Holiday Happiness--How to Keep Running to Keep Sane Throughout the Holidays!

The cold weather is already here, Thanksgiving is just a few days away, and Christmas and New Years  are just around the corner!

 I don’t know about you, but this time of year is the hardest time for me to stick with a running routine. It’s either too cold, or there is something much more appealing to do like sleep in for an extra hour or watch TV after work.

So, I did a little research and here are some suggestions I found to keep us all running through the holidays! 

·         Schedule Your Runs
o   You’ll be more likely to run if you've already scheduled it into your day.

·         Be Prepared with a Home Workout
o   Sometimes you won’t have enough time to make it to the gym, or there’s a huge snow storm, so you can’t make it out for a run. Have a workout you can do inside, at your house, so that you stay in a routine.

·         Add Some Holiday Cheer to Your Runs
o   Wear a Santa hat or reindeer antlers on your next run. Run when it’s dark out and look at all of the Christmas lights. Download Christmas music on your iPod and listen to it on your next run.

·         Be Flexible
o   Although you should schedule your runs, life happens. If something comes up and you can’t run as long as you originally planned, something is better than nothing--don’t skip your run completely. Also, if you have a holiday party planned for after work, when you usually workout, wake up an hour earlier and get it done in the morning.

·         Run a Holiday Race
o   The Thanksgiving Day 10K, The Jingle Bell Run, The Egg Nog Jog, Holiday in Lights, etc.

·         Get a Family Member to Join You
o   This way no one can guilt trip you for going out for a run instead of spending time with the family. And if they aren’t as fast as you, ask them to join you for a recovery run or walk.  

·         Sign Up For a Future Race
o For instance, the Flying Pig Full or Half Marathon—knowing you have a big race in a few months will definitely keep you going!

Holidays can be just as stressful as they are fun, so to keep sane, stick with your running routine and enjoy all of the delicious holiday foods (almost) guilt free!

Happy Running!

Wednesdays with Wheels 4- Importance of Strength Conditioning for Runners-Guest Speaker Annie Beck

For this week's installment, Wheels visited YOLO Fitness, LLC to speak with Annie Beck, a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, about the importance of strength training for runners!

Website: http://www.yolofitnessnky.com/
Email: yolofitnessnky@gmail.com
Phone: 859-429-2225

Annie Beck

• Bachelor's degree in Exercise Science from Morehead State University
• Master's degree in Exercise Physiology from the University of Kentucky
• Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association 
• A personal trainer and group fitness instructor for six years with a diverse range of abilities and ages
• knowledge in police officer fitness and tactical strength and conditioning field
• Participant in the Boston Marathon

Wednesdays with Wheels 3- 10K training and race day tips

Check out this week's installment of Wednesdays with Wheels to learn some good tips on how you can perform your best on race day!

Wednesdays with Wheels 2- Brooks NightLife Gear

Last night we had our Brooks NightLife Run! All of our runners tried on Brooks NightLife apparel and ran a planned route with Runner Safety tips along the way. There was a Runner's Safety quiz at the water stop and all correct answers were put into a drawing for a Brooks Gift Certificate! Both of our Brooks Reps attended! We ended the night with a Happy Hour!

Saucony's Frightfully Fun Run/Walk

Erin is our Saucony Tech Rep

On Monday, October 28th we had a Halloween/Costume run that was sponsored by Saucony. Our reps, Erin and Casey, joined us for the event. They brought shoes and reflective gear for participants to try out on the 3 mile loop.

We gave away prizes for best costumes and had a happy hour at the Red Zone after the run. Below are pictures from the event!

Flying Pigs

Mr. Red, Batwoman, Joker, Ninja Turtle

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock
-Big Bang Theory

Bumble Bee

        

Aliens

Chainsaw Man & Skeleton

Snow White, Prince Charming, and the Seven Dwarfs

Minions

Wednesdays With Wheels-1st Installment

 

This is our first installment of Wednesdays with Wheels! He gives a brief description of what you should expect at the Trail Clinic this Sunday, November 3rd! Check back next week to see what he has to say next.

 

 

Hills--Your New Best Friend?

Like most runners, the thought of hills probably makes you cringe, right? Well, as it turns out incorporating hills into your weekly routine can actually prevent injury and is safer than solely running on flat ground. It is important to incorporate different types of runs into your routine in order to improve your pace. This means you need to do long runs, slow runs, fartlek runs, tempo runs, and yes, hills.

RunnersConnect is a team of expert coaches and fellow runners—according to them running hill sprints is a good way to improve your pace, and make you an all-around more efficient runner by increasing the power and length of your stride. This enables you to cover more ground with each stride using less energy. Hill sprinting enhances neuromuscular fitness, which is the communication between the brain and the muscles. Stride frequency, stride length, and resistance to fatigue all depend on the efficiency of communication between the brain and muscles.

Hill sprints generate high leg turnover and enable you to push your body without actually running that fast. In other words, it is very similar to a speed workout on flat ground, but lessens the chance of an injury.

 I’m sure ‘hill sprints’ sound a little intimidating, but we’re only talking about one to three 8-12 second bursts of fast running. After that, you get to rest for 2-3 minutes to make sure you are fully recovered before starting another one.  

The hill doesn't have to be super steep either. It just needs to be between a 6 to 10% gradient, that’s only about a 3-6 degree incline.

So now that you have all the facts, here’s how to incorporate it into your workout:

• Start off with just one or two 8-second sprints on a 6-8% gradient
•   Allow enough time to fully (2-3 minutes) recover in between each sprint—you want to give max effort for each sprint
• Do not try to do too much too soon
• Allow time for you to build up before doing several set-- the effort exerted during these sprints places a great amount of stress on the muscles, tendons, and ligaments
•  Make sure you do a proper warm up of an easy 1 or 2 miles and an appropriate cool down
• Two sessions a week are sufficient to see quick results
•  Increase the number of sprints before increasing the duration

Visit the link below if you’d like to read the whole article:

http://runnersconnect.net/running-training-articles/sprint-training-program-for-novice-runners/?awt_l=NHh3w&awt_m=3ghqtrH0x_5ttIP

Happy Running!