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The Myth of the “Out of Nowhere” Injury
Ever get a random pain or niggle or injury that seems to come out of nowhere?
I’ve got news for you: unless you stepped off a curb or something, it didn’t come out of nowhere. It was probably brewing for days, weeks, months. But you didn’t pay attention to it until it got in the way of your running. Oops.
Break Your Bad Running Habits
Establish good habits around your running, and you’ll stay healthy, make progress, and feel great. Sounds good, right?
. . . but nobody’s perfect.
We’ve all got a few bad habits that probably aren’t serving us (yes, even your friendly neighborhood coach). You can pile on healthy habits, but if you don’t let go of the bad ones, you’re making it harder on yourself. Figuring out what’s holding you back is the first step to getting better!
In my coaching practice (and, ahem, my own running), I’ve run across a lot of bad habits. Here are some of the most common bad running habits– and what to do about them.
Act Like An Athlete All Day Long
You're sticking to your training plan. You're hitting your workouts hard. You're checking the boxes. So why do you keep getting little niggles? Why are you sick again? Why did you miss that PR by a hair, again?
Training matters. But you spend more time not running than you spend running. And that can work to your advantage, if you’re smart– adaptation doesn't happen while you're actually training, it happens in between.
Athletes don’t stop being athletes when they step off the track, or the trail, or the court, or the field. They make decisions to support their performance all day long. You can, too.
Anti-Inflammatory Nutrition for Athletes (and everyone!)
If the fire is hot enough, anything will burn. I run so I can eat whatever I want. Will run for donuts. Have you ever said one of these? Or maybe have it on a t-shirt or three? There's no shame in that! Runners love to eat! But is your nutrition supporting your training and recovery, or are you just getting by? Are you missing goals, feeling drained, or getting injured? Are you curious what "peak performance" might look like for you? Do you want to feel better running? You might want to think about your nutrition.
Tips for the everyday athlete
The more you move, the more you may start to be aware of what your body can do. You can and should treat your body like an athlete would, even if your “sport” is biking to work, zumba, taking yoga classes, or hitting up Orange Theory once a week. Physiotherapist and all-around wizard Kelly Starrett likes to say that humans should be able to perform basic maintenance on themselves. That’s the task of the everyday athlete: take care of the instrument you use to go through your daily life (that’s your body). A little bit of attention goes a long way. It’s easy to ignore this advice until you’re injured, fatigued, or fighting illness, but surprise! It’s also easy to do it. It just takes awareness and intention. What does that look like? I’ll go through some basic good practices for everyday athletes below.