Running-Related Tips

Have any good tips about any and everything running-related you can share with our group? I thought it might be fun to build a big list based on the wealth of experience on this forum. Then perhaps we can copy it over to one single post and make it a sticky.

Any and everything is fair game as long as it helps you get out the door and run more. I'll start:

• 2Toms Blister Shield works better than Bodyglide or Vaselline I believe
  
• However, the little chap stick style vaselline tube is GREAT to carry in case you need it
  
• Homemade ice bandanas are very easy to make and great in really hot weather. All you need to do is take a standard bandana, fold it in a triangle and stitch up all but 3-4 inches on one corner. Then load it with ice and wrap it around your neck. As the ice melts it feels great.
  
• Ice cubes under your hat but on top of your hair is a great way to stay cooler in really hot weather as well
  
• To keep your shoes from getting too funky spray a little Lysol in them. Just like the bowling alley does with their shoes!
  
• Stuff newspaper in really wet shoes to accelerate the drying process so your shoes are ready to use the next day
  
• If you want to pack lighter when traveling take advantage of the dryness of hotel rooms by simply rinsing your running clothes in the shower and using a bit of hand soap to 'clean' them. Then hang dry near a vent or simply over the towel bar. They should be dry by the next day.
  
• You can travel with your foam roller and not give up much space in your suitcase if you have one of the hollow Trigger-Point foam rollers. Stuff the hollow space with your running clothes for the week or weekend.
  
• Unsure of where to run in a new city or town? Call the local running shop and ask someone there for their favorite running routes then Google to find out which one(s) you want to try.
  

Slow down.

Mike MacLellan wrote:Slow down.

Speed up.

Here are a few that I thought of...

• While racing, make sure to run the tangents. That's how they measure most courses anyways.
  
• When running hills, try to keep your chest out.  Like a harness is pulling you up the hill.  This will allow you to open your lungs and breath better while running up the hill.
  
• Also, always run up and over the top of the hill.  Slowing at the top will kill your momentum.
  
• On warm days, make sure that you are fully hydrated and try to slow your pace a little.
  
• Remember that pace groups will get you to the finish around the group time.  Sometimes they run a few minutes faster than the group time.
  
• On race day, try to get your pre-race foods in a couple hours before the start of the race.
  
• You can't control the conditions on race day.  Only how well you are prepared for them.
  

Nick Morris wrote:Here are a few that I thought of...

• While racing, make sure to run the tangents. That's how they measure most courses anyways.
  
• When running hills, try to keep your chest out.  Like a harness is pulling you up the hill.  This will allow you to open your lungs and breath better while running up the hill.
  
• Also, always run up and over the top of the hill.  Slowing at the top will kill your momentum.
  
• On warm days, make sure that you are fully hydrated and try to slow your pace a little.
  
• Remember that pace groups will get you to the finish around the group time.  Sometimes they run a few minutes faster than the group time.
  
• On race day, try to get your pre-race foods in a couple hours before the start of the race.
  
• You can't control the conditions on race day.  Only how well you are prepared for them.
  

Not if they're doing their job right!

mul21 wrote:

Nick Morris wrote:Here are a few that I thought of...

• While racing, make sure to run the tangents. That's how they measure most courses anyways.
  
• When running hills, try to keep your chest out.  Like a harness is pulling you up the hill.  This will allow you to open your lungs and breath better while running up the hill.
  
• Also, always run up and over the top of the hill.  Slowing at the top will kill your momentum.
  
• On warm days, make sure that you are fully hydrated and try to slow your pace a little.
  
• Remember that pace groups will get you to the finish around the group time.  Sometimes they run a few minutes faster than the group time.
  
• On race day, try to get your pre-race foods in a couple hours before the start of the race.
  
• You can't control the conditions on race day.  Only how well you are prepared for them.
  

Not if they're doing their job right!

Ha...fat chance!!  You do get some good ones every once in a while, but more often than not you don't.

mul21 wrote:

Nick Morris wrote:Here are a few that I thought of...

• While racing, make sure to run the tangents. That's how they measure most courses anyways.
  
• When running hills, try to keep your chest out.  Like a harness is pulling you up the hill.  This will allow you to open your lungs and breath better while running up the hill.
  
• Also, always run up and over the top of the hill.  Slowing at the top will kill your momentum.
  
• On warm days, make sure that you are fully hydrated and try to slow your pace a little.
  
• Remember that pace groups will get you to the finish around the group time.  Sometimes they run a few minutes faster than the group time.
  
• On race day, try to get your pre-race foods in a couple hours before the start of the race.
  
• You can't control the conditions on race day.  Only how well you are prepared for them.
  

Not if they're doing their job right!

Exactly!!!!  As a pacer, I hope they get there faster, but I better be within a minute.  (This was hard to do at the end of leading Ladies as I was alone, but I stayed at the pace.)

Put your water bottle in the freezer half full so it stays cool longer on hot runs
Keep an eye on your shoe mileage- when mine are getting worn out my knees always complain.

Nick Morris wrote:Here are a few that I thought of...

• When running hills, try to keep your chest out.  Like a harness is pulling you up the hill.  This will allow you to open your lungs and breath better while running up the hill.
  

Never heard that one before.  Anyone else tried it?

Stan

ssilvert wrote:

Nick Morris wrote:Here are a few that I thought of...

• When running hills, try to keep your chest out.  Like a harness is pulling you up the hill.  This will allow you to open your lungs and breath better while running up the hill.
  
  
  

Never heard that one before.  Anyone else tried it?

Stan

Not me.  For hills I focus on a slightly forward pelvic tilt, basically just tightening the lower abdominals to get a more 'straight' posture keeping the center of gravity just slightly forward.  That's what I've done for years and it seems to help.  Before that I found I would lean slightly, bending a little at the waist.  That was inefficient.

No worries if you have to pee in marathons, just pee faster and you can still break 3 hours.

Jerry wrote:No worries if you have to pee in marathons, just pee faster and you can still break 3 hours.

If you have to pee in marathons, just don't stop.

Mr MattM wrote:

Jerry wrote:No worries if you have to pee in marathons, just pee faster and you can still break 3 hours.

If you have to pee in marathons, just don't stop.

I know, and will try to get to the next level.

Michele \"1L" Keane wrote:

mul21 wrote:

Nick Morris wrote:Here are a few that I thought of...

• While racing, make sure to run the tangents. That's how they measure most courses anyways.
  
• When running hills, try to keep your chest out.  Like a harness is pulling you up the hill.  This will allow you to open your lungs and breath better while running up the hill.
  
• Also, always run up and over the top of the hill.  Slowing at the top will kill your momentum.
  
• On warm days, make sure that you are fully hydrated and try to slow your pace a little.
  
• Remember that pace groups will get you to the finish around the group time.  Sometimes they run a few minutes faster than the group time.
  
• On race day, try to get your pre-race foods in a couple hours before the start of the race.
  
• You can't control the conditions on race day.  Only how well you are prepared for them.
  

Not if they're doing their job right!

Exactly!!!!  As a pacer, I hope they get there faster, but I better be within a minute.  (This was hard to do at the end of leading Ladies as I was alone, but I stayed at the pace.)

I know that you do a good job at pacing, but there are so many pacers out there that don't.  I wish they would follow your lead

Don't leave your race out on your training runs.
Don't try to make up for missed training runs.
It's better to make it to the start undertrained than injured.
Consistency in your running is the most important training variable. And as a corollary:
There is no single workout that will make you better than the cumulative work you put in each week.


When running stops being fun, change it up. Throw away the watch, pick a new route, run with friends or a group, or take some time off and do something else.

Pack a small bag with a pair of old running shoes, shorts, shirt, socks and throw it in the back of your car.  There will come a time when you can get in an unexpected and unplanned run and you'll be happy to have the clothes there.

Break routines.  If you only run outside, try some mill running regularly.  If you always do the same route, drive 5-10 minutes and do a different one.  If you always run with a Garmin on, go technology free sometimes.  If never listen to tunes while running, try it.  If you never take gels on long runs, try them.  Or go carb free for a whole run.  Try heavy cushioned shoes.  Try minimalist flats.  Avoid saying "I always..." or "I never...." with respect to your running.

Don't talk about running so much to other people.  Many runners are really boring when talking incessantly about their own running to others who are not nearly as into the sport.  Come here and talk away freely to an interested audience but dial it way down with non-runners.

Chris M wrote:Don't talk about running so much to other people.  Many runners are really boring when talking incessantly about their own running to others who are not nearly as into the sport.  Come here and talk away freely to an interested audience but dial it way down with non-runners.

+1

Nick Morris wrote:

Michele \"1L" Keane wrote:

mul21 wrote:

Nick Morris wrote:Here are a few that I thought of...

• While racing, make sure to run the tangents. That's how they measure most courses anyways.
  
• When running hills, try to keep your chest out.  Like a harness is pulling you up the hill.  This will allow you to open your lungs and breath better while running up the hill.
  
• Also, always run up and over the top of the hill.  Slowing at the top will kill your momentum.
  
• On warm days, make sure that you are fully hydrated and try to slow your pace a little.
  
• Remember that pace groups will get you to the finish around the group time.  Sometimes they run a few minutes faster than the group time.
  
• On race day, try to get your pre-race foods in a couple hours before the start of the race.
  
• You can't control the conditions on race day.  Only how well you are prepared for them.
  

Not if they're doing their job right!

Exactly!!!!  As a pacer, I hope they get there faster, but I better be within a minute.  (This was hard to do at the end of leading Ladies as I was alone, but I stayed at the pace.)

I know that you do a good job at pacing, but there are so many pacers out there that don't.  I wish they would follow your lead

I would agree.  Once at the Publix Half and Full in Atlanta, the 1:50 pacer was so ahead of schedule that runners were "dying" all around him.  I was running next to the group (aiming for sub 1:45) and let the runners know that he was way too fast.  Funny, I have rarely used a pacer and when I have, I have also kept track on my own.

I really don't get the extra fast pacers. That is disappointing. I haven't used pacers more than twice but if I say I have a time goal it's not because I could really go 5 minutes faster.

Michele \"1L" Keane wrote:I would agree.  Once at the Publix Half and Full in Atlanta, the 1:50 pacer was so ahead of schedule that runners were "dying" all around him.  I was running next to the group (aiming for sub 1:45) and let the runners know that he was way too fast.  Funny, I have rarely used a pacer and when I have, I have also kept track on my own.

That's something I don't get, regardless of the goal pace.  If you've put in the time to train for a race, even if you're just running it to get to the finish line, why wouldn't you have a pace band and a watch of some kind on and check where you're at when you hit the mile markers?  The risk of blowing up because you're completely reliant on a pacer is way too high.

Julie wrote:I really don't get the extra fast pacers. That is disappointing. I haven't used pacers more than twice but if I say I have a time goal it's not because I could really go 5 minutes faster.

Nor do I.  The guy that Michele and I have both paced for, Jim Crist, has a group called Marathon Pacing and he keeps track of who hits time goals and who doesn't and if you miss your number by too much too often, he doesn't ask you back.  I've done a bunch of half marathons and will be doing my second full with his group this fall and by and large, it's a really good group with pretty good accuracy.

mul21 wrote:

Michele \"1L" Keane wrote:I would agree.  Once at the Publix Half and Full in Atlanta, the 1:50 pacer was so ahead of schedule that runners were "dying" all around him.  I was running next to the group (aiming for sub 1:45) and let the runners know that he was way too fast.  Funny, I have rarely used a pacer and when I have, I have also kept track on my own.

That's something I don't get, regardless of the goal pace.  If you've put in the time to train for a race, even if you're just running it to get to the finish line, why wouldn't you have a pace band and a watch of some kind on and check where you're at when you hit the mile markers?  The risk of blowing up because you're completely reliant on a pacer is way too high.

+100

Mr MattM wrote:

ssilvert wrote:

Nick Morris wrote:Here are a few that I thought of...

• When running hills, try to keep your chest out.  Like a harness is pulling you up the hill.  This will allow you to open your lungs and breath better while running up the hill.
  
  
  
  
  

Never heard that one before.  Anyone else tried it?

Stan

Not me.  For hills I focus on a slightly forward pelvic tilt, basically just tightening the lower abdominals to get a more 'straight' posture keeping the center of gravity just slightly forward.  That's what I've done for years and it seems to help.  Before that I found I would lean slightly, bending a little at the waist.  That was inefficient.

I had read it in Runner's World a few year's ago.  I tried it and it helped me with the uphills.  It is more or less the same concept as yours Matt.  It allows your airway to stay open more and promote easier breathing.

Nick,

The real pacing tip is to draft or work together with a lady. At 3 hours mark, ladies are well better trained than guys. They are light, smooth, and extremely steady, besides other mental boosts.

Don't be afraid to experiment on training runs.
Always double check the date, location, and start time of races because it's no fun to show up too late or on the wrong day.
Wear sunscreen.
Get a RoadID or similar form of ID with emergency contact info on it.
Massages are great for keeping muscles loose.
Add some epsom salt to a bath and soak post run.
Never underestimate the benefits of chocolate milk.
You can usually do a little longer or harder than you think you can.

Sterilize a pin and pop your blisters--they'll hurt less and heal faster.  At least, mine do.