Even if you’re not competitive, there are many good reasons to sign up for an organized event.
1. Ease your jitters. Most races—especially 5Ks— are community-oriented events with runners and walkers of all abilities, ages, and levels of fitness. They provide a very supportive low-pressure setting for you. A local 5K is a great way to hold yourself accountable to a specific goal.
2. Check out some new territory. You’ll get a chance to check out new parks, trails, and fun running routes that you might not otherwise discover. Exploring a new setting is a great way to avoid boredom and burnout.
3. Meet other runners. Chatting with others makes the miles roll by much faster. Races are opportunities to meet people with similar interests and fitness goals. You might find that friends and coworkers you already knew, love getting outside to run too!
4. Test yourself. Use a race to establish a baseline of fitness. Enter a race every four to six weeks to track your progress, and determine whether you need to tweak your routine. Plug in your results to the “Goals and Results” page, and we will design a plan that matches the level of activity and fitness you have now. The plan will gradually ramp up mileage and intensity so you can unleash your fitness potential.
5. Get your speedwork done. Have a hard time getting yourself to do speedwork solo? Sign up for a race instead of your weekly track session. Once you register, you’re less likely to blow it off. Plus, pinning on that number, and joining the pack of other runners will give you the adrenalin rush you need to push yourself farther and faster.
Remember, in addition to a personalized, training plan, as a Movecoach participant you'll access to expert coaches certified by USATF, USAT, and RRCA. We’re here to answer your questions about training, nutrition, and technical issues.
*This article was first written by Jennifer Van Allen for Runcoach in 2017.
Clyde Wilson was a naval service member who enjoyed weight training and working out, when his doctor on the USS Carl Vinson informed him he was on the verge of needing medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol. After making a transformative change in his nutritional habits, he went on to study chemistry and cell biology at Stanford and now teaches there and the University of California San Francisco Medical School. In addition, he runs The Center for Human Nutrition and Exercise Science in Palo Alto, California.
This month, we asked Dr. Clyde to weigh in about the lethargy many runners struggle through after a long run.
1. When many runners finish a big long run, often they report feeling extremely lethargic and low energy for much of the rest of the day, even after eating. From a nutrition perspective, what may be going on here?
Athletes need to replace their carbohydrate losses from training at a rate that their muscles are willing to absorb those carbohydrates. If you burn 1000 calories in a workout, roughly 800 calories of which are carbohydrate, and attempt to replace all of those carbohydrates at one sitting, the over-flow of calories into your bloodstream will send more than half of it to fat cells, where the carbohydrate will be converted into fat.
Therefore, eating enough calories is not enough.
The calories have to go into lean tissues to actually help you recover. Not eating enough is another way to fall short. So the athlete has to eat enough carbohydrate, but spaced out over time or eaten with vegetables so that the carbohydrate calories enter the body at a rate muscle is willing to absorb them. Protein helps re-build lean tissue but is unrelated to the feelings of lethargy after hard training.
2. What are some best bet tips on things runners can do after the run to avoid that day-long bonky feeling?
It has been proven that proper hydration can drastically improve race results but many runners have trouble drinking water and sports drink while on the move. The constant motion jostles your stomach which is already void of necessary blood resources which are attentive to your leg muscles. This is one of the many reasons that the art of hydration is essential.
We use the word ‘art’ as opposed to ‘science’ because there is a limited amount of calories and fluids that can be utilized intra-run (unlike cycling, walking and other activities). Because of this we recommend experimentation to determine the most effective personal hydration routine (ie. Much like runcoach training the below is not a one-size-fits-all assignment. Experiment and find the routine that works best for you).
Here are some tips to get started:
For runs longer than 75 minutes or runs in the heat, you will need more than just water. We recommend sports drinks containing sugar and salt in appropriate quantities. Here are some tips to pick the right drink for you:
Start refining your personal art of hydration at least 10 weeks prior to race day and practice before, during and after most runs. Here are some tips for refueling on the run without carrying a water bottle:
The exact amount you need to drink can be tricky and will vary from person to person. Here’s a science project to help you learn about your hydration needs:
Example: if you weighed 160 before a 90 minute workout and then weigh 157, you have lost 3 pounds and require 48 ounces of liquid. Your schedule for a similar event would be 8 ounces every 15 minutes to maintain your weight.
Note: This is just an example. Please try this yourself and keep in mind that the amount you need will vary depending on the temperature, humidity and other personal physiological factors.
Proper hydration can improve your race results from 5K to the Marathon. Invest some time into the development of your art of hydration.
Looking for a way to invigorate your diet? Try adding one or more of these to your daily routine and perhaps discover a new favorite food that packs a punch.
Lentils
During the colder months especially, lentils might appear in the hot case of your local supermarket in soup form, or in spreads and on salads in the summer. Providing a hearty delivery of carbohydrates with a low glycemic index, lentils release energy slowly and in doing so, help blood sugar stay regulated. In other words, lentils help avoid the spike and crash of more simple carbs. Lentils also deliver vital nutrients, such as magnesium for heart health, and over one fourth of lentil calories come from protein – a great vegetarian source.
Chocolate Milk
Once the province of kids and adults looking for a late night snack with a glass of 2% and a bottle of Hershey’s syrup, chocolate milk has happily (for many) fully entered the discussion as a legitimate recovery beverage. With a mixture of slow acting and quick acting proteins found in cow’s milk, plenty of carbohydrates, and a solid cache of calcium, chocolate milk helps you feel like a kid again in more ways than one. Don’t feel guilty, and drink up.
Bananas
They have quick releasing carbs and are easily digestible – perfect for mid race or pre race fueling. They come with a handy, naturally biodegradable case – perfect for carrying, and easy/ guilt-free to discard. Lots of potassium gives you a great source of an important key to electrolyte balance, and hefty amounts of fiber helps with digestion and regularity. What’s not to like?
Walnuts
On your salad, in your cookies, on top of cereal - adding walnuts to your diet on a regular basis can provide a host of health benefits. Walnuts, an anti-oxidant source of Omega 3 fatty acids, have been studied to have a positive affect on a wide variety of health issues, particularly cardiovascular performance and cholesterol levels. Sure, walnuts have a fairly high caloric and fat content if consumed in copious amounts, but the health benefits of a few ounces per day go a very long way.
Water
Just making sure you were paying attention. Actually, it seems axiomatic that water is important, but even if you can’t add some of the more interesting foods into your diet right now, you bet you can add water. Some runners are faithfully dividing their weight in pounds by two and drinking that many ounces per day, but most of us aren’t. Add one more to the former by heading over to the water fountain right now!
The number one rule for race day fueling; Don’t do anything new. Training with a race goal in mind, means that every run you do is practice for the race. You are training your muscles, your body, your mind, and your stomach. Learning to fuel and hydrate to get the most out of your training and racing will make a huge difference in the outcome of your performance, and it all starts in your daily practice.
Pre-Race Routine. For any run over 60 minutes, you will want to eat and hydrate beforehand. 
(See blog on Pre-Run and Post-Run Nutrition). This is a great opportunity to eat and drink the same thing you will on race morning. Once you know what sits well in your stomach, and fuels you for your miles, then stick with it! A standard pre-race breakfast is coffee (or tea) for a little caffeine, a bagel/toast/oatmeal and banana for carbs and fuel, and 16oz of electrolyte mix for hydration. Have this about 3 hours prior to the start of your race of any distance. Try this protocol before workouts and long runs and see how you feel! Adjust accordingly to determine what works for you, and then, don’t deviate.
Mid-Race Protocol. If you are doing a training run or race longer than 60 minutes, you may need to fuel and hydrate
throughout. Look up what electrolyte fluid and gels the event will provide. It is very common in half marathon and marathon distances to offer gels on the course, but you want to know the brand, flavor, and if they contain caffeine. Then you will practice with those fluids and gels leading into the race to confirm they work for you. If they do not, you will need to carry your own. In training and racing, take gels every 35-45 minutes. Get the gel in right before a water station, and then drink water to wash it down (do not take electrolyte fluid with a gel). In between, you can take water and electrolyte fluid to stay well hydrated. If you are racing less than an 60 minutes, you will need nothing, or only water to get through the distance.
Practicing your Pre-Race Routine and your Mid-Race Protocol will help you figure out what your body needs to be successful and run strong the whole way!
What is a Runner’s High?
When we exercise, we expect to feel better as a result. We achieve a fitness or time goal and are fired up by the accomplishment. We lose weight and like the result in the mirror. Maybe, we just do something we have never done before and appreciate the new mental or physical dimension in our lives. Some athletes, however, claim to feel better after exercise because the exercise itself makes them feel better. Significantly. Commonly, this is called a “Runner’s High.”
This “high” has been explained through the years as a rush of endorphins, neurotransmitters secreted by our bodies during things like pain, excitement, and sex. Endorphins act a bit like morphine chemically, so the conventional wisdom has been that they feel like it as well.
On the other hand, Jude Dickson and her University of Edinburgh colleagues, in their paper Does Exercise Promote Good Health, propose three hypotheses about the Runner’s High: the distraction hypothesis (it takes our attention away from painful things at the time), the mastery hypothesis (we learn new things and achieve a goal), and the social interaction hypothesis (things are often more fun and seem easier in a group). So, is the Runner’s High a chemical reaction via endorphins, or a psychological reaction that is somewhat coincidental to running? Regardless, all runners have days where we feel better than others, but the feeling of euphoria associated with this phenomenon can be fleeting or nonexistent for some runners, and relied upon as a pick me up for others. But, can it be captured, quantified, and achieved systematically?
Although an internet search of “endorphins” and “runner’s high” yields 70,000 results, that close association has been only modestly borne out by research. For one thing, it is hard to quantify what exactly a “high” is, as the reflections of athletes differ widely as to how a Runner’s High actually makes them feel. Secondly, although endorphin levels seem to elevate after exercise (likely because of the stress or pain the body has undergone during the exercise), that elevation doesn’t seem to have a uniformly positive result on mood, according to Sarah Willett in an oft cited article from Lehigh University.
The strong association between endorphins and Runner’s High in the wider public view persists. However, despite a well respected 2008 study by German researchers which found a strong correlation between endorphin production and the bloodstream of runners during and after two hour runs, not all agree that the correlation equals causation for the elusive high, in part because the large size of endorphin molecules make them difficult to pass the blood – brain barrier. And, after all, if there was such a strong direct result, wouldn’t we all enjoy Runner’s Highs after / during every hard workout or run?
Other relatively recent studies have linked the same type of brain receptors that play well with marijuana use to a naturally occurring endocannabinoid, which appears to be produced in the bloodstream in large amounts during exercise. A 2003 study with Georgia Tech college students yielded this finding, as have several subsequent similar or related studies with mice both in the US and abroad. These molecules appear to be much smaller than endorphins. If they can pass the blood-brain barrier, does this mean that all the times we’ve joked that “running was our drug” we weren’t really too far off the mark?
Ultimately, questions remain to be answered about how a Runner’s High occurs, why, and frankly, what it is, exactly. Runners are like snowflakes. Each of us is at least slightly different from the rest both psychologically and physiologically, and it might not be unreasonable to think that the difficulties science has had in firmly establishing a cause and effect with this phenomenon lies is the infinite amounts of ways in which running can create a positive effect in our lives. While we wait to find out what the chemical cause is once and for all, we encourage you to enjoy your Runner’s High not because of why you have it, but for the fact you have it at all.
