A Coach for every Runner
By Coach Sanne Lansink You’re not alone if you love running outdoors and despise running inside on a treadmill. Although the activity is the same in many ways, being outside offers a significantly different experience than running indoors. Yet many people find themselves turning to a treadmill at some point throughout the year: security reasons, … Read more
with Coach Dandelion Dilluvio-Scott In the spring of 2022, I was preparing to move from the Puget Sound Region of Washington State to the foothills of the Wind River Range in Wyoming in early fall. I was, of course, caught up in important moving preparation activities like panicking that all our stuff wouldn’t fit into … Read more
What is Base Building? When it comes to running, base building is often characterized by lots of easy running with some strides to maintain footspeed as a reintroduction into run training following a break. It is often incorporated at the beginning of a training cycle as a means to get back into the flow of … Read more
The Burn Is Real We’ve all been told the same thing by nearly every coach, physical trainer and fellow athlete in existence, namely that lactic acid is the enemy, a nasty gunk that makes your legs burn, seize up and eventually slow down against your will. While there are some elements of truth to this … Read more
This article will answer: What is the off season: Off-season is a time where training intensity and volume are reduced. For many runners this is between races or goals. It’s a phase in running that can last a couple of weeks to a couple of months, but there is no set duration. The duration and … Read more
Off-Season Soul-Searching for the Runner While many of us are wholly acclimated to running long, grueling miles, and we’ve all had our grit, determination, and mental strength tested in ways non-runners can never fully understand, winter running is a beast of a sport unto itself. One that tests even the most experienced, hardened runners, and … Read more
Runners working toward a half marathon and particularly a marathon or longer often hear talk about tapering. They know it means they should decrease their mileage and scale back their workouts as the race gets closer; however, many runners avoid tapering because they fear it will negatively affect their race-day performance. Even when runners do … Read more
Every now and then, runners encounter a wall that requires a little extra motivation to break through. Whether that’s the infamous 20 mile mark of the marathon, that local neighborhood hill whose steep grade is notorious amongst local runners, or anything in between. A good, upbeat song can be just what you need to break … Read more
A Case Study: I didn’t want to be there. I wanted to breathe dry, thin alpine air while running on a ridge crest and leaping over rocks under a cloudy sky. Instead, I was running through a gloomy, saturated forest with thick, humid air engulfing me like a sticky embrace. I didn’t want to be … Read more
Running Safely in Bear Country: Advice from a Ranger Turned Running Coach It’s spring! Flowers are blooming. Frogs are croaking. Trees are budding. Trails are melting…. And the bears are stirring! In a press release Yellowstone National Park reported that the first sighting of an awake grizzly this year was recorded on March 7. A … Read more
Coach Kate is like so many of us that were runners before becoming parents – we’ve all had to completely change how we look at running, how we learn to fit running into a new lifestyle with kids, and how we use running to help us keep our sanity during the beautiful yet oftentimes difficult … Read more
Running mental health training is key to hitting any new personal record. As a coach, there is nothing I love more than hearing a runner wants to set a new goal, and for many that is finishing a longer distance event, such as moving from 5k to a 10k or from a half-marathon to your … Read more
A wise coach (probably) once said that if you prepare randomly, your results on race day will be random. Although this might not be a quote that can be attributed to anyone noteworthy, the basic idea is that if you want to have some idea of what to expect on race day after spending many … Read more
As many parts of the world start an incremental return to “normal” life, the prospect of returning to in-office work is being met with mixed feelings. For many runners, the question on many of our minds now is how do we go about maintaining running routines post-COVID? How do we achieve the level of work/life/running … Read more
You set a big running goal and you want to become a better runner. There are lots of activities out there, like weight lifting, yoga, or various forms of cross training, that are advertised to make you a better runner. Although there may be some truth in those claims, the very best way to become … Read more
You are special. You are unique. You are an individual. In endurance training, like most other areas of life, what is best for you might not be good for the next person and your friend’s training program might not work for you. We are all individuals and the best training plan for us to follow … Read more
Training Principle #2: Progression Think back to your very first run. It might have only been a mile or two (or maybe 10 if you were feeling overly amped up and ambitious!). Now reflect on where you are presently at in your running and how much you have improved from that very first run. Although … Read more
‘What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger’ is an aphorism from the German philosopher Nietzsche that is fundamentally applicable to training to become a better runner. What Nietzsche learned through observation about human nature, that scientists have confirmed to be true for all living organisms down to the cellular level, is that when an organism … Read more
We often conjure images of the Sahara desert when thinking about adequate hydration; however, it may also be appropriate to think of the Arctic tundra when thinking about hydration for endurance activities. In this article, Team RunRun discusses the importance of staying hydrated in the winter for runners and how it impacts performance. Challenges of … Read more
Why Do I Run Slower When it is Cold Outside? Do you ever go out for a hard run on a cold day and notice that the effort to hit your pace is greater than expected? You nailed your workout on that 50℉ day last week, so it is unlikely that you’ve lost fitness since … Read more