A Better You In 2022, 10 Tips to Help Level Up Your Running

But also have a running buddy that can be a neighbor, a spouse, a pet, a child, to help you stay motivated to get up early in the morning or to get in those runs, uh, after dinner, after a long day. And having somebody else to share that with is really good. And it makes the time go by. Hello and welcome to the RaceMob podcast. This is episode number 83. I'm Kevin entrepreneur technology and fitness nerd. And I'm joined by the head coach of RaceMob and master motivator at the incomparable Bertrand Newson. Happy new year team. Kevin, and I really appreciate your support. Over the past two years. It has been a fantastic experience. We have had the opportunity to speak to so many wonderful, interesting motivating guests, some really cool topics and more of that in-store this year. Today's topic is A Better You In 2022, 10 Tips to Help Level Up Your Running. First off is if we want to run longer than we have to run farther, more volume. And if we're looking at our weekly volume and monthly volume, increasing that using the 10% rule is going to be very valuable. We're not looking to drastically double our mileage. In a short amount of time, because that can lead to some discomfort and overuse injuries. So want to be mindful of how much we are increasing our mileage. If we're, , again, looking at upwards of 10%, 12%, maybe 15% in some cases, depending on how good your mileage base, is if you're new to running, you've been doing this for a while or you're been running for a long time. It may give you a little bit of wiggle room on what that percentage of increase is week over week. What I recommend is doing a microcycle. And here's an example. If we look at three weeks of gradual mileage progression and on the fourth week, we pull the model. Here we go, 12 miles on a Saturday, 14 miles on a Saturday, 16 miles on a Saturday. And in that fourth week, we pulled the distance back to say 10 miles. It gives the body the opportunity to take a bit of a break, soaking up all those endurance gains it's you've have acquired over the previous three weeks. Now you can stretch it out to a four week build and in week five pull it back. But I don't recommend going on a six week, 10 week or which I've seen in some online training plans where they have you going every single week and not getting a bit of reprieve. Again, gradual progression, but also giving the body a break is a good thing. Item number two, again, gradual progression. If we're looking to add too much volume too soon, that could lead to overuse injury. We want to avoid that. Pacing, your training mileage is very important just like a pace strategy, on race day. And just, uh, a little note to everybody. Matt Fitzgerald has a great book coming out this year that is focusing all on pacing strategy. That's a game changer because many of us runners get that wrong. We're typically running too hard, too soon, early in the workout, early on race day and we are exhausting our hard earned, built up endurance cardio, and sabotaging our potential race results. So having us pay strategy is very important. Gradual progression in your training, mileage and gradual progression. As you navigate a training run. If it's that's the primary focus in that given workout. And certainly on race day, we're not looking to have a positive split. We're not looking to dash and crash. We're looking for ideally a negative split or even split. Item number: the need for speed. It's pretty clear team. If we want to get faster than we have to run faster. It's that simple. It doesn't mean that you have to have four or five track workouts because track workouts in themselves can be a little intimidating. So you can mix in speed on your long runs, you can mix in speed on your middle distance runs. You can mix in speed on your easy shakeout runs. How can you do that? By incorporating strides by incorporating, incorporating fart licks. Those are two examples where even on an easier. Even on the shorter distances or on those long runs where it's at conversation paste, you can still touch speed, which is a good thing. I'm certainly having a track day is important and can be a game changer. But if you're newer to running or you have a low mileage space in. Speed track workouts later in a training cycle will be more beneficial because there are additional stresses that the body's taking on doing the speed workouts, item number four Hills, pay the bills. Oh boy. Don't we know this and you know, this coach loves Hills. Um, and again, they can be a real game changer with your fitness. Whether it be rolling. Hills hill repeats hill sprints. The benefits are undeniable once a week in your training cycle, seven to 10 days. Again, recommend you having a good mileage base. If you're just starting out or coming back from injury, we can put the hill workouts later on in a training cycle. So again, Hills pay the bills. If you like our podcast and sign up for our newsletter, where we give you weekly tips on how to run your best race and have fun in the process. Just go to RaceMob dot com and sign up today. Item number five, community unity, running clubs, running communities like RaceMob like to legit fitness, like our friends with Barry. The fitness community, like 80, 20 endurance, all these organizations or fitness groups have one thing in common support, resources and motivation item, number six and accountability buddy, which you can. From item number five, I'm a running club or running community, but to also have a running buddy that can be a neighbor, a spouse, a pet, a child, to help you stay motivated to get up early in the morning or to get in those runs, uh, after dinner, after a long day, and having somebody else to share that. Is really good and it makes the time go by. And again, it can be the difference on you getting in two workouts during the week where you may otherwise given yourself an excuse, not to. So number six, accountability, buddy. Number seven R and R rest and recovery. This is something that most runners don't get enough. Your body will award you. So make time to rest, make time to recover. Utilizing foam, rolling deep tissue massage, percussion, massage, guns, hot therapy in the form of, um, sauna, jacuzzi, or. In cold cases, ice baths with some Epson, salt, or targeted ice therapy with ice packs on the larger muscle groups on those joints, knees, calves, ankles, shins, et cetera, do not ignore some quality R and R, which leads to item number eight, sleep. You recover best at a state of breast. So when you're sleeping, your body is. Repairing those tissues and soaking up all the gains from your hard earned work. Some of us are getting three to four. If we can get four to five, some of us are getting six to seven and we can get upwards of eight. Any improved sleep will translate into better performance. Trust me, number nine. The importance of nutrition and hydration is hyper important. For those of you that will be running especially longer distances anything north of a 10 K especially half marathon, marathon, ultra marathon triathlons, having a good, well thought out and time tested hydration and nutrition strategy is essential. It is. Absolutely essential expecially. If you're putting in the work, if you are training, if you're putting together the myriad of long runs, easy runs, speed days, hill workouts, getting enough. But if you don't have a solid hydration and nutrition strategy, it could be that loose string that unravels doing race day and you don't realize your full potential. So making sure to incorporate to practice, especially on your long run days, mimic race day conditions, wearing the shoes, how much fluid you're going to intake. How much of that is water verse electrolytes and the type of Jill's you're gonna. If you've tested them out before in the past, how they settle on your stomach and most importantly, how they help you sustain your energy in potentially, um, prevent or reduce the likelihood of cramping, which all can impact your overall race day performance and item number two. Should not be a surprise, have fun when you're putting in all this work and you want to have some fun in the process are able to share that with the running community, a running group, share it with the accountability, buddy, you will see changes that are undeniable. You'll feel lighter, healthier, and happier, and that's pretty doggone. Good. I'd say so. Thank you for your time. If you're looking for a virtual event to do, um, and support a good cause and a process, I highly recommend joining the 2022 Tazi 100 notes, uh, in the show, links will be, uh, included also the 80 20 endurance virtual challenge benefiting the coaches of color. Both these events kickoff February 1st. And you'll find the links again in the show notes from both Kevin and I. We thank you for support. Um, it's going to be a fantastic year in 2022, and we'll see you in the next podcast episode. Take care of. Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the RaceMob podcast. Check out all of the show notes or find a running buddy online at RaceMob dot com. Please subscribe to us on apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to your podcasts and leave us a review until next time. Keep on.