I just got back from a visit with my grandmother who recently turned 99. Imagine seeing this past decade and all that has changed. My niece asked her what her favorite era in fashion has been and she said it was the miniskirts of the late 60s and early 70s. Love that! She thinks she is losing memory but I think it is fair to assume you won't remember all the things that happened when they are 40, 60 and 80 years ago. She is sharp as a tack but cannot understand my career, am I an adult gym teacher? She also can't understand how I get paid through the TV. (I don't but thank you Venmo) 

Her mother lived to 99 and now here she is at the same milestone. It makes me wonder if I will see the age of 99 in 2074. Genetics seem to be strong here, I just might and the year 2074 feels like science fiction. I am guessing super shoe mid-soles will be about four inches high, we will have seen a women break the 2-hour marathon barrier and I don't even want to know how many grams of carbs per hour we will be up to by then. Long races will be weeks long and I will be messing up and calling it a 50k. I do hope if I live to 99 that it includes quality time outside, friends (better start making much younger friends!) and something that gives me as much purpose as running. Stay tuned, maybe I will still be sending Tuesday emails. 

STEEPER IS CHEAPER
"A steep slope will have a shorter course distance but be harder to run up. A gentle slope will be easier to run up but cover a longer total distance. For a given finishing time, what’s the sweet spot?" The article in Outside Magazine, Why Steeper Is Cheaper for Climbing Hills, by Alex Hutchinson answers the question how to choose a trail up a hillside for maximum speed, the longer but less steep way or right up. "If you’re choosing between two routes, remember this: If one route is twice as steep as the other, you’d have to walk twice as fast up the gentler route to reach the top in the same time. Counterintuitive though it may sound, that data shows that under most circumstances, twice as steep is easier than twice as fast."

A FEW GOOD READS

• "I got my first period in 15 years the morning of a big race, and didn’t know what to do". An article by professional bike racer, Sarah Sturm. 
• “The primary lesson from the monks is one of commitment. When you commit to doing something—do it! Don’t make excuses. Don’t renegotiate. Just do what you said you would do—as if your life depended on it.” -Stan Beecham, Elite Minds: Creating the Competitive Advantage, the next book on my to read list.
• Words From the Wild is written by Heather Anderson, National Geographic Explorer of the Year and famous thru-hiker. She writes monthly articles and if you are thinking about going long, read here.

STRENGTH TRAINING
Change out of your work pajamas and into your workout pajamas tomorrow night for Strength Training for Runners. Live to your screen on Wednesdays, stay home, get strong. Information here. 
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Do you have friends that can make a hill less steep? If you run with a supportive longtime friend, this study says you do!  
"It is important that friendship duration moderated hill slope perception. The longer participants knew their friends, the less steep they estimated the hill to be"

The simple presence of a supportive person can change how difficult something feels, so maybe the hill isn't smaller, but it will feel that way. Knowing this we need to both watch out for bad route information from our most social of running pals and keep our friends on our same running plan.

I have definitely been guilty of sending people on routes I ran with friends telling athletes they weren't so bad and hearing otherwise. And I have been sent up the side of a mountain by friends remembering routes 'that will only be a little longer' on solo runs feeling like death marches needing at least three emotional support treats to keep from having a tantrum. 

Time to get in touch with some running friends to join you on your next tough run. (or text a laugh to someone who sent you up something too difficult!) 

Also, time to mark your calendar for Strength Training for Runners on Wednesday nights. Is it easier if you have been joining me for years and we are friends? Not sure I can make that kettlebell lighter but why not come and find out. Information on the always free class is here. 

MOOD AND ENERGY
If the study linked above has you curious to dive in more, there are lots of studies regarding "geographical slant", HILLS. Here is one study that notes, "observers in a sad mood reported hills to be steeper" and here is another in which "two experiments demonstrate that participants who had consumed a glucose-containing drink perceived the slant of a hill to be less steep than did participants who had consumed a drink containing non-caloric sweetener." Sounds like you need friends, good mood and calories for best results, but you could have guessed that! 

RAISE THE BAR
If you want to watch women's sports, here is a new resource for finding a sports bar that pledges to show women’s college games on at least 50% of their televisions throughout the tournament and to ensure a safe, inclusive space where fans can gather for March Madness. 

GRAPE FLAVOR IS TRENDING
Tailwind Endurance fuel just announced its grape flavor is no longer seasonal but part of its core lineup. Skratch just announced grape chews. What's next? Are we going to start seeing Grape Crush at ultramarathon aid stations? I just learned it does come in a drink mix (which has zero sugar, so I would avoid during a race!) But if you need your nostalgia hit pre-race, you can get it with grape Pop Tarts, which according to their own marketing are back by popular demand. 

Five years ago, I was home from the gym where I had been teaching Wednesday night Strength Training for Runners. I was supposed to be teaching class, but I had just returned home from Finland and having traveled from Europe was a risk factor for this Covid 19 thing going around. I thought I would be home for two weeks but in reality, as you know, it was a lot longer. At the urging of another trainer, I hesitantly figured out the newfangled thing called Zoom and taught class from my home office. I figured I would do it for a couple times and head on back to the gym. Five years on, you can still find me, different home gym, same time and place, on Zoom live to your screen on Wednesday nights. 

When I was encouraged to teach online, I was not only hesitant, I thought it was dumb, no one would join and I didn't have interest in learning how to do it. 
If you would have told me that five years on, I would still be offering this class, I really would never have started. A FIVE year commitment to something EVERY week sounds like a no to me. 

There are some good lessons in there, about continual learning, being open to new ideas and not being afraid to start, BUT I am not going there. Instead, I want to express my gratitude for those of you who were a part of the five amazing years of Strength Training for Runners at the gym and these last five amazing years of Strength Training for Runners online. If you want in on this super happy fun crew lifting heavy weights and sometimes detergent bottles or Corgis, then JOIN US TOMORROW. Class is always free and the tip jar for snacks is always open. 

GET UP, RUN FAST, STAY WARM
Here are some athletes at the TOP of their game. 

• Here is a video of the latest world record of 255lbs for the Turkish Get Up. With this video as inspiration, I attempted to hold a 15lb barbell overhead and keep it steady which makes this record 1,000 times more impressive. 
• Here is what it looks like running at mile 26 of a 50k when you are on pace to finish in 3 hours and 40 minutes. Check out Jim Walmsley's gait, even over rocks, it is soooo good. 
• Lael Wilcox, ultra distance cyclist and Guinness World Record for fastest circumnavigation of the WORLD by bike, finished the Iditarod Invitation on a fat tire bike and talks about it in this podcast. So many lessons in living in the moment, avoiding frustration, having grace and staying warm. 

KRISPY TREATS VALIDATED
If you are one of my coached athletes, you know I am an advocate of the Rice Krispy Treat as fuel for ultras (not exclusively, I am not a savage!). Most people are able to stomach rice-based fuels, they are never super dry and don't melt in the heat. Skratch Labs attempted to make a healthy/sportified version that included quinoa (NO! BAD! STOP!) and it was discontinued because hard chunks of quinoa do not belong in your life. Maurten has a solid bar product in addition to their more popular gels and it is basically an extremely expensive Rice Krispy Treat. And now, the message board Let's Run is incredulous that a track runner has credited the marshmallow treats (and other sugar snacks) with some of his success. I think the evidence is in, the treats have been validated! 

My go to home recipe for the treats. If you are more a salty type and want to make the treats with potato chips get cooking. 

One of the key indicators of success for my coached athletes is having a person or people supporting their running goals. I have seen seasons ruined by unsupportive spouses or friend groups that just didn't seem to care. On the flip side, I have seen athletes rise to their potential on audacious goals bolstered by friends who help find good routes and join for part, partners who do pick up from a one way run with snacks and parents who go to races despite having no clue on the distance of a 50k.

Here's the thing, it isn't just luck that these athletes have a supportive circle. All those seemingly lucky people have something in common, which is, they all are part of another person's supportive circle. These athletes lead group runs, sweep races, put on training run events for the fun of it, bake treats for friends after hard races and are actively part of another person's cheer squad. 

Can you say this for yourself? Good thing is trying out for this cheer squad is free, you already have the uniform and being a small part of someone's success will fuel your own. 

BE STRONG 
Time to give this a try! Strength Training for Runners is live to your screen, Wednesday nights. Get the scoop here. 

STRATEGIC SWEARING
"A variety of dosages of swearing (i.e., word used, intensity, frequency, quantity) have been reported to improve physical performance." You read that right, this study says you can let it rip! The effect of swearing on physical performance summary states, "swearing represents a low-risk, effective, and inexpensive intervention that has the potential to acutely improve physical performance although the taboo nature of swearing may limit its utility in real-world situations." 

Great news! You can swear during Wednesday night Strength Training for Runners since you are on mute! 

FOR YOUR EARS

• New to me podcast, Your Diet Sucks, has some good food for thought and seems like they are serious about fact checking since one of the co-hosts is Zoe Rom, Editor In Chief of Trail Runner magazine. I just listened to this episode about sports nutrition marketing and it has me reminded to check my sports fuels for fake sugars that can cause GI distress (and to be super weary of some popular gels out there)
• Against the Odds has done it again and made a podcast season that had me binging it in one day taking the dog for extra walks so I could hear the whole thing. The Nome Serum Run is a good story for your next long run. "It’s the winter of 1925 and in the remote town of Nome, Alaska, children are dying from a diphtheria outbreak that’s spreading fast. But in the dead of winter, the town is nearly impossible to reach and its supply of medicine is dwindling. The only option is to send the medicine by dogsled, in a relay..."