Yesterday I posted a blog listing what I consider to be some of the worst running tips still making the rounds. The post was written as a joke intended highlight how ridiculous some of this “expert” advice really is. Today I will briefly revisit each point, this time giving my actual advice.
Tip 1: If the engine is hot enough, anything will burn!
While the above phrase sounds cool is it even true? It might be. But just because your body burns something, does it absorb it? Furthermore, if the trash you are eating is completely void of any nutritional value, does it even matter if it burns? Any coach worth their stopwatch will tell you nutrition matters. While I agree that many diet salesman take things way to far causing stress and confusion, there are plenty of people out there who can help you find a nutritional strategy that works for you.
Tip 2: Any training other than running is a complete waste of time
Just about everyone I’ve seen make a solid effort with core and stability work not only gets hurt less they perform better. Every other sport encourages cross training, why not running. When you get injured and go to physical therapy, they might have you do some stability work, like standing on a balance board. My theory is – why wait until your injured? Start training now so you are BULLETPROOF. The main argument against this that I’ve seen is “in order to get better at running, you need to run.” Yes, that is true. Cross training is done IN ADDITION to running, not as a replacement for it. I would also suggest you take it even further than doing crunches for 2 minutes followed by planks for 2 minutes. Build yourself up to handle TONS of core stability work. More coming on this soon...
Tip 3: To perform your best don’t think about what you are doing
Great athletes are in the moment. Great athletes can focus during clutch time. Great athletes think a great deal about what they are doing. The problem – runners are notorious for being OVER-thinkers. Over thinking will hinder you because you will be more and more removed from your body. Remember, mind body connection is 50/50. Practicing focusing on your regular runs and you will be more focused come race day. Look at the people winning races, most have incredible focus.
Tip 4: Don’t change your form
I’m not sure how this theory came about but it is so ridiculous I can only chalk it up to lazy runners who don’t want to work on their skill, they just want to run. In order to maximize your running potential it’s important to find your optimal stride. This is done by listening to what your body is saying and making the necessary adjustments to your technique. It’s an ongoing and GRADUAL process. As long as you make small tweaks and do it in the spirit of playfulness, you will likely notice benefits.
Tip 5: Wear the right shoes to change your form
Shoes are good. I like shoes. I work for a shoe company. I suggest buying shoes based on comfort, not on what the shoe salesman recommends. You know your body better than anyone else. Dig around online and make sure you listen to both sides of the story on this one. For decades runners have only gotten one side of the story – specifically “the only way to improve your running is to train more and get better shoes” story. Thankfully, leaders in the natural running movement such as Danny Dreyer and his team of Chi Running instructors, along with folks like Dr. Mark Cucuzella are now offering their thoughts on the other side of the story. Finally, when it comes to shoes, my personal advice is to not even bother looking into the science. It’s not that I think science is bad, I think its great. The problem is that the current science tells us next to NOTHING about the relationship between shoes and injuries. It is a confusing, muddled mess. In my estimation, we are AT LEAST 20 years out from having some solid data to really understand this complicated relationship.
In conclusion – find a shoe that will COMPLIMENT your stride. Don’t rely on the shoe as a magic bullet cure all band-aid. Be very skeptical of anyone telling you not to change your form but to buy a shoe that will change your form.
Tip 6: Never run barefoot
I think the majority of runners can get some very significant benefits from barefoot running. The common knock I see against it is that for competitive runners doing all their mileage barefoot is unreasonable. Well, the good news is once again, IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE ALL OR NOTHING. Remember – the better the performance, the less things need to change. If you are running well, consider adding some barefoot strides after a run once or twice a week. If you aren’t running well consider slowly building up your barefoot running until you start to get the magic back in your stride. Barefoot running is fun and interesting. You will learn things about your running. Be aware of your surroundings and start out with just a little barefoot running, monitoring how you adapt to it.
Tip 7: Copy what the elite americans do
This one seems to make the most sense at first glance, but is copying an elite runner reasonable for the majority of the rest of us? I see this advice given out all the time on running message boards. “Just run like the elites. Do the same workouts as the athletes." Unfortunately, copying elite runners with no idea how they get to where they are is dangerous. Don’t copy other runners, find your own path.
Tip 8: If you aren’t hurt you aren’t running enough
If you aren’t hurt, good job! Running should feel GOOD. If you feel good then great! Don’t let anyone convince you that running should hurt. Don’t let anyone convince you that you are under-training because you aren’t hurt. It’s completely possible to train yourself to your potential with NO PAIN. My senior year of college was the best year ever for me running wise. I ran many of the best races of my life that year and I wasn’t hurt, in pain, sore, or sick AT ALL that year. There wasn’t a single day that I felt pain from running. I ran 31:15 for 10K that year and during the race I felt FREE and HAPPY. At the conference meet I ran a 10K in 32:20, a 1500 in 4:10 and a 5K in 16:00 all in the same day, with no pain or soreness. If you train smart, you should never be in pain. Earlier in my running career I would feel pain during races. Looking back I realized something – the more pain I was in during the race the worse I did. The less pain I was in, the better I did. The “no pain, no gain” attitude is completely bogus.
Tip 9 – If you are hurt you aren’t running enough
Interesting that conventional running wisdom suggests running more for both lack of pain and too much pain. If you are hurt there is a lot you should start looking into such as nutrition, form, imbalances in the body, overall stress level, sleep, other activities etc. The last thing you want to be doing is upping your mileage through an injury. You should REDUCE the mileage if you have an injury.it's amazing I even have to write this here, but unfortunately I still hear and read people telling injured runners they need to run more so they don't get injured.
Tip 10 – 100 miles per week is a magic number that produces magic results
The truth is, there is no magic number. Everybody is different. Some people do well on high mileage, others do well on low mileage. It’s a matter of finding what works for you. I have NEVER run 100 miles in a week and have done pretty well. My Prs in high school were around 4:48 mile and 16:41 5K cross country (franklin park course) I went on to run 4:05 1500, 15:28 5K (track), 31:15 10K (track) on about 70 miles a week in summer base training and 50 miles a week during the season. Yes, that’s right I was running HALF of the magical 100 mile number and managed to improve a great deal. Basically, I took my high school 5K pr – took a minute off and was able to do it twice in a row. I am sure I’m not the only one who has done well on relatively low mileage. As Matt Germain always says "if it's been done, it can be done."
So there you have it. A brief summary of my response to the worst running tips ever. I will go into more detail on each point in future posts.
What are your thoughts? What is the best and worst running advice you have ever gotten?
Tip 1: If the engine is hot enough, anything will burn!
While the above phrase sounds cool is it even true? It might be. But just because your body burns something, does it absorb it? Furthermore, if the trash you are eating is completely void of any nutritional value, does it even matter if it burns? Any coach worth their stopwatch will tell you nutrition matters. While I agree that many diet salesman take things way to far causing stress and confusion, there are plenty of people out there who can help you find a nutritional strategy that works for you.
Tip 2: Any training other than running is a complete waste of time
Just about everyone I’ve seen make a solid effort with core and stability work not only gets hurt less they perform better. Every other sport encourages cross training, why not running. When you get injured and go to physical therapy, they might have you do some stability work, like standing on a balance board. My theory is – why wait until your injured? Start training now so you are BULLETPROOF. The main argument against this that I’ve seen is “in order to get better at running, you need to run.” Yes, that is true. Cross training is done IN ADDITION to running, not as a replacement for it. I would also suggest you take it even further than doing crunches for 2 minutes followed by planks for 2 minutes. Build yourself up to handle TONS of core stability work. More coming on this soon...
Tip 3: To perform your best don’t think about what you are doing
Great athletes are in the moment. Great athletes can focus during clutch time. Great athletes think a great deal about what they are doing. The problem – runners are notorious for being OVER-thinkers. Over thinking will hinder you because you will be more and more removed from your body. Remember, mind body connection is 50/50. Practicing focusing on your regular runs and you will be more focused come race day. Look at the people winning races, most have incredible focus.
Tip 4: Don’t change your form
I’m not sure how this theory came about but it is so ridiculous I can only chalk it up to lazy runners who don’t want to work on their skill, they just want to run. In order to maximize your running potential it’s important to find your optimal stride. This is done by listening to what your body is saying and making the necessary adjustments to your technique. It’s an ongoing and GRADUAL process. As long as you make small tweaks and do it in the spirit of playfulness, you will likely notice benefits.
Tip 5: Wear the right shoes to change your form
Shoes are good. I like shoes. I work for a shoe company. I suggest buying shoes based on comfort, not on what the shoe salesman recommends. You know your body better than anyone else. Dig around online and make sure you listen to both sides of the story on this one. For decades runners have only gotten one side of the story – specifically “the only way to improve your running is to train more and get better shoes” story. Thankfully, leaders in the natural running movement such as Danny Dreyer and his team of Chi Running instructors, along with folks like Dr. Mark Cucuzella are now offering their thoughts on the other side of the story. Finally, when it comes to shoes, my personal advice is to not even bother looking into the science. It’s not that I think science is bad, I think its great. The problem is that the current science tells us next to NOTHING about the relationship between shoes and injuries. It is a confusing, muddled mess. In my estimation, we are AT LEAST 20 years out from having some solid data to really understand this complicated relationship.
In conclusion – find a shoe that will COMPLIMENT your stride. Don’t rely on the shoe as a magic bullet cure all band-aid. Be very skeptical of anyone telling you not to change your form but to buy a shoe that will change your form.
Tip 6: Never run barefoot
I think the majority of runners can get some very significant benefits from barefoot running. The common knock I see against it is that for competitive runners doing all their mileage barefoot is unreasonable. Well, the good news is once again, IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE ALL OR NOTHING. Remember – the better the performance, the less things need to change. If you are running well, consider adding some barefoot strides after a run once or twice a week. If you aren’t running well consider slowly building up your barefoot running until you start to get the magic back in your stride. Barefoot running is fun and interesting. You will learn things about your running. Be aware of your surroundings and start out with just a little barefoot running, monitoring how you adapt to it.
Tip 7: Copy what the elite americans do
This one seems to make the most sense at first glance, but is copying an elite runner reasonable for the majority of the rest of us? I see this advice given out all the time on running message boards. “Just run like the elites. Do the same workouts as the athletes." Unfortunately, copying elite runners with no idea how they get to where they are is dangerous. Don’t copy other runners, find your own path.
Tip 8: If you aren’t hurt you aren’t running enough
If you aren’t hurt, good job! Running should feel GOOD. If you feel good then great! Don’t let anyone convince you that running should hurt. Don’t let anyone convince you that you are under-training because you aren’t hurt. It’s completely possible to train yourself to your potential with NO PAIN. My senior year of college was the best year ever for me running wise. I ran many of the best races of my life that year and I wasn’t hurt, in pain, sore, or sick AT ALL that year. There wasn’t a single day that I felt pain from running. I ran 31:15 for 10K that year and during the race I felt FREE and HAPPY. At the conference meet I ran a 10K in 32:20, a 1500 in 4:10 and a 5K in 16:00 all in the same day, with no pain or soreness. If you train smart, you should never be in pain. Earlier in my running career I would feel pain during races. Looking back I realized something – the more pain I was in during the race the worse I did. The less pain I was in, the better I did. The “no pain, no gain” attitude is completely bogus.
Tip 9 – If you are hurt you aren’t running enough
Interesting that conventional running wisdom suggests running more for both lack of pain and too much pain. If you are hurt there is a lot you should start looking into such as nutrition, form, imbalances in the body, overall stress level, sleep, other activities etc. The last thing you want to be doing is upping your mileage through an injury. You should REDUCE the mileage if you have an injury.it's amazing I even have to write this here, but unfortunately I still hear and read people telling injured runners they need to run more so they don't get injured.
Tip 10 – 100 miles per week is a magic number that produces magic results
The truth is, there is no magic number. Everybody is different. Some people do well on high mileage, others do well on low mileage. It’s a matter of finding what works for you. I have NEVER run 100 miles in a week and have done pretty well. My Prs in high school were around 4:48 mile and 16:41 5K cross country (franklin park course) I went on to run 4:05 1500, 15:28 5K (track), 31:15 10K (track) on about 70 miles a week in summer base training and 50 miles a week during the season. Yes, that’s right I was running HALF of the magical 100 mile number and managed to improve a great deal. Basically, I took my high school 5K pr – took a minute off and was able to do it twice in a row. I am sure I’m not the only one who has done well on relatively low mileage. As Matt Germain always says "if it's been done, it can be done."
So there you have it. A brief summary of my response to the worst running tips ever. I will go into more detail on each point in future posts.
What are your thoughts? What is the best and worst running advice you have ever gotten?
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