Pass another cough drop, kleenex please

SNAPSHOT

Limit your running when you are sick with the cold.

DIGGING DEEPER

On Thursday my run was way slower than usual, yet I felt I was putting in the same effort.  Then I attempted my normal lifting weights routine and couldn't even lift my usual dumbbell once.  Not even once!  I knew something was really off! 

Friday morning just after leaving our home I felt that dry mouth sensation moments after drinking a sip of water, the first sign of an oncoming cold sickness. I was out of the house for the day and wouldn't be near my Vitamin C tablets until evening.  The day wore on and the throat got worse.  By bedtime, I was eating ice cream, smoothies, and Danielle Walker's applesauce. 

Thankfully Saturday was a low key day with the skies bringing in wicked thunderstorms and only 2 hockey lessons/practices for one of my sons.  With my husband home, I was off the hook from transportation duties.  I read the entire Chasing Slow book by Erin Loechner (wow, awesome book) and slurped up the bone broth.  I wasn't much better and the night was painful and long.

Sunny Sunday rolled around and I figured I was done with the cold and could soldier on with my backlog of errands. I'm in control, right? However, by midday, all I wanted was be in bed.  As you know, moms don't take more than one sick day, so the food was purchased, freezer picked out at Best Buy, and library books returned.  The squash, chicken, and dinner all got cooked.  I thought my saving grace would be a good night of sleep before the start of a new week.

"Mom, my stomach hurts so much!" pleaded my 15-year-old son. I couldn't deny him comfort through the trips to the bathroom and tucks back into bed.  Not so hard if it weren't for the fact that I was pleading also for painless sinus canals and continuous sleep. 

So it is Monday today and I am still so sick and still hoping for a good nights sleep. I did do a short run today only because it had been so long since my last and a friend would be waiting for me.

I don't plan to run tomorrow. I will need all my energy reserves for kicking this cold.

NOTE: When you move to another region of the US you get hit harder with sicknesses as you have not built up an immunity to that region's germs.  This is going to be an interesting year!

My view of the USA regions include Colorado in the Midwest section.

SOLUTION

My personal guidelines for when to skip my daily run due to sickness.

Fever or Stomach Pain = NO RUNNING

Congestion or Sore throats = RUN EVERY OTHER DAY at most//Fresh air is helpful but limit energy expenditures

Headaches = Safe Walks

HAPPY WINTER COLD SEASON, HAPPY RUNNING

Not Just a Daily Run

SNAPSHOT

A daily run is so much more than just a few miles on a road, it is the peaceful moments that cultivate who I am.

DIGGING DEEPER

Many miles into my 6 am weekday run I spy an older woman in her dark long pants and white shirt. Sheltered by a sunhat she is bent over engrossed within her morning work of weeding. Her box of tools consisting of a spade, hoe, and trowel was within feet of her position. She never looked up, just kept bent over, nurturing her garden. The hot August sun did not give her a break even in the early morning hours. We were the two lonely people out working in the morning air as the early sun rose.

I was caught off guard because she was in a huge field that at a one person weeding rate would be endless. Why was she working so hard at something so repetitive and vast that it seemed meaningless?

Suddenly, I was struck by the reality that I too was a lonely gardener weeding my vast field.  Having not seen another runner in the town at that early morning hour for the past week. I was that one runner that encircled the small Minnesota town without skipping a wake-up call. Each step was another weed pulled, each morning's run was another row in the field.  With each November becoming my fall season of harvest.  The planning of the spring,  hot summer runs, and the never giving up attitude of a sport that goes for all 12 months, is my gardening.

Many would have driven their cars quickly by on their way to work without even a glance over the field.  No one would notice a lonely gardener in a field that machines should tend to. Her work only had meaning for herself.  As my work only has meaning for myself, valuing my own harvest without performances worthy of notice.

I was adding up 12,000 weeds pulled or steps taken each morning.  Why was I so diligent at this meaningless or meaningful work? After each breath in, I was breathing out stress, frustration, sadness, and worry. Without those releases, I would be bound and chained by my life's disappointments and inconsistencies.  The release of expectations and the birth of new creative solutions made my day approachable.  By halfway through my hour tending my garden, my body, I felt alive again. I could see beauty and knew my diligence would reap rewards. 

My 6am gardener in a sunhat with her garden tools near at hand and I are one and the same.  When I rise in the dark and kept moving toward the door and trail beckoning my name, my gardener and I rise together, step together, knowing that our diligence will reap the fall harvest.

SOLUTION

Not alone in my vast garden.

Press Play

SNAPSHOT

PODCASTS = Top Platform for gathering knowledge on running and life!

DIGGING DEEPER

Since 2013 PODCASTS have enlightened, informed, entertained, and challenged me as a runner. Some of my top reads have come from podcast author interviews. The relaxed nature allows for the conversations in the podcast to be realistic and eye-opening. The FREE aspect gives me the opportunity to sample different tenants of our sport. I have learned so much about ultrarunning, strengthening, training connections of different sports, psychology, injury, running form, the health of the Track and Field sport, coaching, etc...

Here are the sports mainstays that fill my queue and ears.

The Strength Running Podcast

Endurance coaching topics with many author interviews

The GAINcast

Old school coaching meets innovative theory

Magness & Marcus on Coaching

The insides of elite coaching and the sport of Track and Field/ Cross Country

Trail Runner Nation

Ultrarunning conversations galore, you will think you are on a long run with friends

The Rich Roll Podcast

In-depth interviews on life and endurance running

I navigate through the recent episode lists finding those that appeal to me. Often listening to them in the background of my run, drive, or housework.

SOLUTION

Download your device's Podcast app and press play.

Question for YOU

What podcasts do you recommend?

Book Review- Your Best Stride

SNAPSHOT

4/5 stars for the book Your Best Stride: How to Optimize Your Natural Running Form to Run Easier, Farther, and Faster- With Fewer Injuries by Jonathan Beverly (Former Running Times Editor)

DIGGING DEEPER

This gem was found while listening to the Strength Running Podcast by Jason Fitzgerald.

First, as a library loan, I realized this synopsis of all things running form related would need to be highlighted, referenced, and snapshotted for years to come.  Quickly Amazon delivered it to my door so that I could delve into it further with highlighter and living room floor at hand, highlighter for all the details and floor for all the practicing.  

This book has realistic exercises and tips on all parts related to form for runners to turn words into actions.

 
Backing up now, YBS refers to many other authors and experts that I have gleaned good insight from in the past.  What is great about this book, however, is the weaving of knowledge and practical application from many experts. The author doesn't have the experts rival each other's opinion but lets them complement each other.   Thus making the flow of the topics clear and concise. Love it!

 
This is why I recommend the book to you.  It is like 6 books in one!  I devoured it on Sunday evening.  Often trying out the different stretching or strengthening examples in between soaking up the information.

So what did I gain from this 200 page cumulated expert form guide?

ONE --- I knew it all along. I told my training partners during my first injury in my foot as an adult runner that it was coming from the hips.  Something is not right in my hips.  I knew it before the research was screaming it.  Yes, your running injuries are most likely from tightness or weakness in your hips.  

TWO --- YBS did not suggest a long protocol that would take 1 hour of daily devotion.  It suggested to pick from several options and BE CONSISTENT.  Surprise, I agree too.  Primarily because my experience says consistency and program flexibility works!

THREE --- Your arms matter.  Your posture, arm carriage, and shoulder mobility all impact your stride and running form.  After saving my legs but sacrificing my shoulder in a fall a few years ago, my stride was messed up until my shoulder was healed and mobile again. 

Many more points were made in the book and I am sure you will find yourself quoting and using the advice. I know I will be sharing them with my athletes! 

So why only 4 out of 5 stars? Videos, I want videos of the stretches and strengthening exercises. I like to see the movement.  Hence why I was on my living room floor testing out each move. Curiosity caught my 13-year-old cross country runner, as he joined in with me.

Checking out the iPod game posture to see how the curling forward of the upper body can shorten our chest muscles and limit our shoulder's range of motion.

SOLUTION

There are several reasons I had an awesome workout today (4x800 intervals), but one of them has to be the gained knowledge from reading YBS last night.  I stretched my hip flexors, ran tall, drove my arms back, and powered with my gluts.  Thanks J. Beverly!

P.S. I gain nothing financially from this book review. I am just a runner that found a book and gave it 4 stars!

Hugging your FEET

 

SNAPSHOT

Hug, stretch, and strengthen your feet within your daily life.

DIGGING DEEPER

I know for sure you don't need one more task to add to your running routine.  However, no worries for this secret will shadow your normal business.

Are you ever at a playground, soccer field, swimming pool, football field, beach, stream, or even your backyard?  

The luscious green grass is calling for your feet.  Grains of sand beckon your toes.  You will be surprised of often you can succumb to your feet's desires for hugs, stretches, and strengthening.  

In July I said yes to my feet and they have loved me back. All around me were opportunities to take my shoes off.

I come upon sand everywhere.  My neighborhood playground has a sand pit.  The water park as a volleyball court. The many beaches we visit through the summer, all sand filled. State parks with more volleyball courts. The tickly wrapping of the sand around my arch is so comforting.  The ground moves with me and guides my foot muscles.

Yesterday, I must have looked so happy since the woman with her dog commented that I must be dreaming of the summer days at the beach.

While I awaited my children's playground exploration, I walked through foot drills. They are a common exercise prescribed by physical therapists and described in running magazines. See this article by Russ Ebbets. The Army West Point Cross Country Coach, Mike Smith, in my USATF Level Two seminar highlighted that his talented runners will do their foot drills in the sand.  Hence why I find my toes in the sand.

Then I found the walk through the soccer field grass to the park was amazingly soft and giving. My feet stretched with each push off the ground. I could feel each of my toes doing their part in my balance and movement. It was beauty.  I dreaded putting my shoes back on afterward.

The fellow hikers followed our example in the Rocky Mountains National Park last August when my family and I threw our shoes to the side and rambled through the cold waterfall river of the Alluvial Fan. The challenge of wrapping the foot around the rocks in order not to douse our clothing proved delightful. Oh, how the cool water soothed our hot muscles.  It was love at first sight!  As my daughter declared her new love for cold river water. 

Often our fear of hard objects keeps our protective shoes on.  However, if you look where you are walking you can avoid the danger 99% of the time. I must add paying attention to the blissful green below you is very calming.

SOLUTION

This love is simple, take your shoes and socks off and walk through all the grass, water, and sand you can find.  It is every where!