I haven’t ran on a treadmill in years, Today I decide to jump on and do 6 miles and it kicked my butt! It felt harder to me than running outside. I’m curious is this the same for you? Which is harder to you?

I remember when I was training for my first marathon, every run was the same. ⁣ It ended with me having an achy pain on the right side of my stomach.⁣ ⁣ It started as just a dual pain, but as I continued to push through, the pain got worse and worse.⁣ ⁣ After a few minutes it felt like I was getting stabbed by a knife. Out of sheer pain and fear I would stop and walk.⁣ ⁣ I knew if I wanted to finish the Portland Marathon, I had to figure out what was going on.⁣ ⁣ So I tried everything…⁣ ⁣ I tried changing how fast I ran…⁣ ⁣ When I ran…⁣ ⁣ What I ate and drank…⁣ ⁣ But nothing worked.⁣ ⁣ Still every run ended the same.⁣ ⁣ After a quick Google search, I realized that my side cramps were because of my breathing.⁣ ⁣ My breathing was too short and shallow.⁣ ⁣ I needed to take deep, slow, controlled breaths.⁣ ⁣ So that’s what I did.⁣ ⁣ I started to pair my breathing with the number of steps I took.⁣ ⁣ I called it the 3 x 3 framework.⁣ ⁣ For every three steps I took, I would inhale, and then exhale for the next three steps.⁣ ⁣ Really focusing on getting oxygen deep into my lungs.⁣ ⁣ And because I hyper focused on my breathing, my side cramps/stitches went away.⁣ ⁣ Now every time I go on a run, the first thing I think about is my breathing.⁣ ⁣ I try to get my breathing under control as fast as possible. I then try to maintain my rhythm throughout my runs.⁣ ⁣ If I start to feel a side cramp/stitch forming, I reset my breathing, following the 3 x 3 framework.⁣ ⁣ Give this a try if you are getting side cramps/stitches on your runs.⁣ ⁣ If you got value out of this post, share this with a friend who also gets cramps/stitches on their runs.⁣ ⁣ Tony

Runners make the fatal mistake of not hydrating while they run. The important thing to understand is what it prevents. The mindset of someone on a run is to analyze how they are feeling and then make a decision based on that. So if they are tired or in pain, they will slow down. If they are thirsty, then they will drink water. But if they are feeling good, then they will continue to push on. Which makes sense, but you want to prevent problems before they occur. Once it's already a problem, it significantly hinders your run and/or your performance. It’s the same reason why you do injury prevention stretches before you run. Or you eat before your run so you don’t run out of fuel during your run. So in the case of hydration, you want to drink water before and during to prevent you from getting dehydrated. So what does this look like in practice? There are designated hydration stations every mile or so. You want to run through each station and grab a cup of water. Think of approaching a water station like going through a drive-through at a fast food restaurant. You don’t want to park your car, sit down, order food, and spend 30 minutes eating. No, you want to be faster than that. You want to get your food quickly and eat while you are driving. It’s the same thing with grabbing water at a hydration station. You want to slow down to grab the water, but you want to keep running. Now the important thing to take into consideration is how much water to drink. If you try chugging water then it can disrupt your pacing and momentum. Also, if you drink too much of it, then it can upset your stomach. So what you want to do is drink water like you are a boxer or a UFC fighter. If you ever watch them drink water while they’re in their corners, they will drink a few sips and then spit out the rest. Bringing this all together. (Action steps) 1) You want to slow down and approach the water stations. 2) Grab a cup of water from a volunteer while still running.

I'm looking to up my running gear game. What are your favorite socks? Shoes? Shorts? Base layers? etc.

There are a lot of factors that contribute to running faster and your overall time on your half or full marathon. But for this post, I want to talk about one running strategy. To give you some background I have personally coached hundreds of runners and I regularly get asked how to run faster. You are a competitive person with ambitious goals so you want to improve your time. But the problem I see is that most runners don’t have a plan on how to run faster. They just hope that they will get faster and that their times will magically improve. Unfortunately that’s just not how it works. To get faster, you have to have a strategy. And I like to use the same strategy that I use when I lift weights. The reason to lift weights is to get stronger and so you measure your strength by the amount of additional weight you can lift from when you first started or after a certain period of time. If you started out lifting 20 pounds but now you can lift 40 pounds you have just doubled your strength. And the way you increase your strength is the same thing I do to increase my speed. When I’m in the gym I’ll start off with let’s say 20 pounds and then after a week or so I will increase it to 25 pounds and then 30 pounds and then 35 pounds and then 40 pounds. But the key to increasing the amount of weight you can lift comes down to intentional effort. If you just go into the gym and lift weights without a goal, purpose, or a plan, then you will lift the same amount of weight week after week. You won’t make any progress and you will feel like you are just spinning your tires. It’s the same thing with your running. You have to deliberately try to run faster. And the way to do that is first you want to control all the outside factors to the best of your ability. Your sleep, nutrition, recovery, strength training, weekly mileage, routine, and even the weather. Once those factors are controlled, now you can isolate your speed. So what I like to do is I will run the same distance week after week after week.