A few months ago I stood on the side of the road a mile and a half into a 5k time trial and stopped. I wasn't hurt. I just didn't have anything left, physically or mentally, and I knew it before I laced up. I'd been dreading runs I normally look forward to for weeks before that. Sleep was bad. Work was heavy. Training was heavy on top of it. My coach and I looked at the whole picture and decided the month needed to be an off season instead of another buildup. Off season didn'

It's been about three weeks since the mileage jump email. This falls right in the window I was talking about then. Most runners find out whether a buildup is working when something starts hurting. That works eventually, but it's slow information. By the time pain shows up, you've usually been running on the gap between what you're asking of your body and what it can currently handle for a while already. There's earlier information available if you know where to look, and none

The first thing most runners cut when mileage climbs is the gym. It makes sense. You only have so many hours, and your legs can only take so much. The running is the thing you're actually training for. So the lifting gets skipped once, then twice, and then it's October and you haven't lifted since June. The problem is that strength training does something running can't. It improves how much load your tissues can tolerate. If you drop it right when your running volume is going

Your fall race is on the calendar, so the miles go up in August. They should. You can't run a strong half or full off the mileage you were doing in June, and building volume is how you get ready. The problem isn't that you're adding miles. It's how fast you're adding them, and the fact that you won't find out you went too fast for about a month. Here's why. Your body gets hurt when the load you put on it is more than it can currently handle. Load is everything you're asking o

I was on vacation this past week and honestly, I had a hard time with my workout schedule. While I know what to do, it doesn’t always change my feelings around how I have to adapt for vacation. Vacation always messes with training. You've got a plan, a schedule, and workouts written out weeks in advance, and then you land somewhere with none of your normal structure, plus a family that wants to do things that aren't running. Here's what I've learned. You don't have to choose

I've been in a training funk lately. Last week I had a workout on the schedule. I was supposed to do some hill sprints. My knees were a bit achy, and honestly I was feeling exhausted from both training hard and not sleeping. So I made the call, I wasn't going to do it. Could I have done it? Yes. Would it have served me? Definitely not. Will skipping it make me slower? Maybe. Who knows. But that's not the point. I want to keep loving this sport. Running has made me a better pe

Everybody tells you slow running makes you faster, but nobody tells you why. Most runners feel guilty running slow. It feels unproductive, like you're wasting a workout. But, easy running is actually where most of your physiological gains happen. ​​First, what actually counts as easy ​Easy means conversational. You should be able to hold a full sentence without gasping. If you're working too hard to talk, you've already crossed out of easy territory. Most runners, when left t

Your watch is a tool. It is not a coach, a doctor, or you. But it's easy to start treating it like the final word on how a run actually went. Here's where I think it falls short, and how I'd use it instead. It doesn't know what "productive" means. My watch will tell me I had an unproductive run and then quietly drop my predicted 5k time. Tell me how that's possible. Most of these algorithms weight your most recent runs heavily, so one hard or "bad" effort, especially in heat,

How to Build a Healthy Relationship with Running Running is an amazing activity that many of us have grown to love. But when we get deep into training, it can be easy to fall out of love with it and become inconsistent. If you're constantly fighting to get your workouts in, struggling with low motivation, or just can't seem to stay consistent, keep reading. Here are my top tips for building a healthy relationship with running that keeps you going for the long haul: 1. Make it

Something starts hurting, and the first thought is almost always the same: maybe it's my shoes. I get why. A new pair feels like progress. It's an easy purchase, a tangible fix, and it doesn't require you to look at anything harder, like your mileage, your strength, or how much sleep you've actually gotten this week. But here's the problem with that instinct, it doesn't hold up. First: The Math Doesn't Add Up You've probably been running in the same shoes for weeks or months.

I hate to say it, but at some point, you’re probably going to get injured. It’s a normal part of running and life. But how you respond to pain and injury at the first signs can play a huge role in how significant it becomes. Pain and injury happen when the load you place on your body exceeds your capacity to handle that load. That load can come from running, strength training, time on your feet, emotional stress, lack of sleep, or a combination of everything. When the total s

The weather is heating up, and if your runs suddenly feel harder, you’re not imagining it. Heat and humidity add extra stress to the body, which means your pace, effort, and recovery can all feel different this time of year. Your body does adapt. It just takes time. Here are 4 reminders to help you train smarter through the summer months: 1. Aim for Early Mornings or Evenings The coolest parts of the day are usually sunrise and sunset. Even a small temperature difference can

Spring is here, and with it comes longer days, warmer weather, and the temptation to run more. If you are like me, you've probably been ramping up your mileage, making workouts a bit longer, and feeling strong again after winter. But before you keep pushing forward, it's time for some spring cleaning for your training, and checking in on your body. If you've increased your volume over the last few weeks your body has been adapting to the new load, but it could also be breakin

There’s a lot of talk about strength training—and that all runners should be doing it. And while I agree, there are levels to it. Strength training doesn’t need to take hours every week. It just needs a plan. You can get a lot done in 15 minutes. So here’s a quick strength training check-in to see if you have the pieces in place to make it effective: 1. Are you progressing your exercises each week for 4–6 weeks before changing them? If yes, excellent. If not—and you’re chang

Running a marathon is a huge accomplishment, but it also takes a huge toll on your body. Following the Boston and London marathon, I’ve been seeing a lot of dangerous trends on Instagram. Let’s back up to the original story of the marathon. Following the Greek victory against the Persians, messenger Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to announce the victory. What people often forget is that following his run, Pheidippides dies. I know, it's a bit morbid. But my point

Most runners don't have a training problem. They have a recovery problem. Your fitness is built during recovery. Your runs are the stimulus, and recovery is where the adaptation happens. If you constantly are skipping rest days or taking your easy runs too fast, you’re just stacking stress on stress. Over time, that leads to overtraining, stalled progress, and fatigue. This can be sneaky! Runners are really good at pushing through even when the signals to rest are there. So l

There is so much information out there about what you should and shouldn’t do in run training. Much of the internet contradicts itself and honestly overcomplicates training. We need more people making training accessible and simple. So here are three things your training plan should have no matter your goal. First, easy running! Somehow this topic has gotten so complicated over the years. Well, what is easy running? What heart rate should I run at? But if I run at that heart