Make their WISH come TRUE

SNAPSHOT

What does a runner want for Christmas?

DIGGING DEEPER

My favorites!

Garmin Forerunner 235

Feetures Elite Socks

Under Armour Women's Layered Up Reversible Headband

Quick Strength for Runners Book

Road ID Shoe Tag

Tech Touch Gloves

Spibelt

Foam Roller or Rollga roller

Resistance Bands 12 inch or long

Pilates Class Certificate

Running Coach! - What all runners secretly want, someone to guide them and answer their questions, to be on their side, giving them permission to care for their body and goals, with accountability --- Give a once in a while phone call to day-by-day assistance

Daniel's Running Formula book for the serious runner

Peak Performance book for all those wanting to take your efforts in sport, life, and work to the next level

Local Running Club membership - Often comes with free or discounted club races, newsletter, and events

Your Best Stride book for all those that want to understand why fast runners look smooth

Fleet Feet Gift Card for properly fitted shoes and high-end apparel

USATF membership to get involved in the local competition as a USATF member

Eat Slow Run Fast cookbook by 2017 NYC Marathon Winner Shalane Flanagan - Especially for teenage runners

Favorite Waterbottle - The only kind I like!

Deskbound book - For your office worker who has back pain

Spark book - Incredible book on exercise and the brain

Donate a new pair of shoes to a local high school coach. Talk with your local running store about how you can work with them and a coach to deliver a much-needed item to aspiring runners.

SOLUTION

Share this blog post with your loved ones in order to make both of you happy!

10 Minutes to a Warm Winter Run

SNAPSHOT

All it takes is 10 minutes to develop enough body heat to make your run enjoyable.

LOVE WINTER RUNNING

DIGGING DEEPER

While not officially winter yet, it is incredibly difficult to cross from the comfort of the indoor furnace to the chill or burr of the outdoor temps. Yesterday's run was avoided due to the whipping wind and freezing temperature, but while waiting for my son at the local Y, I bundled up and struck out into the cold.  

I wore my regular shoes and socks, running tights, tank top, long sleeve shirt, light wind jacket, neck warmer, hat, gloves, sunglasses (I know it was cloudy but my glasses help block the wind from my sensitive eyes).

The first 10 minutes were cold since the wind was piercing. However, I braved it knowing that I would warm up soon.  This is the key to winter running. Braving the first 10 minutes will deliver great rewards. The body makes heat when using energy in the muscles. You become your own furnace. 

The second key is to dress in a manner that will keep just the right amount of heat around your body, not too little, not too much.  With too little clothing you won't capture the heat you generated. Too much clothing will cause overheating and sweating. Sweating sounds nice when you are cold but can ruin your run when the water cools your body. Therefore, layers and experience help in dressing for your run.

Over and over I would miss the mark on correct clothing choice when I would only look outside while in my warm house.  It would look wicked cold or not so bad causing me to overdress/underdress.  The better way of determining your winter running selection is to look at the "feels like" temperature on your weather app.  

As you see above, the 34 degrees doesn't account for the chill of the wind.  The better temperature to dress for is the "Feels like" temp of 25 degrees.  The Minnesota wind is strong and sweeping making the wind, even more, a factor when running.

Windy Day Running Tip: Run into the wind at the start of your run, making your return trip easier and warmer with the wind at your back.

Just like you adjust to the warm temperature of the summer heat, you will adjust to the colder temperatures of the winter chill.  Give yourself two weeks of below freezing runs and you will feel like 32 degrees is a warm winter running day. In turn, you will be able to handle the 10-20 degree days of real winter running.

HOW TO DRESS FOR THE REALLY COLD WINTER DAYS

Facebook Live Video

SOLUTION

Once you have your own body furnace up and running, your run becomes delightful as you can enjoy the fresh outdoor air and movement.

LOVE WINTER RUNNING

Pass another cough drop, kleenex please

SNAPSHOT

Limit your running when you are sick with the cold.

DIGGING DEEPER

On Thursday my run was way slower than usual, yet I felt I was putting in the same effort.  Then I attempted my normal lifting weights routine and couldn't even lift my usual dumbbell once.  Not even once!  I knew something was really off! 

Friday morning just after leaving our home I felt that dry mouth sensation moments after drinking a sip of water, the first sign of an oncoming cold sickness. I was out of the house for the day and wouldn't be near my Vitamin C tablets until evening.  The day wore on and the throat got worse.  By bedtime, I was eating ice cream, smoothies, and Danielle Walker's applesauce. 

Thankfully Saturday was a low key day with the skies bringing in wicked thunderstorms and only 2 hockey lessons/practices for one of my sons.  With my husband home, I was off the hook from transportation duties.  I read the entire Chasing Slow book by Erin Loechner (wow, awesome book) and slurped up the bone broth.  I wasn't much better and the night was painful and long.

Sunny Sunday rolled around and I figured I was done with the cold and could soldier on with my backlog of errands. I'm in control, right? However, by midday, all I wanted was be in bed.  As you know, moms don't take more than one sick day, so the food was purchased, freezer picked out at Best Buy, and library books returned.  The squash, chicken, and dinner all got cooked.  I thought my saving grace would be a good night of sleep before the start of a new week.

"Mom, my stomach hurts so much!" pleaded my 15-year-old son. I couldn't deny him comfort through the trips to the bathroom and tucks back into bed.  Not so hard if it weren't for the fact that I was pleading also for painless sinus canals and continuous sleep. 

So it is Monday today and I am still so sick and still hoping for a good nights sleep. I did do a short run today only because it had been so long since my last and a friend would be waiting for me.

I don't plan to run tomorrow. I will need all my energy reserves for kicking this cold.

NOTE: When you move to another region of the US you get hit harder with sicknesses as you have not built up an immunity to that region's germs.  This is going to be an interesting year!

My view of the USA regions include Colorado in the Midwest section.

SOLUTION

My personal guidelines for when to skip my daily run due to sickness.

Fever or Stomach Pain = NO RUNNING

Congestion or Sore throats = RUN EVERY OTHER DAY at most//Fresh air is helpful but limit energy expenditures

Headaches = Safe Walks

HAPPY WINTER COLD SEASON, HAPPY RUNNING

Not Just a Daily Run

SNAPSHOT

A daily run is so much more than just a few miles on a road, it is the peaceful moments that cultivate who I am.

DIGGING DEEPER

Many miles into my 6 am weekday run I spy an older woman in her dark long pants and white shirt. Sheltered by a sunhat she is bent over engrossed within her morning work of weeding. Her box of tools consisting of a spade, hoe, and trowel was within feet of her position. She never looked up, just kept bent over, nurturing her garden. The hot August sun did not give her a break even in the early morning hours. We were the two lonely people out working in the morning air as the early sun rose.

I was caught off guard because she was in a huge field that at a one person weeding rate would be endless. Why was she working so hard at something so repetitive and vast that it seemed meaningless?

Suddenly, I was struck by the reality that I too was a lonely gardener weeding my vast field.  Having not seen another runner in the town at that early morning hour for the past week. I was that one runner that encircled the small Minnesota town without skipping a wake-up call. Each step was another weed pulled, each morning's run was another row in the field.  With each November becoming my fall season of harvest.  The planning of the spring,  hot summer runs, and the never giving up attitude of a sport that goes for all 12 months, is my gardening.

Many would have driven their cars quickly by on their way to work without even a glance over the field.  No one would notice a lonely gardener in a field that machines should tend to. Her work only had meaning for herself.  As my work only has meaning for myself, valuing my own harvest without performances worthy of notice.

I was adding up 12,000 weeds pulled or steps taken each morning.  Why was I so diligent at this meaningless or meaningful work? After each breath in, I was breathing out stress, frustration, sadness, and worry. Without those releases, I would be bound and chained by my life's disappointments and inconsistencies.  The release of expectations and the birth of new creative solutions made my day approachable.  By halfway through my hour tending my garden, my body, I felt alive again. I could see beauty and knew my diligence would reap rewards. 

My 6am gardener in a sunhat with her garden tools near at hand and I are one and the same.  When I rise in the dark and kept moving toward the door and trail beckoning my name, my gardener and I rise together, step together, knowing that our diligence will reap the fall harvest.

SOLUTION

Not alone in my vast garden.

Mental Failure?

SNAPSHOT

90% mental

DIGGING DEEPER

Racing brings out the good and bad, revealing inter beliefs and fears.

Last August, ten grassy miles of trails set out a challenge for a small group of runners.  Since I have run my fair share of races my initial start was natural and consistent with the projected effort and pace. 

After the beginning three miles, I stopped to wipe off the mud from the bottom of my shoes on a rock.  Then waited a couple of seconds for the man running close behind me to catch up.  I had heard his footsteps and breathing for the last two miles.  We were far enough into the race that there was no one near.  The faster men had a few minutes on us and the rest of the race was somewhere far behind us.  We quickly made acquaintances, realizing that we were both new Minnesota residents.  Having someone to chat with, the next two miles went by faster. 

At the 5 mile turn around there was water and snacks.  I drank a cup of water, which I later regretted because I run best with no liquids in my stomach.  It was delightful to have 30 seconds to forget that this was a race and reflect on the beauty of the Midwest prairies.

Photo Credit due to Kirk Nelson

Reality snapped us back into the race and off we flew.  At that point, my race companion chose to push the pace for a mile or two, while I hesitated since this was my first "long run" distance since moving to Minnesota.  Within a minute I crossed paths with the second and third place women. 

Now, I did not select this race in order to win.  I just wanted a reason to be covering miles and some company for a long run. 

Like often happens in races when you are in the top few spots, especially in the races that are of an out and back nature, the other racers call out what place you are in.  This can be very helpful if you are competitive and desire to take the win.  However, for someone that is afraid that she will blow up after seven miles and is not use to dirt and grass trail running, the exclaims of "first woman" coming from each oncoming male runner, can heighten the pressure. I am sure they wished for the ranking to be encouraging but in reality, it compounded my concern. 

I was afraid of failing, afraid of losing.  I certainly did not enter the race with a goal of winning. Far from it, I was just hoping to finish in a respectable time.

Photo Credit due to Kirk Nelson

My race companion had surged ahead of me and so I was left alone to battle the wet foot high grass, few ruts, and rolling hills.  I sank deeper and deeper as my mind worked myself into a failure attitude.  I kept looking behind myself for the 2nd place woman to seal my fate.  On a steep uphill, I let myself walk, feeling hopeless.  I even considered quitting the race just so that I could avoid failure.  I had convinced myself that she was stronger and fitter and would soon conquer. 

At about 7.5 miles as I crested another hill, a thought surfaced. "I could get a second wind and be able to finish the race strong." This was a fact that was derived from dozens, perhaps hundreds, of experiences. I knew the feeling of fatigue and then the sudden rush of energy that could spring up during an extra long or difficult workout or race.  It was a proven fact that I couldn't argue with. It was a hope that I could believe in. 

All of a sudden I was strong and unstoppable. I imagined not letting go of my lead and possible win.  I was strong. I wanted to win. I would fight for it. Like a flip of a switch, I had dismissed my doubts and embraced the opportunity in front of me. I looked forward, pushing my pace forward. I was back to having fun racing, smiling, and taking in the beautiful sights.

It happens that the second place woman never caught up to me and I never had to battle her for a win.  I did, however, battle myself and clearly won.  

In irony, the second place woman, Stacy, became my running friend and continues to challenge me on trails each week.  However, I prefer to follow her lead.

SOLUTION

Winning the mental game is the real win. Count yourself as a winner!