A bouyant fixity, flavorless flav and small wins

"So, what is joy, if not a feeling? Thomas Aquinas defines it as a “consequence of love.” Joy involves a kind of happy alignment with one’s good purpose that provides internal stability. It is this aspect of joy — that it is rooted in an internal condition, rather than external circumstances — that makes it valuable during setbacks. A joyful runner has an internal anchor, or buoyant fixity, on her purpose, that helps carry her through the difficult miles."

Hi all,

The above paragraph is from an article by Sabrina Little, philosopher and runner in which she writes on the "Virtues of Despair Resistance". She covers joy, hope and resilience and I encourage you to give it a read. Joy doesn't need to mean you need a smile on your run through slush or inches of mud. Hope doesn't mean toxic positivity and resilience doesn't mean we forget our setbacks. 

Yesterday I was looking at race data from a race I did in 2017. I thought I would find despair at no longer being able to hold paces anything close to the paces I ran then, but instead I felt proud (joy even?) that I once did that. HOLD THE PHONE, this is a huge win and I am telling you about it not to brag but to say, we CAN get past comparing ourselves to our former selves. It feels like a miracle and maybe this will be the only time this ever happens for me, but HECK YEAH, small win for the week! 

YOU CAN HAVE A SMALL WIN TOO
You have won a free Strength Training for Runners class! And you have won and you have won. OK, it is always free and no one wins, BUT I hope to see you on Wednesday nights. Check it out. Free as always, live to your screen.

FLAVORLESS
I have been asked multiple times in the last month for fueling options that are flavorless. It is a boom time for fuel and electrolytes without strong flavors, so if you get the ICK from too many sugary flavors, maybe some of these will work. All are sold in single servings by The Feed, so you can test them out. 

HIGH CARB DRINKS: Tailwind Naked. Maurten Drink Mix. UCAN Energy. 

ELECTROLYTES: Skratch Labs Clear, Capsules from Precision Hydration or LMNT Raw

GELS: UCAN Edge, Precision Original, or just buy this 6 pack of neutral gels and test a bunch of options. 

SPEAKING OF ELECTROLYTES 
Electrolytes can be confusing. There are electrolyte drinks sold with concentrations from 300mg of sodium in products like Nuun Sport or products that have the number 500 huge on the package but contain 250mg of sodium. Confused yet? There are products like LMNT that have 1,000mg of sodium, want more salty goodness? Here's one with 1,500. The recommended doses are from almost nothing to the whole salt shaker which is because athletes have different sweat rates. Take a group of runners and one will have a drenched ponytail and one may not even have a glisten. That is normal so the first thing is knowing yourself. If you are soaked with sweat and ringed with white salt marks after a run even when it isn't super-hot, you may be a salty sweater. There are tests for this if you feel like you need some guidance. In the end, you may need something wildly different than your training partner, so start experimenting with what works so summer doesn't have you staring down GI problems, bonks and no fun long run zombie marches.

RED-S BONKS
If you have suffered from RED-S (or relative energy deficiency in sport) you may be bonking sooner or harder than people who have been consistently fueling and do not suffer from disordered eating. Here is a story from Jenny Tough that may resonate, "Because understanding that you need to fuel is not the same as believing you need to, it takes a long time to work out exactly why and where you’re denying the science"

Happy trails!