Runner’s Life Newsletter
Highlights and stories from May 26 — June 8, 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.
Stop Leaning Forward; The Most Important Training Lesson; Zone In On Your Best Paces
Previous editions of Run Long, Run Healthy newsletters can be found here.
Featured Stories
I Can Finally Call Myself a Runner by Nicole Schrag
Sometime around last October or November, I went to the doctor. I’m in my early thirties and generally pretty healthy, but I had regularly been falling asleep in my office after teaching, sometimes for up to an hour. I’d still want to go to bed at 8:30pm. I’d gained a significant amount of weight in a month, too, and my face was weirdly breaking out.
After scouring the Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic websites, I diagnosed myself with anemia or hypothyroidism, or possibly both. And I was ready for some bloodwork.
My doctor did order some labs, but I didn’t have anemia or thyroid issues. My iron levels were on the low side, but they had always been low.
I reluctantly ended several years of vegetarian eating and reintroduced some meat in my diet to see if that would help. It didn’t.
Then someone lent me Running by Lindsey A. Freeman.
Read more here.
Why Do I Need To Run a Marathon? by Sue Evergreen
I have my head down, watching for cracks in the road. Rain is pouring over the brim of my hat like an Oregon gutter. Icy drops splash on the back of my neck and roll down beneath my jacket. I ask myself again, Why do I need to run a marathon?
My quick breath exits my nose, colliding with 40°F winter air. The steam hits my glasses, fogging them. The cold makes it harder to breathe through my nose, increasing mucus production. I wipe my nose on the top of my soaking-wet gloves yet again. The drenched rain jacket sleeve will only make matters worse.
I’m sweating profusely under my useless rain jacket, now leaking, surmounted by the volume of rain. It already feels like I’m running in a plastic bag, trapping the heat from my body, creating a vicious cycle of more heat, sweat, and swampy conditions. The excessive heat under my jacket makes me shutter; for the next mile, I vividly recall the hell that was delivering the mail in summer, a vast climate contradicting my current condition, and yet the memory triggers a similar feeling.
Read more here.
Stories
Sunday, May 26
Running Through the Redwoods, I See the Forest for the Trees by Paul Yee
Wednesday, May 29
Wednesday, June 5
Thursday, June 6
Stop Leaning Forward; The Most Important Training Lesson; Zone In On Your Best Paces by Amby Burfoot
Running and Breastfeeding by Tanya
A Tough Morning Out On The Trails by Kelly Benson
Does Your Running Stride Seem Shorter? by Stephen Hands
Lessons From A New Ultra Runner by Diane Brander
3 Things Running Taught Me After Starting 3 Years Ago by Madalyn Rose
If you want to write for Runner’s Life, please see the submission requirements.
