Take A Break Before You Break

Forced time off from running is not fun. One of the biggest mistakes runners make is only resting when their body rebels in the form of injury or illness. Instead, I recommend having planned periods of rest throughout the year to let your body reset and your mind recharge. Every 3-6 months, plan a goal race (or peak in training) that is followed by 2-4 weeks off from training. Everyone is different with how they handle training and resting, but to be honest, I literally go through running withdrawal during this time.  Even though I dislike breaks, after 16 years of training hard and resting hard, I have learned some tricks that help me enjoy these important weeks of recovery. 

Vacation!
If you’re like me, most of your traveling is for work or for racing. Planning a trip after your goal race or planned end-of-season gives you something to look forward to after all those months of training. When you don’t have to structure your vacation around getting in your run, there suddenly seems to be more hours in the day. This extra time (and extra energy) you have allows you to maximize your trip by staying up late, walking a million miles, and eating and drinking without fear of how your stomach will feel during your workout tomorrow. 

Activities!
I look forward to my break, but after two days of no running, I feel bored and antsy. Exploring alternative forms of exercise such as hiking, spin classes, swimming, rock climbing, and ElliptiGO/elliptical, are some of my favorite activities. Finding non-running outlets for your energy can help you enjoy your time off too.

Socializing!
When I am training, my life is structured without much time (or energy) to socialize. While on a break, plan more social activities. Try a new restaurant, order a drink (or two) and dessert. Enjoy happy hours, dinner parties, ice cream socials. Spend time having fun, dressing up, and being merry. (*Safely and responsibly at this time)

How long do I need to rest?
There are several factors to consider when you plan a break to determine how long you should refrain from running:

1-The length of your previous training block. If you have been training for more than 4 months, it is smart to take at least 2 weeks to recover.

2-The length of your final race. If you ran a half marathon or shorter, 2 weeks is probably adequate, but if you ran a marathon, you may need to take up to 4 weeks off.

3-The physical state of your body. If you have any injuries, you may need even longer than 4 weeks to fully heal. Don’t rush back to training before your body is ready.

4-The psychological state of your mind. If you feel drained and mentally exhausted, wait to run again until you miss training and are ready to get back to the grind. Don’t rush the rest period and enjoy your complete recovery.

Regardless of how long you take off, it is important to ease back into running after taking a break. Start with a few weeks of light, easy miles as your body adapts back to the training routine. Within 2-4 weeks you will feel like yourself again and will be ready to chase your next goal with a newly energized mind and body!

“Get Running”

NSG

2016 NYC Marathon

Monaco

Bike Tour of Barcelona

Amalfi Coast

Goal Setting for 2020

I’ve been thinking about goal setting, you know, since the year/decade is fresh and new. In college, I used to write down 10 goals at the beginning of each semester and then keep a journal to help track my progress and consistency with them. I definitely don’t have time for a written journal any more, but I still keep track of goals via a bullet journal-Thanks to Colleen Quigley for the idea! (Here’s a FREE Printable one for you to try!).

• I write down 1-3 big goals… OUTCOME goals such as:
  1-Qualify for the Olympic Trials. 2-Consistent Running for the year. 3-Get back to racing. (These can include anything that is important to you this year… run a PR, Age Group Win, Qualify for Boston, Run 10 miles Without Stopping, Do My First 5k… whatever is exciting and something that will get you out the door on hard days.)

• Then I print off the Bullet journal, and each month I write supporting goals/habits that I can strive for daily that help me reach that big outcome goal. These are called PROCESS goals.
  I usually have 3-10 going each month but they’re little attainable things. Here is what I did the month of December as I was preparing for the Houston Marathon.
  1-Bed by 9pm. 2-Take Vitamins. 3-Limited Dairy (I have developed a sensitivity to dairy since having Athens). 4-No Alcohol. 5-Core/Strength/Mobility work. 6-Recovery/Rolling/Stretching/Yoga. 7-Emphasis on Hydration. 8-Lay down for 30min per day. (These process goals can be anything that you think you need to incorporate most days into your routine to help your body be ready to meet the big outcome goal.)

Let me know if you try it! I am so excited to have a fresh start and a new outlook on training this year. 2019 did not go my way, but that’s ok. I am learning and adapting and having fun with running and that is what matters. Now let’s all Get Running towards those goals.

NSG

The Importance of Hydration Before and After Running: A Guest Blog

This guest blog is by Harper Reid, a freelance writer from Auckland, New Zealand who is passionate about healthy living and fitness. When she's not writing, you'll find her sweating it out in the gym, practicing yoga or checking out the latest fitness trends. You can find more of her work on her Tumblr.

Photo Credit: Alan Carrillo via Unsplash under License

We can all appreciate, in theory, how vital water is to our health and wellbeing – but do we know the specifics of how H2O interacts with exercise? If you’re a runner, keeping hydrated will prove an integral aspect of your active lifestyle – and here’s why.

It starts beforehand
Hydrating for exercise doesn’t start the moment you run out the door; rather, you should prep for a good workout far in advance by regularly drinking H2O. It’s especially important to keep tabs on your hydration during the warmer months, as hot conditions will put extra strain on your muscles and vital organs - most of all your heart - while running.

The good old urine test is a sure-fire way to check your internal water levels. The darker and yellower, the more water you need to fuel your body with. Aim to drink regularly through the day, and consume an extra half a liter of water a few hours before you set out for a long run.

Photo Credit: Maarten van den Heuval via Unsplash under License

 Running depletes your stores
When we’re dehydrated, the amount of water in our body decreases to the extent that we can lose up to 2% of our sum body weight. This loss of water wreaks havoc on our cardiovascular system, energy levels, and the efficacy of our muscle function. We tend to forget that our muscle cells are made up of 75% water, so it makes sense that if we’re losing fluid through sweat, we’ll feel weaker pretty quickly.

But don’t go too far in the other direction: too much fluid can be detrimental not only to your running performance (hello, water bloat!) but to your overall health. In the worst-case scenario, severe over-hydration can lead to hyponatremia, a condition that occurs when salt levels in the blood reach a life-threatening low.

Remembering to drink
Keeping hydrated isn’t a case of just remembering to drink when you’re bone thirsty. As a general rule, drink around 100ml of water every quarter of an hour that you exercise (this amount may need to be increased or decreased depending on your body size, the temperature outside, and the intensity or length of your run). If you need to set a watch alarm to remind you, then do so, and make things easier for yourself by investing in a hydration pack that you can easily pound the pavements with.

When doing an intense activity like running, you may want to switch out water for a sports drink with added carbohydrates and electrolytes. The kinds of chemicals and minerals contained within electrolytes (like sodium, potassium, and chloride) will replace the nutrients you lose by sweating, which will then help you to fend off the runner’s enemies – dizziness, leg cramps, and racing heartbeat. To DIY your own drink, mix a cup of water with a cup of orange juice and a pinch of salt – easy, effective, and tasty.

Photo Credit: Dominik Vanyi via Unsplash under License

The benefits of hydration
So: why is drinking water so important during, before, and after a run? Well, aside from keeping our bodies functioning at the cellular level, water can actually improve athletic performance. Studies have proven that running endurance and speed is enhanced significantly with proper hydration – we’re talking minutes off of your 10km time!

And since all that sweat loss can lead to very dry skin (something you’ll want to avoid if you suffer a skin condition like eczema), runners should keep in mind the benefits of hydration for skin health. Skin is an organ like any other, with skin cells mainly comprised of water. If you’ve been feeling a little dry around the edges lately, you may want to start taking hydration during exercise more seriously.

Christmas Gift List for Runners

Are you like me and find it tough to get just the right gift for the runner in your life? Here are some ideas to make it easier!

1-Massage Gift Card
What runner wouldn't love this gift?

2-Running Warehouse Gift Card or Merchandise
Using my code ATHLETEBIZ at checkout, you will get 10% off on most products. Click this link for a list of my favorite Adidas gear and learn how your purchase helps support my goals! (I recommend cold weather gear, new shoes, and a new gym bag!)

3-Coaching Services
Give the gift of coaching to show your support! Check out my coaching page for more info or just email me at neelyruns@gmail.com

4-Get Running T-Shirt
Support Team Get Running by wearing these super comfy v-necks.

5-Trust The Process Bracelet
Momentum Jewelry and I partnered to create a wrap bracelet with my favorite mantra.

6-Sunglasses
I can't run without them! So many cool options to choose from on the Adidas website!

7-Compression Sleeves
Practical, but a very useful item for all runners!

8-A Training Log
I use the Final Surge to upload my watch data... but I still record my complete day in the Believe I Am training Journal.

9-Nutritional Product
BeetIt shots, PowerBars, HotShot, and Sword Caffeine Tabs are all part of my training and racing protocol. Your runner might appreciate some new products to try out!

10-Training Tools
Some of my essentials are the Proform 9000 treadmill, 8c ElliptiGO, TRX straps, R8 Roll Recovery, and R3 Roller.

Train Hot, Race Cool: A New Way to Improve Running Performance

Most runners are aware that when summer rolls around, their body needs to acclimate to the rising environmental temperature. The human body will respond to a couple weeks of running in the heat by delivering more blood to the skin, increasing sweat rate while retaining electrolytes, and increasing plasma volume (the liquid component of blood, which allows more blood to be pumped to the skin for cooling). These physiological changes help to prevent hyperthermia and improve running performance in the heat.

In most of the country, the heat of summer is quickly giving way to the cold of winter. This means fewer sweltering, sweaty runs and more hats, gloves, and jackets to keep warm. It also means that runners will start to lose their heat acclimation.

Recently, exercise scientists have started studying whether heat acclimation can improve exercise performance in colder weather. Why is this? Well, expanded plasma volume is one of the main ways the human body responds to training, regardless of temperature. The idea is that training in the heat will cause the largest increase in plasma volume and cause a bigger improvement in running performance than training in cool to cold weather.

A preeminent researcher in this area is Dr. Christopher Minson; he and his colleagues at the University of Oregon have been studying the effects of heat training on cool weather exercise performance in endurance athletes (mostly cyclists). They’ve found heat training improves cool-weather VO2max, lactate threshold, and time trial performance compared to the same training protocol done in cool temperatures. Other researchers have tested the benefits of exercising in cool weather but then keeping core temperature high by immediately sitting in a hot tub or sauna after exercise. This post-exercise heat stress has been shown to elicit similar improvements in running performance compared to exercising in the heat. All these results suggest that heat training would improve running performance in cold-weather races.

Many runners will train through the winter in preparation for a spring marathon. Race-day temperature can vary greatly from year to year and an unseasonably hot day could derail months of dedicated training. You need look no further than the 2017 Boston Marathon, which was run on a very warm, sunny day. Most runners who trained through the winter were not heat acclimated and their finishing times suffered as a result. Heat training can help prepare runners to be able to handle a warm weather race that may otherwise derail a training cycle.

There is still a lot scientists must figure out. For example, might improvements simply be due to the increased stress of exercising in the heat, where the heart must work harder to supply enough blood to the muscles for exercise and the skin for cooling (suggesting the same benefits could be attained by simply training harder)? How long the benefits of heat training persist? What is the optimal exercise protocol (for example, heat training combined with high-intensity interval training has not been studied yet)? While not every study has shown a benefit of heat training, no study has shown that it impairs performance. This makes heat training a low-risk, high-reward investment in your training.

Interested in heat training but don’t have the high-precision heat chambers or ability to constantly monitor internal temperature (rectal probe) like the sports scientists do? Here is how you can make it work for you:

·       Most of the benefits can be obtained with 7-10 consecutive days of exercise in the heat.

·       You should exercise for an hour a day in a hot room. The temperature the room needs to be depends on a lot of things (humidity, airflow, exercise intensity). The simplest rule to follow: it should be hot enough that you sweat heavily.

·       You can also try sitting in a hot tub or sauna 30 minutes after each run.

·       Heat training should be stopped about 3 days before your goal race. This will give you enough time to recover, but you should retain most of the benefits.

·       Hotter is not better and dehydration doesn’t help. Be sure to drink plenty of fluids and stop exercising if you begin to feel any symptoms of heat illness (read about that in detail here).

Hopefully after reading this you are warmed up to the idea (pun intended) that heat training can improve your race performance, regardless of temperature.

Happy training!
Daniel H. Craighead PhD

*Please email Neely if you wish to submit a guest blog at neelyruns@gmail.com

The Coffee Taper 2.0

Utilizing the benefit of Caffeine in Training and Racing

There is just something about the promise of a hot cup of coffee that helps me get out of bed in the morning. If nothing less, the smell of roasted beans brewing is enough for me to be glad I’m awake. Don’t you agree? Even people who hate the taste of coffee seem to love how it smells. Last winter, I did a short blog on the Coffee Taper and how I utilize the benefit of Caffeine during training and racing. It has continued to be a popular subject, so I decided to resurface the topic and share more details.

My weekly routine is caffeine on workout/long run days, and decaf on the recovery days. I follow this for all caffeinated products, not just coffee. The boost on the workout days is 100% worthwhile, and the recovery run days I still get my cozy early morning atmosphere of a warm drink before I head outside. (Because we all know the culture of coffee time is essential to our day). 

For me, a typical day starts at 5:45am. My husband Dillon gets up for work, so I wake up, drink 6-8oz of water, and then lay back down for 15 minutes or so to let myself slowly wake up. I’m not the best morning person. Around 6, I get out of bed, and head downstairs to feed Strider (our Vizsla Puppy) and get my coffee started. I grind my beans of choice, and turn the water on to boil. I am a craft coffee girl… French press or Pour over are my two go-to methods. I don’t actually own a normal coffee maker. I’m not a purest either, and I need my creamer. I sip coffee, eat a light breakfast, and check emails. I am most productive before 8am! Spending some time coaching (I have an online coaching business), posting on social media, and responding to texts is my usual pre-run rituals. I drink some water or electrolytes after I finish my coffee and breakfast and then I start getting ready for my training with stretching and drills. You can see, my routine stays the same, but the difference is in my coffee choice… caffeine or decaf.

The week of a race, this routine changes slightly. According to smart people like my coach, Steve Magness, the body needs at least 4 days off from caffeine to regain sensitivity to it’s ergogenic benefits. Race week, I have coffee before my first workout, but then it is strictly decaf the rest of the week. This gives me 4-5 days to crave the caffeine and helps me get even more excited for race morning!

*Disclaimer: I always feel terrible on the final workout before the race due to no caffeine. But, I have learned this is normal for me and it doesn’t mean I am not ready.

And to finish this discussion, the best video ever (trust me, it's worth your next 53seconds) !