Ask 100 marathoners how they fuel and you’ll get 100 different answers. It seems that marathon fueling is so individual that it simply takes lots of trial and error in training and tune-up races to find the strategy that works best for you. After working with thousands of marathoners from charity marathon groups to Boston…
I’ve been a runner for over 35 years but to this day, whenever I’m visiting my parents and get back from my run my father asks, “Did you win?” Now, just getting out the door and going for a run is definitely a “win” but I think my dad’s onto something more profound. Each and…
At the end of every marathon/half-marathon/ultra season (and sometimes before the race is even run!), runners start asking me about their next training cycle. Runners are planners. We like to know the path ahead, and I get it. As a competitive runner myself, I’m always working to figure out the best sequence of training to…
Carbohydrate manipulation across your training cycle is one of the simplest nutritional strategies to boost physical and mental fitness. For over 20 years, I’ve used this strategy on myself as well as with many of the athletes I coach and have had great success. In a nutshell, you supplement with carbohydrate before and during long…
This article is the second part of a series, which summarizes my observations following two years as a mental performance consultant. The first component, “The Best Athletes,” explored the commonalities I’ve witnessed among those who consistently perform well. The final installment will cover effective and ineffective coaching strategies. This article, which highlights commonalities of athletes…
5 WAYS TO RECON YOUR RACES It had been 10 years since I ran the local race series but I was excited to pin on the bib number and challenge myself. The series featured 7 (mostly trail) races of distances as short as one mile and as long as a half-marathon. As the first race…
After coaching so many runners – from new runners just getting started to Olympians and every thing in between – you start to see patterns and tendencies. Patterns of successful runners and tendencies of those that fail to hit their goal. In coaching, my #1 job is to help runners avoid the tendencies that keep…
CAN RUNNING TWICE ON LONG RUN DAYS SPEED RECOVERY? Before the 1996 U.S. Olympic marathon trials, I coached a woman who had long been doing a short shake-out run in the evening after her long run. She’d run 18–24 miles in the morning, rest all day (like we all should do after a long run),…
ARE WATER STOPS SLOWING YOUR TIME? In 2009, I raced the USA Marathon Trail Championships. It was my fifth marathon and I achieved my goal of becoming national masters champion. While accomplishing this goal was valuable, I may have learned a more valuable lesson that all runners can apply to their marathon racing. Unlike most…
Like every coach and runner, I learn (and re-learn) new lessons all the time. Here are 6 lessons I’ve learned over the years and the training ideas that I recommend applying more often in training. #1: YEAR-ROUND LEG SPEED TRAINING Staying fast, yet avoiding anaerobic training is the key to building your basic leg speed…
