workout; itwill better prepare you to do the firstcouple repeats at the right intensity withthe right range of motion.

If your workout is repeats of 2 minutesor more, after your last strider, run for 30to 60 seconds at the pace you want to hiton the first repeat; on the track, running for200 meters at that pace is convenient. Thislonger bout will prepare your internal

plumbing systems to work at a high ratestarting on the first repeat. Take a coupleminutes of active rest (walking, moredynamic stretching) between this run andthe first repeat of your workout.

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W h a t ’ s a G o o d C o o l -D o w n ?The reason to do something other thanplop yourself down under a tree after ahard workout might not be as obvious asthe rationale for warming up. But cool-downs are important.

To see why, think of a graphicalrepresentation of a workout. You movefrom being sedentary to light activity toharder activity to a peak of activity—themeat of the workout, like 800-meterrepeats. At that peak, your body’s internal

processes are working at a high rate. Agood cool-down brings them back downto their normal state gradually, and yourbody thanks you by being better able tohandle the next days of running.

To gradually bring your body downfrom the metabolic peak it reached duringyour workout, jog 1 to 3 miles. Followthat with gentle stretching, either dynamicor static, to encourage continued bloodflow to the muscles that were recentlyworking hard. This will help to continueto remove waste products and reoxygenatethe muscle tissues.

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P o s t - W o r k o u tN u t r i t i o nAfter a hard workout, it’s typical to notfeel like eating for a long time.Nonetheless, you should take in somecarbohydrate-rich calories as soon aspossible after. After your hardestworkouts, your immune system will besuppressed for a few hours; taking incarbs then will undo some of thatsuppression, and thereby lessen the chanceof finding yourself with a cold two dayslater.

If your stomach is so unsettled after ahard workout that solid food is a no-go,have a couple hundred calories’ worth ofsport drink within the first hour offinishing.

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G e t F a s t e r W i t h o u tR u n n i n g F a s tRunning form drills can help you runfaster by eliminating weakness and hitchesin your gait. Each drill focuses on oneaspect of good running form, such as agood back-kick or high knees, so thatmoving in that way becomes more naturalto you. Over time, the improved movementpatterns become ingrained in your normalrunning stride, and you can run faster withless risk of injury.

Start incorporating running form drills

into your routine by doing them once aweek after an easy run. Doing them thesame day you do striders is an excellentchoice. Once you become used to doingthe drills, do some as part of your warm-up before hard workouts; in that setting,they’ll help you be ready to run the firstrepeat with good, fluid form.

Elite coaches Greg McMillan and JayJohnson have each produced excellentDVDs on running form drills. The DVDsdemonstrate the proper form for each drillso that you can get the greatest benefitfrom your work.

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H o w ’ s Y o u rT u r n o v e r ?The number of times your feet hit theground per minute is partly fixed bygenetics and the standard operation ofyour central nervous system. There’s noperfect cadence for distance running, butyou’ll run faster with more efficiency andless strain if you get your turnover up to atleast 170 foot strikes per minute.(Determine this by counting the number oftimes one foot hits the ground in a minute,and doubling.)

If your turnover is less than 170, make aconscious effort on some runs to cover theground with a quicker cadence. Striders atleast once a week are crucial to bumpingup your natural stride rate. You can alsodo a fast feet shuffle after some runs totrain your central nervous system to workmore rapidly. Without really lifting yourfeet, shuffle along as quickly as you canfor 10 seconds. Walk around for a minute,and repeat twice.

: Alison Wade

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S h o e s f o r R u n n i n gF a s tIf you’re going to race, get racing shoes.Less weight on your feet lowers youroxygen cost at a given pace, which shouldtranslate to racing faster.

The problem people run into withracing shoes is muscular fatigue andsoreness, during and after races, usually inthe calf and Achilles areas. That’s aconsequence of the shoes typically havinglower heels and less cushioning thantraining shoes. Easy solution: wear your

racing shoes for your hard workouts.Doing so prepares your muscles andtendons for the slighter shoes on race day.Wearing your racing shoes in training canalso help you run those hard workoutsfaster and with the lighter, more efficientform you want when running faster.

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W h a t D o e s R u n n i n gS l o w H a v e t o D o w i t hR u n n i n g F a s t ?Remember good old tip number 77, abouttranslating faster runners’ workout pacesto race pace to put them in perspective?It’s also helpful to understand elites’recovery paces relative to race paces. Anational-class woman who runs easymileage at 7:30 per mile is doing thoserecovery runs more than 2 minutes permile slower than her 10K race pace. Doyou?

Probably not. One of the greatestdifferences I’ve observed in how elitesand other runners train pertains torecovery days. Elites place as muchimportance on the right effort level the dayafter a hard workout as they do on theright effort level the day of a hardworkout. They know that it’s on thoserecovery days that their bodies producethe adaptations to the stimulus of hardrunning that results in greater fitness.Allowing that adaptation to occur via aday of really easy running means they getthe most out of their hard work. And whywouldn’t you want to get the maximumbenefits from your hard work?

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T h e B e s t U s e o f aH e a r t R a t e M o n i t o rWith just a little experience at regular fastrunning, you can tell from your internalsensory data if you’re working at the rightintensity. So while heart rate monitors canprovide additional support to your feelingthat, yes, this is an effort level I couldsustain for an hour, they’re not necessaryon those runs for most people.

Instead, the best use of a heart ratemonitor for most runners is to make sureyou’re not going too fast on your recovery

days. When you’re used to plugging awayat about the same effort level most days,consciously keeping things below 70percent of your maximum heart rate canfeel absurdly slow. But that seeminglytoo-gentle level of effort is what you needafter a hard workout to truly recover. Ifyou have the common struggle of runningyour easy days too fast, set a heart ratemonitor to beep if you go above 70percent of max. If it beeps, slow downuntil the beeping stops.

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D e t e r m i n i n g Y o u rM a x H e a r t R a t eFor a heart rate monitor to help you, youneed to know your max heart rate. All thestandard formulas, like 220 minus yourage, are rubbish; they’re based onaverages that have no applicability to youas an individual.

To get a reasonably close reading ofyour max, wear your heart rate monitor ona few VO2 max workouts. The highestreading you get toward the end of theworkout should be within a few beats of

your max heart rate. You can also get gooddata from a workout of ten really fast 2-minute uphill runs or a 5K race.

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I m p o r t a n t C o n c e p tf o r R a c e P r e p a r a t i o nGetting race-fit isn’t like cramming for atest. A sudden slew of hard workouts inthe two weeks before a race are a lotmore likely to leave you overly fatiguedand injured rather than significantly fitter.The important work happens moresteadily, less dramatically in the monthsbefore an important race.

If you’re heading into a race feelingunprepared, avoid crash training. Reviseyour goal for the race, run it such that you

draw some positives from it and reviewwhat went wrong in your build-up so thatyou can be better prepared the next time.

: Stacey Cramp

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A M e a n i n g f u lM a n t r a R e g a r d l e s so f R a c e D i s t a n c eIn the first half of the race, don’t be anidiot. In the second half of the race, don’tbe a wimp.

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I g n o r e O t h e r s t h eF i r s t T h i r d o f t h eR a c eThe main cause of people not racing totheir potential is starting too fast. Evenrunners who have sworn to run even pacefrom the gun lose their heads in that firstmad dash off the line. They get sucked intostarting too fast, in part because thepeople they want to beat seem so farahead.

Ignore the madding crowd in the first

third of races. You’re not obligated to runlemming-like and follow others who arebotching their performances by startingtoo fast. If you want to beat specificpeople, the way to do that is to be aheadof them at the finish line, not the 1-milemark. Running the fastest time you’recapable of on that day will almost alwaysmean running the same pace throughout therace. Do that, and you’ll catch the too-faststarters by the last third of the race. Asyou pass them, they’ll be unable torespond because they’ll be too busypaying for their early-race brashness.

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R a c e P o i n t e r : 5 KStarting too fast is exceedingly common in5Ks. Unfortunately, among commondistances, it’s the one where you can leastafford to misjudge pace in the first mile.The race is so short and you’re running soclose to your aerobic capacity that there’snot time to recover and regroup from anearly pacing mistake. Instead, if you starttoo fast, somewhere in the second mileyou’ll get a sense of impending doom. Afew minutes later, your breathing will gointo overdrive, and you’ll be forced toslow. Whatever time cushion you built

with a fast opening mile will disappear,and then some, as you struggle to thefinish.

Regular workouts at 5K pace shouldteach you the right effort in the first mile.Doing some of those workouts onuncalibrated courses will better teach youwhat the right effort level should feel like.Even if you do all of your 5K paceworkouts on the track, use the workouts asa way to learn the proper effort level forthe first mile of 5K races. During trackworkouts, look at your watch only at theend of a repeat; adjust your effortaccordingly on the next repeat if you’retoo fast or too slow. That will betterprepare you than checking your workoutsplits every half a lap. You won’t get

those splits in a race when you wouldmost benefit from them.

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R a c e P o i n t e r : 1 0 KOne key to running your best 10K is to notrun the first mile at 5K pace. For mostrunners, that’s a difference of only 10 to15 seconds per mile. But that’s asignificant difference in effort level. Ifyou’re already breathing every secondstep in the second mile of a 10K, you’vegone out too fast. To keep the race frombecoming a complete disaster, back off fora few minutes to allow your breathing toslow, then pick up the pace again.

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R a c e P o i n t e r : 1 5 K t oH a l f M a r a t h o nMental lapses are common in the middleof races like 15K, 10 miles, 20K, and halfmarathon. If you’re really racing thedistance, like a minute or more per milethan your normal training pace, you needto concentrate the whole time. The properpace shouldn’t feel all that hard in termsof your breathing for most of the race, butyou’ll still have to bear down to keep theproper effort going. Otherwise, it’scommon for your mile splits to start being

10 or 15 seconds slower.

The benefit from tempo runs of learninghow to keep that concentration going can’tbe overstated.

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R a c e P o i n t e r :M a r a t h o nExpend as little mental energy as possiblein the first 15 miles of a marathon. Thatdoesn’t mean to disregard your pace or benonchalant about taking drinks or notmonitoring how you’re feeling. It meansthat if you’re too engaged mentally, likeresponding to every move made byrunners around you, then you’re too caughtup in it too early. You’re not going to beable to hold that level of exertion, bothphysical and mental, until the end. Anyone

who has crashed over the last miles of amarathon, me included, will tell you it’san experience worth avoiding.

If you’re properly trained, the pace inthe first half of a marathon should takecare of itself; as much as possible, putyour body and mind on autopilot. If youhave the common experience of the pacefeeling so easy that you go faster than goalpace without trying, restrain yourself.Running at that slightly faster pace isburning extra fuel you’ll need every ounceof after the 20-mile mark. Save the pacepushing and heroics for the last 10K.

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W h a t ’ s a G o o d R a c eW a r m - U p ?Except for marathons, where you don’tneed much more than some easy joggingand stretching, use your standard hardworkout warm-up for races. Time thingsso that you finish your striders about 10minutes before the start. Then do this: Runfor 60 to 90 seconds at your tempo runpace. Finish this run about five minutesbefore the start; jog and move lightly asneeded and possible to stay loose.

That little burst at tempo pace will

prepare your body to work at a highermetabolic level, which will mean thatlaunching into race pace won’t be such ashock. This little trick picks up on theobservation most runners make that thesecond repeat of a hard workout oftenfeels much easier than the first one.

If you’re properly trained, you shouldhave no concern that warming up fairlyaggressively will detract from your raceperformance.

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N o t E v e r y R a c e I st h e O l y m p i c sDon’t expect to reach peak performance inevery race. Comparing every race to yourpersonal best for the distance isunrealistic. Most races are buildingblocks to later, faster performances, notultimate ends in themselves. If you ran upto your potential on the day, consideringfactors like your recent training, thecourse, the weather, and your mentalfortitude, what more can you ask ofyourself?

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R a c e s a s W o r k o u t s“The best workout is a race,” goes the oldsaying. Using races to break up themonotony of training is an excellent ideaand a good way to overcome thinkingabout every race the be-all and end-all ofyour running. If you get nervous beforeimportant races, using races as workoutsgives you more practice at going throughrace-day logistics calmly.

There are lots of options here: Jump ina 5K as a tempo run. Experiment withfinishing fast by running the first half of a10K at tempo pace, then picking up the

pace over the second half. Use a 10-mileror half marathon as a venue for amarathon-pace run where you can practicetaking fluids at race pace and running in alarge pack.

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S t a t e Y o u r R a c eG o a l sBefore a race, be able to articulate threegoals: First, the ultimate outcome of theday. (Again, this shouldn’t always be toset a personal record.) Second, a specificanswer to “What are the main things youwant to achieve in this race?” Third, ifthings don’t go as well as hoped, one ortwo things you’ll be able to salvage tocome out with a positive experience.

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T a p e r i n g Y o u rT r a i n i n gWhen cutting back your training beforeimportant races, keep some quality. Goingfrom regular multipace training to nothingbut easy runs will leave you feeling flatcome race day.

A really hard workout the week of animportant race won’t improve your fitnessin time for race day, so there’s no point inrisking lingering fatigue from it. Trysomething like 400- or 600-meter repeatsat race pace five days before a key race as

a way to further ingrain what that pacefeels like into your muscle memory. Twodays before the race, do a session ofstriders to keep your central nervoussystem revved up and your running formworking through its full range of motion.

BrlanMetzler

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R a c e D i s t a n c e ≠ Y o u rW o r t h a s a R u n n e rWith the increased popularity of the halfmarathon and marathon in recent years,it’s become more common to equate one’srace distance with one’s “seriousness” asa runner. This is nonsense. The best milersin the world regularly do 100-mile weeksto prepare for a race they’ll finish in lessthan four minutes. Never let anyonequestion your running credentials simplybecause you choose to see how fast youcan go for in shorter races.

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A b o u t T h o s e E a r l yR a c e S t a r t sMost road races start early in the morningto avoid heat and traffic complications. Ifyou do most of your hard workouts in theafternoon or evening, it’s worth shifting anoccasional one to the morning so that youhave some practice at running fast soearly. Most of the bodily functionsinvolved in fast running peak in the lateafternoon, so you need to teach your bodyhow to function at a high level at what itconsiders an inconvenient time.

Early-morning workouts once a monthwill also give you a chance to experimentwith matters such as how soon beforerunning hard you should get up and whatyour stomach can tolerate then.

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M a i n t e n a n c e M o d eMost of us will have periods where reallife intrudes and we’re unable to train asdesired. (For example, let’s say you’refinishing writing a book while working afull-time job.) Keep some quality in yourtraining when you know there will beinterruptions for a week to a month. Youcan emerge from such a period withoutsignificant losses in fitness by maintainingthe basic structure of multipace training.

If your jammed period means you canstill run every day but have less time onthose days, do mini versions of your usual

hard sessions. For example, instead of agood warm-up, a long tempo run, and asolid cool-down, you could head out on a5-mile loop. Use the first mile as yourwarm-up, run hard for 3 miles, and joghome as your cool-down. Similarly, dosix 30-second pick-ups toward the end ofa run instead of a full-blown set ofstriders after the run.

If your busy time means you have fewerdays per week to run, keep at least oneday of striders and one day of a longerworkout. If you feel too stressed out to doone of your standard sessions, this is aperfect opportunity for a moreunstructured fartlek workout, where yourun fast and easy as the spirit moves you.

1 0 6

F e e l B e t t e r b yR u n n i n g F a s t e rWhen you’re feeling flat, a little fastrunning is often the best cure. A slow 5miles might leave you feeling morelethargic. Instead, throw in some randomshort pick-ups, or do a set of striders onyour street once you’ve done your normalloop. Because they get your centralnervous system working at a higher levelbut aren’t long enough to wear you down,little bursts of fast running can help yousurpass sluggishness.

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S o r r y , b u t S p e e d I s aU s e - I t - o r - L o s e - I tP h e n o m e n o nAlways stay in touch with your basicspeed. You’ll spend a lot more time justgetting back to where you were if youignore it for weeks at a time than you willtending to it once or twice a weekthroughout the year. You don’t need to dohands-on-knees sets of 200s every weekto maintain your speed. Fast, relaxedstriders toward the end of an easy run orimmediately following one will go a long

way toward preserving your turnover andthe increased range of motion that comesonly with running near top-end speed.

Brian Metzler

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F i n a l T h o u g h t o nR u n n i n g F a s t e rElite runners are born with great physicalgifts that become obvious once they starttraining hard. But they really reach theirpotential by having a mind-set that all ofus, regardless of our genetics, can adopt.

How many times have you had a goodstring of training going, but then have abad workout, and suddenly freak out aboutwhat kind of shape you’re in? How oftenhas one sub-par race come to be taken asthe new norm of your fitness?

The elites who consistently achieveexcellence think otherwise. I’ve talkedwith scores of national- and world-classrunners whose outlook I’ve come to thinkof as “reality-based optimism.” That is,they have confidence that great things willhappen if they do the right work. They seea fabulous workout or race as a hint ofwhat they can achieve, not a uniqueoccurrence.

In contrast, a couple of bad workouts,or a worse-than-expected race, are takenas aberrations. They’re indications thatsomething is amiss, and are opportunitiesfor analysis: Am I not sleeping enough?Did I run like an idiot? Were myexpectations in line with my currentfitness? Am I on the verge of being sick?

And so on.

Have faith that, if your training iscorrect and your goals are realistic butchallenging, you can surpass your currentperformance level. Be excited by a goodworkout or race—that’s an indication thatyou’re heading in the right direction.Realize that a bad workout or racehappens for a reason. Instead of thinkingthat it’s a true indication of your fitness,determine why your performance was off,and then figure out how to prevent it fromrecurring.

P A R T T H R E ER u n n i n g I n j u r y -

F r e e : 5 0 T i p s t o H e l pY o u A v o i d , T r e a t , a n d

B e a t I n j u r i e sNo runner wants to get injured. Whenyou’re hurt, what’s normally one of thehighlights of your day becomes anopportunity for endless rumination andworry; what’s usually a source of stressrelief becomes a source of stress. Whenyou’re hurt, you become achingly familiarwith the famous five stages of grief—

denial, anger, bargaining, depression,acceptance—in part because you can gothrough all five within the space of a 30-minute run. When you’re hurt, things justdon’t seem right with the world. So let’sagree that not getting injured should beone of your major, ongoing, underlyinggoals, whether you’re a miler ormarathoner, a new runner or a lifetimer, aweekly racer or someone who has nointerest in ever stepping to a start line.

Unfortunately, injuries are a fact ofrunning life. Moreover, you don’t have tohave a full-blown can’t-run-down-the-streetwithout-falling-over injury forsomething to be irksome enough that itinterferes with your running. In fact, insome ways, chronic little niggles that you

can run through can be more frustratingthan major injuries, because they leaveyou in a constant guessing game, and it’seasy to accept them as a given, despite thetoll they take on your running.

The tips in this chapter stem from athree-part way of thinking about runninginjuries. The first I’ve already stated—being injured stinks, so let’s try to avoidit. Second, when you’re injured or have achronic low-level pain associated withrunning, you need to do things to get theimmediate situation under control. Whatthose things are varies among injuries.Third, all injuries are evidence of someunderlying problem with your runningbody. An injury is an opportunity toinvestigate what that root problem might

be, and then devise a plan for addressingit long-term so that the injury doesn’trecur.

Let’s start, then, by looking in general atwhy you get injured, how to know if youshould keep running on your injury, andwhen to seek professional help. Thenwe’ll look at some immediate treatmentsfor common running injuries, as well asways to maintain your fitness when you’reinjured. Finally, I’ll share some thoughtson the most effective ways to build arunning body that’s highly resistant toinjury so that you can better pursue yourrunning at the level you want to.

1 0 9

W h a t ’ s a R u n n i n gI n j u r y ?Almost all running injuries are overuseinjuries rather than acute injuries. That is,they’re caused by one or more body partsbeing unable over time to hold up to therepetitive stress of running, rather than asudden, dramatic insult to the body, like abasketball player tearing her Achillestendon or a football player destroying hisACL. The good news stemming from thisfact is that almost all running injuries areshort-term conditions. If you intervene

early enough, you can calm the protestingbody part and encourage it along the pathback to cooperating when you run.

It’s often said that injuries are causedby runners trying to run too far, too fast, orboth. While that’s true in one sense—youprobably wouldn’t develop that strainedcalf or sore hamstring if you never ran—it’s a bit of a simplistic view. What’s easyfor your knee to handle when it’s warmand you’re on vacation and running on aflat dirt path might be too much it’s coldand you’ve been working like crazy(probably sitting a lot) and you’re runningin the dark on the edge of a slanted asphaltroad. Always be mindful of the entirecontext in which your running occurs, bothto avoid injuries and to figure out causes

if one occurs.

1 1 0

A M e d i c a l M o d e lA helpful framing method is to think aboutinjury the way you might think aboutdiseases with strong lifestyle risk factors—there are genetic components, but muchof what happens is under your control.Someone trying to lower her risk forcoronary artery disease would makecertain choices, such as eating a diet lowin saturated fat, not smoking, exercisingregularly, and maintaining a good weight.Similarly, you can strongly control the riskfactors for running injury through suchchoices as maintaining a good balance

between hard and easy efforts, running onlevel, soft surfaces when possible,maintaining good muscle and joint strengthand flexibility, ditching broken-downrunning shoes, and so on.

1 1 1

B e w a r e o f M o d e r nL i f e !Related to that last thought: Modern lifeshould be considered a risk factor forrunning injuries. Driving for hours at atime, sitting slumped over a laptop,cocking your head to one side while on thephone, seldom moving through all planesof motion—these common ways ofspending our days can set you up forinjury by tightening and weakening yourmajor muscle groups and throwing yourbody out of whack. One muscle therapist I

know eventually figured out that a teenrunner’s sudden cycle of injury stemmedfrom her texting habit! Excessive strain onher thumbs had thrown her shoulders outof alignment, which shifted the position ofher hips when she ran, which led tomuscular strains elsewhere in her legs.

I’m not saying to become a monk whoavoids all trappings of modern life and isalways thinking about running. But long-term, you’re going to better avoid theaches and pains of running if you’reconscious of how you spend the bulk ofyour time affects your running body. Allthe things you’ve heard about goodposture when sitting at a desk or driving,taking frequent breaks from the computer,having your work at eye level so that

you’re not straining to see or thrustingyour head up or down and other matters ofergonomics become that much moreimportant when you’re a twenty-firstcentury runner.

From the physician-heal-thyselfdepartment, I say this as someone with atendency toward horrible posture. Thebetter I am during the workday aboutsitting with good alignment and takingshort breaks every hour, the better I feelon my post-work run.

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T r a i n i n g T h r o u g hI n j u r yWhich injuries should you not run on, andwhich ones can you try to train through?The quick answer is that there’s no quickanswer. Because they’re overuse injuries,almost all running injuries progressthrough degrees of severity. At the outset,they’re mostly little pangs of discomfort.While you could play it safe and stoprunning until the pang disappears, youcould wind up missing a lot of running thatway. Plus, many of these little pangs are

just white noise that go away 10 minutesinto a run, never to be heard again. Mostof the time, at least in the initial stages,keep running, while being ready tocompromise on distance and pace at alltimes.

The one exception I’d make to thisgeneral guidance concerns stressfractures, which I’ll discuss in more detaillater in this chapter. You simply can’tfinesse your way through a stress fracture.One of your bones has a slight crack in itand needs to heal. At the best, running onit will delay that healing. In most cases,running on it will increase the size of theslight crack. At the worst, running on itcan cause an outright fracture, the sortthat’s clearly visible on an x-ray. Take it

from someone who once ran on a stressfracture for close to two years: You can’toutsmart this injury. By the time I reachedthat last stage of grieving, acceptance, myshin bone was nearly broken in two. Itthen took me a year to return to dailyrunning. The next time I knew I had astress fracture, I immediately stoppedrunning. Four weeks later, I was back onthe road.

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W h e n t o R u n , W h e nt o R e s tSo let’s say you have a running-relatedpain that’s not a stress fracture. How toproceed?

If you don’t have pain while running,but after, or when you get up in themorning, it’s OK to try running normalmileage at your normal pace. But keepgood notes about the pain’s frequency andseverity. And be honest with yourselfabout whether it’s not bothering you at allwhen you run.

If you can feel the ache when you’rerunning, but it doesn’t get worse duringyour run, you can try to carry on as perusual. When in doubt, stick close to homein case things get worse during the run andyou need to shorten the run. (If it’snoticeable mostly at the start of your run,then it’s probably some tightness that youcan get rid of with some flexibility work.)

If the pain gets worse as you run,something serious, or at least on the vergeof being serious, is going on. Limit yourrun to less than the amount of time it takesfor things to start deteriorating, and startcrafting a rehab plan. You’ll probablywant to add some cross-training so thatyou don’t feel guilty about running lessand be tempted to keep running your

normal mileage.

If the ache makes you alter your runningform, you shouldn’t be running on it.Doing so will not only delay healing ofwhat’s obviously a bad injury, but willalso likely lead to injury elsewhere asyour body compensates for your alteredgait. In this case, it’s time to find a cross-training activity that doesn’t reproduce therunning-related discomfort.

If the pain is present not only when yourun but also during most of the day, you’velet things go on for too long. Youshouldn’t run and should cross-train onlyif you can honestly say the activityproduces no symptoms.

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D a n c i n g t h e I n j u r yL i m b oUnless you’re highly motivated oroblivious to pain or muleheaded (and yes,it can be hard to distinguish among thosetraits at times), most of your runninginjuries are going to be in those earlystages, where how to proceed is based onjudgment calls and guesstimation.

How much or whether to cut back inthose cases will depend on lots of factors.Do you have an important race coming upin a month? In that case, you might be

more inclined to stop for a day or two tosee if that will calm what’s become apersistent ache. That way, if the time offpretty much takes care of things, then youcan get right back into race training. Ofcourse, if you’re in a non-race phase, thenthere’s not as much urgency to preservingyour fitness, so it could be easy to getyourself to take some downtime to letthings heal.

Then again, you could make theargument (I certainly have!) that, with noimportant races in the near future, it’s OKif this little limbo injury continues on forlonger than it otherwise might if I stoppedrunning on it. Especially if I’m goingthrough a stressful period in other parts ofmy life, I’m willing to take a chance that a

little strain won’t get any worse byrunning on it so that I can get the stressrelief that running brings. In that case I’maware that I’m probably prolonging thetime it will take to be free of the niggle,but it’s worth it to me.

This sort of on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand discussion with yourself is,unfortunately, part of being a runner withany sort of injury. It’s why being hurt is somentally draining and is reason alone todo your best to avoid getting hurt in thefirst place.

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T h e D o c t o r W i l l S e eY o u N o wBut chances are he or she won’t be all thathelpful if you show up with a runninginjury. Most doctors aren’t trained insports medicine, and most aren’t going tohave insight into why you got injured, howto quickly overcome it, and how to avoidit in the future. I say this as someone whohas running doctors for friends who wouldagree with all of the above.

At the minimum, see only doctors whohave sports medicine certification in their

fields. That will greatly increase yourchances of them taking a holistic approachto solving your injury puzzle. And itshould increase the chance that you’ll getempathy on wanting to quickly return toaction (instead of “If it hurts when yourun, then don’t run,” or, “No wonderyou’re hurt—that’s a lot of running!”).

Word of mouth from other runners inyour area is the best way to find a medicalprofessional who can help. Podiatrists andosteopaths are often your best choices forfinding a satisfying relationship as arunner. Chiropractors are trained to take afullbody view when looking for answers,but be wary if the answer involvesrepeated visits instead of a long-term do-at-home plan.

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P o p P i l l s P r u d e n t l yIf you have a new, acute running-relatedpain, it’s OK to gobble ibuprofen or otheranti-inflammatories in the first few days tosee if that will get the inflammation undercontrol. But if you’re leaning on the pillsto keep your running habit going, then it’stime to step back and accept that you havean underlying injury issue that needs to beaddressed. I have a friend who’s beenkeeping the ibuprofen industry in businessfor the last fifteen years through his effortsto lessen chronic Achilles pain. And guesswhat? He still has the Achilles problem; if

anything, it’s gotten worse. (And whoknows what’s become of kidneys in thistime.)

By the way, don’t take anti-inflammatories just because you’re a littlesore after a long or hard run. The low-grade swelling that you sometimes feelafter a killer session is part of your body’sadaptation process. Leave it to resolve onits own, and you’ll reap more of thebenefits of that hard workout.

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I c e I s N i c e , H e a tC a n B e H e l lConsider ice your first line of defenseagainst all running injuries. Ice any littleniggle that doesn’t go away during a run.In that case, five minutes of icing is plenty.If your niggle has deteriorated intosomething more like pain, then ice the areafor five minutes after running, then againfor five minutes an hour later. Also try toice it one or two other times during theday. Icing will less the bad inflammationthat accompanies a nascent injury, which

is different than the good inflammation thatcan follow a hard but niggle-free session.

Don’t heat a painful area after a run.Doing so will only increase swelling inthe already inflamed soft tissues. Heat isbest for areas that are tight, which isdifferent than sore or inflamed. For tightareas, gentle heat (moist heat is best) canincrease blood flow to soft tissue, whichshould increase range of motion in thearea. Warm baths are fine (and fun) aftersomething taxing like a long run if youwait long enough for any immediate post-run swelling to subside.

Alison Wade

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M a s s a g e , f r o mO t h e r s a n d Y o u r s e l fEverybody agrees that massage feelsgreat, but does it help prevent runninginjuries? Of course double-blind scientificstudies are impossible to conduct on thismatter. But there’s plenty of evidence thata good deep-tissue massage can increaseblood flow, which should help removewaste products from an injured area.

On the preventative side, I’ll take theanecdotal observation that lots of eliterunners get weekly massages as proof

enough that it can help keep a runningbody healthy. If you can afford it, regulardeep-tissue work can be part of your pre-hab program, where you do what you canto build your body’s immunity to injury.

Self-massages like the Stick or foamrollers are great for getting some of thesebenefits on your own. Some areas (calvesand quads) are easier to tend to thanothers. (After almost 20 years of usingone, I’ve yet to figure out how to use theStick on my lower back without increasingmuscular tension elsewhere.) It’s easy tooverdo it with these things, so err on theside of caution—no more than 5 minuteson any one area. Apply pressure only tothe point of a that’s-the-stuff sensation;leave the hurts-so-good sensation for a

trained therapist to produce. Stopimmediately if applying pressure in onearea causes you to feel sensationselsewhere.

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H o m e H e l p : P l a n t a rF a s c i i t i sWhile you’re having tenderness in yourheel and arch, baby the area. Keep a pairof slippers by the side of the bed that youcan get into immediately. Several times aday, ice your heel and arch. The bestchoice is a frozen water bottle that youcan roll the area over. This not only getsyou the desired circular icing, but alsoworks in a little massage. Before you run,loosen up the soft tissue along the bottomof your foot by grabbing the ball of your

foot and pushing your toes toward yourshin and back several times.

Long-term, plantar fasciitis is a signthat you should improve your calf andAchilles strength and flexibility. You’llprobably also benefit from graduallymoving away from running shoes that havea large drop from heel to forefoot.

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H o m e H e l p : A c h i l l e sT e n d i n i t i sIce and anti-inflammatories are yourshort-term friends when your Achillestendon is inflamed. The anti-inflammatories are especially helpfulbecause blood flow to the tendon islimited, so it can be tough to get reliefsolely with icing. While you haveAchilles tendinitis, put a slight heel lift inyour non-running shoes to take some of thepressure off the tendon; corrugatedcardboard, swapped a couple of times a

day once it starts to compress, workswell.

Same deal here as with plantarfasciitis: Getting Achilles tendinitisusually means you need to improve rangeof motion in the tendon and your calves.Part of that is not wearing heeled shoesduring your non-running hours. In yourrunning shoes, be sure the heel counterdoesn’t rub your Achilles tendon.

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H o m e H e l p : S h i nS p l i n t s“Shin splints” is the lay term for medialtibial stress syndrome (which sounds evenworse). Long-term, probably the best wayto prevent shin splints is to keep running—it’s mostly new runners or peoplereturning to running after a long layoffwho get them. If you do have frequent shinpain despite consistent running, thenstrengthen your arches (through walkingbarefoot around the house) so that yourshin muscles don’t have to pick up the

slack for them when you run.

If you’re having a bout of shin pain, runon soft surfaces if possible, and avoiddownhills to lessen the pounding. Try tokeep running, albeit less than usual ifnecessary, to keep the consistency thatshould eventually help you leave shinsplints behind.

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H o m e H e l p :R u n n e r ’ s K n e eWhile you’re having pain around yourkneecap, eliminate elements that requirethe knee to do extra stabilizing work. Runon flat, even surfaces, stay off of tracksand twisting trails, and avoid downhills.Runner’s knee (patellofemoral painsyndrome to the medicos) is a good injuryto finesse your way through on a treadmill.Putting the treadmill on a slight uphillgrade should relieve some of the pressureon the knee.

Weak hips and glutes have been shownto be a key factor in developing running-related knee pain, because the knee triesto pick up some of the stabilizing work themuscles of your

: Alison Wade

midsection are supposed to be doing.Every runner should devote time tobuilding stronger hips, but especiallythose with one or more episodes of kneepain.

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H o m e H e l p :I l i o t i b i a l B a n dS y n d r o m eSelf massage, especially with a foamroller or device like the Stick, is reallyhelpful here to loosen up the aggravatedtendon. You’ll also want to avoid the sortsof situations that may have brought on thepain in the first place—stay on levelsurfaces, or if you must run on slantedroads, switch sides often. If you’re tryingto finesse your way through this injury butstill doing track workouts, then jog your

recoveries going the opposite direction sothat you’re not always taking the turnswith the same leg. (If you’re blessed withan otherwise unoccupied track, alternatedirections on your hard repeats.)

As with runner’s knee, good hip andglute strength is important to preventing arecurrence. One-legged squats are goodfor strengthening your hip abductors, theones on the outside of your hip that aresupposed to stabilize you when your footlands.

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H o m e H e l p :H a m s t r i n g / G l u t eP a i nTightness, tenderness and slight strains inthe upper hamstrings and butt are going tobe the bane of most ambitious runners atsome point, especially ones who sit a lotin their non-running time. (Yes, that again!It really is significant.) During a flare-up,avoid steep uphills, and ease into all yourruns. Make sure you’re fully warmed upbefore hard workouts. If the sensation isof tenderness rather than tightness, don’t

stretch the area while it’s in an acutephase, as that will just further irritate thealready strained muscle fibers. Ice thearea after all runs.

Once the acute tenderness is gone, berelentless about stretching your hiprotators and hamstrings, but never to thepoint that you reproduce the pain.Strengthening your hamstrings with single-leg curls will help to restore the properbalance of strength between your quadsand hamstrings. And do what you can inyour non-running time to sit with goodposture and to get out of sitting postures atleast once an hour.

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H o m e H e l p : S t r e s sF r a c t u r e sAgain, you can’t negotiate your waythrough a stress fracture. You have to stoprunning to let the bone heal. Sorry.

When you resume running, expect somediscomfort, but not pain, where thefracture was. As long as the sensationthere is more of a dull tug than a sharppain, it’s OK to gradually build back up.In some cases you might also have a bumpwhere the fracture was; this is new bonethat was laid down around the site of the

fracture. I have one on my left shin. It’snot the prettiest thing in the world, but it’snot a source of pain (or concern). Ifanything, it’s a visual reminder to neveragain get a stress fracture.

If you get more than one stress fracture,then you’re repeatedly overloading one ofyour body’s weak points. Lessen thechance of recurrence by being diligentabout flexibility and strength work so thatyou’re more resilient. Also, make sureyour diet includes enough calcium.

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C r o s s - t r a i n i n gC a v e a t 1When you’re hurt and have to cross-train,try to spend more time on it than you doyour running. After all, you can get in adecent run in 30 minutes, but you’re notgoing to find lots of cyclists who wouldconsider half an hour anything but a warm-up. Make the time go faster on individualworkouts by translating your usual hardrunning workouts—VO2 max sessions,tempo workouts, etc.—to the pool or bikeor elliptical or wherever you’re spending

your non-running time. Structurecrosstraining weeks like your runningweeks; the variety will help your time ininjury limbo pass faster than if you do thesame medium-effort waitingout-the-clockeffort every day.

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D o S o m e t h i n g !A n y t h i n g !You’ll probably spend the time you’re hurtfeeling like you’re getting less fit andmore fat by the hour. If your layoff frominjury is long enough, you will indeedhave a readjustment period once youresume running, no matter how dedicatedyou are with cross-training. So don’t makethings worse by an order of magnitude bywallowing in self-pity and apathy and notcrosstraining. If you gain significantweight while you’re on the shelf, the

return to running will only be that muchharder.

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C r o s s - t r a i n i n gC a v e a t 2What’s the best type of cross-trainingwhen you’re injured? The first criteria isthat it does not aggravate your injury.Doing the elliptical trainer if you have astress fracture in your foot, for example,will just prolong your recovery.

After that, the most important criteriaisn’t which activity most closely mimicsthe mechanics of running or makes iteasiest to keep your heart rate elevated.It’s simpler than that: Which one are you

most likely to do with the greatestregularity? Deep-water running,especially if you do hard intervals, is anexcellent kissing-cousin substitute for realrunning. But if the closest pool is 20 milesaway and allows deep-water running onlyat 6:00 AM, well, come on, let’s berealistic about how often you’ll get there.Of the obvious choices—deep-waterrunning, cycling, using an ellipticaltrainer, using a stair machine—pick theones that are most convenient for you todo daily.

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I t ’ s A l w a y s a G o o dT i m e t o E s t a b l i s hG o o d H a b i t sAmong the positives to try to pull out of aninjury bout: Treat it as a time when youimprove your ancillary exercise routines—stretching, strengthening, core work,yoga, even meditation. It will feel good toknow you’re doing something to makeyour body more resistant to injury, and itshould be relatively easy to stick with theroutines once you’re able to run again.

Joel Wolpert

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R u n n i n g F o r m a n dI n j u r yIn general people worry too much aboutrunning form as it relates to injury. By thatI don’t mean that running form doesn’tmatter. It does—a lot. But bad runningform is more an indicator that you havesomething going on that can lead to injurythan a primary cause of injury.

That is, let’s say when you run your feetsplay out to the side. (Check this the nexttime you run through snow or with wetshoes on dry pavement.) That flaw in your

form will certainly make you slower andcould lead to other form issues as yourbody attempts to compensate. But theoriginal matter of splayed feet is asecondary matter stemming from tightnessor weakness in your body. (In this case,most likely tight hip flexors, the musclesalong the front top of your thighs.) Thatweakness is leading to the bad aspect ofrunning form, and that weakness mightvery well over time cause compensationselsewhere in your body that will lead toinjury, often not where the originalproblem is.

So the way to think about good runningform as it relates to injury isn’t to obsessover how you’re running all the time andmonitoring yourself with every step.

Rather, as you notice deviations from thebasics of good running form, take those assigns of weakness or tightness that need tobe addressed. When you successfullyimprove those underlying weaknesses ortightnesses, the form issues should goaway on their own without you having tobe constantly conscious of them.

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W h a t ’ s G o o dR u n n i n g F o r m ?There’s no one universally desirablerunning form, any more than you wouldexpect all baseball players to have thesame swing. We each run the way we dobecause of the unique way our bodies areput together—the length of our torso inrelation to our legs, the shape of our feet,the alignment of our bones, thecommunication between our brain andcentral nervous system, and a millionother things.

So you run the way you do for someinherent reasons, and to a certain extent,you shouldn’t try to change that. At thesame time, we all have a range of howwell our unique form manifests itself.When you have weakness or tightness inone or more places in your body, yourunique form will move toward the lessdesirable end of its range. Probably whenyou were a kid, especially if you had anactive childhood, your form was towardthe more desirable end of its range.

By building a stronger, more supplerunning body, you can ensure that you’llusually be moving with the more desirableversion of your running form. That’s goingto include your personal version of theseelements of good form: landing over your

center of gravity; a light, rapid cadence;minimal lateral rotation; and easier to spotthan quantify, relaxed body position.

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F o r m F l a w : T i g h tS h o u l d e r s a n d N e c kWhen your shoulders and neck are tight,you tend to run with your shouldershunched and your arms held out to theside. You probably also look like youhave a short neck. Running like this keepsyour arms from flowing back and forth,which affects your leg turnover, andsimply wastes energy on holding yourarms in an unnatural manner.

Perhaps you won’t be surprised by nowto hear this is a form flaw we can pin on

modern life. Hour upon hour in front of acomputer or other screen tends to causeyou to sit with your shoulders tight andhunched. Those postural habits tend tocarry over to when it’s time to run. Goodposture and ergonomics can help eliminatethat chronic tightness, and simplemindfulness while you’re running can helprelax your shoulders and neck until you getthem to be so normally. Concentrate onhaving your wrists pass by your waist.

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F o r m F l a w : H e a dT h r u s t F o r w a r dYou want your head directly over yourbody, not out in front like a search party.When you run with your head thrustforward, your neck and upper backmuscles have to tighten to maintain thehead’s position, a waste of energy that hasnothing to do with moving down the roadquickly and efficiently.

This form flaw is yet another curse ofmodernity, brought on by straining ourheads forward to look at some screen or

another that’s too far away. (Or that wouldbe the right distance away if we wouldadmit our eyesight isn’t what it used tobe.) Again, get the ergonomics of yourcomputer set up right. In the meantime,before runs lie on your back and tuck yourchin to your chest ten times to reset yourhead position. While running, try to stayconscious of your head floatingweightlessly over your shoulders.

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F o r m F l a w :E x c e s s i v e F o r w a r dL e a nRunning bent over from the waist meansthat your lower back has to work to holdyou up, and your quads have to work extrato keep you from falling forward. So yourun less efficiently, you tire more easily,and your legs can become unnecessarilysore.

Too much sitting is usually the culprithere, gradually robbing your lower back

of the small curve it used to have. (Look atrace photos and you’ll see that almostevery runner who leans forward from thewaist is in the older age groups.) Inaddition to sitting so that your lower backis arched, you can fight this problem bystrengthening your abs and butt.

: Stacey Cramp

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F o r m F l a w :E x c e s s i v e L a t e r a lR o t a t i o nWhen your trunk is unstable, your armsand legs start moving in directions otherthan straight ahead. With every step,you’re using energy to bring your arms andlegs back toward the midline of your bodyinstead of moving them forward. Thisproblem is usually caused by weak absand butt muscles. Strengthen those keypostural stabilizers, and more of yourmotion will be directed in front of you

rather than to the side. Put another way,for the same energy cost, you’ll run faster.

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F o r m F l a w : S p l a y e dF e e tTo some degree, how much of a straightline your feet land and push off in isgenetic; if you were born with less-than-ideal bone alignment in your legs, thenyour feet will probably splay some. Butthere’s undoubtedly a fixable element hereas well. If your butt muscles are weakand/or your hip flexors are tight (the twooften go together), then your footplacement while running will probably becompromised. Splayed feet is a great

example of a problem you’ll moresuccessfully improve long-term by fixingyour underlying running structure than byconsciously trying to better while running.(Trust me, as someone whose right footpoints out when he gets tired, I can tellyou it doesn’t work to try to force it toland straight.)

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E s s e n t i a l E x t r a sThink of the items I’m about to discuss—flexibility and strengthening—not ineither/or terms in relation to your running,but in terms of “yes, and ... ” That is,they’re not replacements for running, but aform of insurance policy that will allowyou to better pursue and enjoy yourrunning at whatever level you choose to.Even if they don’t improve yourperformance—and they almost certainlywill—when done correctly they’re goingto make the simple act of running feelbetter, especially the older you get and the

longer you’ve been running. Most of theseactivities are easy to sneak in throughoutthe day in little clumps of activity.

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W h y t o S t r e t c hAll runners benefit from good range ofmotion throughout the body so that runningis a smooth, flowing activity. When it’snot, not only do you run slower, but thecompromised motion eventually leads tocompensation elsewhere in the body,setting off a bad kinetic chain that willlead to further deterioration and, usually,injury. For almost all modern runners,extra work will be necessary to retain thedesired degree of flexibility, and that’salmost always going to mean doingregular stretching.

: 101° West

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H o w t o S t r e t c hBut what kind? static? ballistic? dynamic?Based on research and what top runnersdo, and years of experimentation on myown, I’m convinced that the best type ofstretching for runners is a techniqueknown as active isolated stretching (AIS).The technique is based on the premise thatmuscles work in opposing pairs (quadsand hamstrings, biceps and triceps, and soon). To most effectively stretch one of themuscles in the pair, the theory goes,contract its opposite. So to stretch yourhamstrings, contract your quad while

raising your straight leg from the ground.This allows the hamstrings to relax andgradually lengthen, in contrast to beingforced through a range of motion that cancause them to reflexively protect againstoverstretching by constricting.

AIS combines elements of static anddynamic stretching. For each muscleyou’re stretching, you do 10 or sostretches, pausing only at the very end ofthe stretch, with each stretch lasting only afew seconds. For most of the stretches,you use a rope to assist at the end of thestretch for just a little bit more range ofmotion.

Among runners, AIS has beenpopularized by the fatherand-son team ofJim and Phil Wharton. I highly recommend

their books and videos, as do some of thebest distance runners of the last fifteenyears.

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O t h e r T y p e s o fF l e x i b i l i t y W o r kThat’s not to say AIS is the only type ofstretching (just probably the most effectiveat permanently increasing range ofmotion). The old standby of staticstretching is certainly better than nothing.Research has pretty conclusively shownthat, for runners, it’s best saved for afterrunning. Holding stretches for theprescribed 30 seconds before a run cancause a decrease in the stretched muscle’spower in the near future, which is hardly

what you want before a hard workout.

Before a run, the best non-AIS stretchesare dynamic movements that prepare yourbody for the range of motion it will movethrough out on the roads. Activities likeleg swings and walking with high kneeswill help you start your runs readier tomove efficiently. The key is to ease intoeach one so that your muscles don’tconstrict protectively from suddenly beingthrust into action.

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W h a t A b o u t Y o g a ?Because of the sustained poses, yoga isn’tideal soon before running. (See aboveabout lessened muscle power followingstatic stretching.) But I’m certainly notgoing to discourage any runner from anactivity that can increase flexibility,balance, and body awareness.

Probably the greatest benefit of yoga forrunners comes from balance poses, likethe Tree. These help strengthen the smallstabilizing muscles in your hips and buttthat play a large role in runningeconomically. The biggest caveat for a

runner going into a yoga session is toalways be mindful that you’re a runnerfirst. In a class, you’re likely to be aroundpeople with greater flexibility on manyposes, and the idea isn’t to will your bodyinto positions it can’t currently handle toshow off how fit you are. Go only to thepoint of gentle opening, regardless of whatothers around you or on the video you’refollowing along with are doing.

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W h e n t o S t r e t c h :P a r t 1The gold standard is a complete stretchingroutine before and after every run. Nowlet’s deal in reality.

Before most runs, spend at least a fewminutes on the muscles on the back of yourbody—calves, hamstrings, glutes, lowerback. They’re the muscles that are going tobe shortest and tightest from the lastseveral hours of your life. Active isolatedstretching or dynamic stretching is the wayto go pre-run. If you’ve been sitting for thelast while before your run, do the Cat-Cow exercise: On your hands and knees,round your back and draw your belly

button toward the ceiling while tuckingyour chin (cat), then arch your back andraise your gaze to the ceiling (cow).Doing a cycle of this exercise will loosenthe soft tissue around your pelvis andallow you to start your run feeling morefluid.

After running, spend a few minutes onany areas that felt tight or otherwisetroublesome on the run. Hips, glutes, andhamstrings appreciate a little attention atthis point. Active isolated stretching isgood at this time; if you’re a fan of staticstretching, post-run is the time for it. If youdrove to run, when you get out of the car,do Cat-Cow to help unlock your pelvis.

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W h e n t o S t r e t c h :P a r t 2Little bouts of stretching pre- and post-runwill help you on individual runs, butthey’re more about maintaining flexibilitythan improving it. For the latter, you needa few longer sessions of 15–20 minuteseach, a few times a week. If you can dothese in the two hours before a run, great.

Otherwise, find a few blocks during theweek for this essential insurance payment.If you don’t run every day, then your non-running days are an obvious opportunity.Another easily claimed block is aweekend afternoon, especially if you’verun long in the morning. Early in the

morning on a workday, or midday if youcan find a suitable location, are also timeswhen others might leave you along longenough for you to get something good donefor yourself. Finally, a brief session soonbefore going to bed when the rest of yourresponsibilities for the day are taken careof is a nice way to unwind and end theday.

And bear in mind that you can sneak inlittle bouts of stretching throughout yourday. You can do foot circles (describedbelow) sitting at your desk. You can take ashort break and instead of listen tosomeone blab about what they watched onTV last night, loosen your shoulders andneck (also described below). Continuallystretching during these “stolen” times will

help keep you loose enough that moredramatic intervention, in the form ofseveral long stretching sessions eachweek, won’t be as necessary.

Stacey Cramp

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T h e O b v i o u s S t u f f t oS t r e t c hMost runners intuitively know to work onthe large muscle groups involved inrunning—calves, hamstrings, hips, quads,glutes. If your calves are fairly tight,stretch them first, because once they’reloosened up, you can better target yourhamstrings.

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F e e t a n d A n k l eF l e x i b i l i t yGood range of motion in your feet andankles would seem to be a no-brainer, buta lot of runners ignore these areas.

Restricted flexibility in these joints canhave a major negative cascade effectthroughout your gait and will also makeyou slower.

Maintain strong, vibrant levers for yourrunning stride with regular foot and anklework. Gas pedals, in which you flex your

foot down and up as if flooring a caraccelerator, and foot circles, in which yourotate your foot clockwise, thencounterclockwise several times, are great.They’re the sort of stretch that’s easy tosneak in a few times a day while you’reotherwise in non-running mode. Sitting athome, perhaps while reading or watchingTV, you can tend to the balls of your feet:Grab your toes and move them up anddown.

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U p p e r - B o d yF l e x i b i l i t yMany of the form flaws we looked atearlier stem from a tight upper body.Increase your chances of running with asmooth whole-body motion by maintaininggood upper-body flexibility. Theshoulders are key here—think of them asyour arms’ hips in which you want goodrange of motion in all directions. Dostretches that target the different shouldermuscles, such as internal and externalrotators.

Also work on your neck so that you canhold your head loosely over your bodywhen you run. Jim and Phil Wharton’smaterials show an excellent series ofstretches for neck and shoulder muscles.As with the feet and ankle stretches, theseare easy to sneak in a few times a day as agreat way to reboot your body andcounteract too much sitting, typing, andtime in front of screens.

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A S t r o n g e r R u n n e rEverybody should do some form ofstrength training, just like everybodyshould do some form of cardiovascularexercise. What I’m going to focus on hereis the type of strength training that’s mostrelevant for building an injury-resistantrunning body. And that means targetedexercises that are often different than whatyou would do if your strength training goalwas to see how much you could bench-press or look good at the beach. Spendyour limited time focusing on the musclesthat most often get weak and tight from the

repetitive nature of running combinedwith, that’s right, the insults to the runningbody that modern life induces.

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L e g S t r e n g t h e n i n gThe most important areas to target areyour knee extensors, hip adductors, hipabductors, hip flexors, hip extensors,gluteals, soleus, and gastrocnemius.

Three sets of 10 reps with light weightsis the prescription here. The emphasis ison isolating the targeted muscle so youdon’t want to heave around as muchweight as possible, because that wouldencourage supporting muscles to kick inand do some of the work. Remember, thegoal is to strengthen specific, often minormuscles, not to build your overall strength

and general buffitude.

For example, let’s say I’m targeting myknee extensors (thigh muscles above theknee toward the midline of the body). I dothese seated, with an 8-pound ankleweight, straightening my lower leg bycontracting my knee extensors. Thesensation in the muscles I’m targeting is ofa little extra work than if I were extendingmy leg without the weights. Of course Icould do the same exercise with more thanthree times the weight, but at some point,to raise my leg I’d start recruiting hipmuscles and other quad muscles than theones I’m targeting.

Aim for two to three leg strengtheningsessions per week, ideally on your easiestrunning days.

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U p p e r - B o d yS t r e n g t h e n i n gMost of the relevant upper-body musclesare along the back of your body. Sorry, butthese mostly aren’t the ooh-and-ah aren’t-I-ripped flex muscles. The most importantareas to target are your deltoids,pectoralis majors, triceps, shoulderexternal rotators, shoulder internalrotators, trapezius, and rhomboids. Thesemuscles help you to maintain an upright,relaxed posture while running, giving youa smoother, more flowing stride.

Same deal as with legs on reps, sets,and what might seem like too-lowweights. Aim for two to three sessions perweek. The weights are light enough thatthey shouldn’t interfere with the quality ofyour runs, so do the work whenever youcan find the time.

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M i d s e c t i o nS t r e n g t h e n i n gMuch of what people consider coretraining is covered by the legstrengthening exercises I listed above.Those hip and butt exercises will give yougreat stability in your pelvic area,resulting in less impact stress on otherparts of your body.

For your midsection, there are a milliontheories on how best to proceed. For busyrunners looking to spend their timeefficiently on exercises with relevance totheir sport, you could do worse thangetting in the habit of doing a series ofplank poses after running. Thirty seconds

to a minute for each of prone plank, supineplank, and right and left side plank is agood goal. Do that most days and overtime you’ll be better off than people whohave overly ambitious, overly complexroutines that they stop doing sooner orlater. (Usually sooner.)

If you want to be more ambitious abouta midsection strengthening routine, theelite coaches Greg McMillan and JayJohnson have each produced excellentDVDs showing which of the infinitepotential exercises have the greatestrelevance for runners.

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G e n e r a l S t r e n g t hE x e r c i s e sAn increasing number of top runners doregular routines of what they call “generalstrength” exercises. By that they meanPilates-meets-football-practice exerciseslike leg lifts, oneleg squats, push-ups witha clap, lunges, etc. The theory is thatmodern life deprives children of the all-around general body fitness that agrarianlifestyles and unstructured play helpedbuild fifty years ago. Without that type offitness, the theory goes, you’re much more

susceptible to injury once you devoteyourself to the one-directional movementpatterns of running. General strengthexercises build that fitness that used to betaken for granted.

You probably won’t be surprised tohear I think the theory makes sense,especially for adult runners who aresedentary all day except when they run.For many people, the issue will comedown to time: Can you find time to run andstretch and do running-specificstrengthening, and then find more time forgeneral strength routines? If so, JayJohnson is again your guide, and this timethe resources are free: Go torunningtimes.com/gsvideos and you’ll findfive videos by Johnson detailing a

progression of general strength routines.

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R u n n i n g S h o e s a n dI n j u r yFor years the running shoe industry hascast its products more or less like well, acast: Wear this protective device oryou’re at serious risk of injury.Fortunately, that mind-set is starting tochange; shoe companies and runnersincreasingly recognize that the goal ofrunning shoes should be to allow the feetand ankles to do their thing with as littleinterference as possible. You hear a lotless these days than even five years ago

about a shoe’s “protective” qualities andmore about how it enhances the body’snatural mechanics.

That was a needed change—as if one ofhumanity’s most basic movements waspossible to do free from injury only ifdone in something mass-produced withfoam and plastic in an Asian factory. Ifanything, many runners, including me,have considered most modern runningshoes potential vectors of injury.

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M i n i m a l i s m : I s L e s sM o r e ?For the most part, it’s a good idea to do atleast some of your running in light,flexible shoes.

What’s been termed “minimalism” overthe past few years is really what mostrunners naturally did before the shoeindustry started pumping shoes full oftechnology, dramatically elevating theheight of the midsole, and creating largedifferences between the midsole height inthe heel and forefoot. Before shoes started

resembling moon boots, most runnerstrained in low-to-the-ground models thathugged the foot. Combine that with doinghard workouts in racing flats, and youwere doing most of your mileage in fairlyminimal shoes. The benefits includestronger and more flexible feet and ankles;more, not less, stability (because you’recloser to the ground rather than feelingsuspended above it); encouragement of alighter, quicker turnover; and simplyenjoying running more because of agreater feel of the surface you’re movingover.

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M o d e r n M i n i m a l i s mNow you have to make more of aconscious effort to get in shoes that don’tfeel like pillows on your feet. I’m notalone among longtime runners in doingmuch of my running in what are marketedas racing shoes, because what’s now soldas a racing shoe is quite similar to whatwere sold as a lightweight training shoetwenty years ago.

If you’ve always run in modern, overlybuilt running shoes, experiment withrunning in less shoe. Get a pair oflightweight trainers and gradually mixthem into your shoe rotation. Start doingstriders and hard workouts in racingshoes. At first you might experience somecalf and Achilles tightness as these bodyparts relearn how to do what they’re

supposed to do. But over time, if you’relike most runners who have gone thisroute, you’ll not want to return to theheavily cushioned shoes that too often getin the way of your run instead of gettingout of the way and just letting you run.

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B a r e f o o t i n t h e P a r kIf slight shoes are good, what about none?You might think from media reports thatbarefoot running was invented circasummer of 2009 and that it’s somecontroversial practice that shoecompanies want to remain hidden fromrunners. And for sure, in classic Americanfashion, proponents of barefoot runninghave taken the kernel of a solid idea andrun with it past its logical extreme.

The truth is, barefoot running has beenpart of many runners’ training for decades,even among those sponsored by shoe

companies. Coaches have longrecommended barefoot striders on theinfield of a track or a grass field to buildfoot and ankle strength and flexibility. It’squite possible (and enjoyable) to quickly,safely build to doing 30 minutes or moreof barefoot running on forgiving surfaces.(In high school, I did a barefoot 14-milervia repeated loops of my school’s grassperimeter. It’s still one of the mostenjoyable solo runs in my three-decaderunning career.) Most runners for at least afew warm months a year can findsomewhere sensible to regularlyincorporate a couple barefoot sessions aweek into their training.

As in almost all areas of running, thething to avoid is zealotry. In terms of

barefoot running, that means avoidingdoing too much too soon, especially ifyou’ve spent most of your life in overlybuilt-up shoes, and not being an idiotabout what surfaces you run barefoot on.At some point, the risks of sharp objectsand hard asphalt outweigh the benefits ofgreater foot function if you start runningmost of your miles barefoot on the roads.

Going barefoot or in socks indoors asmuch as possible is an excellent way toget some of the benefits of barefootrunning.

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T o s s i n g Y o u rT r a i n e r sWhen to replace your shoes is a judgmentcall that you’ll get a better sense of thelonger you run. The usual recommendationto replace shoes every 300 to 500 miles isbased more on manufacturers’ desires tomove product than anything else. Thirtyyears ago, we were told to replace shoesevery 500 miles. Every year since then,manufacturers have said how the latestshoes are new and improved, quitepossibly the greatest shoes ever made.

And yet they don’t last longer than whenRonald Reagan was president? Come on.

The less built-up a shoe you run in, theless reason there is to discard them after agiven number of miles, because there’sthat much less midsole cushioning to breakdown.

If you find you’re unaccountably soreafter several consecutive runs in the sameshoes, that’s a good sign that theirretirement might be imminent. Certainly ifthey’re so broken down that they’realtering your gait, it’s time to ditch them.This is usually from the heel countersbeing worn over to one side—if you placethem on a level surface and you can getthem to rock back and forth by flicking themidsole near the back, then it’s probably

time to move on.

: Stacey Cramp

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O r t h o t i c s A r e n ’ t aC u r e - A l lDon’t look to orthotics as a permanentsolution to injury, any more than youwould look to crutches as a necessarycompanion for the rest of your life. Ifyou’ve had orthotics for a long time, askyourself: Do I still have the problem Ioriginally got these for? Have I beendiligent about improving my strength andflexibility so that the original problemdoesn’t recur?

If you decide to wean yourself off

orthotics, start by gradually going withoutthem during your non-running time. As youfeel safe doing that, do one short run perweek without them, then two and keepprogressing as your body finds thingsagreeable.

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F i n a l T h o u g h t o nR u n n i n g I n j u r i e sDo yourself a favor and stay at a goodrunning weight. Given that with everyrunning step you’re landing with 3 to 4times your bodyweight, unnecessarypounds put unnecessary strain on joints,ligaments, and bones.

P A R T F O U RR u n n i n g

C o n s i s t e n t l y : 4 3 T i p st o H e l p Y o u R u n

M o r e O f t e n f o r t h eR e s t o f Y o u r L i f e

It’s not uncommon to go to bed thinking,“Darn, I should have run today.” It’s notcommon to go to bed thinking, “I shouldn’thave run today.”

Consistency is the runner’s holy grail.Any good coach will tell you the biggest

factor in running success is consistency.Without it, you’re never going to comeclose to reaching your potential, eitherwithin a season, a year, or a decade. Or alifetime, for that matter. You might havebrief displays of brilliance, but until youlearn how to pull off regular running thatbuilds from day to day, week to week,month to month, year to year, you’re notgoing to get very far.

After all, running isn’t like, say, golf,where you can set it aside for two monthsand almost immediately be as good as youwere your last time on the links. Runningis more how the concert pianist VladimirHorowitz described his relationship withmusic: “If I don’t practice for a day,” hesaid, “I know it. If I don’t practice for two

days, my wife knows it. If I don’t practicefor three days, the world knows it.”

Don’t worry, I’m not saying to runevery day no matter what or don’t bother.I’m saying that good running over thelong-term has a rhythm, just like a goodindividual run does. Consistently runningfive days a week for two months is betterthan a month of running every dayfollowed by a month of running twice aweek. Running regularly at a level you cansustain throughout the seasons is betterthan training hard all fall and then baggingit during the winter. And running year toyear with a steady-as-she-goes mind-set isbetter than two years of zealotry followedby retirement.

: Joel Wolpert

The tips in this chapter will help youachieve consistency throughout yourrunning career, starting with the simplematter of what’s often the biggestchallenge: How to get yourself out thedoor today, and then again tomorrow.We’ll also look at other challenges you’lllikely face to achieving, for lack of abetter term, consistent consistency: lack of

motivation, weather, aging, and travel.

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N u m b e r O n e F o e o fR u n n e r s : I n e r t i aMark Twain said that the secret tosuccessful writing was to apply the seat ofone’s pants to the seat of a chair. Therunning corollary is to apply the bottom ofyour running shoes to the space justoutside your front door. It really is thatsimple.

“Simple,” of course, doesn’t mean“easy.” Inertia is one of the most powerfulforces in the universe, or at least the partabout a body at rest tending to stay at rest

is. (I’ve often thought that Sir IsaacNewton should have tried a few more 20-milers before definitively stating that abody in motion stays in motion unlessacted on by an external force.) The desireto go run, to do something so drasticallydifferent from how most of us spend ourdays, is highly appealing in the abstract,but can be difficult to conjure when you’realready tired, or it’s cold and darkoutside, or twenty seven people aremaking what they say are critical demandson your time right now. In that moment,it’s easy to justify avoiding the simplestep of putting on your running shoes andstepping outside.

The best thing you can do about inertia,both on any given day and in a lifetime of

running, is to acknowledge its power andthen move on. Picture yourself going tobed that evening and reviewing the day.Will you be glad you ran? Yes, you almostcertainly will. So defeat inertia and makethat happen.

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F i n d i n g T i m eThanks to my profession, appearance andfrequent appearances in not much clothingon local roads, people tend to know I’m arunner. There’s a subset of non-runnerswho (mistakenly) think I want toevangelize about running, and they try topreemptively stop that by sayingsomething like, “I would like to run, but Idon’t have the time.” And then theyprobably go home and watch TV for fourhours or read updates from all 313 of theirFacebook friends.

: Stacey Cramp

Because you’re reading this book, I’mgoing to assume you know the “I don’thave time” line is almost never true.You’ve experienced another of my idiot-savant-as-running-coach truisms: We findthe time for the things that are important tous. Period.

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N o t I f , b u t W h e nPut perhaps a little less harshly, what Imean is that if running is important to you(and I kinda think it should be), then yourmind-set shifts from “Can I find the timefor it?” to “When can I find the time forit?” You think in terms not of “Will I runtoday?” but “When will I run today?”

Because let’s face it, whether you runtoday matters to almost nobody else in theworld but you. Your boss, the dog, traffic,errands, your kids, your friends, a littleextra sleep—the list of claims on yourtime is endless. To wait to see if an

opening magically arrives in your daywhen you’ll be able to run is to surrenderyour running to those claims on your time.And remember, almost none of thoseclaims are going to care if you go to bedkicking yourself for missing a day ofrunning. That’s not to say they’re evil orout to get you; they may very well loveyou. But they’re still almost always goingto request that you do something other thanchange into your running gear anddisappear for the next little while.

So if there are lots of claims on yourtime, anticipate when you’ll be able torun, and make it happen. During the workweek, that will often mean getting a littleless sleep and running early in themorning. So be it.

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R u n n i n g A i n ’ tN e e d l e w o r kOne challenge to finding time to run is thenature of running—you need a solid blockof time. Running regularly doesn’t worklike doing needlework or reading or evensome physical pursuits, like ab exercises.You can’t squeeze in a few minutes here, afew minutes there, and at the end of theday have made good progress.

Complicating matters is eating.Wouldn’t it be fabulous, I’ve long thought,if running worked something like

gardening, where you could say, “OK, I’lleat dinner with the kids and thenimmediately after spend half an hour onmy passion.”

: 101◦West

The need to find a solid block of timethat doesn’t conflict with yours andothers’ eating schedules is, I think, amongthe reasons running isn’t more popular.

But that just makes it that much morespecial for us, doesn’t it?

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I f , o n t h e O t h e rH a n d , Y o u H a v e A l lD a yOn what are probably the rare occasionswhen you could run at pretty much anytime of the day, don’t wait until you feel“ready” to run. You’re almost never goingto feel ready to run. I say this from toomuch experience during my idle youth—the stars are never going to align such thatyou’re suddenly full of energy and aworld-beating attitude. Lying on the couchfor another hour isn’t going to imbue you

with eagerness; if anything, it will justmake you more lethargic, and the day willhave 60 minutes less in it. Just get outthere and get on with your run.

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S o m e t h i n g I s A l w a y sB e t t e r T h a n N o t h i n gOne impediment to success in consistencyis taking an all-ornothing approach to yourrunning. You’re asking for trouble, or atleast disappointment, if you convinceyourself that running has to happen in acertain way or otherwise not be worth itor legitimate.

There will be days when some aspectof reality intrudes and you have to scrapyour ideal-world training plan. It could beweather or work or a family matter or

fatigue or maybe just sleeping throughyour alarm. That doesn’t make the logicalconclusion to be scrapping the wholeaffair. A 4-miler is much closer to a 10-miler than it is to 0 miles for the day.

This is also an important idea to keep inmind once you’re out running. Thingsaren’t always going to go like they“should” or how you want them to. Youmight feel like you’re hauling but berunning much slower than usual. Youmight have a new niggle. Maybe the trackyou were going to do a workout on islocked. Don’t draw dramatic conclusionsor make dramatic decisions from singleevents. See the run through and hope for abetter run tomorrow.

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I ◉◉ R u n n i n gA related habit of mind is to view yourrunning like you do a committedrelationship. You’re in the relationshipbecause you want to be and your life isbetter because of it. Yes, sometimesyou’re going to feel like you’re doing allthe work and getting nothing in return.Little things might really irritate you.Others’ relationships, or formerrelationships of yours, might look greatfrom a distance. But that doesn’t mean youjust walk away from the relationshipbecause you’ve hit a rough patch. Stay

committed, and soon enough your devotionwill be rewarded and you’ll appreciateanew all that keeps you in the relationship.

: Stacey Cramp

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G o t t a G e t a G o a lMarathon legend Bill Rodgers is a masterat self-motivation. The thing that’s kepthim running ambitiously for the last fourdecades is that he’s always workingtoward a goal. For Rodgers, that usuallymeans a key race or series of races overthe next three to six months. That’s a shortenough amount of time that the goal isn’tso distant as to be abstract, but long-termenough that it provides impetus to hisrunning in the weeks and months before,as it gives him something to look forwardto achieving.

Rodgers’ goals are always models ofwhat sport psychologists say are goodgoals: personally meaningful, measurable,specific, challenging but within reach andtiered (meaning that it’s easy to createshort-term goals that build to the long-termgoal). Eliminate any of those elements,and the goal doesn’t serve as successful ofa motivator. For example, remove thespecificity aspect, and “I want to break40:00 for 10K” becomes “I want to runfaster for 10K.” In the latter case, it’squite likely you could achieve your goalalmost immediately, and then what?

One great thing about goals the wayRodgers sets them is that they giveimmediate meaning to what he runs daily.Knowing that he aims to run a certain time

for a certain distance on a certain date, hethen works backward from that date andcreates a training plan that builds logicallyto achieving that goal. What he does todayis informed by where he is on the path tothat goal as well as what he did last weekand what he’ll do next week to meet it.

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I t D o e s n ’ t H a v e t oB e a R a c e G o a lOf course, there are excellent runninggoals that have nothing to do with raceperformance but that meet all the criteriafor ones that will provide impetus andinspiration.

: Stacey Cramp

For example, every year on January 1,when I write my goals for the year, thefirst one is “Miss no days to injury.”That’s not just an aspiration. It’s aquantifiable goal that motivates me to doregular body-maintenance work(stretching, strengthening, core work, etc.)so that I’m more resistant to injury. It also

helps me to remain mindful of not makingstupid training errors, like four hard daysin a row, so that I’m not looking back tendays later shaking my head in disgust atthe hamstring strain that seemingly cameout of nowhere. You might find equalmotivation from a goal like “Average 40miles a week for the year” or “Run at leastfive days a week for the next threemonths.”

If you can always state with specificitywhat your current running goal is, and ifthat goal is something you picked becauseit has real meaning to you, then you’vegone a long way to ensuring consistency inyour running.

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T h e G r e a t e s tR u n n i n g I n v e n t i o nE v e rHere’s another insight from the master ofrunning psychology, Bill Rodgers: Thesingle best thing you can do to ensureconsistency in running is to get yourselfone or more good training partners.

Training partners will make it infinitelyeasier to achieve all of the habits ofsuccess I’ve described above. They’ll getyou out the door. They’ll make your time

for running seem more legitimate toyourself and others because it will beviewed as an appointment. They’ll keepyou out there when the going gets tough.They’ll be sounding boards for and aids toformulating and progressing toward yourgoals.

It’s impossible to say enough goodthings about good training partners. Therunners who have reached their potentialcompletely on their own are by far theexceptions.

Performance aside, nurturing a pool oftraining partners will help your runningsimply because it will help your life. Afew hours together a week on the roadwill forge friendships of a quality that arehard to initiate elsewhere in normal adult

life.

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D a n c i n g w i t h Y o u rP a r t n e r ( s )Not all of your training partners need to beof your speed and typical mileage. Peopleof roughly your ilk are your breadand-butter partners, but there’s no reason toavoid runners who are significantly fasteror slower, or who run a lot less or morethan you do.

: Stacey cramp

If someone is much slower than you,plan to run with him on the day after yourhardest workout of the week. If someoneis much faster than you, then latch on toher normal run and use it as a tempo run. Ifsomeone is going half as far as you usuallygo, do his run and then add on. If someoneis a mileage maniac, join her for the firstpart of her run. All these runners willwelcome your company.

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R u n n i n g P a r t n e r s o fa D i f f e r e n t S o r tBecome a student of the sport. Readbiographies of great runners. Find arunning message board that featuresknowledgeable (and ideally, nonabusive)runners. Why, you could even subscribe tothe magazine I work for! It ruins none ofthe magic of self-discovery to learn thatthousands of others have gone before youand experienced every challenge and joythat you have. Take advantage of thelessons others have drawn from their

mistakes so that you don’t have to repeatthem.

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S i c k a n d T i r e d ( B u tN o t o f R u n n i n g )At some point, getting sick is going to getin the way of your running. The usualadvice is that it’s OK to keep running ifyour symptoms are from the neck up(runny nose, woozy head, etc.), but thatyou shouldn’t run if your symptoms arebelow your head (congestion in chest,coughing, vomiting, etc.).

Like so much in running, however,running when you’re sick is a judgmentcall, not a black-and-white matter. I

almost always at least attempt a token jog,on the theory that half an hour after the runI might feel significantly better than I didbefore. The run is unlikely to be a peakexperience, but it’s something differentthan sitting around with a box of tissues,and I usually feel a little cleared out fromthe increased blood flow. I stay close tohome in case it becomes obvious 10minutes into the run that further escapadesare contraindicated. But even on thoseoccasions, it’s hard to argue that a shortjog was a mistake—it’s not like doing sowill have made you that much sicker ordelayed your recovery.

Again, this is a judgment call. Some ofus just like to run pretty much every day. Ilike the thought that the cold or flu, which

is already lowering my quality of life,didn’t completely upend things.

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D i e t a n d R e g u l a r i t yBy which I mean running regularity, notthe type usually associated with diet.

The most important reason to care aboutyour diet as a runner isn’t so you can run 8seconds faster in a 5K or run 21 milesinstead of 19 next Sunday. It’s so that youhave basic underlying good health to useas a platform for regular running. It’stough to maintain good running habits ifyou’re always getting sick or overlyfatigued or feeling like you’re always onthe verge of coming down with something.By helping to impart a basic level of good

health, a good diet will allow you to runmore consistently and ambitiously.

That being the case, what constitutes agood running diet is pretty much whatconstitutes a good diet, period: Lots offresh fruits and vegetables; small servingsof lean protein; plenty of high-qualitycarbs to keep your muscles fueled; plentyof fluids not pumped full of sugar; easy onthe saturated fat and processed foods. Itreally is that simple, despite themachinations and manipulations andfaddish focuses you’ll hear encouraged.

If you want to take a basic dailymultivitamin as a form of insurance foroccasional poor dietary choices, fine.Other supplements advertised as beingbeneficial to runners are a waste of your

money.

People like to say, “I’m a runner, so Ican eat whatever I want.” And that can betrue, if your only concern about your dietis a simple calories-in/calories-outcalculation. Me, I would prefer to feel aswell as possible throughout the day andwhen running. That’s going to happen witha lot more regularity if those caloriesmostly come from simple, healthful foodswhose ingredients I know how topronounce without a degree in chemistry.

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W e a t h e r t h e W e a t h e rRunning consistently also means runningthrough all kinds of weather. (Unless youlive somewhere like, say, San Diego,where you have to adapt to it being sunnyand 72 when just the other day it wassunny and 78.) Succeeding in runningthroughout all the seasons is mostly amatter of your mental outlook, with theright clothing choices in a supporting role.

Through lack of exposure and aWeather Channel ethos that portraysclimate as something that descends fromabove to prey on us, most people are

weather wimps. Run long enough, andyou’ll eventually be asked after somenon–San Diego day, “Really? You run inthis?” What these people don’t realize isthat one of the great joys of being a runneris experiencing nature through all theseasons. The variety of temperature andhow the air feels and quality of light,whether trees are in bloom or the leavesare starting to fall, those sorts of thingsmake running outside year-round a treatthat most people don’t appreciate untilthey experience it.

When given reason to be, humans areamazingly adaptive to a wide range ofclimates. So, yes, I do “run in this.” Soshould you. The weather is never as badas it appears from the other side of your

office or car window.

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W e a t h e r W i m p i n e s sA simple test: On days when you’restruggling to get out the door, ask yourself,“Would I be thinking like this if it were 75and sunny?” If the answer is no, then that’sseldom a sufficient reason to skip a run.(In other words, runners in San Diegonever to get to miss a day because of theweather.) Of course this doesn’t meanyou’re not allowed to complain about theweather. Do like I do—get your bitchingin, and then get going.

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R u n n i n g H o tThere’s a reason places like Louisianaand Saudi Arabia aren’t distance-runninghotbeds, so to speak. Distance-runningperformance starts to decline when you’velost as little as 2 percent of yourbodyweight to dehydration. That’ssweating away only 3 pounds for a 150-pound runner, which can easily happen inless than an hour’s run. Those of us whoare heavy sweaters can lose much more,setting off a downward spiral of shallowbreathing, soaring heart rate, and dramaticslowing. Take it from someone who once

went from 130 to 121 pounds during atwo-hour July run: Despite the long hoursof daylight and the joy of not having tobundle up to brave the elements,maintaining high-quality running can betoughest in the summer.

For overall consistency, the challengeisn’t so much getting out the door on anygiven day. It’s summer, after all, and it’salmost always pleasant to step outside.The challenge is more keeping on top ofhow drained running in the heat can leaveyou so that you do more than muddlethrough until the first crisp fall morning.

: Slison Wade

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S t a y C o o lTo mitigate the effects of heat onindividual runs, there are the obviousways to lessen dehydration’s toll: Runearly in the morning or after sunset; wearas little clothing as modesty allows; makesure the clothing encourages sweat toevaporate instead of trapping it; moderateyour pace from the outset. This is all basiccommon sense, but in some cases is easiersaid than done, especially on the timingaspect. Most workdays you’re going tohave to run when you can, and make thebest of it.

Research has shown benefits toprecooling before running in hot weather.That research was conducted on subjectswearing ice vests, but it has applicabilityfor the rest of us. If you’re able to be in asupercooled environment, like a closedroom with the airconditioning cranked, inthe 15 minutes before you run, your coretemperature should drop a bit. That shouldallow you to run farther beforedehydration becomes a limiting factor.

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T o D r i n k o r N o t t oD r i n kOn most summer runs in most locales, youdon’t need to carry water. You can dowhatever you want, of course, but yoursweat losses on an average 45-minute runon an average summer day aren’t going tosignificantly affect your performance. I’mwith most longtime runners in preferringto err on the side of a little too muchdehydration over having the feel of a runmarred by a fuel belt or bottle in hand.

The exceptions would be when working

harder or longer than usual. If you’redoing a hard workout, even if not on atrack, you’re probably frequently passingthe same spot, such as the bottom of a hillyou’re doing repeats on. It’s easy to stasha bottle there to sip from during yourrecovery jogs. You’ll be sweating morethan usual because of a higher workoutput. Also, because your goal in theworkout is to sustain higher-endperformance, you’ll want to do what youcan to keep your sweat losses below thethreshold where you’re forced to slowsignificantly.

On long runs, simply being out theretwice as long as usual means you’reprobably going to slow toward the endunless you can recoup some of your sweat

losses. Start your weekend long runs earlyif necessary, and plan a route that has youpassing a couple times a spot whereyou’ve placed a bottle.

Research has shown that sport drinks atthe proper concentration (about 6–8percent) rehydrate you as fast as water,while providing the additional benefit ofsodium, which helps your blood maintainits proper balance.

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I n B e t w e e n H o t R u n sAfter any run when you’ve lost more than2 percent of bodyweight to sweat, youneed to start rehydrating immediately.Delaying doing so will delay yourrecovery. It used to be thought that youneeded to stagger your drinking toproperly rehydrate; most people’s internalorgans, it was said, couldn’t process morethan 7–8 ounces of fluid every 15 minutes.It’s now been shown that’s not true. If youget done running and want to gulp down aquart of water or sport drink, go for it.

Away from the immediate aftermath of

a hot run, you still need to be thinking likea runner. Chronic dehydration is the realconsistency sapper in the summer. It’seasy to slightly underhydrate a few days ina row, after which you’ll start to noticefeeling lethargic and unmotivated. If at anytime during a hot spell your urine ismedium to dark yellow, you’re notproperly rehydrating during the day.

One nice thing to keep in mind is thatresearch has shown that runners who areacclimated to hot-weather trainingperform better in not only hot weather(duh) but also cooler weather. Heattraining, it turns out, has some of theperformance-enhancing benefits of altitudetraining. Two takeaways from this: First,keeping at your running during a long, hot

stretch will pay big dividends in the fall.Second, if you’re forced to go slower thanusual most days, you’re still advancingyour fitness, just like slower runs ataltitude provide more of a trainingstimulus than might seem the case whileyou’re doing them.

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W a r m i n g t o W i n t e rR u n n i n gThe “You run in this?” query comes moreoften in winter than summer. But runningin sub-freezing temperatures isn’t reallythat big of a deal after the first 10 minutes.By then blood flow to your muscles issignificantly increased, and you feel a lotwarmer. I always dress for what I’m goingto feel like 15 minutes into the run than forthe first few steps out the door. I’d ratherbe a little chilled at first than be weigheddown with extra clothing half an hour

later, when I’m moving well and probablyno longer thinking about the temperature.

The exception for most people is theirhands, which seldom warm as much asyour core. But they do usually get a bitwarmer, and mittens can sometimes makeyour hands start sweating. I have a pair ofgloves with a fold-over mitten flap that’sthe perfect solution for this problem.

: Joel Wolpert

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W i n t e r W e a rIt’s rare to need more than a couple oflayers up top. There’s so much high-quality cold-weather gear on the marketthese days that it’s hard to go wrong aslong as you go with the goods from awell-known company. I’ve become a bigfan of merino wool gear, which insulatesfantastically at a wide range oftemperatures and doesn’t stink even afterseveral runs.

Down below, the biggest concern iskeeping the family area warm. I’ve done apolar bear dip in which I submerged

myself in the ocean in Maine on a cold,windy New Year’s Day. The discomfortof that was nothing compared to what I’vefelt the last few miles of and the first halfhour after longish runs on brutally colddays. On really cold runs (under 15degrees) or it’s especially windy, I wearwool briefs. Nylon ones with a protectivepanel in the crotch also work well.

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G o t T r a c t i o n ?R u n n i n g o n S n o wRunning on snowy and/or icy roads hasgotten a lot easier in recent years with thewide availability of traction devices youcan attach to your shoes, such as YakTraxand STABILicers. They allow you to runwith much more normal mechanics thanwould be the case in just your runningshoes.

The first time I ran in YakTrax, I wasdubious. My run was fine, and I certainlyfelt like my form wasn’t the usual slip-

slidingaway phenomenon that can makerunning on snow so unenjoyable. But Iwanted to be sure I wasn’t imaginingthings, so when I got home, I took off theYakTrax and then ran down my street injust my shoes. The difference wasobvious. Now I wear them orSTABILicers whenever I know the bulk ofmy run is going to be on roads that haven’tbeen plowed to the pavement. I’ve alsoworn them in the woods once I know trailshave been heavily traversed by hikers andsnowshoers, resulting in a firm surface.It’s a real treat to run on favorite trails at atime of year they would otherwise beinaccessible.

If you run on snowy roads without oneof these traction devices, expect your

hamstrings, especially at their insertionpoints below your butt, to be soreafterward. Your iliotibial bands are alsolikely to get aggravated from the extrawork they’ll do to stabilize you with everystep. Do some gentle stretching of thoseareas after snowy runs, and then apply icefor a few minutes to the top of yourhamstrings.

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R u n n i n g A f t e r D a r kFor most people, running throughout theyear is going to mean some stretches ofrunning in the dark. Months on end of thisisn’t the greatest thing ever—whichperhaps explains the lack of greatmarathoners from the Arctic Circle—butrunning in the dark does have its charms.Seeing where you’re going usually isn’t anissue, the major exception being badfooting in wintry conditions. Black ice ishard to finesse your way through andprobably a good time to look for atreadmill.

The more important matter is usuallymaking sure you’re seen by others, bywhich I mean drivers. Most winter runninggear, and many shoes, have reflectivematerials on them. Get some. If the roadswhere you run are especially narrow oryour local drivers above-and-beyonddistracted, go with extra hey-I’m-over-here items, like a reflective vest or aheadlamp. You can even buy lights thatwrap around your hands like a pair ofilluminated brass knuckles (which may betempting to use when yet another driverjabbering away on his phone acts likeyou’re the one causing the safety hazard).

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R u n n i n g i n R a i nIn most cases the biggest issue with rain ispsychological—there’s just somethingabout heading out into a downpour that’sso much worse than if the rain were tostart falling once you’re out. I always tryto remind myself that you can get only sowet, and you’ll reach that state ofsaturation within the first 10 minutes.

If it’s a cold rain, there’s no gettingaround it—the run is unlikely to be one ofthe highlights of your life. That’s one ofthe few times I dress for how it’s going tofeel stepping out the door, because even if

you do warm up, your clothes will bedrenched by then, so a little bit of extraweight won’t really matter.

I always make sure my shoes are tiedsnugly when it’s raining. If they’re tooloose, the rain is going to cause your feetto slip around some, and your knees orother parts of your leg can get achy beforethe run is over from the extra motion.

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W i t h s t a n d i n g t h eW i n dThe main thing with wind is the annoyancefactor. It can be impossible to feel smoothand relaxed if the wind is too strong, evenif you’re running with a tailwind. Thecommon advice on windy days is to headout into the wind so that you’re not facinga headwind on the way home, because thatcould chill you. I think the oppositeapproach is better. I sort of trick myselfinto staying out for longer than I otherwisewould on horribly windy days by heading

out with the wind at my back. Once it’stime to turn around and head home, I’m xnumber of miles away and have no choicebut to finish the job. (And by then I’vewarmed up.) I’m much more likely to getin a decent amount of mileage that waythen willing myself through the openingmiles into a headwind, when I’m not yet ina groove.

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L o v e , H a t e , a n dT r e a d m i l l sSome runners love treadmills, some hatethem. I’m more in the latter camp, althoughI definitely appreciate them at times. Ihave one in my garage, and just knowingit’s there is a source of comfort. Blizzardcoming tomorrow? Not my first choice ofofferings from the weather gods, but Iknow I’ll still get a run in, either outside ifthings aren’t totally ridiculous, or on thetreadmill if I decide that overall myexperience will be better by staying

inside.

If running on a treadmill is going tomean you run on days that you otherwisewouldn’t, then have at it. I’ve certainlyhad winter runs where afterward Igrudgingly acknowledge I’ve chosenincorrectly and would have had a morepositive experience by hitting thetreadmill. There’s no denying the safetyfactor of the treadmill in bad weatherwinter, especially if you would otherwisebe running in the dark with uncertainfooting.

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T r e a d m i l l o rD r e a d m i l l ?The obvious issue with treadmill runningis boredom. This is a rare instance wherepeople who don’t really like runningprobably have an advantage—if it’sdrudgery to them whether they’re outsideor on the treadmill, they don’t have toemploy any special mental armor to stayon the treadmill long enough to make itworthwhile. If, on the other hand, youreally love the feel of running over theearth, the breeze in your face, the passing

scenery, then treadmill running feels likehaving to make do with a poor substitute.(I always think of a heavy Scotch drinkerbeing told, “Here, you can have as muchlight beer as you want, but nothing else.”)

Music via something like an iPod is thego-to solution here, especially if you’re ona gym treadmill. There is evidence tosupport running to music with a fastertempo, around 180 beats per minute, sothat the feel of the music is in sync with atypical running cadence. At home, TVshows or movies can help the time passquicker. Really, do whatever it takes tostep outside that part of your brain thatkeeps staring at the console thinking,“Twelve minutes?!? It feels like I’ve beenon here for an hour!”

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S h o u l d Y o u G r a d eY o u r T r e a d m i l l ?Whether to set the treadmill at a grade is asource of endless debate. Legendarycoach and exercise physiologist JackDaniels has long recommended settingtreadmills at a 1 percent grade to accountfor the fact that you’re not overcomingwind resistance, as you would outside.That slight elevation, he claims, results inthe same “cost” of oxygen consumption asrunning the same pace outside on flatground.

Others doubt the relevance of that issue,and add this question to their objection:Why not just set the treadmill at a fasterpace? That is, instead of saying, “I’ll putthe treadmill at a 1 percent grade and mynormal pace,” why not keep the grade at 0percent and set the speed a little faster?That way, not only do your runningmechanics feel more normal, but youslightly reduce your time on the treadmill.

I like to mix it up throughout a treadmillrun, sometimes with the grade at 0percent, sometimes at 1 percent,sometimes much steeper. This varietymakes a treadmill run more like a “real”run, with its frequent ups and downs andflat stretches.

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I g n o r e Y o u rT r e a d m i l l C o n s o l eDon’t place too much stock in thetreadmill console’s numbers. Hopefully,you can trust the clock and grade setting,but the chances that the treadmill isperfectly calibrated are slim to none inmost settings. Certainly don’t freak outthat you’re in horrible shape if thetreadmill console is telling you that whatyou thought was your normal training pacefeels really hard. Conversely, don’t getoverly confident about your fitness for

outdoor races if your treadmill is tellingyou you’re doing mile repeats far fasterthan ever. As much as you can in such anartificial setting, base how fast you go onthe treadmill on what feels right for theday, regardless of what pace the consoleclaims that is.

: Alison Wade

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A f t e r t h e L a s t P RIt’s easy to stay fired up about yourrunning when you feel like your fastestdays are still ahead of you. Maintainingconsistency gets harder, however, whenyou realize that you’ve set your lastpersonal best, that no matter what you do,the most you can hope for in performanceterms is to slow the rate of slowing.

The age at which that happens variesgreatly. Most new runners can expect toimprove for 10–12 years if they’reconsistent with their running from the start.So a longtime runner who ran on her high

school track team might hit hercompetitive peak in her late twenties, thenplateau, then start to slow a bit, then startto slow more dramatically in her latethirties and early forties. If you’re anadult-onset runner, you can count oncontinued improvement for several yearsat the beginning of your running career,even if you’re moving from your forties toyour fifties during that time. At somepoint, however, the effects of aging aregoing to mean you’re on the down slope ofthe performance curve.

By then, of course, you’ve probablyfigured out the things you love most aboutrunning and have learned what you need todo to ensure consistency. At the sametime, it can be frustrating to think that

you’re going to get slower and slower forthe rest of your running career, andtempting to significantly lessen running’splace in your life. Here are a few ways tokeep hope alive.

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M e n t a l l y R e b o o tF r e q u e n t l yIt’s easier said than done, but at somepoint you need to stop comparing yourselfto the runner you were at your peak.There’s no motivation to come fromthinking, “Wait a minute, my pace for a10K race is now slower per mile thanwhat I used to do on tempo runs.”

The best way to avoid thinking like thatis to consider the faster, younger you adifferent runner. At your peak, youprobably didn’t think, “Wait a minute, my

pace for a 10K race is slower per milethan what Runner X does on her easydays.” You were motivated by seeingwhat you could do with the current youand whatever raw material genetics,training history, available time, and otherfactors gave you to work with. That wastrue then, and it should be true now. Manysuccessful runners wipe the slate cleanevery five years. They strive to be the bestthey’ve ever been while someone in the50–54 age group. What they achieved as aforty-eight-year-old informs their running,for sure, but it doesn’t determine theirsatisfaction with what they’re doing now.

: 101° West

One great way to bolster yourmotivation is to focus on different eventsor goals. If you were a marathoner in yourprime, become a miler for a year. If youconcentrated on short races when runningfast felt easy, then see what you can do inlong trail races. Find personallymeaningful new goals—and they don’t

have to be race goals—that take you in adifferent direction.

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M e n t a l l y R e b o o tY o u r C a l e n d a r A sW e l lEvery ambitious older runner will tell youthat recovery between hard or longworkouts takes longer than it did at theirpeak. Whereas at one point you may haveneeded only one easy day after a trackworkout before being ready for a goodtempo run, now you might need two orthree days until you’re ready to go hardagain.

This change can be easy to acceptmentally, but difficult to satisfyinglyimplement. We all tend to think in terms ofseven-day cycles, even though that has nomeaning to our bodies. As an older runneraiming to maintain consistent goodtraining that has momentum, try to moveaway from tying your training to calendarweeks. For logistical reasons, of course,it’s easy to maintain some of your oldpatterns, such as doing your long runs onSundays. That’s especially the case if youhave regular training partners. But at somepoint you’re going to make more progressby not cramming the elements of a goodtraining program into the artificialconstruct of a seven-day week.

Brian Metzler

Think in terms of larger blocks of time,like a month. Map your training bydeciding what key runs you want to do inthat month, and then plan to do them in alogical pattern that accounts for the extrarecovery you need as an older runner.That very well might result in a hardworkout on Thursday of one week and

Tuesday the following. Long-term, you’llbuild greater momentum this way, and thatmomentum will help fuel a positive-feedback cycle of motivation.

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D o n ’ t G e t I n j u r e dAvoiding injury is crucial for all runnersseek consistency, but it’s mandatory forolder runners. Slower recovery time withage means that an Achilles flare-up thatmight have been a 48-hour affair in yourtwenties now drags on for weeks. And ifyou have to miss some days of running, thereturn is much harder for a fifty-year-oldthan someone half her age. You simplycan’t afford to lose time to injury whenone of the main aims of your running is toward off the effects of time.

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B u i l d Y o u r R u n n i n gB o d yMaintaining or, better yet, increasingflexibility and muscle strength is crucialfor older runners. Those contributors togood running will decline with age unlesstended to. Staying strong and supple willnot only help you resist injury. As an olderrunner, you’ll simply feel more like yourformer self. That feeling alone, of runningbeing a flowing, pleasurable activity, willbe a massive motivator.

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S t a y S p e e d yIt’s normal as an aging runner to shiftaway from fast running to something morelike a senior shuffle. Avoid that. Regularsmall doses of fast running will decrease,not increase, your risk of injury. They’llhelp you maintain muscle mass and rangeof motion through the full running stride,and will keep your central nervous systemcapable of operating at a higher level.Frequency is more important than volumehere—6 to 10 20-second bursts at thepace you could hold for 3 minutes, twice aweek after an easy run, will do wonders.

: Alison Wade

Plus, isn’t it fun to feel like a kid,sprinting down the street?

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T h e K i d s A r e A l lR i g h tIf you can find younger training partners,make an effort to run with them regularly.Being around runners who are stillchasing PRs is a wonderful antidote togetting bogged down in a woe-isme-I’m-so-old-and-slow self-pity party. You canfeed off of their enthusiasm, and you canput your hard-earned wisdom to use inmentoring them. Several friends of minehave found their running reborn bycoaching and running with high schoolers.

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T r a v e l R e g u l a t i o n sConsistent running is one thing whenyou’re home and in your routine, anotherwhen you’re traveling for work orpleasure.

Always get a run in before getting on anairplane. Even if it means a token fewmiles too early in the morning, you’ll beglad you did something good for yourselfbefore surrendering your fate to thevagaries of air travel. If it works out thatyou can get in another run upon arrival,great, but never plan on it.

If you have to get up super early for aflight, then a little less sleep from wakinga bit earlier to run won’t matter. (Besides,you’re going to be on a plane all day!What does it matter if you’re a littlegroggy?) I’ve had runs I’ll remember forthe rest of my life—toward the sounds ofthe Mendenhall Glacier in the dark inJuneau, Alaska, around Nehru Park inNew Delhi, India, at 3:30 AM—becauseof this approach. No way would I tradethose runs for a little more sleep before along travel day.

; Slison Wade

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P a c k i n g : A l w a y s B eR e a d y t o R u nRunning gear goes in your carry-onluggage. The more exotic your location,the greater the chance your checkedbaggage won’t meet you at the airport, andthe lesser the chance you’ll be able toquickly get replacement items once you’rethere. I have a friend who put her runninggear in her checked luggage for atwoweek trip to Africa that occurredwhile she was deep in preparation for amarathon. Her luggage, including her

running shoes, showed up at her hotel withjust two days to go in her trip.

At the least, bring your running shoesand one outfit appropriate to yourdestination’s weather onboard with you.

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W h y W o u l d n ’ t Y o uR u n o n V a c a t i o n ?I’ve never understood people who don’trun on vacation. Running is something thatmakes my life better, that refreshes me,that broadens my horizons. Aren’t thesesome of the main reasons people go onvacation?

I tend to run more, not less, when onvacation. Longtime runners know there’sno better way to really get a feel for aplace than exploring it on the run. You’llsee how the locals really live, what the

rhythm and aura of the place is really like,the special spots that probably aren’t ontourist maps. You’ll almost certainly findbetter places to eat than what yourhoteliers will tell you.

: Brian Metzler

If the people you’re on vacation withhave the endearing habit of wanting tospend the day with you, simple: Get up alittle early and get your run in before theday’s sightseeing. In many busy touristareas, you’ll have the streets to yourselfearly in the morning.

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M o r n i n g B u s i n e s sIf you’re traveling for work rather thanpleasure, you’ll almost always increaseyour chances of success by running in themorning. Between meetings that run longand working lunches and obligatorycocktail hours, it can be tough to slip outfor a run once others have claim on yourtime.

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R u n n e r i n a S t r a n g eL a n dLook for bike paths and parks whileyou’re making your way to your hotel andagain online once you’re situated and haveyour bearings. At the worst, you canalmost always find a short loop or quietneighborhood to do repeated rounds of.Think of hotel treadmills as a last resort—get out and see the world!

Local running clubs are a great sourcefor finding the best places to run. Even ifyou can’t meet the group for a run, write

before you travel and ask the local expertswhere the hidden gems of a route are.

: Stacey Cramp

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F i n a l T h o u g h t o nR u n n i n g C o n s i s t e n t l yBehavioral economists talk about theimportance of choice architecture, or theenvironment in which we make choices.The classic example is the differencebetween an employermatched retirementfund where participation requireschoosing to enroll versus enrollment beingthe default option. In the latter case, moreemployees participate. The gist of thefield’s teaching is: Make it easy to do theright thing.

Choice architecture is huge for dailyand long-term success in running. Whetherit’s anticipating when you’ll be able to runtomorrow, or regularly placing yourself inthe company of other runners, or spendinga little extra for a hotel near a park, makegood choices about the overallenvironment in which your running occurs.Make it easy to do the right thing for yourrunning.

P A R T F I V ER u n n i n g M i s c e l l a n y :4 9 T i p s o n S h o e s a n dS a f e t y , A t t i t u d e a n d

A l t i t u d e , a n dE v e r y t h i n g E l s e T h a t

M a t t e r s

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I t D o e s n ’ t A l w a y sG e t W o r s eWhen you hit a rough spot on a run,remind yourself: It doesn’t always getworse. Our bodies are mysterious things,and you can go from feeling fine to poor togreat within just a few miles. Findingyourself struggling for the last few minutesdoesn’t mean that the rest of your run isdestined to continue to deteriorate.

If the rough spot continues on for longerthan a few minutes, back off the pace andsee if that helps. Often, though, the key is

to acknowledge the rough spot, do a quickscan to make sure it’s nothing serious (likean intestinal issue), and then wait it out. Ifit’s like most rough patches, it too willpass.

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R u n n i n g : T h eN u m b e r sAvoid tying your training to arbitrarynumbers. As Olympic marathoner DonKardong once noted in relation to weeklymileage, 88 is a much rounder numberthan 100. (Besides, can you honestly saythat all your courses are preciselycalibrated?) This notion also applies tonumbers outside of weekly volume. As Inoted in chapter 1, “one mile” and “10percent” are meaningless constructs toyour body, so why would “Increase your

mileage by no more than 10 percent perweek” have any relevance to how you cansafely progress? Similarly, 8:00 or 7:00or whatever number you’ve decided is thepace per mile at which anything slower isa waste of time might mean something toyour head, but not to your body.

: Stacey cramp

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R i s e a n d S h i n eB e f o r e M o r n i n gR u n sIf you run first thing in the morning,experiment with how much time worksbest for you between getting up and gettingout the door. We all have a perfect amountof time between rising and running thatmaximizes precious sleep time whileallowing the first part of the run to beenjoyable.

With age, most runners find they need

more time to feel ready to run. Unless Ihave to start super early, like at 4:30before a flight, I get up at least half anhour before I intend to start running. I’drather get a little less sleep than feel like azombie the first few miles. That’s a greattime to do little tasks, like pay bills andsee what work e-mails came over thetransom overnight, while still havingenough time for some pre-run stretching.

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W h e n Y o u G o t t a G o. . .If you run enough, occasional pit stops areinevitable, and nothing to worry about. Ifthey happen on most runs, however, youshould experiment with different foods atdifferent amounts of time before you run.If it seems that you often have to find abathroom on the run regardless of whatand when you eat, it might be time toconsult a doctor about irritable bowelsyndrome.

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T r a n s f e r a b l eR u n n i n g V i r t u e : I ’ l lM a k e D oLongtime runners have great experience inplying their trade in less-than-idealcircumstances. Whether it’s the weather ora lack of good venues, a head cold or achafing shirt, things are almost nevergoing to match our mind’s eye view of theperfect run. Yet we soldier on and makethe best of whatever situation we findourselves in.

The “I’ll make do” mind-set can betransferred from running to most of the restof your life with great effectiveness. It’sone of many good character traits thatrunning encourages and develops. It’s oneway that, while running may not make usbetter than other people, it usually makesus better people than we otherwise wouldbe.

: Alison Wade

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N o N e e d t o “ B r e a kI n ” N e w S h o e sWe used to hear it was necessary togradually introduce new shoes into yourroutine, as if shoes were like a new runnerwho needed to not do too much too soonfor fear of breaking down. That’s notnecessary. Structurally, new shoes shouldbe good right out of the box for howeverfar and fast you want to run in them. (Theybetter be, given their price!)

There’s a difference, though, betweennew shoes and a new model. If your new

shoes are fairly different from shoesyou’ve run in recently, then have your firstfew runs in them be shorter, easier efforts.Two reasons for this: First, to see ifthey’re different enough from what you’reused to cause small problems, likeirritation across the top of your foot orcalf soreness from having a lowermidsole. Second, so that if they areinitially irksome, you don’t ruin a longer,more important run.

But if your new shoes are the same typeyou’ve been running in (whether that’s theexact same model, an update to an earliermodel, or a different brand that’s similarin construction to what you’re used to),then have at it. I’ve had 20-milers be ashoe’s initiation rite.

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S h o e R o t a t i o nAs your finances allow, it’s a good idea tohave more than one pair of shoes to run in.Different models will distribute thepounding of running a little differently, sothe impact forces will be spread moreevenly throughout your body. In theory,rotating shoes should also help individualpairs last longer—midsole materials willhave more time to decompress betweenruns, and the uppers won’t disintegrate asreadily if they’re allowed to fully drybetween runs.

If you’re going to rotate shoes, stick

with the same basic type, such as alightweight trainer from each of threemanufacturers. If you’re tied to one brand,they should have models that are relatedbut different enough to result in a slightlydifferent running experience. If youabsolutely love one shoe from onemanufacturer and it’s undeniably the shoefor you, have two or more pairs at variousstages of wear. Even those slightdifferences will lead to differentdistribution of some impact forces.

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S h o e D r y i n g 1 0 1The best way to dry your shoes after arainy run? Remove the insoles and thenstuff the shoes with crumpled-upnewspaper. Wrap more newspaper aroundthe insoles. If it’s been an especiallydrenching run, you might have to restuffthe shoes once or twice before they’redry. Unfortunately, I can tell you frompersonal experience that getting shoeseven close to a significant heat sourceisn’t the way to go—the glues and rubberand whatnot rapidly disintegrate andyou’re left with an unsalvageable shoe.

: 101◦West

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O f S h o e R e v i e w s a n dS a l tAt the risk of committing professionalsuicide, allow me to suggest that you notrely solely on shoe reviews in runningmagazines to decide what to buy.

The biggest reason to take magazineshoe reviews with a grain of salt isn’tbecause the magazines are in bed with themanufacturers, who are among theirbiggest advertisers. If a shoe has designissues, the better running magazines willnote that. The reason to not take shoe

reviews as gospel stems from the logisticsof magazine production: There’s simplynot enough time between when new shoesbecome available and when you readabout them for magazine wear-testers toput significant miles on them. That shortwindow gets even shorter when yourealize the wear-testers probably haveseveral models to try at once. So whilethey may be able to make valuablecomments about the shoe’s constructionand whether it feels like it’s supposed to,they can’t speak to the key matter ofdurability. A shoe could be the greatestshoe in the world but not worth buying if itstarts falling apart after 150 miles.

Supplement what you read in shoereviews with real-world long-term data

from fellow runners on a good onlineforum.

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T r e a d L i g h t l yA r o u n d I n - S t o r eA n a l y s i s o f Y o u rR u n n i n g F o r mIt’s become common at specialty runningstores to video customers running on atreadmill as a means of helping themchoose the right shoe. Don’t place toomuch stock in these analyses.

For starters, most people run slightlydifferently on treadmills. Second, what

they’re mostly looking for in theseanalyses is your degree of pronation, orhow much your foot rolls in betweeninitial contact with the ground and toeingoff. Concentrating on that one aspect of therunning gait as the key to determiningoptimal shoe choice is an outdatedapproach. Finally, and I don’t mean to beharsh here, but come on: The person doingthe analysis could be a twenty-year-oldmaking $10 an hour. He might have thebest intentions in the world, but shouldhardly be taken as your shoe guru.

If you’re going to do the treadmill gaitanalysis, use it as one small bit ofinformation contributing toward your shoedecision. If the salesperson insists onshoehorning you into a model that’s

significantly different than what you’vehad success with on the basis of thetreadmill analysis, run away.

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T h e y ’ r e Y o u r S h o e s ,S o H a v e a t T h e mRunning shoes aren’t Apple products—you’re allowed to alter them to fit yourneeds. Experiment with different lacingtechniques to find the one that best resultsin a snug but comfortable fit. For somepeople, that’s going to mean extra loopingat the top eyelets to better hold the heel inplace. For others it might mean skippingsome of the middle eyelets to betteraccommodate a high instep or wideforefoot.

: Alison Wade

Sometimes you’ll be inspired topersonalize other parts of the shoe, likecutting off the top of the heel counter tolessen irritation on your Achilles tendon.Five years ago, when it seemed all shoeswere being made with rigid plasticbridges under the arch, I spent a lot oftime hacking away with an X-ACTO knife

to remove the plastic and get a moreflexible shoe. (Fortunately, for the sake ofboth my feet and my oft-cut hands, thattrend in shoe making has abated.)

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T r a n s f e r a b l eR u n n i n g V i r t u e : N o wI s t h e T i m eBusy modern runners have to fit in theirrunning around a million other claims ontheir time. Tomorrow morning at 7:00probably isn’t the ideal time for a longtempo run, but that’s when it needs tohappen, or it is going to happen at all. Andguess what? Once you’re doing it, andespecially once it’s over, you’ll realizethat time was as good as any.

This is running’s version of carpe diem.Running can help you approach the rest ofyour life with that same attitude—now isthe time to go do something good. Waitingisn’t going to help, because the next hourwill have its own challenges.

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L e s s o n s f r o m ( Y o u r )H i s t o r yLook through your old logs once in awhile. Even when you were running PRafter PR, things were never as effortlessas you now remember them. And whenyou were hurt or struggling, you gotthrough it, just like you will the next timeyou hit a roadblock.

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R u n n i n g a sC o m m u t i n gIf you can swing it logistically, try runningto or from work a couple times a week.Running to work means you get to theoffice with both run and commute out ofthe way while being able to sleep laterthan if you ran first, then commuted. Why,you might even find you’re in a goodmood for the start of the workday!Running home from work gives you awonderful way to shed the stress of theworkday and walk into your home able to

devote your full attention to whateverawaits you there.

The biggest challenge (assuming thedistance from home to work is doable) isplanning, but that’s not much of a barrier.When I had jobs I ran to, I brought in anextra pair of clothes the day before.Depending on how you get to work,running home can mean figuring out a wayto get to work the next morning if, say,your car spends the night at the office.(May I suggest running there?) Runninghome from rather than to work saves youthe issue of what to do if there’s not ashower at your office.

Running as a means of commuting savestime, money, and frustration. I enjoyedmany a morning run on the trails of

Washington’s Rock Creek Park en route towork as I looked down at a line of cars Iwas moving faster than.

: Stacey cramp

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R u n n i n g E r r a n d sAnother great way to put your running tofunctional use is to combine it witherrands. The obvious one here is droppingyour car off at a garage and running home,and then running to pick it up when it’sready the next day. (Or if your mechanic islike mine, the next week.) But I’ve knownbusy runners who have run to the dentist’soffice or other appointments where theirappearance wasn’t a primary concern.

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K n o w Y o u r S e r u mF e r r i t i n L e v e lIf you’ve been feeling unaccountably worndown for at least a few weeks, you couldbe suffering from iron deficiency. Whenyour iron is low, you’ll lose enthusiasmfor running and most of your runs will feellike chores. Faster running will beespecially difficult; your times for hardworkouts and races will get much worse.

It’s common when feeling like that tohave your blood checked. Trouble is, themeasures usually looked at, such as

hemoglobin level, can be within theacceptable range, and then you’ll startthinking you’re a head case or havesomething much worse wrong with you.Ask to have your serum ferritin levelchecked; it’s usually not included on astandard blood test. Serum ferritin is ameasure of your body’s iron stores, sort oflike the nest egg you’re not supposed totouch unless things get dire. It can showproblems with iron storage and absorptioneven if more standard measures of anemiaare fine.

If your serum ferritin level is below 30,it’s probably affecting your performance.Increase the amount of iron-rich foods inyour diet and you should feel better withina month. It’s a good idea to have your

serum ferritin level measured when you’refeeling great in your running. That willgive you a baseline to compare to forfuture readings.

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O t h e r M e d i c a lM a t t e r sRunning will cause some benign changesin standard medical tests. Amazingly,some doctors are still unaware of thesechanges.

The most obvious change is that yourresting heart rate gets lower. By now mostmedical types are aware of this adaptationto endurance exercise, but it’s still worthmentioning preemptively. (Although it isfun to sit there with a pulse of 38 andwatch the nurse look at her watch as if it’s

not working.) Long-term running will alsocause an increase in your blood volume.Red blood cell production often doesn’tkeep up with the larger overall bloodvolume, resulting in hemoglobin and redblood cell counts that could be interpretedas signs of anemia in sedentary people.

Long-term running will also cause twochanges to the structure of your heart: theleft ventricle wall will get thicker and theentire left ventricle will get larger. Insedentary people, a thickened leftventricle wall can be a precursor to heartattacks and strokes; a larger left ventriclecan signal a leaky heart valve. Be sureyour doctor knows you run before anytests are done on your heart.

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D o n ’ t R u n t o Y o u rM e d i c a l A p p o i n t m e n tIn the short-term, running, especially hardrunning, can cause temporary changes inmedical measurements that could be takenas signs of disease. For example, after ahard run, your blood levels of the muscleenzyme creatine phosphokinase will beelevated for a few hours. Increased levelsof this enzyme can accompany a heartattack. Similarly, after hard running, yourlevels of the enzyme aspartateaminotransferase will be elevated; a

doctor seeing this is likely to concludesomething is wrong with your liver. Avoidthese situations by not running hard theday before or of a medical appointment.

: Stacey Cramp

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B l a c k - a n d - W h i t eA p p e a l a s Y o u ’ r eG r a y i n gOne thing to cherish about running,especially as you age, is how you canmeasure it in clear-cut terms if you want.Did I run faster at last weekend’s 5K thanon the same course last year? Am I nowaveraging more miles per week than I wastwo years ago?

Those objective measures of successare increasingly hard to come by in most

other areas of modern life. Are you abetter parent than you were five yearsago? Are you a better person to be in arelationship with than you used to be? Abetter friend? How do you know? Even atwork, most of us lack quantifiable, black-and-white barometers of progress. Wemove data around, we have meetingsabout meetings, we write memos, weserve others, we collaborate. Rewardingwork, for sure, but difficult to point at andsay, “Yes, here I can see exactly howmuch I did, and how good it was; others’evaluation of my work doesn’t reallymatter.” Running, especially throughracing, can offer needed time in the no-spin zone.

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W a n t e d : G o o dR u n n i n g P a r t n e r sFinding people to run with can be apatchwork project, but always worth theeffort. Most local running clubs havegroup runs where you can find people ofroughly your current level of fitness. Fromthere you can get to know which ones youmesh with and whose life details couldfacilitate frequent runs together. (Do theylive reasonably near you? Work roughlythe same schedule? And so on.)

A great way to meet new running

partners is talking with people who finishnear you at races. After you give eachother the obligatory “nice job” handshake,ask if they want to join you on your cool-down. Could be that the person lives fivemiles from you and is dying to find othersto run with.

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T r a n s f e r a b l eR u n n i n g V i r t u e : C h i pA w a yI hope by now I’ve convinced you thatlong-term success in running comes viapersistence, not paroxysms of effort. Thatbig-picture investor’s mind-set workswell in most of life as well. As a runnerand a person, be the person who chipsaway at goals methodically, steadily,intelligently.

:101◦West

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E m b r a c e N o n -R u n n i n g E x e r t i o nDon’t shy away from unplanned,unstructured activity in the rest of your lifejust because you’re a runner. Resting upwhen not running may have made sensewhen we all worked in steel mills or onfarms, but today the opposite issue is moreoften the problem—we’re sort of in aconstant half-slumber from barely moving.I’ve detailed throughout the book how oursedentary lifestyles compromise ourrunning ability. Here’s one more nudge

along those lines: Moderate activity soonbefore running, like gardening, playingwith your children, walking the dog, orraking the yard, will serve as a warm-up.It will help to bridge the gap betweensitting for hours and running with goodform.

If these sorts of moderate activitiesinterfere with a run you do soon after, thenyou’re that much more in need of a goodwhole-body stretching and strengtheningprogram.

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E a t a n d R u nExperiment to find the best balance foryou between leaving enough time aftereating so that your stomach doesn’t botheryou when you’re running and eating closeenough to your run so that you don’t feelweak and light-headed. I have the world’swimpiest intestinal system and usually runinto trouble if I eat within five hours of arun. Contrast that with a guy I used to run alot with who would be finishing off aplate of bacon as I arrived at his house fora 2-hour run. You’ll probably besomewhere between those extremes.

If you start runs feeling a little light-headed and still feel that way 15 minutesinto it, then you’ll probably benefit fromhaving some calories closer to your run. Acouple hundred calories of an easilydigested food, like bananas or a plainbagel, will help boost your blood-sugarlevel so that you feel stronger in the firstpart of your run.

: Brian Metzler

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H o w ’ s Y o u r B a l a n c e ?Having good balance will make yourrunning more enjoyable. Consider thatevery running step essentially involvesbalancing on one foot while moving.When your balance is poor, you introducea little instability with each step; that canmake you slower or fatigued earlier thannecessary or even lead to compensationelsewhere that can cause injury. Poorbalance becomes a more acute problemwhen you’re running on snow or even ontrails, where an inability to right yourselfcan lead to an injurious fall. Also, poor

balance in runners often stems from weakglute muscles, so is a sign that you’re notrunning with as powerful a stride as youcould be.

You should be able to stand on one footand draw the other foot close to yourwaist and tie your running shoes. If youcan’t, work to improve your balance. Thatcan be done as simply as by standing onone leg when you brush your teeth in themorning, then on the other leg when youbrush your teeth at night. A running-specific strengthening routine like I wroteabout in part 3 will also help, as willwork on devices like a wobble board.

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T r a i l R u n n i n gT e c h n i q u eWhen you run trails, there’s a balance tostrike between gawking at your beautifulsurroundings and staring at the ground toavoid tripping. Regular trail runningimproves your proprioception, or yoursense of your body’s placement in space.With more trail running, you get a betterinstinctual feel for obstacles on the groundand how to run on, over, or around them.Improved proprioception, like improvedbalance, should help all of your running,

especially when you’re running in the darkand lack as many visual cues about yoursurroundings.

: Joel Wolpert

On trails, run with a light, quick stridethat’s a bit shorter than you would use on

flat, unencumbered terrain.

A good running shoe is a good runningshoe, period, and should work fine onmost trails. Some people like to wearsturdier shoes on trails, but I think theopposite approach makes more sense—you want a light, low-to-the-ground shoethat will increase your agility. It’s thesame rationale as choosing minimalistorienteering shoes over high, heavy hikingboots for walks in the woods.

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T r a i l R u n n i n g T i m e sLeave all your type-A runner mind-set atthe trailhead. Disregard concerns thatyou’re going too slow to get in a goodworkout or that you don’t know how faryou’re going. If ever there’s a time tosimply lose yourself in the pleasure ofrunning through nature, it’s when you’reon a nice trail.

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W h e n t h e L o v e o fY o u r L i f e D o e s n ’ tL o v e Y o u r R u n n i n gThis can be a tough one. For whateverreason (guilt? jealousy? resentment?),some runners’ partners don’t like oursport. If that’s your situation, do your bestto articulate calmly why running isimportant to you. Describe how itimproves your physical and mental well-being, and how your health is important toyour future together. If time away fromhome is an issue, offer to do at least some

of your runs when they won’t interfere asmuch with home life. Also offer toregularly spend time together onsomething that’s important to your partner.

Here’s a story that I’m hopeful somenon-running partners can relate to: Onesummer in college I found myself at anolder runner’s house late afternoon for arun together. While he changed out of hiswork clothes, I talked with his wife. Myfriend was coming back from an injuryand had recently come home from workevery day and sat around the house insteadof going running. His wife told me how,before he was injured, she resented hisrunning and the time it took away fromtheir relationship. When he got injured,however, she couldn’t wait for him to get

out of the house and leave her alone! Oncehe was injured, she realized that hisrunning time had also become her alonetime for the day, and she missed it as muchas he did his running.

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S t r e a k i n g R u n n e r s i nP e r s p e c t i v eIf consistency in running is the key tolong-term success, does that mean thathaving a running streak of never missing aday is the logical conclusion? For almosteveryone, no. There are some injuries andnon-running conditions and situationswhere squeezing in a token run showsyou’ve lost sight of the big picture. I havea good friend who has run at least 2 milesevery day since August 1982, and even hewould tell you there have been times an

injury would have healed much faster if hehad broken his streak.

: Joel wolpert

That said, there’s much to be learnedfrom streakers. They always find a way toget it done, showing that the “I don’t havetime” excuse is usually bunk. And for most

of them, their seeming fanaticism has abuilt-in moderation: You don’t run everyday for twenty years unless you’re reallygood at reading your body and taking along-term view. My friend the streaker hasrun a 2:15 marathon, so it’s hard to saythat running every day kept from reachinghis potential.

I’ve had a few sizable streaks, thelongest one being a bit more than sixyears. My favorite one wasn’t the longest.It was a recent one of more than two yearsthat I ended when a calf problem wasn’timproving. I liked that streak because itjust sort of happened organically—inthose two years there wasn’t a day when Iwas injured or sick enough not to feel likerunning.

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B e a R u n n i n gA m b a s s a d o rBe conscious of the fact that others willpartly base their opinions of runners onyou. We’re not the only ones on the roadsand trails. Always try diplomacy first withirritants like people walking in the insideland of the track or unleashed dogs.

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C o u n s e l o n C o a c h e sIf you decide you want to work with acoach, do your homework on the person.Ask to communicate with other runnersshe’s coached. Find out how long peopleare usually coached by him and why theyno longer are. Most important, find outhow individualized an approach she takes.Will the training you’re given be tailoredto your running background, your goals,your rest-of-life situation? How often willyou be allowed to call or write when youhave questions or hit a rough few days?

If you get the sense that you’re being

given the same program everyonereceives, you could do just as well with agood running book or an online library ofworkouts.

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I f Y o u F i n d Y o u r s e l fa t A l t i t u d eRun! You’re in for an interestingexperience. If you’re suddenly ploppeddown (well, up) at 5,000 feet or more ofelevation, start your runs exceedinglygently. If you start a run too fast at sealevel, you can recover once you realizeyour mistake and salvage an enjoyablerun. At altitude, you’ll probably remainhurting the rest of the run. And given thatthe hurting takes the form of feeling likeyou’re being strangled and that your legs

are about to collapse Gumby-like underyou, it’s best to avoid it.

Once you’re warmed up, you’llprobably feel better your first day or twoat altitude than on, say, the fifth day. Onthe early days, you’re not yet worn downfrom the new stress of being at altitude.Later in the week, you won’t yet haveacclimated (that will take at least a week)but will be dealing with cumulativefatigue.

:Alison Wade

Expect to feel particularly challengedon uphills. If you don’t let your breathingget completely out of control, you shouldbe able to recover relatively quickly onceyou get to flat ground or a blesseddownhill stretch.

Drink more water than usual, or yourcumulative fatigue after a few days willbe compounded. Headaches are a sign thatyou’re not adequately rehydrating.

If you’re going to be at altitude for justa few days, don’t bother with trying to doyour normal hard workouts. Just runningslowly will be challenging enough. It’s agood idea, however, to do striders everyfew days if you’re not used to running ataltitude. A set of 20-second short bursts offast running will put a little pop in yourlegs, which will likely otherwise feelsluggish from slogging away in thin air.Take complete recovery between stridersat altitude so that you can run each onewith light, efficient form and yourbreathing doesn’t become a limiting

factor.

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L e t t h e C h i l d r e n P l a yYoung runners should run as much as theywant to. There’s no evidence to supportthe contention that running as a growingteen will stunt growth. If a teen enjoys herrunning, is doing it because she wants to,and is continuing to improve whileremaining injury-free, she’s on the righttrack. I ran a marathon while in highschool and didn’t burn out on the sport, asis so often feared for young runners. Thirtyyears after that marathon, I’m more in lovewith running than ever.

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R u n A w a y f r o m R u t sWhen you feel like you’re in a rut, make adeliberate effort to shake things up. Itdoesn’t take much to make a run feelfundamentally different. Something assimple as doing one of your normal loopsin the opposite direction will have youseeing familiar sights anew. Even better,head out the door without the slightestplan of where to run, and see where yourinstincts lead you. Run down a streetyou’ve always avoided, just so you cansay to yourself, “Hey, today I ransomewhere I’ve never run before.”

: Joel Wolpert

Sometimes you need to take moredrastic (but still simple) steps to jump-start things. Run at an unusual time of day.Run with someone a lot slower thanyourself to experience what running is likefor them. Run with someone a lot faster tosee how long you can hang on.

One of the best ways to get out of a

running funk is to drive to run somewheredifferent. Even driving a couple milesfrom home, so that you’re running onfamiliar ground but from a novel startingplace, makes a run feel different. You canalso run somewhere, like to a coffee shopwhere someone will meet you with freshclothes and an espresso. Or if you’re outrunning errands with someone, give themyour civilian clothing and run home.

Here’s my last-resort technique forwhen I need a run to feel different: Wearcrazy clothes. I’ve gone topless inridiculously baggy basketball shorts andfind it impossible not to occasionally lookdown at what I’m running in and laugh.You usually need just one out-of-the-ordinary run to mentally reboot and

realize how much you like running.

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T h e W o r l d C a n W a i tExcept in extenuating circumstances likebeing on call for work or an ongoingfamily crisis, leave your phone at homewhen you run. Let your running time be asanctioned break from always beingplugged in. Use the time to clear your headto be that much more effective when youdo return to the world of constant contact.

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Y o n d C a s s i u s H a s aL e a n a n d H u n g r yL o o kIf you were healthy and at a good weightwhen you were twenty five, there’s almostnever a good reason to be significantlyheavier than that.

People like to tell themselves they’veadded muscle over the years, about whichtwo things: First, come on, that’s usuallynot the case. Second, to the extent thatpeople do add muscle as they age, it’s

often to support their bones, ligaments,and tendons to help deal with the morelikely source of increased weight, fat. Soeven in that case, the extra muscle isn’tgoing to help you run faster.

As runners, we already live in wayscontrary to accepted beliefs on what agingis supposed to be like. Why not take thatattitude toward weight as well?

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S e d e n t a r y N o w ≠R u n n i n g F u t u r eHow you feel while getting dressed to runis no guarantee of how you’ll feel 15minutes into it. Don’t preemptively defeatyourself mentally by projecting from asedentary state how you’ll feel once youget some blood pumping and a pleasantbreeze on your face.

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M i d d a y D a s h e sIf you run during your lunch hour, you’llprobably (and understandably) want tomaximize your running time. It’s natural inthat scenario to skimp a bit on good post-run habits. Do your best once back atwork to move around frequently. At yourdesk, do little stretches throughout theafternoon, such as foot circles or sittingwith one foot on the opposite knee andleaning forward for a glute stretch. Afterdinner, try to get in a more solid stretchingsession of 10 to 15 minutes so that you’rein a better place for the next day’s

noontime run.

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T r a n s f e r a b l eR u n n i n g V i r t u e :E n d u r eIf there’s one thing we runners do, it’sendure. We endure through long runs andhard workouts, weeks of bad weather, anddays of low energy. We do what it takes tosee things through to the end. We canachieve amazing things in the rest of ourlives by practicing that virtue in our non-running endeavors.

: Alison Wade

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S t a y F l e x i b l e ( N o tJ u s t M u s c u l a r l y )Always be open to new runningexperiences. Who knows what aspects ofthe sport will appeal to you at differenttimes in your running career? After all,have you always liked the same kind ofmusic, watched the same kind of movies,eaten the same foods, read the same kindof books? Keeping an open mind about themany possible ways to be a runner willincrease the chances of finding ones thatspeak to you for where you are now.

Maybe you’ll learn that you love runningwith a group, or that you were born to runon trails, or that you’re really a sprinter.

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S a f e C r o s s i n g sWhen you’re unsure if a driver at a stopsign sees you and are wondering if it’ssafe to go about your business, look at thewheels of the tires. You’ll notice motionthere before anywhere else.

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L e t t h e I d i o t D r i v e r sY e l lI say this as someone who has banged on acar and then been chased by theoccupants: It’s not worth it. Even if, as isusually the case, the driver is the one atfault in a driver-runner contretemps, let itgo. You’re not going to change thedriver’s mind about the situation, you’reallowing the driver’s irrationality to havetoo much of an effect on your run and youreally don’t want to find out that you’vepushed some nutcase over the edge while

he’s operating a two-ton vehicle. If youmust have some satisfaction from theencounter, kill him with kindness—whenhe honks and shakes his fist, smile andwave.

Similarly, it’s not worth it to respond tothe too many people (usually male teens)who are entertained by shouting supposedinsults at passing runners. Even more sothan with a potentially distracted driver,you’re dealing here with people actingirrationally. (If they were being rational,why would their supreme intended insultbe to yell, “Faggot!” As if sexualorientation has any connection to the factthat you’re running down the street.)Returning their taunt is just giving them theattention they want.

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I t ’ s N i c e t o H a v eL e v e l H i p sWhen it’s safe to do so, switch sides ofthe road throughout runs so that the sameleg isn’t always a little lower. Runninglike that too much can tilt your pelvis andset off a cascade of undesirablecompensations. Running both and againsttraffic is safest on roads with wideshoulders on runs in daylight.

On a particularly sloped road, I’ll runtoward the middle if I know it’s a roadthat doesn’t get much traffic. On those

quiet roads, your acquired runner’shearing will alert you in time that youneed to get over to one side.

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N o b o d y L i k e s a O n e -S t e p p e rWhen you’re running with others, don’t bethe annoying person who’s always ever soslightly ahead of everyone else, a.k.a. aone-stepper. Doing so has an insidiousway of putting people on edge, and it oftencontributes to the pace escalatingincrementally on what should be a nice,relaxed social run.

As a reformed one-stepper, I know thatyou can be one without knowing it untilyou’re told by irritated running partners.

Now I’m always conscious that myshoulders aren’t two, then three, then fourinches ahead of my running partner’s.

It’s especially uncourteous to one-stepwhen you’re running with someone a lotslower than you. Make that person’s run amore positive experience by letting himget out in front and set the pace. If you findyour momentum carrying you more towardyour normal pace, ease back on thethrottle and save it for your next solo run.

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N o b o d y L i k e s aM a r t y rThe quickest way to get others to not takeinterest in your running is to always bebitching about it. Yes, sometimes it’stiring, or the weather’s bad, or you’reslower than you were a few years ago, orit seems to take up too much of your time,or you just don’t feel like doing it. Sorry,but almost nobody cares. The few who dowill, in moments of kindness, indulge yourcomplaints if those complaints areoccasional; that’s what friends are for. But

if your main presentation of your runningto others is a litany of one insult from theuniverse after another, they’re going tostop listening, and with good reason. (Andif they’re not runners, why would theyever want to be, given the way youdescribe it?)

: Stacey Cramp

Running is a gift we give ourselvesbecause we realize it makes our lives

better. Try to be a good presenter of thatgift.

If your image to yourself of running isindeed primarily negative, then you needto explore other elements of the sport andfind more of them that appeal to you.

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F o u r K e y W o r d s f o rR u n n i n gAs far as I can tell, A. Lou Vickery, authorof books on baseball and more, isn’t arunner. But he sure sounds like he knowswhat it takes to make it in our sport.Here’s a choice quote from him: “Fourshort words sum up what has lifted mostsuccessful individuals above the crowd: alittle bit more. They did all that wasexpected of them and a little bit more.”

At some point, almost all runners whohave reached their potential have been the

ones who did what seems like plenty, anda little bit more—a couple extra miles,two more hill repeats, an extra stretchingsession instead of spending that timeplaying video games.

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R u n n i n g T h r o u g hD a t a S m o gThirty years ago in running, informationscarcity was more the issue thaninformation overload. The latter is now apotential stumbling block—everyone withaccess to blogging software canpronounce himself an expert. As a result,curious runners can be excused if theyoften feel like they’re doing laps aroundthe Tower of Babel.

When trying to wade your way throughthe glut of running info available online,

bear in mind that running is essentially aconservative sport. By that I mean thatthousands of runners have tested everytheory using the ultimate lab of trial anderror out on the roads. If something were“revolutionary” or “the secret,” then youcan bet that ambitious runners will haveinvestigated it and decided whether it’sworth paying attention to from this simplestandpoint: Two months later, is myrunning better because of this? So if sometraining “secret” that’s in contrast to whatmost good runners do is being presentedby someone with no real credentials, payno attention to that man behind the curtain.

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A t t h e R i s k o fM a k i n g Y o u D i s c o u n tT h i s B o o kDon’t believe everything you read. It isindeed possible to run—long and fast, formonths on end—on a stress fracture. (Notthat you should, of course.) Rest doesn’tcure all injuries. Great races are possiblewhen you’re deep into heavy training.Less is almost never more. And here’s thereal upender: Marathon world record-holder Haile Gebrselassie jogs in place atstoplights.

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A n I m p o r t a n t N o t eA b o u t Y o u r M o r n i n gC o f f e eDon’t leave the house until the coffee hasleft you.

: Alison Wade

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T h e M o s t I m p o r t a n tT i pRelax, it’s just running. Of course it canbe the most intoxicating, captivating,meaningful part of your life. But it’s stilljust running. Nobody’s making you do it,and you’re not going to save the worlddoing it. So find what you enjoy aboutrunning, and then follow your bliss.