10 Tips they Don't Tell You About Running 

1.  It takes 2 months to form a habit 

Getting into running is hard, but keeping on track and holding yourself accountable is the hardest part. Life gets in the way and you end up making excuses for why you don’t need to get out to run. No matter what your goals are with running, the routine is a big part of reaching these goals. Research shows that if you can continue a behavior or habit for 2 months, you are a lot more likely to succeed. Try to challenge yourself to reach your goal for 2 months to begin. If you want to run every other day, 6 days a week, or at least 3 miles each day, 2 months is a good short term goal to work towards.

2. It’s ok to walk 

Everyone starts at a different point. And there are a lot of stressors in your life that impact how you feel when running. Stress, sleep, nutrition, training leading up to the day, weather, environmental factors, menstrual cycle, etc. It is OK to walk, to catch your breath, to let your muscles recover, and then get back into it.

3. The Rule of Thirds

This is a theory that I learned from Alexi pappas and her 2016 movie, Tracktown. You can’t always feel 100% when you’re training to reach your goals. She explains that ⅓ of the time you will feel GREAT, ⅓ of the time you will feel ok or normal, and a ⅓ of the time you will feel miserable or exhausted. If this is not the case for you, try changing your training plan a little. If you feel good all the time, try challenging yourself with more workouts, strength training or increasing the mileage or intensity. If you feel terrible most of the time, try giving yourself a little rest, throw in an extra recovery day, a down week or try cross training instead of a workout. This was a great theory that helped me really be in tune with my body and feel out what I needed. Now, training on my own, i am running even faster than when I was a D1 College athlete.

4. 10% increase when building mileage

When building the mileage or intensity, follow the 10% rule. Your body is so valuable and can handle a lot, but to prevent injury from the repetitive impact of running, try increasing mileage each week by only 10%. If you do 20 miles one week, do 22 miles the next week. If you do 40 miles one week, do 44 the next, and so on. Same goes for the intensity of the exercises. If you do a 10 minute tempo at 10K pace one week, or 6 X 400m repeats at 10K pace , don’t increase later in the week to a 20 minute tempo at mile pace or 10 X 400m repeats at mile pace. Either increase the intensity of the exercise or increase the volume, don’t increase both. And make it a SMART goal. Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time based. 

5. Strength training is important for injury prevention 

A lot of people think that they can't be strong enough to be able to run fast, or long distances. But realistically, strength training is very important for running. You don’t need to lift heavy weights but working on important muscles, like the core, glutes, hip flexors, quads, hamstrings and calves are important for training strength and endurance to help prevent injuries and allow you to push the limits longer. Working on strengthening these muscles in low weights but high reps will help you notice a difference in how you feel later on in the long runs.Balance training is also helpful because as you run, most of the time you’re balancing on one foot as you’re pushing off to propel yourself forward. Being able to control the hip muscles in balancing exercises will also help strengthen your hips, knees and ankles and prevent injuries common in running.  

6. Dynamic stretching before, static after

When warming up for a run, you want to do exercises that will help your body get ready for running. Dynamic exercises, or moving exercises,  like high knees, but kicks, A and B skips, hamstring scoops and lunges are all great exercises that strengthen the muscles, teaches them to activate to get ready for proper running form and gets the heart rate up as well. If things tend to feel tight and bother you, static or standing exercises can be done as recovery after the run to help relax the muscles and increase flexibility. 

7. Nutrition is a big factor for how we feel each day 

When running distances, you burn fat and carbs to create energy and fuel the activity. Carbs are broken down into glycogen, which is the first source of energy. When that is depleted, you use fat stored in your body to use as energy. As you exercise, you’re stressing the muscles to be able to perform the task of running, and proteins in the muscles are breaking and need to be built back up again. Eating foods high in protein after running is crucial to seeing benefits from the exercises and get the strength gains. You will likely feel tired if you don’t get the proper nutrition from it. Finally, enough sleep is needed for these processes to take action. Most of the recovery and building back of the muscle happens when you’re asleep. Try eating foods like fruits, apple sauces, bread with nut butters, crackers, pretzels, etc before running for quick carbs. After, carbs and proteins are important. Some things can be chocolate milk, cheese sticks, hummus, protein bars, greek yogurt. 

8. Runners high? It's real? 

Running at a high intensity for a long time causes a flood of endorphins in your brain. Runners high happens at a different time for different people but is usually after 30-40 minutes of a hard effort run. It will be harder for a new runner to reach this feeling because they are less likely to be able to push themself to this point and sustain the effort to be able to get the effect.When you reach the point, you have reduced stress, you’re less aware of pain you may be in and you feel elated and calm with a huge sense of euphoria.
Pros of runners high is that it decreases symptoms of anxiety, increases memory and focus and allows more consistent exercise. There are no cons to the runner's high but keep in mind, too much exercise too soon can cause harm to your muscles, bones and joints if not slowly increased. Have you felt it before? How would you describe the feeling? 

9. Gels are great nutrition when exercising over an hour

Running gels like Gu, Morton, Honeystingers or Cliff shots, are quick acting sugars to help with quick fueling and delay muscle fatigue when working out for a long time. If you’re racing a half marathon, doing a long run or biking for an hour, these can be a good option for quick nutrition on the course. Some of these also have caffeine which can help increase energy levels but also increase the heart rate. This is a preference for each athlete whether they want caffeine or not, but be careful to not take too much because of its effect on your heart rate.