Running is all about your legs. When you run, many enzymes are busy at work in your calves, hamstrings, quadriceps, and other muscles, catalyzing numerous chemical reactions to break down carbohydrates and fat for fuel, including the one that breaks the strong bonds of ATP molecules we learned about in high school biology class to […]
I hear a lot in the fitness industry about the importance of clean eating. Indeed, most fitness professionals quote that looking good is 80% nutrition and 20% training. I don’t know how or where personal trainers get those numbers, but it’s not true. I’m pretty sure I didn’t get my legs and ass from eating […]
Today I ran a half-marathon in the middle of the pack, as I sometimes do, as an easy long run. I don’t often like running long by myself, so jumping in a local half-marathon gives me a chance to run long with others. Shortly after starting, I saw two guys holding up a sign for […]
I once coached a college runner who ran 19 minutes for 5K and she told me she wanted to be trained like a 17:30 5K runner. So I told her to run a 17:30 5K and then I’ll train her like a 17:30 5K runner. Races, which tell you your current level of fitness, dictate the speeds you […]
This is a big week coming up. After a long journey, the release of my sixth book is April 12. “Book release” is a funny term. It sounds like a heavily-guarded secret that is finally being released to the world. It is just a book, after all. But this book is special to me, because […]
Excerpted from The Inner Runner I used to coach a recent college graduate who commented on the fact that many of the best college distance running teams in the U.S. are based in cold climates. He believed this was more than coincidence because he thought that running in cold, icy, snowy weather makes runners […]
Ever since the fitness industry got a hold of research showing that people burn calories after they work out while they recover from their workout, a whole new argument was born. Exercise stopped being about the exercise and became about what came after. “Do this workout,” trainers and gurus would say, “because you’ll burn four […]
There has been a lot of commotion lately about interval training. Once the training secret of the world’s best runners, interval training has become the new buzz term in the fitness industry. It seems as if everyone is doing it, from competitive athletes to grandma next door. Interval training originated in the 1930s by coach […]
Back in the day before the internet and social media, one had to be published in a magazine or book to have a public voice and get information out to the public. Now, everyone can have a public voice, and that can be a problem. I read so much bad information on the internet […]
I have a bad habit. I put a forkful or spoonful of food in my mouth before finishing to chew and swallow the food already in my mouth from the previous forkful or spoonful. This may not seem like such a big deal, but it is because of why I do it. We’ll get to […]