Run Expression

Yoga for Runners

By brock 4 years agoFebruary 6, 2019 in Newsletter

Be careful, be careless

Running has taught me many important things (and I don’t think I’m even close to learning everything). I keep going through cycles where I feel like I’m discovering something very complicated only to realize that the truth is quite simple.

I’ve learned that complex things don’t have to be complicated. Yet simple truths are often elusive, sometimes taking many years, or many decades, to fully comprehend.

You’ve experienced this, right?

This article is about a simple truth that has taken me a long time to understand (and to be honest, I’m still working it out).

It’s an article about optimizing performance by allowing polarized concepts to blend harmoniously.

Huh?

I know, hang in there. It leads us to yoga, a practice that I’m looking at in a whole new way as a result of this understanding.

I think Carl Sandburg explained this truth better than I ever could.

Little girl, be careful what you say

when you make talk with words, words—

for words are made of syllables

and syllables, child, are made of air—

and air is so thin—air is the breath of God—

air is finer than fire or mist,

finer than water or moonlight,

finer than spider-webs in the moon,

finer than water-flowers in the morning:

and words are strong, too,

stronger than rocks or steel

stronger than potatoes, corn, fish, cattle,

and soft, too, soft as little pigeon eggs,

soft as the music of hummingbird wings.

So, little girl, when you speak greetings,

when you tell jokes, make wishes or prayers,

be careful, be careless, be careful,

be what you wish to be.

—Carl Sandburg, Wind Song

The Sthira (firmness) and Sukha (ease) of Yoga

“There is harmony in the tension of opposites, as in the case of the bow and lyre.” —Heraclitus

Like Carl Sandburg’s poem, you have to be both careful and careless to be what you wish to be. It’s this tension of opposites that creates harmony — and ultimately performance.

For runners, we must balance stiffness of form (in the skeleton, for example) with fluidity of motion (in the muscles, for example). We are at our best when running with both effort and ease. We need stability and mobility, strength and flexibility. We must do work, yet we must rest and recovery to get full benefit from our training.

I’ve found that getting just the right amount of polarized tension is key to running my best. The concept holds for my work, my relationships, and my thinking as well.

This has led me back to yoga after abandoning for many years.

It turns out yoga is literally built on the principle of polarized tension.

The Yoga Sutras is a centuries-old series of aphorisms that define yoga. “Sthira Sukham Asanam,” one of the most quoted Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, that means a yoga posture should be steady, firm and stable, yet also comfortable, light and delightful. It should be Sthira (firm) and Sukha (easy). It is a polarity of relaxation and tension.

By practicing yoga, I believe it is possible to get more comfortable and familiar with Sthira and Sukha. This practice provides a lots of benefits, but I’ll focus on just four in this article that go way beyond the strength, stability, and flexibility most often associated with the practice:

Balance
Breath
Focus
Recovery

If you are interested in yoga, please sign up for Yoga for Runners, a series of practices to help you enhance balance, focus, and recovery.

It starts with balance

Wear and tear from training, together with the stresses of life, can easily lead to imbalance and underperformance.

Your body is highly integrated and intelligent. It works great when balanced, but it still finds a way to function and keep you going when imbalances are present.

Imbalances lead to compensations. Your body will do whatever is necessary to keep you moving. When your movement meets restriction and you continue to apply force, that force will transfer to the next available point of least resistance.

In other words, when you force yourself through pain in one area, you’ll inevitably cause pain in another area as well. That means injury, burnout, and underperformance. In addition to tanking your running, it negatively affects your work, your relationships, and your mindset, etc.

Yoga brings you back to balance

You need a way to find your way back to balance, back to your natural state.

Yoga is one of many solutions for this. Yoga equips you with insights into your imbalances and resulting compensation patterns, and give you skills to systematically correct yourself back to a happy medium.

These holistic skills blend breathing, mindset, and movement. With regular practice, yoga gives you a way to hit the reset button and rediscover balance in your mind and body.

Check out the Yoga Flow Workout on Runner’s Toolkit for a good starting point.

Yoga Flow Workout

By the way …

Here’s what Jay Dicharry says about symmetry and balance. Jay is a physical therapist and researcher who is responsible for keeping many elite runners in the game, and I recommend his books, Running Rewired and Anatomy for Runners, to every runner I work with.

“Most people have a body structure that is pretty symmetric, and the right-to-left imbalances they have aren’t from bones, but rather how they control their bones. The quality of motion you have can be improved and refined. Take time to identify your imbalances, and take direction to bring your body back to symmetry. It’s one of the best uses of your time as an athlete to ensure you reach your goals and hit a new PR.”

— Jay Dicharry

Just breathe

The quality of your breath is a direct reflection of your interior state.

Breathing and mental state are connected. The more tired and stressed you are, the shallower your breath becomes. The causes your body to panic, which leads to more strained breathing and more fatigue. Its a vicious cycle.

Breathe better with yoga

Your breath is powerful because it enables you to focus and relax simultaneously, which happens to be when you’ll perform at your best, no matter what task you are attempting.

Best of all, it’s always with you — accessible no matter where you go.

Yoga integrates breathing and helps you learn simple breathing skills.

With practice, you learn techniques to stay calm under pressure, keep your systems functioning optimally, and help make the shift from stress to relaxation.

These skills also translate to your running — when you are tired and fatigued, the same breathing skills will give you an extra boost by allowing you to take in more of the precious oxygen you need to generate energy in you muscles.

Here’s are good breathing exercises to start with.

“Breathing is like solar energy for powering relaxation: it’s a way to regulate emotions that is free, always accessible, inexhaustible and easy to use.”

— Proper Breathing Brings Better Health, Scientific American, 15 January 2019

Focus your mind

A strong body does you no good if you can’t focus your energy to control and coordinate your movement. The same is true if you can’t silence distractions and doubt and anchor your mind on the task at hand.

Focus is essential to achieving your potential as a runner, and human.

Take control of your mental state

Consistent yoga practice leads to improved mental strength and stamina.

This happens because yoga poses demand focus. They challenge you just enough to keep you keenly aware of what you are doing.

By holding this focus thought yoga practice you become more aware of your tendencies, reactions, and mental behavior. This translates to a better mental state while running, working, thinking, and interacting with others.

“If you want to be the best, you shouldn’t focus on being the best, you should focus on being the best at getting better.”

— Brad Stulberg, Don’t Worry About Being the Best. Worry About Being the Best at Getting Better

Recover better

It comes very natural for most of us to work hard.

After all, working out gets results, right?

Most every workout we do is about pushing ourselves. However the benefits of training don’t happen during the workout, they happen afterwards as the body repairs itself. They happen during recovery.

Recovery is much more than just rest.

Do you focus as much energy on recovery as you do on your workouts? You may be sacrificing performance by not giving recovery the priority it deserves.

Embrace recovery with restorative yoga

Embrace recovery to become a better runner. From cool-down routines to meditation apps to self-massage techniques, there’s no doubt that you have lots of options to choose from.

Yoga deserves to be one of those tools you go to when you need to make the shift from exertion to recovery.

It’s important to note that yoga for recovery is different than yoga for strength and stability.

Restorative yoga is restful.

It is a physical relaxation practice that calms your body and mind.

If you workout a lot, the last thing you need is for yoga to be another way to explore your physical limits — that may do more harm than good.

Restorative yoga is a tool to retreat from athletic training and effectively recharge.

Here’s a good yoga recovery workout to get started with.

Take it to the next level

We’re introducing a Yoga for Runners program. If you are interested, please sign up be get more information on this series of practices to help you enhance balance, focus, and recovery.

Your mind, your body, and your running performances will thank you!

Positive feedback loops in running

By brock 4 years agoMarch 27, 2020 in Newsletter

Smile!

To smile is to “have or take on a facial expression showing pleasure, amusement, affection, or friendliness, and characterized by an upward curving of the corners of the mouth and a sparkling of the eyes”. How often do you smile while running? Does running make you smile more or less?

Let’s start with a lesson from Eliud Kipchoge, the best marathoner in the world. Here is what a recent New York Times article recounts about his habit of smiling when he begins to feel pain in a race:

”Kipchoge has a habit of smiling whenever pain sets it. Pain, he said, is nothing more than a mind-set. So he distracts himself with other thoughts — the joy of running, the finish line ahead. Then the pain fades. In the process, he has proved himself singularly capable of elevating the sport into something that more closely resembles performance art.”

He did this when he set the marathon world record this past year in Berlin, and he did it when he ran 2:00:25 in Nike’s Breaking2 attempt.

I don’t think this is just a cheap trick for Kipchoge. The man exudes positivity in his life, not just while running. Check out this quote from his 2018 Oxford Address.

“In any profession, you should think positively. That’s the driver of your mind. If your mind is really thinking positive then you are on the right track. ‘Pleasure in what you’re doing puts perfection in your work.’ That was a quote by Aristotle.”

This edition of the Run Express explores how smiling and positive emotions improve our running. And I believe the opposite is true as well: Running can create more joy and positivity in our life.

Quick Note: I’m not a fan of “you just need to be happy” advice. Real life requires us to go through a whole range of emotions on a regular basis — the ups and the downs. But I think some of the research on emotions and performance is really interesting. And I also think running is a whole lot more enjoyable when we lighten up a bit and approach it with a positive mindset.

The Hartshorne Mile — Part I

As I walked into Barton Hall at Cornell University this past weekend it was hard not to be overtaken by the atmosphere of the old 100-yr+ building filled with a combination of young collegiate athletes and young-at-heart masters runners. It is home to the Hartshorne Mile, a track meet that has been contested for 50 years and draws 40-90 yr. old athletes from all over the East, Mid-West, Canada, and sometimes beyond—many making the journey to Ithaca, NY year-after-year.

In my first year of competition, I approached the competitive arena with some trepidation. I hadn’t raced a mile on the track in over 20 years, and I was up against some great competitors. The four-hour drive home and threat of a major snow and ice storm had me a little worried as well. In other words, I was anxious, and a little scared. But within 30 minutes of entering Barton Hall, my mood turned toward warmth, excitement, and relaxation. I have to give credit for this emotional flip-flop to the people around me. The check-in clerk greeted me with a smile and enthusiasm. Meet director Adam Engst gave me a moment of full joyful attention amidst his ongoing track meet. Competitors caught up with each other like they were old friends (which I’m pretty sure they were) and openly welcomed newcomers like myself. My Greater Philadelphia Track Club teammates joked and laughed. Even the rabbit for our race (yes, we had a rabbit) was enthusiastic and uplifting.

This made all the difference. By the time I began warming up, I was all smiles. More on this story later.

It turns out that our mood has a profound effect on our running, our perception of effort, our efficiency, and ultimately our performance. There’s real science that links positive emotion and good mood to better performance.

The science

Several recent studies have looked at the impact of mood, emotions, and brain chemistry on performance. One of the most straight forward comes from the Noel Brick and his colleagues at Ulster University. They measured the running economy of 24 runners in a series of four six-minute runs. They also measured perceptual outcomes, like effort. The runners were instructed to smile, frown, relax their hands and upper body, or just think their usual thoughts. The results supported the benefits of smiling. Running economy was a little more than 2 percent better when smiling. That may not sound like much but it’s on par with the effect many runners spend months and months of steady training to achieve.

This research spurred Runner’s World to write an article titled This is why Kipchoge smiles when he runs (and why you should be doing it too). The bottom line is that training your facial muscles to lighten up can boost your performance.

This comes on the heels of a series of influential studies by Samuele Marcora, a researcher at the University of Kent, showing that you can make a reasonable estimate of effort by measuring the activation of smiling or frowning muscles in the face. Based on the “facial feedback hypothesis,” Marcora proposes that the relationship might also work in the opposite direction: A hard effort makes you frown, and, conversely, frowning makes an effort feel harder—and smiling might make it feel easier.

As the relationship between emotions and performance become more clear, researchers keep finding more mechanisms that link brain chemistry into the positive and negative aspects of run performance. Research from the University of Montreal links “runners high” with dopamine. The Guardian’s article, What does running do to your brain?, discusses several studies that show how running and emotions are linked to dulling pain, raising spirits, and reducing anxiety. The British Psychological Society reports on 10 Ways That Running Changes Your Mind and Brain. They are all good.

And links between emotions and performance seem to keep coming. Alex Hutchinson’s Sweat Science column this past week discusses research on how our brain chemistry may start dulling pain and boosting mood before we go for a run — before we even take a step! The results, published this month in Behavioral Brain Research, suggest that the mere anticipation of going for a run changes how we feel and how the brain processes pain. These changes are more pronounced the more we run.

That’s the positive side. Anticipation can have the opposite effect if you fear that which lies in your future — like a big hill or hard race. Scott Douglas does a good job summarizing more research from Noel Brick. The gist is that performance suffers when we worry about a hard hill, or hard effort, before we get to it. We’re better off not knowing about it and just taking it as it comes. But I don’t think we should interpret this as “ignorance is bliss.” We just need to find ways to refocus our minds to dial down fear and amp up positive emotions.

So, what can we do about all this?

There’s a lot you can do

It seems to me like there is a reciprocal relationship between running and emotions going on here (acted out by brain and body chemistry). Positive emotions help us perform better while running. Running helps us have more positive emotions. There is a potential positive feedback loop we can tap into.

This topic goes too deep to explore fully in this newsletter, but I believe there are many ways to tap into the positive feedback loop.

A great resource to pick up on the topic, if interested, is the recently published book The Happy Runner: Love the Process, Get Faster, Run Longer by David and Megan Roche. I was initially skeptical of the title. I expected it to be shallow, filled with obvious advice, and full of cute stories about happy runners. I picked it up anyway as part of my research on the Expressive Runner course, and my first reactions were wrong. It is well written and goes deep into mental approaches to running (and life) that allow us to both enjoy and perform. The book talks a lot about our fragility, our impending death, and the internal demons that most of us have to face. Learning to deal with these things can be the key to unlocking a better mindset. Here is a quote from the book.

“Zooming out can bring some clarity about what really matters to you, and what brings you joy. Because if you don’t zoom out now, a running life will do it for you when you least expect it. Whether it’s slowing down with age, getting injured, or simply hitting the wall in a race or training run, being a lifelong runner means making friends with your own fragility.”

I’ll skip further advice on this topic in hopes that the information so far will make you curious enough to explore ways to tap into the positive feedback loop of running and emotions. We’ll end with the conclusion of my Hartshorne Mile story.

The Hartshorne Mile — Part II

As mentioned above, the environment in Barton Hall shifted my mental state away from anxiety and fear toward enthusiasm and excitement. It was subtle but powerful. I enjoyed cheering heats of competitors, including my teammates, as they raced around the 200 meter indoor track (one mile = 8 laps + 9 meters = 1609 meters). My heat was last and I arrived on the starting line fired up. I gave a fist bump to every competitor — something I’ve never done before. The announcer completed his introductions and the gun went off.

I immediately settled behind previous champion (and super-nice guy) Mark Williams as we both followed the rabbit through the first 400 meters in exactly the time we told him to run (67 seconds). I felt relaxed and confident. We drifted a couple seconds off the rabbit in the next 400 meters. As we approached the 800 meter mark (half way), I had to decide if I should take the lead and try to push the pace for a fast time or sit on Mark a bit longer and go for the win towards the end of the race. You can watch the race on YouTube if you want. It only lasts a little more than 4.5 minutes.

Or maybe you just skip that and get to the conclusion. I took the lead and held on for the win in 4:34:80.

I’m happy with the performance and feel like I grew as an athlete. Growth is a big deal for me. It’s a huge driver of “why” I run, coach, and perform. The performance at Ithaca taught me about the power of a positive mindset, it taught me to reframe anxiety as excitement, and it reinforced that we are all in this together to make each other better. It also helped me learn that I still have some work to do to reach my full potential in the mile race. I could have pushed harder the second half of race, and I think I can break 4:30 with a little more training and practice.

Perhaps even better than the performance and positive vibes at the race is the ongoing connection with athletes that continues to this day. Thanks to facebook, email, and Strava, I’ve communicated with dozens of athletes in the last few days (most of whom I’ve never met). This dialogue and connection has opened up new opportunities for me, which have in turn brought more joy and satisfaction to my life.

This is the reciprocal relationship between emotions and running that I tried to convey previously. This is the positive feedback loop. I really hope we can all experience this more often in our lives. I don’t have a proven playbook at this time, but I think the first step is opening yourself up to the possibility. Not far behind is seizing the opportunities.

Learn more

This is where I’ll toot my own horn. I’ll be speaking at the Chester Country Running Store in Pottstown on February 6th at 7pm. It is free and should be a lot of fun. There is a good chance this topic will come up.

I’m also working in a lesson related to this in the free Expressive Athlete eCourse. Sign up if you here if you want to give it a go.

Winter run training

By brock 4 years agoFebruary 6, 2019 in Newsletter

“Miles to go before I sleep”

Just like Robert Frost’s famous poem, the woods are lovely, dark, and deep this time of year — and they will soon be filling up with snow. But we have promises to keep. We have miles to go before we sleep.

Why? How?

That is the topic of this week’s newsletter. Before you get my opinion, you may be interested to hear what keeps Meb Keflezighi motivated over the winter (Olympic medalist and top American marathoner, even at 43 years old). While I’m overwhelmingly in awe of Meb’s running capabilities, the fact that he lives in San Diego causes me to lack some sympathy for his winter blues.

For those of us brave enough to train through the winter in the Mid-Atlantic states, I offer some advice for not just making it through the winter but emerging stronger, fitter, and happier than you began.

If my advice doesn’t work you can always fall back on Robert Frost: You have promises to keep. You have miles to go before you sleep.

Keep it interesting

The weather may not be ideal for running outside, but that doesn’t mean you are stuck doing boring workouts all winter. Find a way to liven it up and become a better athlete in the process. Here are some ideas:

Outdoor cross-training: Have you ever tried cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or hiking in the snow? Don’t let a fresh blanket of snow hold you back. Hiking through snow is a great workout, and you can take it to the next level with snowshoes or cross-country skis. Snowshoes are available to rent at many REI stores in the area. No excuses!
Run in the snow Yaktrax: It is amazing how easy it is to run in packed snow with these cleats strapped around your running shoes.
Gym cross training: Mix it up with indoor cycling, elliptical, stair steppers, and any other fitness equipment that allows you to get your heart rate up. You can even sign up for a group fitness class if you need extra motivation.
Treadmills: Running indoors on a treadmill gets a bad rap, but it can be an incredibly effective tool for training. Especially over the winter. Use the opportunity to work on both form and fitness with this video I recently posted at The Runner’s Toolkit.
- Warmup with drills — marching, bounding, skipping, and shuffling is all possible on a treadmill. Just be extremely careful because falling on a treadmill is very dangerous. Always be safe. Watch from minute 1:09 of the video for examples.
- Focus on form — Work on posture, high hips, quick feet, separated legs, and other cues that will help you run better. Watch from minute 5:15 of the video to see how I work on form while running on the treadmill.
- Incorporate hills — Hill intervals will make workouts seem quicker, and the variation is great for your body. David Roche provided six specific treadmill hill workouts in his Trail Runner magazine article last year. You can also start at minute 10:25 in my video to get even more ideas.
- End with strides — Just like we often end a run with strides (short, fast accelerations followed by long recovery), it is a great idea to end your treadmill sessions with a few accelerations. Just stay safe! Here I am doing strides at minute 13:00 of the treadmill running video.
Zwift indoor running and cycling: If you need to spice up your indoor running and cycling with interactive visualizations, a community of athletes, and some gamification, then Zwift could be a good option for you.

Do you have a good way to train over the winter? Share your ideas with the Run Xpress group on Facebook. Please join if you haven’t done so already!

Fine-tune your movement

The winter is a great time to work on tuning up your running body. It’s all about creating a great foundation that will keep you healthy and fast all year.

Here is a workout that I like to do at home a couple times per week. It only takes 15 minutes.

Throw in some speed

You may be working on building an aerobic base for the year ahead, but that doesn’t mean you should neglect speed. Check out the speed of Shalane Flanagan last January in this 3000m race. This was 2 months after winning the New York Marathon and 3 months before running Boston Marathon. It’s clear she wasn’t just doing long distance runs over the winter!

If you are up for a track race then check out Chuck Shield’s Indoor Track & Field online calendar. Many of us on this newsletter are running track races this winter, so reach out to us on the Run Xpress group on Facebook if you want to join.

Even if you are not planning any track races there are plenty of other ways to incorporate some speed this winter:

When in doubt, do strides. Build up to a pace that is just above what you could hold for one mile (these are not sprinting). Take plenty of rest in between. Focus on good form and technique.
Short hill sprints are an excellent way to safely incorporate sprinting. Find a hill that is steep (15% to 20%) and at least 60 meters long. After a thorough warmup and dynamic stretching exercises, you can perform 6-to-10 hill sprints. From a standing start, accelerate as fast as possible up the hill for 10-15 seconds. Walk down and completely recovery before continuing with the next sprint.
Hit the track. A great starting workout is to run 10-to-12 200 meter intervals at your current mile pace (the fastest pace you can sustain for 1 mile). Recover for 100 meters at a speed that makes the rest interval the same as the work interval. For example, if your max mile time is 6 minutes then you would run the 200 meters in 45 seconds and the 100 meters (recovery) in 45 seconds. This is a great way to get some faster running in without beating yourself up too much.

Workout with other people!

The best way to motivate yourself to get out and train in cold, windy, dark, damp weather is to train with other people.

If you need help finding people to run with then talk to the folks at your local running store.

We also post group workouts at the Run Xpress group on Facebook. You are welcome to post your own as well!

There is also this little running and cycling social network called Strava. Myself and many other athletes in the area use it. I completely endorse using it as long as it is for the right reasons:

Finding and interacting with local athletes
Sharing positive vibes, both with your workout posts and comments made to others
Locating new running routes, group runs, and interesting events

Strava also has a dark side. Like the other social networks out there, it is tempting to use for vanity purposes. “Showing off” for your followers will have negative impacts on your overall performance. Chasing segments and PRs during training is generally not a great training strategy. You’ll get more satisfaction by being present in your environment while running — not thinking about what people are going to think when they see your workout on Strava.

All that said, we do have a Run Xpress club setup on Strava. Please join if you want to stay in touch with others in this community.

Work on your mindset

It is always a great time to work on your inner game. Your mental mindset has a big impact on the level of enjoyment and performance you achieve as an athlete. Since the beginning of the year is such a great time to think about goals and aspirations, I suggest doubling-down on the mental aspects of being a runner.

How?

First, sign up for the Expressive Athlete Mini-Course I announced last week

Second, check out the live video on mindset from Dr. Arianne’s new Movement Paradigm facility in Downingtown. We’ll go live around 7:30am and you can view the recorded video on the Run Expression Facebook page or Runner’s Toolkit YouTube channel.

The Expressive Runner

By brock 4 years agoFebruary 6, 2019 in Newsletter

The content of this newsletter changed a lot in the last 48 hours. I received positive feedback on the “motivation” theme from last week’s newsletter, so I started digging in to provide a more substantive article on the topic. It wasn’t long before I had captured well over 5000 words and realized this was not an article I was writing — at least not one that any of you were likely to read.

So I’ve decided to break up the content into smaller packages — lessons to be exact. They will collectively form a new mini-course that I’m launching later this month. You can be the first to sample it if you wish. Each lesson can be consumed in 15 minutes and will provide a specific activity for you do complete. I’ll start rolling it out via email later this week, one lesson at a time. Each email will provide a link to a page on The Runner’s Toolkit with complete lesson content, videos, activities, references, and additional online resources.

If you want to be included on this email mini-course, please reply to the email and let me know.

The working title for the course is The Expressive Runner: A guide to athletic passion, purpose, and performance

Read on to find out what that means.

The Expressive Runner: A guide to athletic passion, purpose, and performance

This is a course to help you become the best runner you can be. It won’t necessarily teach you to become the fastest runner you can be, although it will likely pave the way this to happen. Instead, the goal is to help you develop an approach to running that enables you to express your unique identity and potential as a human being. Yes, this is a lofty objective, but just starting the journey down this path is beneficial:

Activate all the capacities and talents that lie within you
Derive as much meaning and joy from running as you possibly can
Allow running and your athletic pursuits to amplify prosperity in all aspects of your life

An expressive runner brings their whole self to the act of running. They know what “makes them tick.” The’ve figured out who they are and why they are there. They are at peace with their limitations, and they’ve doubled-down on their strengths. They use their running practice to make life better for themselves and others.

All this helps the expressive runner bring passion and purpose to their life. It helps them perform to the best of their abilities. Like anything, it will come with ups and downs, but the expressive runner has the toolkit to get through the hard times and make the most of the good.

Anyone who devotes significant time and effort to running owes it to themselves to go through this process of self-discovery and alignment. It doesn’t take long to see results as long as you are willing to pause and reflect. The outcome of this process is improved confidence, motivation, focus, and satisfaction.

This will also help you avoid trying to be runner you fantasize about or the one you know who seems to have everything figured out. That runner is not you—trying to become something you are not eventually leads to frustration and demotivation. It will also help you avoid the pursuit of impossible goals. You can’t predict the future and there is no sense in trying. It is better to have the flexibility to stay true to who you are than to stay fixed on a path you can never complete.

This course works by stepping you through a series of lessons, each with a specific learning objective and activity that should take you less than 30 minutes to complete. The whole course should not take more than a handful of hours, spread out over several days. It is delivered to you by email with links to online articles, videos, and activities.

Pen and paper will be your primary tools, although online resources are also provided. The lessons are sequenced intentionally, but you can always go back and forth. You will likely jump in and out as needed. Take your time with it — it may take a week or it may take a year. It is worthwhile either way.

Here is an overview of the curriculum:

Understand the power of self-actualization, motivation, and athletic expression
Dig into goals, when to use them, and when to abandon them
Decode your emotions and core values—use this to refine your process
Identify the “why” behind your running and your identity
Understand the difference between obsessive and harmonious passion
Tools for staying focused on the things that matter most
The “expressive runner” framework for putting it all into practice

Sign up here if you are interested in this course

Motivation and Goals

By brock 4 years agoFebruary 6, 2019 in Newsletter

Hello 2019!

Staying motivated in the New Year

You probably have some goal races planned for 2019 by now. That’s great, because we all know that having these goals helps motivate us to train and live a healthy lifestyle. But are the goals enough to get you through the challenging times that lie ahead?

Challenges? How about that nagging injury that’s going to cause you to miss some running and force you to cross-train for a few weeks (or more). Or that trip, illness, project, or whatever that you aren’t necessarily planning. At some point, maintaining your running practice and healthy lifestyle is going to be hard. It may be hard right now!

That’s why “stacking” motivators is so important. Having a robust set of reasons that support your practice of training, eating, and purposeful living is essential for long-term success and enjoyment.

Now is a great time to reflect on this by looking both backward and ahead to create your motivation stack:

Your goals
Your emotions
Your why

You can work in either direction but I suggest going like this: Goals -> Emotions -> Why -> Goals . It’s OK if you need to refine your goals a bit after going through the process.

Your Goals

As mentioned at the beginning, most of us can easily come up with goals in the form of races and performances. This is good. Being clear about your goals is an essential part of a good training plan. If you desire growth and progress then you must push beyond your current abilities. Goals provide coordinates of our destination so we can set off on the right path, into uncharted territory.

There’s some guidance on goal setting at The Runner’s Toolkit.

The main points are …

Set goals that stretch you yet remaining attainable
Break goals into A (stretch), B (challenge), and C (likely) outcomes
Be ready to revise or rewrite goals as time progresses to keep them challenging and realistic.

Run through your goals after thinking about it this way. Write them down. Share them with those who can help keep you accountable. Look at them often; refine them occasionally.

Your Emotions

I think all of us, in one way or another, expect the process of training and racing to make us feel good. It can take many forms:

Pure joy of being in a flow state while running
Satisfaction of accomplishing a goal
Being proud of a performance (race or training run)
Enhanced feelings of love toward friends and family
Confidence from heightened physical and mental abilities

Think back to some of the most fun you’ve had running. Connect with the emotion associated with that feeling. Emotions are great sources of information—they can tell us what we really care about and value. So the more you understand that good feeling you get from running, the more you can create an environment where it will thrive in the future.

For example, I realized in 2018 that the best and strongest positive emotions I experienced came from races and events where I connected with people. This happened at a few long trail races where I interacted with people while running through natural environments. It happened at road races where competition with friends drew us closer together. I experienced it at track and cross country races where the team component drew us together. And I felt it at some local runs where my kids explored their limits and brought the whole family closer. This informs my plans for 2019 by prioritizing human connection over individual accomplishment — ultimately providing me a solid source of motivation to keep at it.

What emotions stand out for you? What does that mean? How can you shape 2019 and beyond to experience more of that feeling? Hopefully that is something you can return to regularly to keep you fired up.

Your Why

After contemplating your goals and emotions, you should start to see some underlying themes emerge. If not, ask yourself “why?”. Why do you gravitate to certain goals? Why are specific emotions more significant and meaningful to you? What is behind that motivation to run and perform?

It is a bit over-hyped by now, by Simon Sinek’s Start With Why contains great insight into what motivates people to achieve great things. Goals will come and go, but the reason you keep coming up with them probably stays steady. The better you understand why you run, the more motivated you’ll be to make the best decisions on a daily basis. And that will make all the difference.

Speed Training for Distance Runners

By brock 4 years agoFebruary 6, 2019 in Newsletter

The newsletter this week is all about speed. Specifically, speed training for distance runners.

I admit that I’ve been playing around with speed more in my own training lately, so this has been top of mind. The more I read, and experience, the more I feel like the vast majority of us distance runners are leaving potential on the table by not learning how to move quickly over short distances.

This potential I speak of is not the potential to be a great sprinter. It is the potential to run more efficiently over long distances. That means faster times at 5K, marathons, and even 100-mile ultras. It all comes down to movement skill and mechanical efficiency. Running slow and long does us no good, but running fast and short does. It works even better when you add the right strength training, some drills, and a bit of plyometrics.

That’s why I wrote an article on speed training that I intend to revise and improve as I learn more. Check it out and let me know what you think:

https://runnerk.it/speed

Live with Chuck Kruelle

You can complement the article on speed training with this interview with Chuck Kruelle, a speedy master’s runner who races everything from 400 meters up through 5K. Chuck joined me in the Runner’s Workshop for a live broadcast. He talks about how he is training to break 5 minutes in the mile, why he loves running the 4x400m relay at two big running meets, and how he once ran 6 events at a single track meet (and never will again).

The best way to stay notified of new shows is to subscribe to the channel on YouTube:

https://runnerk.it/TRW-Episode2

Plyometric Adaptation Circuit Workout

To run fast you need to be able to transfer as much force as possible to the ground, as quickly as possible. Most of us have plenty of strength but we aren’t able to utilize it during running due to limitations with stability and neuromuscular coordination. That’s why so many of the workouts at The Runner’s Toolkit focus on stability, foot-to-core sequencing, and whole-body movement patterns.

Once you’ve started to establish good stability and movement patterns, you can begin to work on strength and power exercises that will train your body to coordinate movements that increase running speeds. A great place to start is with a quick workout that I call a “Plyometric Adaptation Circuit.” I like this name because it is intended to be a workout that prepares you for more intense strength and plyometric exercises. It is easily incorporated into a training program 2x per week, and it is easy to progress from 2 circuits to 5 circuits over 3-5 weeks.

Check out the video and recommended progressions here at The Runner’s Toolkit. Let me know if you have any questions!

https://runnerk.it/plyo-adaptation-circuit

Try something new

By brock 4 years agoFebruary 6, 2019 in Newsletter

Big Woods

Sometimes you train like crazy for an event. Nervous energy and excitement build as race day approaches. On race day, you to put every possible effort into running fast from start to finish.

The Big Woods 50K was not one of those events. Yet it delivered one of the most fun and rewarding running experiences of the year for me.

Never heard of the Big Woods 50K? Don’t feel bad. Now in its third year, about 40 athletes toed the line at the start on Sunday morning, double the amount that ran in 2017. As a self-proclaimed “fat ass” event, this event aspires to be a relaxed, low key, loosely organized, adventure run rather than a high pressure, competitive race. There is a great tradition of fat ass ultrarunning in the United States, but I never experienced it — until now.

A highlight for me was the route that linked Coventry Woods Park, Woody’s Woods, Warwick County Park, a nice stretch of the Horseshoe Trail, and French Creek State Park. I’ve ran or biked in all of them at one point or another, but I never linked them all together like this.

Even better than the awesome route was the relaxed nature of the event. Free from the racing mindset, I could really focus on interacting with the people around me and the environment in which we were running. The five-hour event passed very quickly as we traded stories.

And it didn’t end when we crossed the finish line. A huge spread of “pot-luck” food awaited finishers. I think I counted 12 crock pots. And a huge bonfire provided refuge for athletes rapidly cooling off in the 34-degree temps.

It is hard to compare big races with social running in the woods. And why should we? The variety is exactly what makes the sport of running so awesome. We can compete in short distances on the track, long distances in the woods, fast races on the roads, slow races in the mountains, team races on cross country courses, obstacle course races just about anywhere, and “fat ass” events where speed doesn’t matter as much as camaraderie and community. What new running event are you going to try in 2019?

Read the full race report

For Your Bookshelf

I’m reading, and re-reading, two amazing books by one author. Jay Dicharry has built a reputation for himself as a top expert for diagnosing and rebuilding injured endurance athletes — making his REP Lab a destination for top elite athletes. By working outside traditional models of therapy, he identifies underlying root causes and fixes them before they can affect performance or cause further damage.

His books are worth reading and keeping handy on your bookshelf. Anatomy for Runners breaks down complex biomechanics, energetics, and running anatomy into understandable models that runners can use to make sense of their movement patterns. Assessments and corrective exercises are provided to put this information into action. I’ve read many books on running physiology and this one provided me more “ah ha” moments and actionable information than any other.

Running Rewired is Jay’s latest book and provides even more synthesis and guidance on specific exercises and routines to advance running performance. He is much more direct in his assertion that “movement skill is critical.” A paragraph from the introduction in the book says it best:

”Instead of running more, I’m asking you to start a plan to move better. With deliberate practice, the neurophysiology in your brain will adapt and rewire its strategy for running. We’ll tackle the what, why, and how to change your body and improve your movement so you can be a more durable runner and increase your capacity to run efficiently. We will build your proficiency at these skills, effectively rewire how your body moves so you can run better.”

Stability Training

Following Jay’s lead on movement training for better running, we’re working to provide more exercises, workouts, and other resources at The Runner’s Toolkit. The site will be improving and expanding over the next couple of months.

Here’s some stability-centric workouts you may like to try while the rest of the site is rebuilt.

Foot-to-Core Stability: https://runnerk.it/FTC-Stability-A

Hip Stability: https://runnerk.it/hip-stability-a

Posture Stability: https://runnerk.it/posture-stability-a

Runner’s Workshop Pilot

We streamed our first live show on Wednesday. Thanks to Bill Conn for joining me in the broadcast. The delivery was far from perfect on this first attempt but the format works and we’ll keep making it better.

Please subscribe to the Runner’s Toolkit YouTube Channel to stay updated as more shows are released. You can watch them live or view the recordings whenever it is convenient. We’ll try to keep it to 30 minutes or less and some awesome guests will be joining us in the near future.

Seize the Moment

By brock 4 years agoFebruary 6, 2019 in Newsletter

This newsletter is sent to athletes who’ve registered at the Runners Toolkit website, engaged in Run Expression coaching, or are part of the Run Xpress training group. Sign up here if you want to receive these each week in your inbox.

The Run Express aspires to be a weekly publication providing useful running-related content while keeping you updated on everything going on in the Run Expression universe.

Seize the Moment

While packing my family in the minivan to go to Brian’s Run this past weekend, I recalled how accessible running is. It took me all of 20 minutes to dress and pack for my race, get my two kids equipped in proper attire for their race, and throw some extra water and clothes in the car. It brought back memories of packing for triathlons, windsurfing sessions, and mountain bike races. As amazing as those activities are, there’s quite a bit more gear, time, money, and effort required. With running, I love the simplicity of just needing some decent shoes, athletic attire, and a bottle of water.

It is hard to get a family of four out the door to do anything — but we managed to get everyone to Brian’s Run, including my parents, for the tradition that started for me when I was 6-years old. My father used to get me to the kids “fun” run just about every year, and I was delighted when both of my children agreed to run this year (pro tip: don’t tell kids about the race until about 4 hours prior — much less time to stress that way). Even more amazing was the delight and satisfaction they took away from the experience. My son, who is struggling with juvenile arthritis, ran the entire 1-mile race. My daughter, who is the same age as I was when I ran my first Brian’s Run, asked if she could do more races with me. I was greeted a the 1-mile mark of my 5-mile race with smiles and high-fives and they were there cheering me on again the last 400 meters on the track. So fun (despite being a chilly, rainy, dismal day)!

I feel very grateful that running provides such easily-attained enrichment in my life. It’s important to me that we all find as many ways as possible to take advantage of what running has to offer. There are so many benefits: health, mental cleansing, socialization, self-confidence, family growth, and on and on. So if you are feeling up to it, lace up your shoes to go train. If not, rest up and think about getting out there as soon as you can.

Movement Preparation

Before you step out the door to run tomorrow, do you know how you are going to prepare body? Yes, running only requires some decent shoes and athletic attire, but your body will treat you best if you develop a good routine for getting it ready to move.

Often called a “warm-up,” movement preparation is the process for preparing your body for energetic activity. It is essential if you want to perform at your peak. Even on “easy days” when peak performance isn’t your top concern, movement preparation will refine movement patterns and technical skill, increase mental focus, activate key stabilizing muscles, increase heart rate and core temp, and actively lengthen muscles. This makes your run training much more beneficial and less likely to injure your body.

Hopefully you have some good routines in place already. If you are interested in taking it further, here’s an example workout on The Runner’s Toolkit: https://runnerk.it/move-prep-a

And here’s a great article from Chris Miller on Simplifaster: https://simplifaster.com/articles/warm-up-performance-preparation/

The Movement Paradigm

It was a pleasure joining a multi-disciplinary group of movement professionals at Dr. Arianne Missimer’s Movement Paradigm Summit in November. I personally experienced some amazing Qi Gong, mindfulness, yoga, dance, and clowning (yes, clowning) instruction, but there were at least 20 movement experts presenting. It’s a great credit to Arianne’s open-mindedness that she included running instruction in this mix.

Joining this event helped me realize why Arianne is so focused on movement, mindset, and nutrition as the central tenants of her practice. The mind, the body, and the food we consume are tightly linked to so many aspects of performance in our life. Movement is dictated by the mind. Our mind is enhanced with movement. Our mind and body need the right nutrients to function. Just about any pursuit in life is enhanced when we pay attention to these things.

Attention seems to be the key. We all intuitively understand the links between our mind, body, and food we consume. But how many of us pay attention to these things on a regular basis? What practices do we have to link the three together?

I love this quote from a post by Brad Stulberg: “In many ways, we are what we pay attention to. The things that we work on also work on us. There is no such thing as ‘passive’ consumption. Everything we take in has an effect on the taker-inner, on us. Our attention is perhaps the most precious resource there is. We need to use it as skillfully as we can.”

As a runner, Arianne has helped me apply attention to practices and principles that improve my race performance along with performances at work, at home, and in my social life. I greatly value our collaboration on The Runner’s Toolkit and with the athlete’s we coach.

2019 is looking like an exciting year for movement. Arianne will open the doors at The Movement Paradigm Integrative Health Center in Downingtown, PA on January 2nd. We have a lot more planned for The Runner’s Toolkit and will be collaborating on more events to help runners. Stay tuned!

The Runner’s Workshop Live

We’re trying something new this week. At 8pm on Wednesday, Dec 4th, I’ll be broadcasting a live show on YouTube and Vimeo. Please keep expectations very low for this first pilot, but I hope to grow it into something you’ll want to tune into on a regular basis. I’d tell you exactly what it is going to be but I’m honestly not sure — I’m just as interested as you to see how it emerges.

You can tune in live (or access a recording) at one of the following locations.

YouTube: https://runnerk.it/live-stream

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/304278754

Launching The Run Express

By brock 5 years agoFebruary 6, 2019 in Newsletter

This newsletter is sent to athletes registered at the Runners Toolkit website, engaged in Run Expression coaching, or are part of the Run Xpress training group.

The Run Express aspires to be a weekly publication providing useful running-related content while keeping you updated on everything going on in the Run Expression universe.

Shaping Our Culture

It seems like more and more great running teams and coaches are talking about culture as the key to their success. It’s likely that I’m especially tuned into this because I work at a company (Energage) that help businesses measure and improve their culture, but I find the implications of this very interesting. Check out the Northern Arizona University men’s cross country team who just won their third NCAA D1 championship in a row. At the helm is coach Mike Smith who believes much of their success can be attributed to sustained focus on building the right culture for their program. It certainly seems to be paying off. A little closer to home is the North Allegheny high school program that just won the male and female team PA state championship. Coach John Neff states that “it’s a special thing whenever people can come together and each contribute a little bit and do more together than they could ever do on their own.” That is very cool to hear in such an individual sport like running.

What is culture? It’s a shared set of behaviors, interaction patterns, and beliefs. At Energage we say that a company’s culture is the only truly sustainable competitive advantage. I see it all the time with the customers we work with, and I hear about it more and more in the context of running and athletics. Coach Steve Magness, distance coach at the University of Houston, likes to talk about how important a focus on culture can be. He explains it like this: “True culture reaches many of the same desired outcomes of team unity, belief, and buy-in from a positive path. Instead of control, we have trust. Instead of isolation to create a team, we have a shared purpose that is bigger than ourselves. Instead of exploiting vulnerabilities, we create an environment that acknowledges and accepts all of our issues.”

While much of the discussion centers on fostering great cultures at high school and collegiate programs, I don’t think the rest of us need to be left out. We have so many opportunities to be a part of communities that support our development as athletes and individuals. Recreational running teams, informal group training, coaching programs, and other groups can all bring us together. In fact, we have a ton of control over the groups we join, so we can consciously select opportunities that provide a culture that works best for us. There is no “one best” culture, only the culture that works best given the people and content you are operating in. So go find groups that bring out the best in you. Lean in and help out. The more you give to the group the more the group is going to give back to you.

As you can probably guess, this is on my mind as I attempt to build this community. In my hierarchy of what matters here, I put running performances on the list but I put it at the bottom. More important than athletic performances, in my opinion, is wisdom — I want us all to gain something important from our running experiences that we can use to help enhance our lives. And even more important than wisdom is personal fulfillment. Everyone has different motivations and reasons for running, and I believe it is important to understand and respect them. We are all responsible for our own personal fulfillment, but we are much more likely to attain it when we have people around us to provide support and encouragement. That brings us to the final value on our list: Social support. There are many things we can do together that we would never do on our own, or perhaps those things wouldn’t be as meaningful if we didn’t have others to share them with. If we do nothing else here, let’s find ways to help each other out.

In summary, we strive to run fast, we learn important lessons from our efforts, we find ways to use running to fulfill personal aspirations, and we interact together to help each other succeed. Please suggest ideas and challenge me so that we can shape our culture in a way that makes these our default behaviors.

Race Report

Training and racing is hard work. Why do we do it? What happens when our efforts don’t lead to the performances we were striving for? Team Run Xpress athlete Bill Conn shares a great story about his experience at the 2018 Philadelphia Marathon. Check out his race report to see how focusing on a much deeper and more important “why” leads to more joy and fulfillment in the end.

SHAPING MY SON’S FUTURE AT THE 2018 PHILADELPHIA MARATHON

Please consider writing and sharing your own race reports. They are a great way to reflect on your training and performance, and you’ll probably learn something that will help you in the future. If you feel like sharing, we’ll post reports at the Team Run Xpress site.

Running with rabbit

Speaking of Team Run Xpress, I’m very excited about our partnership with rabbit, the running apparel manufacturer based in California (who also manufactures everything in California). We were looking for a unique and distinctive apparel partner to work with, and we found just want we wanted with rabbit. The clothing feels and performs spectacularly. It also looks great. Here are some pictures of our latest racing kit.

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