Indice dei contenuti per January/February 2017 in Runner's World

WARDROBE WORRIES Our online “What to Wear” tool advises you on the proper running gear for any weather. Test it out at runners world.com/whattowear. STRONG SEQUEL Watch two exclusive 10-minute online workouts from the brand new IronStrength DVD with Dr. Jordan Metzl (on sale January 3) at runnersworld.com/ironstrengthdvd. TRAINING TRACKS Curated by the editors of Runner’s World, our monthly 90-minute running playlist will help you jam out during cold winter miles. Have a listen at runners world.com/music.…

THE INBOX CALLING OUT HARASSMENT It is frightening and disorienting and happens way too often (“Running While Female,” December 2016). I am someone’s sister, wife, and mother out to enjoy exercise and stay strong and healthy. I am not an object and am certainly not there for anyone’s “entertainment.” NATALIE CLINE HOVIK, VIA FACEBOOK I run with my 11-year-old son and I’m teaching him proper running etiquette. First and foremost, all runners are worthy of respect. End of discussion. ERIK M. WEBER, VIA FACEBOOK When I got serious about running and started doing lots of runs on my own, my husband made sure I got my concealed-carry license and we found a secure way that I can carry my handgun when I run. It definitely makes me feel safer, as…

Quick—how many pairs of running shoes do you own? ¶ If you have a ready answer for that, you probably own what most reasonable people would agree is a “normal” number. If you have to stop and think about it, you’re probably in the danger zone. ¶ If you honestly have no clue—I dunno, 30? 40? 53?—then you just might have a gear problem. ¶ I say “gear problem” and not “shoe problem” because I’m using shoes here as a proxy. If you own so many shoes that you can’t track them all, it’s very likely that you also own more running stuff in general than you need. Maybe even more than you want, if you’re being honest with yourself. Still not sure if this describes you? Here are a…

THE RUNNING DEAD Never underestimate what—or who—will motivate you. Ibelieve a celebration is in order. This column marks one year of my tenure as your newbie—a year I spent being someone who runs. And while January is typically a time for looking forward, I’m going to buck the system and get a little retrospective for a moment, if you don’t mind. ¶ Let’s recap: A year ago, I hated running. Hated it! Then, a few months later, I hated it less. Then, a little while after that, I kind of liked it. Now I kind of like it a lot. And I’m ready to take this thing to the next level. Which brings me to the not-unrelated subjects of Orlando and zombies. ¶ Back in October, I realized that Disney’s…

When the sun rises at 7:25 and sets at 4:47—as it does in January at RW headquarters in eastern PA— we often find ourselves running in the dark. That’s why Gear Editor Jeff Dengate (pictured here) is always on the lookout for ways to see and be seen. Reflective stripes on clothing and shoes increase the distance from which drivers can see you to 500 feet. Because a car’s headlights are angled slightly down, runners are smart to accentuate the lower leg. But when you are wearing shorts, as Dengate does, handheld flashlights serve dual purposes: They light your path and they alert drivers to your presence. Studies show that moving, flashing lights are more eye-catching than solid, steady beams. See page 62 for more winter gear and safety products.…

Is it possible to train for an ultra while working full-time? Yes, especially if you target a “short” ultra. For a 50K (31-miler), apply the 10/10/10 rule to a marathon plan: Lengthen long runs by 10 percent, slow long-run pace by 10 percent, and recover with 10 percent more rest or cross-training days. For a 50-miler, the formula is 20/20/20. —Ann Trason, a 14-time Western States 100-mile champion, coaches at trasonrunning.com. I run to stay fit and healthy. Can I do all my runs at an easy pace? Sure! For health and wellness, aim for 20 to 60 minutes of exercise three to five times a week at 80 percent of your maximum effort. Think: If I can chatter, pace doesn’t matter. You should be breathing harder than when you’re…

NUTRITION ADVICE FOR HEALTHY, HUNGRY RUNNERS IF YOU WERE GIFTED a few pounds this holiday season, skipping your morning meal is not the way to get rid of them. In fact, 78 percent of people who lost weight and kept it off ate breakfast every day, according to the National Weight Control Registry. To fuel your run and recovery, and stay full, you need the right breakfast—one that has protein. When you wake up, your body needs the power-building nutrient because your muscles are breaking down protein, according to research from McMaster University. “You want 30 grams at breakfast,” says researcher Stuart Phillips. CURB YOUR APPETITE A breakfast with at least 30 grams of protein slows the release of the hormone ghrelin, which triggers feelings of hunger. Consuming protein at…

1 / SAUCONY RUN STRONG HOODIE $88 Soft and fleecy with a slightly relaxed shape, this women’s top works as either a base layer or mid/outer layer. The top’s interior feels buttery against skin while breathing well and wicking sweat— but also providing almost sweatshirt-like warmth—and the hood is about as comfy as hoods get. (The men’s Sportop, $80, has a deep chest zip that allows even more ventilation.) Bonus: thumbholes and extralong sleeves. 2 / OISELLE KC TIGHTS $84 These mostly polyester (with some spandex) women-only tights work in cool conditions but are ideal on a rainy day—they don’t get soggy and droopy when wet. A flat, wide waistband means no irritating pressure on the stomach, and a hidden zippered pocket on the back holds a phone without too…

Everyone likes to feel special, so some marathons go the (nonliteral) extra mile to please all parts of the pack. Special prerace amenities and rewards for swift finishes entice faster folks. Finish-line cheering sections that stay put buoy back-ofthe-packers. Wide boulevards and long water stops ease the congestion felt by midpackers. Such details matter—and can spell the difference between a race-day experience to remember and one you’d rather forget. On the following pages, find your perfect marathon match. RACES+PLACES TIPS, TRENDS, and MUST-RUN EVENTS FOR FAST FOLKS PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME MARATHON Set a new age-group record and you’ll score $100. Since the race is relatively small (3,000 marathoners) and fairly new (four years old), fast- for-their-age entrants vie for cash. “I created the concept to encourage the really…

SEEING The Second City as a kid was a revelation that I wanted to be in comedy. I got my start with it in Chicago before moving to New York to write for The Dana Carvey Show in 1996. I DIDN’T DO cross country or track, but I ran a lot as a kid. I have this strange, specific memory of a pair of Asics I bought: khaki-colored with maroon stripes, really comfortable. I ran around our apartment complex in them. MY RUNNING fell off until about five years ago, when I decided to get in shape for the finale of my Adult Swim show Delocated. I HAD A FIGHT SCENE with this muscle-y Russian tough guy where we’re both in our underwear. I thought it’d be funny if my…

QUICK STUDY ALIA GRAY 29, BOULDER, COLORADO Gray had the 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials on her calendar when she rolled her ankle and fractured her fibula in November 2015. With guidance from her coach, Joe Vigil, and her fiancé, Richard Hansen, a sports chiropractor, she shifted her 90-mile training weeks to an AlterG anti-gravity treadmill. The care paid off: On the warm day of the trials in Los Angeles last February, she ran a personalbest 2:35:47 and placed 10th. Gray— who launched the Boulder-based Roots Running Project with Hansen last year (see page 48)—trained on solid ground for the Chicago Marathon in October, where she finished 10th and lowered her PR to 2:34:00. —CINDY KUZMA SHE BELIEVES IN #SQUADGOALS “I saw a jump in my performance when we started building…

MOMENTOUS FRIVOLOUS…

I like to do errands after my long run, but I worry that I stink. Should I go home and take a shower first? —Stacy T., Fredericksburg, TX Ah, Stacy. I am all too familiar with this scenario. It’s impossible to rule on this definitively, since I have no idea just how bad you smell postrun. (Mildly malodorous? Eyewateringly putrid? Somewhere in between?) I will tell you that I made peace some time ago with being out and about in stinky running clothes. I try to clean up as best I can (thank you, baby wipes!), and I might put on a dry shirt. Bear in mind that this works for short supermarket trips and ducking into the drugstore—not so much when you’re shopping for a business suit or meeting…

TRAINING ADVICE FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE If you get injured, you must have been running too much, right? Recently, sports scientists have been rethinking this belief. In some cases, hard training may act as a “vaccine” against injuries by toughening up your body—so doing too little can be as risky as doing too much. That doesn’t mean you should crank up your mileage immediately. Instead, focus on the balance between how much you’re running now and how much running you’ve done over the past month. By tracking this “acute-to-chronic” ratio, you guard against the twin perils of too much and too little. CALCULATE THE RATIO The acute-to-chronic training ratio compares your mileage for the last week to your average weekly mileage for the last four weeks. If you’ve run 50, 40,…

Time It 3 MINUTES: Dynamic warmup 1 MINUTE: Rest 6 MINUTES: Exercises 1 to 3 each for 1 minute. Cycle through them 2 times. 1 MINUTE: Rest 9 MINUTES: Exercises 4 to 6 each for 1 minute. Cycle through them 3 times. 1 MINUTE: Rest 9 MINUTES: Exercises 7 to 9 each for 1 minute. Cycle through them 3 times. INTERVAL TRAINING isn’t new to runners. The concept is simple: Instead of exercising at one pace for an extended time, you alternate between short, high-intensity bursts and longer recovery periods. While steady-state cardio trains your muscles to be more efficient—an important adaptation for distance runners—occasionally working at the high-intensity level can lead to burning more calories for hours after the session has ended. Exactly how many more is difficult to…

ROADNOISE LONG HAUL VEST Speakers in the shoulder straps let you rock out without blocking sounds from the world around you. ($90) NATHAN SPORTS NEUTRON FIRE Cranking out 115 lumens on two AAA batteries, this lamp also has side lights that can be turned red, green, or blue. ($35) STRAVA BEACON A premium membership feature, Beacon lets up to three emergency contacts see your real-time location on a map. ($59/year) KNUCKLE LIGHTS These USB rechargeable lights slip over your fingers to light up the path in front of you, making trip hazards easier to spot. ($60)…

WHEN MATTHEW CENTROWITZ CROSSED THE FINISH LINE of the men’s 1500-meter final at the Rio Olympics, he was in shock. And so was the rest of the world. The 27-year-old from Portland, Oregon, had just won gold—the first for an American in that distance in 108 years. “I was thinking, Are you kidding me?” he says. “It was surreal. A lifelong dream accomplished already? It’s hard to put into words.” His gold was part of a historic haul of 32 medals by the U.S. track-and-field team—the most Americans have won during a non-boycotted Games since 1932. It was Centrowitz’s second Olympics—he was fourth in the 1500 in 2012—and capped a year in which he won the 1500-meter world indoor championships, the Millrose Games indoor mile, and the 1500 at the…

YEP, IT’S THAT TIME of year again. Time to put one year behind us and set some goals for the next one (or resolve to do them, if that’s how you roll). I’m guessing we can agree that there’s one thing in particular— one media-dominating, taboo-shattering, anxiety-inducing thing—that we’re especially glad to put behind us. I have a brief (politically neutral!) post-election point to make below, but first I have a loose end to tie up. In last year’s “New Year, New You” issue, I resolved to “finally enter an obstacle course race” in 2016. More than 6.5 million people had finished Tough Mudders, Spartan Races, and Warrior Dashes in the prior six years, and I wanted to see firsthand what this craze was about and challenge myself in a…

Polly Bäumler and Jessica White are featured in this issue’s HR logo. White and Bäumler became running partners in 1993 on Pepperdine University’s cross-country team, where Bäumler says she was the slowest runner while White was the fastest. Despite the difference in pace, the two developed a strong friendship, one that has endured tests of time and distance. Today, White is raising two kids in Malibu (where this photo was shot), while Bäumler, a mom of three, is a fashion designer in Munich, Germany. To keep up with each other, the duo launched a blog called supafemme, where the “runners at heart with a weakness for fashion” chronicle their adventure and showcase their favorite running gear. “Although we live in different places, our running connects us,” Bäumler says. “Working on…

How to return to regular running after weeks (or even months) away from exercise TIPS FOR BEGINNERS FROM AN EASYGOING COACH It happens to almost every runner at some point: You get busy, or sick, or hurt, and you don’t run for a few weeks. A body at rest tends to stay at rest, and a few weeks turns into a month—or longer. But when you’re ready to return, beware of New Year gusto. Ease back in slowly and cautiously to avoid another break —this time, due to injury. Here’s how to restart your routine. WALK FIRST If you’ve been away from running for more than a few weeks (or if your break came just a few months after you began running consistently), your first goal is to work up…

NOAH DRODDY’S long hair and dude shades rocketed him to online stardom during the 2016 Olympic Track Trials, but his performance didn’t match the hype: He placed last in the 10,000 meters, three minutes behind winner Galen Rupp. Yet three months after that “bad day,” Droddy, 26, took second in October’s USATF 10 Mile Championships. His time (47:28) put him three seconds behind Sam Chelanga, who holds the NCAA 10,000-meter record of 27:08.49. “It proves that I belong in a conversation with those guys,” Droddy says. He didn’t photobomb the running scene out of nowhere: He competed for Division III DePauw University, where he earned All-American honors in cross country his junior and senior years. After graduating in 2013, he returned home to Indianapolis, where he worked two jobs…

PACKED WITH immunity-boosting vitamin C and cancer-fighting glucosinolates, Brussels sprouts are among the most powerful cold-weather superfoods. And because they produce sugar in reaction to frost, they taste less bitter now. “We’ve gone from turning them into gray mush to treating them well—slicing, browning, and cooking them perfectly,” says cookbook author Mark Bittman, a five-time New York City marathoner (PR: 3:41). His latest, How to Bake Everything, was published in October. For more, see markbittman.com. SLAW WITH PEANUTS Peanuts are a great source of plant protein. Makes 8 servings WHISK together ½ cup mayonnaise, ¼ cup fresh lime juice, 1 to 2 Tbsp. fish sauce, and 2 tsp. sugar. TOSS with 1 ½ lb. shredded sprouts, ½ cup sliced scallions, ½ cup chopped, roasted peanuts, and ¼ cup chopped fresh…

KEEP MOVING You may continue to run if slowing down allows you to log miles without pain and with proper form, says Lewis Maharam, M.D., a sports-medicine doctor in New York City. “Running while recovering from muscle strains or tears brings bloodflow to the area and helps the muscle heal properly,” he says. However, don’t run if an injury changes your gait, or if you have a stress reaction or fracture. In those cases, keep up a routine with no-impact cross-training, such as pool running or swimming. If you were running four times per week, having something to do instead will help you maintain fitness and sanity. STAY FLEXIBLE Foam rolling and dynamic stretches will pump healing blood to injured tissues and improve range of motion, says Michael Conlon, physical…