Q&A With PWURE Athletes Sisson, Fauble, and Droddy
PWURE, the data-based sports nutrition company, welcomed three of the United States’ top long-distance runners – Emily Sisson, Scott Fauble and Noah Droddy – as its newest investors and athlete brand ambassadors. Using a proprietary methodology developed by athletes for athletes, PWURE individually formulates personalized, data-driven pre and post-workout shake blends for athletes of all levels engaged in endurance sports and activities. I mean, it actually takes your Strava data (or your own user-submitted data) and builds customized formulas and recommendations for your training. And instead of a bunch of ingredients you can’t understand (i.e. tons of f**king sugar), PWURE consists of clean, all-natural ingredients designed to be used as part of their training and recovery regimen to help achieve their goals and personal records. “PWURE is both honored and proud to have such accomplished athletes as investors and ambassadors for our up-and-coming sports nutrition brand,” said Hadrien Royal, PWURE’s co-founder and CEO. “Unlike other brands who create individualized products only for professional athletes, PWURE uses the same data-driven, personalization that goes into developing formulations for world-class athletes such as Emily, Noah and Scott’s mixtures as it does for all of our customers.” Believe in the Run recently got a chance to talk with Emily, Noah and Scott about PWURE as well as check in on their running lives. Q: So… how’s your running going? NOAH: Running is going fine! I’m in the early stages of a marathon training block, just enjoying getting out the door everyday and enjoying the process of getting better at something. SCOTT: It’s going well, kind of in a down period as I build towards a Fall Marathon. Q: What are your plans for 2021? NOAH: My big plan is a fall marathon (TBA), I’ll fill my schedule in with some road races before then, but I haven’t committed to anything quite yet. SCOTT: I’d like to run a few races over the summer in the 10k to half marathon range and then hunker down with 6-8 really good weeks of work before a Fall Marathon. Q: Looking back over the last decade, how has running changed your life? NOAH: That’s a big question because running has changed everything about my life. Where I live, who I’m marrying, what I dedicate most of my energy to, has all been influenced by the commitment I made to running. SCOTT: Oh man, how hasn’t it changed it? I guess mostly it’s provided me an awesome education and now my dream job. EMILY: Running has changed my life in many ways but probably the most notable are the people I’ve met and the experiences I’ve gained. Both have shaped who I am and I am incredibly thankful for that! Q: What’s one tip you wish someone would’ve told you about when you were younger? NOAH: I feel like I’ve learned all the important lessons when I needed to. I think as I get older, I need to remind myself more consistently to enjoy what I’m doing, and be present in the process. I realize I’m in the latter half of my elite running career, so I just want to continue to be mindful of what a privilege it is to do what I do. SCOTT: I guess one tip I wish I would have known when I was younger was to look at running holistically. It’s not enough to just run a lot, this is a full-life endeavor. EMILY: It’s very cliche but one tip would probably be to not put as much pressure on myself and to enjoy the process more! I don’t feel pressure from others really but I hold myself and my work ethic to such high standards that I have sometimes needed the reminder that I’m doing my very best and that is good enough! My younger self definitely needed to hear that! Q: How does nutrition play a part in your training? NOAH: Nutrition is the cornerstone to everything. You won’t be able to perform or recover well if you aren’t adequately fueled. You’re only going to get out of your body what you put in. SCOTT: Nutrition is huge. It would be impossible to train well and recover without adequate nutrition. EMILY: Nutrition plays a huge role in my training because when I am running 90-100 miles per week, how I fuel becomes pretty critical. If I’m not fueling enough or fueling with poor quality nutrition, my recovery will be affected! Q: You use PWURE as part of your fueling strategy. How/why does it work for you? NOAH: I sometimes use a pre-workout formula if I need a little extra pep, but I always have a post-workout recovery shake. It’s important to get nutrients in as close to the end of a workout as possible. The post-workout formula makes that easy and convenient. It sits well in my stomach, and I use it with confidence knowing my formula has been designed with my specific training load in mind. SCOTT: Yes, I do. I like Pwure because it makes my fueling and recovering so much easier. It has everything I need, in the right doses, and nothing I don’t. It really rakes some variables out of the equation. EMILY: I’ve always had a really sensitive stomach with pre and post-workout drinks, and with Pwure the products digest so easily! The Post Workout drink has that perfect ratio of carbs to protein and if you study the nutrition labels of most protein drinks they actually don’t have that 3:1 or 4:1 ratio. So I think that’s pretty awesome! Q: How can PWURE benefit non-professional runners? NOAH: We’re all out there doing the same thing, whether you’re professional or not. If you’re passionately chasing your running goals, PWURE is one more tool to help you improve on the margins. The beauty of personalized nutrition formulas is that you won’t be drinking mine, you’ll be getting exactly what you need for your workload. SCOTT: Look, it’s personalized, so you aren’t going to get the same formula as I am. And that’s good. We have different bodies and different exercise habits and different needs. EMILY: PWURE can benefit anyone who trains because
PWURE Running Nutrition Review
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEN: PWURE (pure + power) touts itself as the “hyper-personalized” pre-and post-workout nutrition. It’s founded on the principles that nutrition should be tailored to each athlete and their training. By consuming the right carbs-to-protein ratio immediately after activity speeds up glycogen and muscle protein synthesis. Their foundation is based on data-driven formulas, quality ingredients, and they include vegan options. The pre-workout is a mix of carbohydrates and has an option to add caffeine. It’s intended to fuel the workout and improve performance. The post-workout includes both protein and carbs with the option to add vitamin B12 and vitamin D with the intent to optimize recovery. The protein can be chosen as plant-based or whey isolate. The difference between a protein shake and PWURE is that it’s not just some arbitrary amount of extra protein, but it’s a full pre and post nutrition strategy that customized to each athlete. Start by entering your e-mail, name, gender (optional), height, weight, and then link up your fitness tracker. Options include Strava, Garmin, Fitbit, Suunto, Polar, and Apple Watch. If you don’t use any of these it can still create a customized mix based solely on your responses to the questionnaire, including manual workout history. The PWURE system looks at both your training history via Strava and your expected future training via questionnaire. Next, it asks if you want caffeine, vitamin D, vitamin B12, and if you want pea, brown rice or why isolate protein. Flavor options are unflavored, chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla. THE GOOD BEN: All of the above might sound a bit confusing or complicated, and probably seems quite time-consuming. The good news is that it’s not. The entire questionnaire only takes a couple of minutes and is very intuitive. The Strava connection correctly pulled my training history and showed that the last 4 weeks I averaged 8 workouts a week for a total of 384 minutes. I chose the caffeine and vitamin add-ins, and the chocolate flavor. The process is great and has many resources available to explain what is in the mix and why it’s there. My order shipped within a couple of days and arrived soon after. The mixes arrive in paper pouches with customized labels that include your name – a neat feature! The aesthetic is very “organic” and certainly a lot different than the normal plastic tub of protein powder with reflective graphics and catch-phrases written all over it. The pouches are appropriately lined with a moisture barrier plastic and have Ziploc-style closure. They don’t come with a scoop, so get ready to raid the kitchen for some measuring spoons. For my dosages, it worked best to use a tablespoon for the pre-workout, and a ¼ cup for the post-workout. Once you actually get into it, you’ll notice that the powder is pure white regardless of flavor. The team at PWURE confirmed this. I found that mine only had a slight hint of chocolate flavor but it was pretty good. One of the main ingredients is tapioca and this is what I found myself taking the most. The amount of mix needed is considerably more than the scoops of pre and post-workout I’m used to, so hopefully, your bottle is big enough. A Blender Bottle worked well in my experience. The next surprise came as I began doing workouts and syncing to my Strava account per my normal routine. PWURE’s analysis doesn’t stop once the mix is created and sent to you, it happens in real-time and sends an e-mail with a custom serving size based on your workout, which is next-level big brother stuff. EXAMPLE 1: “Hi Ben, nice work! Based on your activity, three-quarters of a dose should be enough for this time to help your body recover. You should have 61 grams of your post-workout dose meaning 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp, which will bring you 42 grams of carbs and 14 grams of protein.” EXAMPLE 2: “Hi Ben, way to go! You really made a big effort! We recommend that you take a full post-workout dose to speed up recovery. This means 81 grams or 3/4 cup, which will bring you 56 grams of carbs and 19 grams of protein.” THE BAD BEN: I enjoyed the flavor and had no issues with digestion, energy levels, or anything related to the consumption of the mix. A very minor nitpick is that the packaging does not come with any measuring scoops, so it requires some scrounging through drawers. The pouches are nice, but the mix made a mess all over myself and the counter. The dosages are also kind of different. Some days I’d run for an hour and get an e-mail saying I didn’t need to take any post-workout. I’m not sure if this is truly a bad thing but it seemed surprising and was unexplained aside from being told my calorie loss was “limited.” My biggest gripe is with the price. This is a customized, premium product, that uses natural ingredients, and the price reflects that. If you’re looking for a budget protein powder, this isn’t it. That said, they are offering BITR readers 20% off with code NEXTLEVEL, so you should probably take advantage of that. PWURE NUTRITION CONCLUSION BEN: PWURE is a high-end nutrition solution made by athletes, for athletes. It uses a data-driven process to create a custom mix tailored to your activity level. It looks good, tastes good, and makes you feel good. The price is premium, but so is the product. If you want a formula tailored to your activity level without having to any of the work or research yourself, this is your easy button.
10 Great Running Books You Should Probably Read
Done scrolling through your Instagram feed for the third time in the last 10 minutes? Baked more bread than you can/should eat? Caved in and bought a Master Class subscription but have yet to master any class? By now, most of us are at our wits’ end when it comes to quarantine time-killing– what was once a novel skill or a quirky hobby-to-be has instead become another symptom of each day’s monotony. Even though life is starting to reopen, we’ve still got a long way to go, and things aren’t exactly looking like they used to. But in case you missed it, reading is back, and in a big way. (As an English major it was never “gone,” but I digress.) If you’re looking for a way to engage with your running after you’ve logged those daily miles or planned tomorrow’s Strava route, you’re in luck. We at Believe in the Run put together a list of our favorite books that are sure to inspire. What follows are 10 running-related book recommendations that will do as much for your appreciation of the sport as they will for your outlook on life. » KICKSOLOGY: THE HYPE, SCIENCE, CULTURE & COOL OF RUNNING SHOES By Brian Metzler If you’re like me, you probably find yourself reading reviews for shoes you didn’t even know you needed. Sound familiar? There’s a reason we do what we do here at Believe in the Run––runners are a tricky breed, for as much as they like their shoes, they’re also very particular about them (often to the point of obsession). Eventually, drooling over leaked upcoming releases and AlphaFly prototypes will lose its edge, so do yourself a favor and check out Brian Metzler’s Kicksology. With years of sports journalism and shoe testing chops to boast of, Metzler is an authority on all things running and all things shoes. In Kicksology he takes a deep dive into the $10B running shoe industry, bringing you from half-baked concept to fully-fledged production model. If you’ve ever wondered about all that goes into a great shoe, this one’s for you. » 26 MARATHONS: WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT FAITH, IDENTITY, RUNNING, AND LIFE FROM MY MARATHON CAREER By Meb Keflezighi Indulge in the lessons of a pro runner without putting in the thousands of training hours. Okay, that might sound like the next big influencer hack, but Meb Keflezighi is no slouch, and this is no fit tea he’s selling. As the first person in history to win the Boston and the New York City marathons, as well as an Olympic marathon medal, Keflezighi is highly regarded amongst the marathon greats for good reason. In 26 Marathons: What I Learned About Faith, Identity, Running, and Life from My Marathon Career, retired pro runner Meb Keflezighi regals readers with stories of each of his 26 marathon performances. As much as it is a collection of race recaps and practical advice, it’s also full of valuable life lessons that go way beyond running. No matter your history with the sport, 26 Marathons: What I Learned About Faith, Identity, Running, and Life from My Marathon Career will make you a better runner (and almost certainly a better person). » LET YOUR MIND RUN: A MEMOIR OF THINKING MY WAY TO VICTORY By Deena Kastor Though the physical demands of running are widely acknowledged, I don’t think the mental game gets its due diligence. It’s the ultimate test of willpower. I mean, c’mon– most people balk at the idea of even going on a run, much less having to put in the work to go faster or longer. So what do you do when your pro running career is in full swing and you’re on the brink of burnout? After years of keeping her foot stomped on the gas and doing everything to stay ahead of the competition, Kastor found herself frustrated and weighed down by her own negativity. Enter Joe Vigil, a legendary running coach and the founder of the first professional distance-running team. Before throwing in the towel, Kastor took a chance on Vigil’s dream and moved out to Alamosa, Colorado. Whether it was the thin air or the breathtaking views, Kastor finally achieved some clarity in her running––deciding to focus on the power of positivity and training her mind to be encouraging and kind in the face of adversity. Spoiler alert: It was only with a change of mindset that she was able to break American records in distances from the 5K to the marathon. Let Your Mind Run follows Kastor’s remarkable story, giving readers a look inside the mind of an elite runner and providing helpful advice for how you can train your own to give you a competitive edge. » RUNNING TO THE EDGE: A BAND OF MISFITS AND THE GURU WHO UNLOCKED THE SECRETS OF SPEED By Matthew Futterman From high school cross country meets to national championships to Olympic races, Bob Larsen has earned his coaching stripes at almost every level imaginable. Part scientific discourse, part narrative retelling, Running to the Edge follows Larsen’s journey from humble farm boy to American running coaching great. In Running to the Edge, New York Times’ Deputy Sports Editor Matthew Futterman examines Larsen’s uncanny ability to bring out the best in his athletes, whether it was growing distance running in the days of its infancy or coaching marathoning legend Meb Keflezighi to victory at New York and Boston. Bob Larsen may be the focus of the book, but the result is a testament to Futterman’s own relationship with the sport. No matter if you geek out over running science or fangirl over famed coaches, Running to the Edge has a little something for everyone. » RUNNING WITH THE BUFFALOES By Chris Lear I know, I know, “insider accounts” are a dime a dozen. I’ve left a few of such books unfinished, but Chris Lear’s Running with the Buffaloes is different. Those other pretenders might be little more than a bunch of motivational quotes slapped together without any real substance, but this book lays it all out in gritty detail (like, there was a push to ban it in schools for offensive
This May Be The Worst Year You’ve Ever Had
THE NEW YEAR Well, you’re a month into this new year. The cacophony of self-help goal-setters from just a few weeks ago has since settled into a faint whisper. No rah rahs, no sis boom bahs. The roaring crowd has left the stadium, and it’s just you on the field now, both the offense and the defense. The good news is that the shitty “2020 vision” puns are done bombarding your feeds; the bad news is that your 2020 vision (sorry) may already be trending towards farsighted, and we’re only one month into this thing. As runners, we all had grand plans for this year. Most of us still do, and that’s how it should be. We have a clean slate in front of us (maybe a little smudged after the first month), and if we’re running, we’re bettering ourselves in some small way on a continual basis. But for some of you out there, it turns out that running is a metaphor for life and your grand goals are not following the paint-by-numbers formula the way you’d like. Surprise–life doesn’t look as good as your Instagram feed. For some of you, this may be a mediocre year. A bad year. Even the worst year you’ve ever had. A YEAR FROM HELL Personally, my hopes for 2020 are even higher than they were at the beginning of 2019. This, despite the fact that last year was a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad year. Let me be clear: 2019 wasn’t the worst year I’ve ever had. Nobody close to me died, my children were healthy, and I made an awesome career change for the better. However, in running terms, the best way to sum up 2019 is that I took my Boston Marathon goal sheet off the fridge sometime in March. For the entirety of the year, I was hamstrung. Literally. I struggled with high hamstring tendinopathy, a curse of an injury if there ever was one. Think chronic tendonitis at the top of the hamstring, making it difficult to run properly and making sitting down a literal pain in the ass. Although the injury probably started sooner, the first time I realized it was a month out from my fall 2018 goal marathon. I’m in no way ashamed to admit that I went hard for a Strava segment during a long run based solely on the fact that it was Guy Fieri-themed. (Before you judge me, have you ever been to Flavortown? ‘Cause if you’ve never been elbow deep in a pile of Parmageddon Wings, then you have no business casting stones.) While I didn’t feel acute pain at the time, later that day on a 2-hour car ride I noticed that just sitting down was pretty uncomfortable. Almost a year and a half later, it still is. At that time, I thought I’d just take a few weeks off after my marathon and everything would go back to normal, like every other injury I’ve always had. However, when I resumed running, it was still there in full effect. “RUNNING THROUGH IT” Of course, like every runner you’ve ever met, I kept “running through it” because I stubbornly couldn’t let go of my 2019 goals. Even so, I managed to accomplish one of those by finishing my first 50-miler in June. But if I’m being honest with myself, it was a mediocre performance. My training was trash, I suffered through it, and I did nothing to take care of myself before or afterward. I kept telling myself that somehow I could get through this. But I couldn’t––at least not by my measures. Over time it got to me mentally, especially since my job revolves around running. The dull pain in my glutes became a constant stressor in my life, a low static hum in the background of everything that I did. I researched and read horror stories of this injury lasting for two, five, or even 10 years. Terms like “I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy” are testimony enough to its persistence. If I’m being honest, I wish I had broken my leg, because then I’d have a clear-cut plan on getting back. Because I couldn’t give up on my goals, I didn’t allow myself to focus on truly getting better, which would have saved me months of pain and turmoil. Instead, I gave up on myself and my running and let the specter of this injury overtake my long-term goals. I half-assed my physical therapy—if I wasn’t seeing progress in a month, I’d say, “Screw it, this isn’t working, I’m just going full-on running.” Which led directly to running jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200. All that to say, I thought 2019 was going to be a standout year on a personal level. I’ve only been running for 5 years, so my PR’s were still coming in. I wasn’t ready to give up my goals on account of an injury, but the truth is, I needed to let them go to take care of myself in the long-term. I think it’s often not said enough because we’re afraid to be perceived as weak or––even worse–– to lose our whole sense of identity, but here it is: It’s okay to let go.* Goals are great, but not when you’re wrecking everything in your life with your stubborn insistence on forcing them. I know it’s a cliché, but life happens– especially if you’re alive. The fact is, none of the gurus who were shouting at you a few weeks ago about “2020 Ways To Crush Your 2020 Goals” know your life. Maybe your training will be going perfectly, goal paces clicking off until you slip on a patch of ice and throw out your lower back. Your spring marathon will be scrapped, and maybe even your fall marathon as well. You will miss your friends, your community, even just the feeling of being outside. Maybe it’s as simple as the fact that you’re just a
Don’t Train For a Marathon Like Jeff Dengate
Don’t train like Jeff Dengate. For a marathon, for a 10K, hell—even for a mile. That is to say, don’t work out in the brick kiln of a New York City summer without drinking a drop of water. Don’t end a long run by going all-out in a little hometown race called the Fifth Avenue Mile. And for Chrissakes, on the night before your goal marathon, don’t put all your chips on black. As in, the black, smoked crust of a brisket sandwich, washed down with a couple IPAs at a country-western bar in Chicago. Or, do train like him. Like you are indeed the Runner-in-Chief at Runner’s World, with an infinite amount of training advice at your disposal. Do pencil in double workouts for almost every day that ends in ‘Y’. Do crank up the mileage into the nineties during the peak weeks of training. And lastly, during those painful miles of a marathon—make sure you smile like a circus clown because someone said ‘hey, you should do this thing’ the day before the race. Do all of this, and maybe you’ll end up with a career day at the Chicago Marathon, smash a 10-year-old PR by nearly five minutes, and think—‘wow, after 34 years of running, I just might have this figured out.’ THE PURSUIT Before Jeff Dengate trained like himself, he was just a karate kid growing up in Clarkston, Michigan in the thick of the ’80s. And while he never crane-kicked his way to a state championship, his karate class would run a local 5K race every year, eventually translating into a love for running. That passion became a dominant strand in the fabric of Dengate’s life, threading through high school and college (though he never ran competitively in college), and all through his 20s. Eventually, Dengate’s running career became exactly that— a career in running. In 2007, he joined Runner’s World as a digital producer and later became the shoes and gear editor, left the company, then returned to his old shoe reviewer post. After leaving again, Runner’s World was bought by Hearst in early 2018. Dengate came on in his current role as the head of the publication, in charge of maintaining the direction of the brand. Over the last year, Dengate, who is more inclined to “running up mountains, running in snowshoes, and doing crazy events,” found himself wondering if he could be fast. Not just in mile races and corporate 5K’s, but in an actual, straight-up marathon. Sure, fast is relative, but for him, that meant besting his PR of 2:54:33 set in 2010 at the Richmond Marathon. “I’m really more of a mile/5K runner; those short strength events are more in my wheelhouse,” says Dengate, now 41. “The repetitive nature, living like a monk, of marathon training is tough. So I never really did it or put in the training I needed to.” That’s not to say he’s never enjoyed them, to an extent. Along with his very-respectable time at Richmond, he’s also run the Boston Marathon every five years since 2010. Goal number one for this year was to qualify again—under 3:10 for his age bracket. He accomplished that goal with minimal training, ramping up to the Vermont City Marathon in May, where he comfortably qualified for Boston with a 3:05:58. After a short dip in mileage the week after, the “A” goal was in effect. For the next 18 weeks, Dengate would train like he never had before. THE ROUTE TO CHICAGO The schedule was daunting. With Runner’s World offices in both New York City and Pennsylvania (and a family home in New Jersey), Dengate’s schedule leaves little room for marathon training. For the head of the largest running publication on the planet, the irony is cruel. Blocking out runs into the daily Google calendar became a game of Tetris. Mornings began at 5 a.m. Midday runs doubled as both training and gear testing. Nevertheless, Dengate was able to develop something resembling a plan, and he stuck to it. Unconventional may be a good descriptor, personalized may be a better one. “I just ramped up the mileage, ate whatever I wanted, didn’t do speed work, didn’t do tempos. And then my fueling- we typically tell people to eat healthy, and like whatever, I don’t—I eat whatever I want,” says Dengate. “My wife and I do make healthy dinners, but I don’t ever limit myself, and I probably/definitely drink too much beer. A lot of nights I have potato chips for dinner. That’s just the reality of life.” Runners eating and drinking too much isn’t exactly the revelation of the century. Chip dinners enter into questionable territory. Not to mention, that for Dengate, most runs were done in a fasted state. He typically didn’t eat between dinner the night before and lunch after his second workout of the day. Yet the work of running was being done, and the foundation was being laid. His ramped-up mileage hovered in the 70-90 mile range, consisting of almost-daily doubles, and the standard long runs. At one point, Dengate was out in Seattle for a meeting with Brooks Running. While the company offered a complimentary shuttle from his hotel to a morning meeting, Dengate turned down the offer and ran instead. (Side note: that’s how you show up to a meeting with a run company). And yes, he ended a 19-mile long run at the starting line of the Fifth Avenue Mile. And yes, in true gear geek fashion, he changed into the ballerina racing slippers known as the New Balance 5280 before taking off. “It hurt bad. It was stupid. I don’t recommend anyone do that,” says Dengate. (For what it’s worth, he ran a 5:11). While Dengate tests nearly a hundred pairs of shoes a year, he laid the most miles down on pairs of the HOKA ONE ONE Rincon and the Reebok Floatride RunFast. Of course, like almost every damn runner with any aspirations these days, he also ran in the Nike Vaporfly NEXT% on race
You Ran a Marathon, Now Chill The F*** Out
First off, I’d like to congratulate all of you who ran the TCS New York City Marathon, or any fall goal race. The path through the Five Boroughs presents a unique challenge in marathoning; there’s a reason it’s one of the most challenging races in the World Marathon Majors. Likewise, there are plenty of other courses that are just as challenging, and without the endless energy of NYC spectators. If you’ve ever run 26.2, you know full well that the event is not just physically, but mentally demanding. It takes guts to get out of your comfort zone for an extended period of time. Not just physical, but mental guts (yes, that’s a thing). Because of that, I’m often approached about “mental recovery” after taking on a big-ass race such as a marathon or ultra. During grueling distances, we may not realize that our minds are constantly wandering, making adjustments, judging, trying to entertain ourselves, and later coping with the last stretch. These issues aren’t just relegated to us mortals, but are challenges that even the Mary Keitany’s of the world must take on. When we race a marathon properly, at some point our legs become depleted of glycogen. Around the same time, our minds are pretty tapped out too. I don’t know about y’all, but I’ve been known to lose and forget things during and after long races. Anyone who’s tried to mentally calculate splits in the later miles of a race knows what I’m talking about. Or who’s tried to remember where they parked the car. These are all signs of mental fatigue from a hard race, or even a hard season. Like you, I’ve also been an emotional mess at the finish line. Of course, a lot of this comes from the sense of accomplishment, but it’s also that I’m just too tired to regulate my emotions. Because the mental and physical parts of racing are equally important, I work hard with my athletes during their training to make sure they’re focused, composed, and ready when things cease to be fun. This demands a lot of energy, both cognitive and emotional. Hopefully racing doesn’t make you feel as if your IQ has dropped a few points along with an acute fear of stairs. But if this is the case, or even if you just capped an awesome, long season and race, here are some key tips on how to recover mentally and come back even stronger. » Take Time to Reflect Take a good 24-48 hours to really decide what you loved or didn’t love about the event. What went right? Take notes on the strengths you displayed because this is good info for later. What is one area where you feel you need the most improvement? For example, did you nail your nutrition and negative split, but found yourself stressing about the clock? Did you push too hard in the first half? I’ve said this before, but racing is like an ongoing science initiative: we’re extracting data to get better all the time. » Take Time Off For all the love, take some time off! I know, I know, you already want more. You crushed your race and want to roll that high into the next training cycle. We all do, but more is not always more. This can look different depending on the athlete, coach, and situation. It can range from going Kenyan-style (taking 14-30 or more days off at a time with no exercise), or it may mean ditching the GPS and taking it easy, learning how to reconnect and read your body while it recovers. Personally, I like a good 5-7 day total layoff, and then run whenever I want, with no set time, and usually something very different, like trails. Obviously, low effort. While this is a physical break, it also allows you to mentally relax—no need to worry about paces, heart rates, or weekly mileage goals. » Take Time for Other Things in Life “I’m sorry, I have a long run in the morning”— this is not a thing that should be said after a marathon. Replace this with something or someone you feel have put on the back burner. Go out, sleep in, or read a book. Catch up on a work project or try woodworking (not sure about that one, but whatever). For a lot of us, our stress relief that is running can sneakily become our stressor. Allow yourself to create some more space by mentally focusing on things other than running. »Take Time to Chill the F*** Out Non-Type A runners may skip this one: give yourself permission to chill, with or without Netflix. You worked hard. You earned it. We don’t have to be in training mode all the time, regardless of what Instagram says. Just relax. MIND OVER MATTER, Y’ALL When the time comes to plan your next race or adventure, the idea is to not just come back physically rejuvenated, but more hungry and motivated mentally than before. Enjoy your success, enjoy the process of getting better, and set some big goals. Rest and repeat. Until next time, believe in your run.