More connections, more rest, more weights

Hi all!
I am home in Bend and the soul crushing heat of Indonesia has been replaced by appropriately cold weather. YES, I can sleep again! And exercise outside! I am not one to skip a run but I skipped all of them in the 1,000% humidity. Excited to get back to work in all the ways, writing coaching plans, getting in runs and cross-country skiing. 

I have had way too much time in transit and scrolled through half the internet in the airport and noticed posts about diet plans that were all numbers based like the 2/2/2 method or the 100/50 method and realized we are being bombarded with so much junk, not just new ways to feel bad about our bodies! Junk diet ideas, junk gifts, junk expectations on our time. I hop you can both enjoy the cookies and keep up healthy habits. When I looked up 100/50 method, I found everything from eating meals that are 100 calories (NOPE, NOT ENOUGH Y'ALL) to reducing calories by 100 every week to paying 100 dollars and dying a little inside. It was a wasteland. Don't let all the incoming junk dim your light. Shine! 

In unrelated news, Strength Training for Runners on Wednesday nights is live to your screen at 5pm Pacific. This will get you shining! 

PODCASTS SO WHITE
Women's Running Stories has been posting numbers illustrating their findings from the essay "(White) Feminism In Trail Running: How Antisexism Work In Trail Running Predominantly Benefits White Women," Women of color filled 18 guest spots during a year-long period on the eight podcasts included in the summary. For context, this is out of a total of 432 guest spots. This illustrates how little diversity there is on the trails and how the representation in media is even smaller. Do you know women doing incredible things that aren't currently being represented? You can suggest women of color to your favorite podcasts and help create demand for more diverse stories. The more people can see themselves in sport, the more likely they are to do it. 

WHY YOU SHOULD NOT DELAY CARBS
Here is an easy to read summary of the paper, “Delaying post-exercise carbohydrate intake impairs next-day exercise capacity but not muscle glycogen or molecular responses.” For the quick and dirty: replenish glycogen stores within 30 min to an hour with 1-1.5g of carbs and 20-30g of protein. 

FITNESS TRENDS
Strava announced the release of its annual Year In Sport: Trend Report, which identifies the trends that shaped the global active landscape in 2024. In summary the trends include more connection, more rest and more weights and all three of those make me very happy. Specifics include: 

• A 59% increase in running club participation globally in 2024
• Runners training for marathons added more rest and active recovery days into their schedule than in previous years
• Weight training was the fastest-growing sport type among women in 2024 with a 25% growth in uploads.