Left. Right. Snacks. Great jump and hot tubs.

I just finished listening to an interview with climber, Alex Honold with REI's Wild Ideas Worth Living. He gave the best run your first ultramarathon pep talk, but it was disguised as his own mental process through the solo climb of El Capitan in Yosemite.

"I didn't want to make it bigger than it needed to be, because I knew that it was already predominantly a mental challenge. And so by putting it on a pedestal, making it feel like this is the biggest thing of your life, this is the craziest climb we ever do, this means so much that almost makes it too big and more of a mental challenge. And so I felt like for me, part of the process was to actually make it more part of my normal year."

Your race is just part of your normal running year. Just do what you have been doing, maybe for just a little longer than you are used to. Left, Right. Snacks. Pep talk over. 

GREAT JUMP!
I was on a mountain bike ride with a friend using a Garmin Edge bike computer. We were practicing jumps, which sounds gnarly, but think mini little mounds that get a person off the air enough to jump items including a credit card, pita bread or one unfolded sock. As we were jumping her bike computer was beeping like crazy. When we finished with an amount of relief unwarranted by those mini jumps, she noticed the computer was saying "Great Jump!" With an exclamation point and everything. Now any of you who have been around me long enough have heard me rant on how nasty Garmin can be to runners and how absolutely easy it would be to have it give affirmations instead of notices like, "unproductive training", "72-hour recovery time" or my least favorite, "Move" after you just ran for the better part of all day. Now that I know it says nice things to mountain bikers I am really annoyed. C'mon Garmin, just tell runners we are pretty, that our hill running is way better than those people we passed hiking and we rock for getting after it. I am not even asking for an exclamation point! 

HOT TUB VS SAUNA
"A new University of Oregon study shows hot tubs raise core body temperature more than saunas, delivering greater cardiovascular and immune benefits." For those of you hoping on the heat training train, maybe that less than sexy bathtub is looking better and better! The study "found that soaking in hot water outperforms both traditional dry saunas and far-infrared saunas in raising core body temperature and triggering positive physiological effects." Read more here. 

LISTEN UP
Stories to inspire your PT session and run warm ups. 

• 80-Year-Old Bob Becker’s Badwater 135 Race Report. ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE MILES! In the heat. On the road. At 80! 
• The podcast, Your Diet Sucks has an episode, Why is Everyone Obsessed with Protein?  "How diet culture, aging fear-mongering, and gendered marketing shape the protein conversation. And why more isn’t always better—and why fiber and carbs matter too"
• Super short Instagram post about the camera runners. These guys are running so fast. Time to think about who is making the content for these fastest runners. 
• Want to know more about women's cycling? The Queen Stage podcast breaks down women's cycling and good timing since the Tour de France Femmes started on July 26 and goes through August 3. 

RUN UNDERGROUND 
How about a marathon over 3,000 feet underground? Sounds dark. One of Europe's deepest mines in Sweden is hosting the race in an attempt to say something about the future of mining and endurance and I don't think I understand the connection. 

STRENGTH 
See you on Wednesday nights for Strength Training for Runners, live to your screen. Free always.