Many of the common running questions and mistakes that we have all made over time are covered today.  I expect it will serve as a great resource going forward for a variety of questions we all face as we progress as a runner.  Jason and I start off with how to learn the signals your body is sending you and how running on a track for hard workouts can really help you dial into what your correct race pace should be.

We cover how your recovery and easy pace runs are often slower as training miles increase as your body needs more time to recover from the harder workouts and your body really needs time to recover from those harder efforts.  You want to be faster on race day, not necessarily faster on your easy days.

Are you a beginner or seem to be getting injured a bit too often?  We cover the host of things that can cause the injuries and how you can modify your training to avoid them in the future.  Are you strengthening your body in the right way?  Are you ramping up your milage too fast, are you running too quickly?

You will learn how periodized strength training can assist you in being a stronger runner with strong muscles and connective tissue needed to drive you across the ground.  The fastest runners are also often the strongest runners.   

Jason and I cover the causes of cramping on longer efforts (especially the marathon).  Are you prepared for the distance and how to get that way.  Are you also prepared for the pace you are trying to run and how to adjust your pacing accordingly.  Should you be making up skipped workouts?

Today’s Guest

Jason Fitzgerald is a USATF running coach and offers online running, strength training, injury prevention and nutrition training with his company Strength Running.  He started the company in 2010 hoping to assist runners avoid the mistakes that sidelined him in his own running career.  He is also a best selling author of two books and numerous articles for Competitor Magazine, Daily Burn and Active.  He lives in Denver Colorado with his wife and family (of 3 kids under age 5).

What you will learn about:

• He started Strength Running after almost quitting running from an IT band injury in 2008/2009.  He realized while recovering that if he wanted to keep doing what he loved, he needed to change the way he was training, and believed that he could help others do the very same thing.  The site trains those from beginners to those training for 100 mile races and more.
• How running on the track for your harder/race pace training can help you learn how to understand what race pace feels like while running, as well as mentally afterwards by reviewing the splits in the data.  After doing lots of runs on the track you will begin to learn exactly what your race pace feels like from an effort perspective.  It takes lots of trial and error but you learn each time you try.
• Your recovery runs should be Comfortable, Controlled, and Conversational.  Your easy pace runs would normally be slightly faster than those but still really comfortable and you should be able to sustain the effort.  Your easy pace can and should also change based on how you feel that day and what your earlier workouts were earlier in the week and how well you had recovered.
• How runner specific strength training and cross training can can aid you in injury prevention and recovery.  How important those things are to have a long running career vs a quick running career.  Strength training can be used for both injury prevention but also for making you stronger, more coordinated and able to push off the ground with more force.  To run fast you need to be strong and forceful.
• Cramping is more a sign of running longer or faster than you have prepared your body for rather than an electrolyte balance.  It is also impacted by whether you have paced yourself properly in the early stages of a race.
• How long term thinking can help you learn to rest, recover and get healthy rather than running through pain or issues.  How as a coach he has to spend more time keeping runners from running when they should be resting rather than having to push them to do more.  What you should consider doing if you miss workouts due to life issues.

Inspirational Quotes:

It is important from a wholistic perspective to consider ourselves athletes that specialize in running rather than just runners.

“The most important run is tomorrow’s run.  Don’t do anything today that will negatively impact your ability to run tomorrow.” - Tom Foreman

Intensity Density:  if you make it so the density of your training impairs the intensity of your training, overall your training will suffer and/or you will risk injury.   

I love runners, we are all sort of geeky and nerdy and special.

Resources:

Last week's episode with Luke Tyburski 

Tina4Real Podcast 

Running for Real Superstars Community

Jason's website

Jason on Twitter

Jason on Instagram

Jason on Facebook

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