Sometimes everything is going amazing and somethings you have to shut the water off to your house and then realize you have to go to the bathroom in a way that requires a flush, so you run to the bottom of the yard, turn on the water, do your business, run back to the water shut off in the yard and then return in time for a meeting and pretend everything is fine. Hoping that all of you are having a week with unlimited flushes and no rushing into meetings! 

STRENGTH TRAINING 
Join me Wednesday for Strength Training for Runners. THE LINK HAS CHANGED so click from the linked page or HERE. Let's do some lunges. I mean, you can always do this random K-pop workout getting your booty down to an absolute earworm (but if we could dance, wouldn't we have chosen that, not running, right!)  Workouts are always free. Live to your screen, see you there! 

BE AN ALLY 
It is that time of year when we will be running in the dark. Here is a plea to all runners, but especially male runners, PLEASE BE AN ALLY. Right now, runners who identify as nervous in the dark and runners who identify as wanting to feel comfortable in their neighborhoods NEED YOU! The BARE MINIMUM for being a running ally is to have a light and to SAY HELLO, with words. When a dude runs by me with a serious/mean/strained face without saying hi, it always makes me look behind me nervously. He is probably deep in thought or in the middle of a hard interval BUT I am just not sure. So, I look and look again. Someone saying hi or a wave keeps my HR from creeping up AND, when I am running and all of a sudden someone pops out of nowhere because I didn't see them without lights, it is scary. Light yourself up for cars and for the love of other people out enjoying the streets. 

SHOULD I???

• Run the day before a race? I always assign a 20-30 minute run to my coached athletes. The WHY is here. 
• Do deadlifts? Yes, lift heavy and be happy. Strong glutes will not let you down. The WHY is here. 
• Do morning runs fasted? Please don't. The WHY is here. 

Here's a good question from an athlete. I’m faster than my friends, but I keep stressing about beating them at my upcoming 100-mile race this spring. Why does it bother me so much? I want them to have a good day and am honestly cheering for them. 
Well surprise, it’s not really about them. It’s about you. Deep down, what you want isn’t to win against your friends, it’s to prove you lived up to your own potential. AND you know if you live up to your potential, you should be ahead so beating them is a marker of that hoped for success. Since100 miles is not just about fitness but about taking care of yourself and fueling and hydration and mental toughness, of course you are stressing. It is AWESOME to care and that desire to have all of your fitness and toughness and ability to fuel on race day should be ferocious! So instead of focusing on where your friends are in the race, the focus needs to be on all the ways you are taking care of yourself to express all that fitness you built to run to your potential. Run happy! 

POST EXERCISE CARBS
Feel great on tough workouts some days and other days you struggle? Could be post workout carb replenishment from the day before. There is a study titled, "Delaying post-exercise carbohydrate intake impairs next-day exercise capacity but not muscle glycogen or molecular responses." If you read no more, that is fine because it seems obvious that you need to refuel post exercise. So eat carbs, yay. The study was performed on nine men, so tough to know if women would have the same, worse or more pronounced response. They had participants do a high intensity workout on a bike and then some had carbs immediately after, some waited three hours. Then the subjects were retested the next day where it was found that on average, participants completed 30% fewer intervals in the delayed carbohydrate condition. That means if you are not refueling properly post run on day one it could make it so you only get to only seven out of ten hill repeats on day two.  It is a small study for sure, but it is also a fun test you can run on yourself and the worst that happens is you get to eat something yummy post run. 

ICE CREAM
This guy is making ice cream while trail running in his hydration vest. The best part is he shares the how to so all of you can head out and make ice cream for your next trail run. Go buy some rock salt and make some new friends! 

LISTEN UP

• New podcast alert and this one is good. Three legends in women's sport teamed up to host a podcast called Welcome to the Party. Abby Wambach, Billy Jean King and Julie Foudy are letting us listen in on their chats and I am here for it. I listened to this one with runner Allyson Felix and thought it was a winner. 
• "You can't stop the birds of worry from flying into your hair, but you can keep them from building a nest. Intrusive thoughts are always going to come... try to respond to it rather than react to it." - Excellence, Actually podcast. 

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STRENGTH TRAINING 
Is this the week you will be joining me for Strength Training for Runners? It is this Wednesday and every Wednesday. Always free. Live to your screen, see you there! 

IN OTHER SPORTS

• Will there ever be women's sumo? 600 amateur women hope so.
• Will this guy ride the world's largest skate board ramp? Speeds of 120pmh on a SKATEBOARD! I can't watch. 

Hi all,

I got an email newsletter that asked, "Whose Goals Are you Setting?" It asked the question, are you setting goals that are familiar and tried and true, like a marathon PR, a race you have done before or are you really digging in to find YOUR VERY SPECIAL thing? I love the idea of your own special thing rather than the expected thing! 

There is a guy who just swam around Iceland until parts of his tongue feel off. That really is finding his own unique thing (OUCH!). This dude did over 200,000 bounces on a pogo stick (that takes 20 hours in case you are interested and then a lifetime of explaining it at dinner parties). This woman deadlifts over 600 pounds and isn't done getting stronger. (My brain is broken thinking about that)

It doesn't need to be the Boston Marathon or an ultra or something that may burn your tongue off, but I hope you are working on finding our very own special thing. 

STRENGTH TRAINING 
If your big goal requires you to have core strength or durability you should be joining us for Strength Training for Runners this and every Wednesday. Always free. Live to your screen, see you there! 

BE RESCUE READY
If you fell on a training run and stabbed yourself in an artery with your trekking pole, would you know where to start to keep yourself alive and get a rescue? This really happened to a runner in Wyoming. You can listen to the story and then pack yourself a jacket, safety blanket and know who to call when the pole hits the leg. 

CLUSTER DEXTRIN?
Confused about carbohydrate intake decisions like fructose vs. glucose. And what exactly is a highly branched cluster dextrin and is it good? This article is a good place to start for the basics of how much and which formulations. 

NOW THAT'S A KICK
Check out the finish of the World Athletics Championships men's marathon in Tokyo. Apparently, there has never been a closer marathon finish. Looking at the footage for the first time I thought they were mistakenly replaying a 5k, that kick! Watching the women's marathon finish, I realize THIS would normally be the nail biter but there was air between the final two making it no biggie in comparison. 

DON'T BRING YOUR LADDER TO BERLIN
I have an athlete racing the Berlin Marathon which has some amazing rules for the start line. No bulky objects such as ladders, stools, (folding) chairs, or crates. No smoke powder, bombs or other pyrotechnic objects. No laser pointers. No large quantities of paper and paper rolls or bicycles or animals or luggage. I am guessing this means once, someone brought a giant paper roll, some luggage and a laser pointer to the race start, got real annoying and now this is the world. 

I started a run streak for September with the goal of 20 minutes a day for the entire month, to increase my running from no minutes per week to 2+ hours per week. I got five days in and then missed two days because I forgot I was doing a streak and went mountain biking instead. Then I looked at my calendar on Monday and #@%(*, I realized what happened! My natural tendency would be to just say forget it, I screwed up, never mind, running is obviously not a priority for me right now. BUT not this time. I started the streak because I know how hard it is for me to get back into running when I have taken a break and FOR ME, short daily runs feel way better than just a few per week. It is also helpful to not have to make a choice, but to just get in a run on top of anything else that may be going on. I want to get back to running and I want it to feel good, so back to the streak, day one. It can be so easy to say forget it to something we want because of a poor start. You can start as many times as you need to, next week you will be so happy you got going this week! 

CHAMPIONSHIP MINDSET
This podcast with Tom Evans, men's winner of this year's UTMB drops a lot of championship thinking. He talks about how conditions changed his fueling strategy (liquid only when it is too cold to open gels with frozen hands), using a headlamp AND waist lamp together in poor weather to get better visual on the trail, thinking about small tasks to stay focused, focusing on smiling harder instead of trying to win harder and how he kept his HR low in high pressure moments. I would go as far as saying this is a must listen for those of you preparing for upcoming 100 mile races. 

MORE CURIOUSITY
Last week I talked about meeting worry with curiosity. Now I am seeing curiosity pop up everywhere. Here is Sifan Hassan on the marathon, "Most of the time I am scared for things. If I think the thing is impossible or very hard, I am so curious." 

STRENGTH TRAINING 
Isn't it time you joined Strength Training for Runners on Wednesday nights. Always free. Live to your screen. See you there! 

DON'T CUT CORNERS
Trail runner, Michelino Sunseri, set an FKT on the Grand Teton in Wyoming but it has come at a cost of a massive controversy and federal trial. "The controversy started on his descent from the Grand Teton, where Sunseri used a closed shortcut known as the “old climbers’ trail,” cutting a major switchback on the established trail. The shortcut, though historically used by mountaineers, was explicitly marked as closed for revegetation. Sunseri stepped past signage intended to protect sensitive terrain that would later become a critical flashpoint in the trial." He has been found guilty and sentencing has not yet occurred but there are lots of ethical issues and this article will get you thinking about personal responsibility and multi-use on trails.

Hi all,

"Worrying makes people feel like they’re in control and can act as a distraction from the unpleasant sensations of anxiety. Despite the false sense of control, worrying isn’t helpful in taking charge of the future. Ironically, it makes it harder for us to think and plan."  

Is this you packing for your upcoming 100-mile race? Your next vacation?
Is this you thinking about signing up for a marathon? Signing up for a class?

If you are running a fall race, you still have time to get in some mental training to get your mind off the worry train. If it was as easy as reading this article, it would be awesome. Identify the worries, figure out when you have the thoughts and upgrade to CURIOSITY. Not easy, but why not give it a try and spend a few weeks with it. 

A little more on curiosity. 

• Why Curiosity Can Be a Performance Enhancer, Trail Runner Magazine. "Curiousness enhances positive emotions and helps to reduce stress and anxiety. When you are curious, you are more resourceful, often looking at what you can do with what you have versus fixating on what you’re lacking."
• Curiosity Killed the Competition, 80/20 Endurance. "Fear of failure all but guarantees failure. Fear of uncertainty breeds uncertainty. And fear in general is just plain unpleasant, ruining the athletic experience."

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STRENGTH TRAINING 
Are you unable to join Strength Training for Runners this Wednesday but wish you could? Are you nervous that you will be judged, or that class will be too hard/easy/dumb? Why not try a recorded class first and see if you like it (without me knowing) and if you like it, let me know by coming to class or telling a friend. Always free. See you tomorrow I hope! 

CARB NEEDS FOR HOT CONDITIONS
A new study looking at the effect of heat stress and dehydration on the need for carbohydrates for endurance athletes should make you pay attention. Compared to cooler conditions, exercising in the heat consistently increased carb use. Carbohydrate utilization was higher, and muscle glycogen depletion was higher. When it’s hot, more gels, more gummies and more luck to you and your stomach!

MORE NUTRITION NEWS

• Electrolyte booster from Skratch Labs to add to whatever you are already drinking? Good news for those of you who are heavy/salty sweaters! 
• If you run long distance with your dog, this one will be worth your time. What kind of food, food timing and treats for dogs while running. Hint, they don't need Nerd Gummy Clusters. 
• Here is a delicious way to have salmon at the ready. The Fish Princess delivers 10lb boxes of filets to PDX and Bend, pre-order yours here. 

TRY, TRY AGAIN
This year Tom Evans won UTMB after a DNF in the last two years. “In order to get to the fun bit, you’ve got to go through the ‘happy to let people go’ and just hike a little bit, and just keep fueling, and keep hydrated,” Evans in his pre-race interview. 

RUN TRENDS
Strava just published data for a mid-year trend report and I had a few surprises. The most logged shoe? Asics! I would have guessed Hokas or Nike. The average run? 3.9 miles. I am not sure what I expected, but wouldn't have guessed that. One that didn't surprise me, 9am on Saturdays and 6pm on Tuesdays are the most popular hours to go for a run.