"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!

This weekend Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo ran a blistering 4:19 pace at the Barcelona half marathon finishing the race in 56:42, 48 seconds faster than the previous men's world record mark. 

I ran the numbers on the mile splits three times because it feels like a joke, both on us everyday runners and on numbers really. 13.1 miles that fast just feels a deep fake. 

In 1967 the men's half marathon record was just over 1:03. Twenty-six years later, in 1993, the record dipped under one hour for the first time. Twenty-six years of people chipping away, at THREE MINUTES! And the sub-57? We are looking at fifty-eight years to take off those six minutes. 

All of this is to say, hang in there. Believe. Keep working at it. Double down in your belief. Keep learning. Believe a little more. Buy the news shoes, eat the carbs and run the runs. And of course, get as strong as you can. 

Need to start on strength training but unsure how? I KNOW! Join me for Strength Training for Runners on Wednesday nights.

SHOULD YOU RUN BY MILES OR TIME?
I plan all my athlete's training by time. One reason is an athlete can pick a run that is eight miles and three hours on steep stuff, or eight miles can take under 90 minutes on the road. A three-hour run is often not what I am asking, especially on a weekday, so giving time and effort makes it so athletes can let mileage fall where it will. "When you run for time, you avoid the pressure to hit a certain pace and distance, allowing you to execute the workout’s intended purpose." 

SLEEP DEPRIVATION SCIENCE
If you are prepping for a long run this summer, like a big FKT, a mountain 100 miler or a 200+ miler, check this out. A small study points to use of "small, controlled caffeine hits (2mg/kg) every 3 hours through a sleepless night" to improve endurance performance. Other non-caffeinated tips offered as well! 
 
THESE PHOTOS!
These are the most incredible photos of women in Afghanistan, who have been banned from playing sports, modeling with their sports gear.  If you are moved by these photos or the thought of women being banned from a sporting life altogether, Free to Run is an organization doing work to change things. 
GOOGLE?
This week I have seen the following auto populate searches and I have so many questions. 

• Is there a rule against attaching a helium balloon to yourself while running?
• Is running a verb?
• How fast is a two-hour half marathon? 
• Running is what you do best?

"Our environment invites action. What is your environment inviting?" -Win the Inside Game, by Steve Magness

I am seeing even the most motivated of athletes starting to not love the slush, get sick of the dark and lose motivation for another cold run. I really want to believe the "bloom where you are planted" thrive in any environment, go mental toughness argument, but as people, we MOVE! I can't rule out "these boots are made for walking" in some scenarios.  

I think the boots are made for walking thinking does assume a certain level of privilege BUT, you don't need to take a training vacation to invite a better environment to shake things up. You can still walk your boots into a better run if you take a little time and some gas. 

I use this app to check for spots that might have better weather. Just click on the map and it tells you the weather for that area. Why not bloom in the sun, even if just for a few hours! If you are in Portland some trails within two hours to check out that often have sun when Portland has gray are the Deschutes River Canyon, Klickitat River Trail and the trails in Cottonwood Canyon State Park. 

Let your environment invite the action. And invite a friend, maybe they can drive! 

And speaking of invites, you are invited to Strength Training for Runners on Wednesday nights. Live to your screen. Always free. Join us! 

FKT FOR PARA ATHLETES
Shawn Chesire ran the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim in just under 11 hours to set the first FKT for a para-athlete now that Fastest Known Time has updated their guidelines to include a category for para atheltes. Shawn is blind and ran without a guide. 

VALENTINES IS FOR THE BIRDS
With a donation of $10.00, Alaska's Bird Treatment and Learning center will feed a mealworm named after your ex to one of the birds they are rehabbing. "Need to go bigger for full closure? Donate $100.00, and we'll feed a rat named after your ex to one of our raptors!"

RUN WITH A MAP
If you want to try your hand at orienteering, the first event of the season for the Columbia River Orienteering Club, CROC, is set for March 1 in Portland and it is a night run. You can get there by bus, these events are great to do with kids, and there is pizza after. The best thing is that it is just $12 per person. Shake up your running with some map reading! More information here. 

THIS IS A LONG TRAIL
The Trans Canada Trail is 14,900 miles long. The trail requires a serious time commitment, some canoeing and a real desire to be alone. Notes from the first person to do the entire trail. "We never saw another canoe in that time, but we heard that there was a man behind us kayaking and a couple in a canoe ahead of us... The man eventually drowned five miles behind us, and Julien from the couple was eaten by a bear."  The marketing could be better, HA! 

SHINGLES
If you are 50 or over, you are eligible to get the Shingles vaccine. Here is a well balanced argument in favor of why you should go get it despite it potentially ruining your day post vaccination. Shingles will really ruin some runs if you get it, I turn 50 this year and will be marching down to get the shot for sure. 

SAYING YES TO THIS
Keeping men out of women's sports. "Women’s sports do not exist to make people comfortable, to reinforce gender stereotypes, or to give political points to the patriarchy. They exist to disrupt the status quo. And that’s why, beyond their dehumanization of trans people, which is reason enough to oppose them, trans bans in women’s sports are so upsetting; because they rely on the notion that femininity, above all else, is fragile. And, as someone who actually watches women’s sports on a daily basis and sees what these athletes are capable of, I vehemently disagree."

I have been noticing a trend that many afternoon exercisers seem to be more exhausted than usual and more depleted, having to push themselves out the door for runs. 

I have long attributed this to running after a long day of life. Studies have shown a connection between mental fatigue and increased perceived exertion from exercise and decline in endurance performance, which makes workouts after a tough day at work feel harder. But now I know there is more to it than being tired from your job. 

After listening to the Fresh Air episode, "The trouble with 'donating our dopamine' to our phones, not our friends" I realize scrolling through social media is also contributing to our sense of exhaustion and feeling like we need to isolate ourselves under the covers to recharge.

"We pull out our phones and we're on TikTok or Instagram, or we're on Twitter and we're flipping, flipping, flipping with our thumbs. And while externally it looks like nothing is happening internally, the dopamine is flowing and we are just thinking, my God, we're feeling outrage, we're feeling excitement, we're feeling humor, we're feeling all sorts of things. We put our phone away and our dopamine levels fall and we feel kind of exhausted by that, which was supposed to be our leisure time." 

I highly recommend listening to the full episode. It has made me realize that the "break" I was taking from work to look at Instagram was counterproductive and in fact robbing me of the energy I can put in to real life interactions and runs, skis or dinners with friends. 

If you are seeing yourself in this and want to work on how to make a change, get in touch. I am trying to change my own habits by taking away unlimited social media breaks and limiting use to only a few times a day and on a schedule. I want to have as much energy as possible for my in person interactions INCLUDING afternoon workouts, like Strength Training for Runners, to which you are invited.

If you want to join Strength Training for Runners, don't scroll on your phone before it starts, instead, pet your dog, send a friend a quick hello message and then join us, every Wednesday night, information here. 
HOW FAR WOULD YOU RUN FOR A FREE BURRITO?
700 miles? If you weren't riveted to the Strava X Chipotle Challenge, that went down in January, check it out now, it is a real feel good story. Basically, two runners in Tempe, Arizona ran a 0.3 mile stretch in front of the local Chipotle to log as many segments as possible for the month to win a year of free burritos. The outcome was that Portland's own Kevin Russ and Aravaipa Running's Jamil Coury went head-to-head with almost equivalent mileage going into the final days. Coury finished with a 41-hour continuous effort on the segment for a total of 700 miles on a 3-block stretch for the month. The prize is mostly bragging rights since a burrito a week for a year is valued at just over $700. Story here. YouTube videos of how it went down here. 

STREAK
World’s longest running streak ends after 20,309 days. That is nearly 55 years, WHAT!!! This article also taught me there is a thing called Streak Runners International. They don't accept streaks unless they are over one year long in case you want to register your own streak. 

SPORTY THINGS I THOUGHT WERE EARLY APRIL FOOLS JOKES

• Hoka is making a dress shoe. It has tassels. I can't look directly at it. 
• There are professional corn hole players, that make actual money. I guess I don't understand anything about sports.
• People are taking hits of Xenon for $5,000 as a way to prepare for climbing Everest. 
• There are rock climbing video games where you control the limbs and reach for holds. Who plays this?

CREATINE
Should Runners Take Creatine? Of course, the answer is maybe. Downsides are potential GI issues that will interfere with your running. Upside is giant muscles and never getting injured. (haha, just kidding, it is never that easy) If you are considering this supplement, read up and decide if it is for you. 

Happy trails!