Running sucks

Why do we run? It's painful and often we feel as if we're dying. Most people would feel the pain and take themselves out of the situation that's causing them pain. Runners, however, keep putting themselves through this pain day after day after day. Like the title of this post and the words on one of my shirts say, "Running Sucks." I have ideas though why we keep doing this self torture. 

Getting better feels good. Being able to go a little farther everyday makes you feel a sense of accomplishment. This feeling might be why people keep running. I know for me, whenever I get a personal record in a race, I feel wonderful. 

Another reason that's probably the most popular one is to keep getting in shape. Running makes you become more healthy. No matter how big you are, running will make you lose weight. For many people, this might be the only reason they're running. But it's a great reason. You don't have to race and compete to be a runner. All you have to do is just run and you're one of the crazy runners who put themselves through constant punishment. 

Hydration

Being hydrated is critical to running. I have experienced being dehydrated for practices and races and it severely cut my performance. The only way to be hydrated correctly for races is by drinking water throughout the day. Our coach always says that each day you should drink about 8 normal bottles of water to be hydrated. Whenever I drink that much, I feel much better running and perform better too. 

The American Beverage Association gives guidelines on their website for how much water you should drink. They say that for adults you should drink around 11-16 cups. It also says that if you're an athlete you should drink more. http://www.ameribev.org/nutrition-science/hydration/

So why only drink water? Soft drinks do have water in them, but they have so much sugar in them, they are awful for you. Drinking a little bit of a sports drink every day also helps you keep your electrolytes up. This is crucial for the hotter weather that is coming up with the summer. 

In conclusion, drink water. Drinking 11-16 cups a day will make you feel better and perform physical activities better. 

Kinvara

During Junior year cross-country I had ankle problems at the beginning of the year. They hurt very badly and my coach thought that it might be because of my shoes. At the time I was wearing Reebok Zigs and I thought that they were good shoes. I went to a running store and got two new pairs of shoes. One was a Brooks Pure Run and the other was a Saucony Kinvara 2. Both of the shoes felt very comfortable to wear and were lightweight. Over the rest of the season I began to like the pair of Kinvaras more and more. I wore them through the winter and in the spring, I got the next installment of them, the Kinvara 3s. I liked these too because they were even more lightweight. But these shoes began to have holes in them. I looked online to see if it was a normal problem and I found that it was extremely common. I liked the shoes, though, and kept wearing them until they were too worn out to wear. After they were completely worn out, I bought the Kinvara 4s. I didn't know if the same problem with the holes would persist on the new shoes. They did but because they still felt so comfortable to run in I have kept running in them. Now those shoes are getting worn out and I will probably buy the new Kinvara 5s this summer. They have apparently fixed the problem with the holes so i am excited to find out if it is true.
Overall the Kinvara is a wonderful shoe. It is very lightweight while not sacrificing cushioning or comfortability. The holes are just a cosmetic issue and won't influence the performance of the shoe.

Success.

Success is what drives us to be the best that we can be. Success is what keeps us on our toes and keeps us going until there's nowhere else to go... and then we keep going. Keep going and then you will achieve true success. Be the runner, swimmer, fitness junky that you want to be, be the best you can be. Achieve greatness.

Photo Courtesy of: http://briankellysblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/courtesy-notice-success-story-32194.html 

When we fail, we pick ourselves back up. Failure isn't what should make us give up. Failure is what builds us, makes us stronger, gives us a reason to try again. That is what failure truly is, it's a reason to keep going. The only way to keep going is to change your mindset and embrace failure.

Photo Courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Smith_(Paralympian)

Failure is the the key to success, without one there wouldn't be the other. Embrace failure, achieve success, and then start all over. Whether you're starting from the bottom and working back up, or striving to achieve an even greater success. One of my favorite quotes, from the movie She's The Man, "Be not afraid of greatness, some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."

Be the best you believe you can be, and then be better. Believe in yourself and you will achieve and abundance of greatness, and your life will truly be filled with happiness.

Overall, I believe this blog has been a success. From the start it was a little rough, but we have improved significantly. We have informed all of you of some of the best ways to keep form and stay fit. some of the posts may have been a little dry, but we are only trying what we can in the time we are given. I believe we have only succeeded when have have helped those who need it, and given advice to those who seek it.

It's Okay To Fail

Sometimes we can't hold on. We have to let go, give up, start over. That's okay. Failure is a part of life. When it comes to being active failure is HUGE. Without failure we lose the drive to get better.

There are those days when we just don't feel like doing anything. We want to sit on the couch all day, watching something on Netflix, all while stuffing our faces with Cheetos or Doritos. This is okay, but what we need is to forget about all of that. Just remember that the only workout you'll ever truly regret is one that you don't do. It's okay to be lazy, it's in our nature.

Getting over the laziness is part of life. Yes I am trying to teach a life lesson here. When you don't feel like going through the physical trouble to accomplish something.....DO IT. Forget the laziness, ignore it and do what you have to.

If you fail, good. If you don't, you will eventually. It's a fact of life. BUT, that's what we want. Our character is measured by the amount of effort we give and how willing we are to get back up when we fall. 

As I like to say: "Sometimes if you want to dig deeper you need to have a cave in." 

Don't give up. Never back down.

Photo credit: Eneas De Troya

Rest or Be Forced to Rest

For those you morons who think that rest days are the worst thing ever invented....you're a moron. Rest days are very vital to our exercise experience. Even Olympians have rest days.

 What happens is over time during workouts our muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, and joints become "injured". Our muscles tear and our joints strain, this is when our immune system starts to kick in and begins to repair them. BUT if we don't take rest days and are constantly practicing, our immune system cannot keep up with us. Repairing the muscle tissue is where we see the muscle growth and naturally the secret to "getting big".

 The level of rest depends on your fitness level and/or sport. Sometimes for some people a rest day just consists of easing off on your workout and others consist of no workout at all. Either way, rest days could be considered one of the most important parts of working out.

 We need to allow our bodies to rest and heal, this way we can prevent injuries. Constant work with injuries such as shin-splints can create more damage and over all destroy any career that was possible. You can't work when your injured, so basically you just lose all of the progress preceding your injury.

Don't injure yourself and lose all of the hard work you've done, take a break. Rest up!

(Info courtesy of: https://www.wellbridge.com/fit-like-that/give-it-a-rest-its-ok-to-skip-your-workout)

(Image courtesy of: http://thetamburarunner.com/2014/02/10/cleveland-marathone-training-week-3-the-importance-of-rest-days/)

Tricky trails

Running on roads or a track all the time can get very boring. Also, you can get injured. Throughout my years of running I've always hated running on roads and tracks. I've always liked running on one surface, trails. 

From my experience, trails are fun and exciting ways to get your run in. Whenever I get the chance I do my workout on a trail instead of a road or track. I may get dirty and scratched up from the nature along the trail, but it's worth it because you get to see beautiful landscapes that you can't from a road or trail. 

When I got my latest issue or Runner's World, I was happy to see that they did a article on the benefits of trail running. It goes through and says different reasons people should run trails and what kind of trails they should run. 

If you're a new runner you should look for flat, easy trails. It gives examples like cinder paths, wide dirt trails, and rail trails. Running on these trails will reduce the soreness that new runners often experience. It also gives a workout that is alternating running and walking for 20 to 30 minutes.

If you're injury-prone it says to run on soft surfaces. It gives examples of grass, dirt, wood chips, or technical trails if you're comfortable with them. Running on these trails reduces the pounding on your joints and muscles. This reduces the number of joint-related injuries you'll have. The workout that they give is to run for 15-20 minutes and make sure that no injuries flare up. 

If you like to run a treadmill it says to look for a flat trail that isn't challenging. It says that gravel paths and nontechnical dirt trails are ideal. It also says that if you're stressed it'd be a good idea to run outside in nature because it'll relieve your stress. The workout that they give is just to go run for times and don't worry about pace. 

If you're a road racer it says to look for nontechnical trails with challenging hills. The hills will force you to run different paces and makes a normal run into an interval workout. One workout that they give is to run hard on the up hills and recover on the downhill. 

If you're already running trails it says that you should run new and unfamiliar trails. This will make running exciting to you again. The workout that they give is to run a route that's 20% longer than your normal route. 

It also ranks different trails by their difficulty. The easiest is the rail trail. These are flat trails covered with dirt of gravel. These are old railroads that were coverted. The next is a fire road. These are wide trails that are used by fire-safety vehicles. These can be hilly but won't be hard. The next is a multiuser trail. These are trails used by walkers, runners, cyclists, and equestrians. These can be both hilly and technical. They can also be very narrow and only allow one person at a time to go down them. The second most hard trail is a hiking trail. These are very hilly and technical and are used by hikers. The hardest are mountain trails. These are very steep trails on mountains and can have thinner oxygen at them. Knowing your skill level is essential to choosing heat trail your run because if you run on a trail that's too hard, you can get seriously injured. 

The Runner's World issue that the article is from is April 2014. The name of the article is Take It Off-Road. The website for the magazine is http://www.runnersworld.com/