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Welcome to the archive of the
ULTRAU TUESDAY EMAIL |
Photo courtesy of Full Send Media. Race by Go Beyond Racing.
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I am about to barrel down the highway into the middle of no where Oregon, then onto the middle of nowhere Nevada, Utah and Arizona. There are Ruby Mountains to see, a rarely visited National Park to discover and the sounds of my feet and bike tires. I am headed into a week with more trees than WIFI so this email is coming to you a day early.
NO WEIGHTS NEEDED No live Strength Training for Runners on Wednesday BUT, don't skip strength training because I am out of service! Here is a video from the deep archives of 2022 when we lived in Portland, had a different dog and did strength training without weights. So, no equipment needed, but you do need 45 minutes. Mark the calendar, protect your time and get this done. If having no home weights was a barrier, now there are no excuses. SMOOTHIES I saw this article on How to Make a Smoothie and I nearly went blind rolling my eyes. Well, I read it anyway, because I like those "Four mistakes you are making" articles and then feeling smug when I am not making the mistakes. Turns out this article is actually quite good and if you have a post run smoothie or aren't having recovery fuel for workouts over 90 minutes but a smoothie sounds good, READ UP HERE. I promise you will learn something (or you can feel extra smug because you knew it all already!) The same person also has a podcast you may need to hear right now, Why slower runners still need carbs. CAN'T SLEEP POST RACE I got a great question from one of my athletes, basically saying, why can't I sleep after a big effort? My answer: After a long run or race you have elevated cortisol from the effort, that effects sleep and ability to stay asleep. Post long run athletes often have more caffeine in their system disrupting sleep as well as elevated core body temps which impede sleep and core temps can stay elevated with dehydration, also not helping you sleep. If you didn't fuel well post-race you can still be hungry and low blood sugar crashes at night cause you to wake up. AND of course there are sore legs making a good body position hard and killing sleep even more. You can read more here. RUNNING VESTS If you are looking to add a new running vest to your running gear, a bigger or smaller size or one that bounces less IRunFar has a review of some popular running vests so you can get an idea of where to start your search.
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“Whatever you're meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.”
― Doris Lessing, Author and Nobel Prize winner Hi all, IRONMAN recently released a report with new survey data offering insight into global athlete trends within the IRONMAN triathlon community. Surveying 10,000 individuals across 97 countries, the findings reveal a familiar barrier for many women: time. Specifically, women cited the demands of family life and the challenge of finding childcare as key reasons behind the barrier of "finding time" to participate in triathlon or endurance sports. Currently, women represent just 18% of IRONMAN triathletes worldwide. In ultrarunning, while women have made up just over 30% of race participants (across all distances) since 2021, that percentage has remained stagnant for more than a decade, according to Ultrarunning Magazine. The report also includes data from USA Triathlon showing that while men's participation in the sport has rebounded to 91% of pre-COVID levels, women’s participation has only reached 71%. Now, I would love to wait until society fully values women’s work—until household responsibilities are shared equally, and women’s sports receive the recognition and support they deserve. But we can’t afford to wait. Until those systemic changes come, we only have ourselves. So, I ask: Are you valuing your own participation in sport enough to set boundaries, ask for help, and make space for your goals? Can you separate what is yours to carry and what you have been carrying for so long you forget others can do it too? (simple to say, so hard to do, but we can do hard things, right?) And if you’re not the one trying to “find time”—are you helping your wife, daughter, sister, or mother carry the load? The conditions are always impossible. Do it now. BARRIER FREE, I MEAN AS BARRIER FREE AS I CAN I know going to the gym is a barrier for many, so join me live to your screen for Strength Training for Runners. Class is always free knocking down the barrier of cost, commute and fear of gyms. See you on Wednesday nights. During the height of the pandemic multiple sets of moms joined in with their kids. Feel free to bring kids mature enough to do a decent lunge! If I see a kid onscreen, I promise to help modify the workout as needed and keep the language clean. A LABORATORY FOR VIRTUE This podcast with guest Sabrina Little, discusses running as a laboratory for virtue and other deep thoughts including, “fitness is feeling like you are dying at a much faster pace than you used to feel like you were dying at.” ― Sabrina Little, The Examined Run: Why Good People Make Better Runners Happy trails, Dana Hi all,
Last weekend I was spectating at the Peterson Ridge Rumble. Almost a third of participants in the 20-mile race had a dog, so if you are into dogs, running and being in Central Oregon, put this one on your list. It was also the Bend Marathon, the Walla Walla 6 hour run, the Yakima Skyline 50k/25k and Gorge Waterfalls races. LOTS of athletes out there, so naturally I got to hear lots of post-race stories yesterday, basically, best day ever. POST RACE STORYTELLING Let's say you set out for a 4-hour marathon and run a 4:15, how do you talk about that race? Let's say you set out to run 30 miles on a weekend long run and "ONLY" get in 26. Do you swat away the compliments like flies, feeling undeserving that you are a badass because you ran 30 sec per mile slower than you hoped? Do you go on and on about how it wasn't very good and why it was terrible and you are terrible and everything is terrible? Is that what you would want to hear from someone who ran 45 miles instead of 50? Be careful of how you talk about big accomplishments that are just off the mark. Talking to coaches, besties and running friends about missing a goal is a great place for reflection, real talk and nuance. Find the faults, figure out how to get better, lament what could have been. But your cubicle neighbor at work who doesn't run thinks you're awesome. So does your hairstylist and neighbor. They don't care that your time isn't what you wanted, they are damn impressed you trained every weekend for months and got out early in the rain. They may never run a marathon or maybe will one day because you did. But one thing is for sure, they don't need to hear your negative self-talk about how the amazing thing wasn't good enough. More importantly YOU DON'T need to hear that about yourself. You don't need to hear yourself over and over saying the run wasn't that good. I wasn't fast enough. I didn't get as far as I wanted. Repeating these sentiments can make you harsher to yourself and social media is already working hard on that! By putting yourself down you are convincing your brain to feel pessimistic about your running and what you deserve. You deserve to feel awesome, even when you don't hit the A-standard, gold medal level you set for yourself. It is ok to accept compliments on your run without saying anything disparaging about how it went or about your ability. You ran far, even if you were bummed at the outcome. POST RACE REFUELING I had an athlete ask a good question about post-race refueling. The question was, I typically have a protein shake post run, should I do that at a race? Funny enough, I hadn't really thought of that for runners at a race since there is food, no need to drive from the trailhead home, no waiting, just eat. BUT, many runners can't finish a tough race and then go right to the post race burger/pizza/burrito. If you live for finish line food and can get in good calories with protein post race, then no need to bring anything to supplement. If you cross the line and may not be able to eat for hours, BRING THE SHAKE, it gives you hydration, calories and protein without you having to stomach real food if you aren't ready. A REVOLT "A revolt against impossibility." A podcast with Jacky Hunt-Broesma, a cancer survivor, amputee and trailblazing ultrarunner who just ran really far. PROTEIN FOR YOUR AGE Check out this newsletter which addresses protein needs in female athletes. A key takeaway here (and why you shouldn't just copy a friend or some Instagram meals) is that a women in her 40s+ needs more protein post exercise than a woman in her 20s. JOIN ME Strength Training for Runners on Wednesday nights. Always free. See you on your screen. I just read a great piece from Matt Fitzgerald about self-disqualification, "whereby runners eschew certain practices because they view themselves as unworthy of them."
He opens with a runner realizing that fast runners run right through puddles to optimize the route and how it didn't occur to her to just run through the puddles. No need to save a few seconds here and there as a "slower runner". I haven't had a term for this before but I see it in two areas for age group athletes and he addresses these in the article as well. The first is having a coach (or a prepared training plan). Many athletes think that a running coach or purchased plan is only for the fastest among us when in reality, it doesn't matter how fast you are running, if you want to optimize your own performance, a coach or plan is for you. As a coach, I promise you, finishing before the cut off of a dream race or going whatever far means to you is a really valuable and worthy goal. The second is nutrition. I am serious, if I hear someone say that they didn't fuel that much on a run because they aren't running that fast, I will force them to eat a gel standing there until they fully apologize to themself. Fueling information is readily available but yet so many athletes are leaving performance on the table under fueling, thinking it doesn't pertain to their speed or their effort. I have linked to this post before but it helps you determine how much to use fueling before and during a long run. Hint, it is more than you think and yes, even your run needs it. Are you feeling unworthy of finding a great training plan or coach, not fueling enough, not buying yourself new shoes when you need them, thinking sports massage is for someone more serious or refusing to run with a group assuming they are too cool? This is all self-disqualifying behavior and it is time to starting counting yourself in. Think strength training is just for strong people? Nope! It is for people just lifting their first weight and people who can deadlift their bodyweight. Need a way in? Come to Strength Training for Runners on Wednesday night and see what it is all about. RUNNING NEWS
THINGS I AM EATING
A science newsletter I am loving right now highlighted a study examining how periods of high academic stress, think finals, impacted injury risk in college football players. The study period lasted 20 weeks and included over 100 male student athletes. Researchers found that injury rates significantly spiked during exam weeks to nearly double of the rates they found during low stress academic weeks.
The study suggests stress compromises your attention. Under pressure, you have reduced reaction time (hello twisted ankle). Stress increases muscle tension and then sprinkle in some fatigue from poor sleep, and it is no surprise you are running funny and now your knee or hip or back is starting to bug you. This study was on a bunch of college students, all of them younger than us. Who knows how much worse this is as we age. You can't always control your incoming stressors BUT you can control your training. Some things you can do to promote healthy training during periods of intense stress include more rest days, rest weeks that come more often and more easy days. STRONG GRANDMA Put down your phone, put down your work and go watch this video from the New Yorker, Strong Grandma. If I live to 95, I really hope I am deadlifting BUT even more I really hope I have a friendship like the one highlighted in this short where we share gym time and giant cookies. Want to be strong like Grandma? Join me on Wednesday nights for Strength Training for Runners. It is free, so tell work you have to go help your grandmother with something and get your workout on. BOUNCE, BOUNCE An unlikely injury tale from a runner losing vision on the trail and requiring emergency surgery. A story from Scott Dunlap. APRIL FOOLS These are the best April Fools marketing pushes that have come across my eyeballs today.
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All images and posts © UltraU, 2022. Photos by Runnerteri Photography.