Runner’s Life Newsletter
Highlights and stories from May 12-May 25, 2024
Welcome to the Runner’s Life newsletter!
If you’ve missed previous Runner’s Life newsletters, you can find the archive here.
Below are the most recent editions of Amby Burfoot’s weekly newsletter titled Run Long, Run Healthy, where he publishes short summaries and links to the Internet’s most recent and scientific reviews of running information so you can learn how to be better at running.
Make Intervals EASIER & More Effective; How Long Does A $500 Shoe Last? “Top Down” Injury Prevention
How To Ramp Up From FIT to FASTER; When Is Too Old To Keep Running? The Best Marathon Training Plan
Previous editions of Run Long, Run Healthy newsletters can be found here.
Featured Stories
Ultimate Running (and Life) Goal: Perfect Moderation by christina hughes babb
Anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Moderation is for cowards. These words uttered by Lone Survivor Shane Patton — a sentiment shared by various other soldiers, authors, and rock stars — once appealed to me too.
Such mentality still resides in the immature, shortsighted, addiction-prone subdivision of my psyche, always awaiting an opportunity to announce itself. If I succumb, it might be the death of me.
Long ago, moderation, especially when it came to using alcohol and other drugs, became impossible for me. I find Saint Augustine’s words “Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation” to be true.
But there are things I cannot willfully give up entirely, such as running, which is both a beloved activity and elemental to my sobriety.
Problem is, if I am not super mindful, my tendency toward excess creeps into my running life, threatens its existence. I’m not the only athlete to grapple with this, I’ve deduced.
Recently, I slipped into some rather mindless behavior, and it did not end well.
Read more here.
Mindfulness for Elite Performance by Daniel Sexton
When my son was in ninth grade, he wanted to run track. I said, “Great! Run middle distance like your old man!” The coach and others recommended the same. He was given a training schedule and followed it closely.
He tried out for the team and got cut on the first day. I felt bad. I’m sure he did too. The advice was to train harder and try next year — stick to a strict daily workout plan. This story could have ended there. Many do.
Instead, we took a different approach. Two years later, in 11th grade, he tried out again. This time he made the team. Seventeen months after his first race, he had set two state records, was ranked in the top 3 in the U.S. high school 100 meters, and won a national high school championship.
How did this transformation happen? In a word, mindfulness. We turned traditional training on its head and reversed almost every part of the process. You can have a similar journey; in running, perhaps, or wherever your path takes you.
Read more here.
Stories
Sunday, May 12
Monday, May 13
Tuesday, May 14
Saturday, May 18
50 Half Marathons, 50 States, 11 Lessons Learned by Patricia Vicary
If you want to write for Runner’s Life, please see the submission requirements.
