Table of contents for Issue 1 2021 in Runner's World

JOHANAN SOWAH How We Can Break Down Barriers, p.32 I’d been running competitively at a high level for eight years, and then in 2019 I sustained my firstever injuries, two sudden unrelated back-to-back problems that kept me out of running for a year. Take care of your body; nobody is invincible. ALSO: When it’s terribly cold outside, I sometimes prefer wearing socks or mittens on my hands instead of gloves because they’re more effective at retaining body heat. LAKOTA GAMBILL 2021 Fitness Awards, p.48 As part of a virtual marathon relay, I recently ran a 5K in my hometown, Salt Lake City. It was 36°F, with bad air pollution, at about 4000+ feet altitude. I’m now an East Coaster and no longer used to that, so it sucked. The whole…

RUNNER’S WORLD+ MEMBER HAIJUN STAMATIS RAMOUNDOS, 25 VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA STAY FOCUSED Wave or Nod? Wave. Often runners, including myself, are very focused while running and end up missing what’s around them. Waving not only brings attention to myself, but also serves as a “wake-up” for me: Mentally, I’m forced to notice and enjoy my surroundings, and physically, I’m able to move my arms in a motion other than just swinging at my sides. DREAM GEAR The NormaTec compression boots or the LightSpeed Lift body-weight support system. I put a lot of value in recovery and rehab so I can continue running at a high level. MY SOUL ROUTE Prospect Park’s loop in Brooklyn, NY. The feeling of home cannot be understated—it eliminates a lot of anxiety that comes from…

1 / BOMBAS PERFORMANCE RUNNING SOCKS / $91 (FOR PACK OF SIX) Blister prevention and breathability are really all I want in a sock. These do the trick in any weather. 2 / MAURTEN GEL 100 / $43 (FOR PACK OF 12) Maurten sponsors Eliud Kipchoge, who used their sciencebacked fuel to break two hours in the marathon. It’s not packed with a ton of flavor, which means the taste doesn’t linger and it’s easy on my stomach. 3 / TRACKSMITH LANE FIVE TIGHTS / $68 No chafing. Pockets. There’s nothing more I really need, but the fact that these shorts don’t slip or bunch up is a huge plus. 4 / GARMIN FORERUNNER 935 WATCH / $650 It’s got all the bells and whistles (heart-rate, GPS, elevation, etc.), but…

It may have been a while since you’ve stepped on a scale. You’re fit, you feel great, and you run—a lot. So who cares what the number on the scale says, right? We agree—the number on the scale is only one metric and doesn’t provide a complete picture of health and performance. Yet we still hear about “race weight”—that is, the weight at which you run your fastest—all the time. So it makes you wonder: Is there really an ideal weight for running? Your weight isn’t the be-all and endall for strong performances, but it can still play a role, says Natalie Rizzo, M.S., R.D. Some runners may feel there is an “ideal” weight for them to feel their best and achieve a PR, but dipping below your equilibrium or…

MAKE 2021 YOUR YEAR How we train has changed. With gyms closed or restricted, and masks a must for outdoor runs, the tools and gear we needed to not just sweat but stay healthy and motivated has evolved. That’s why our annual Fitness Awards focuses on what made the biggest impact on our home workouts and modified routines—from free apps, to home gym essentials, to investment pieces that are worth every penny. We rigorously evaluated and sweat-tested hundreds of options in tiny apartments, on long runs, after track intervals, and during workouts of all varieties to find these 31 items that will boost your performance. As things stand, 2021 might not be much different, but that doesn’t mean your goals have to stay the same. Best Kettlebell ROGUE RUBBER COATED…

Best Free App NIKE TRAINING CLUB NTC APP / IOS AND ANDROID NTC of fers a growing library of over 115 classstyle workouts and multiweek prog rams, with options for everybody, from beginners to competitive runners. Our testers particularly loved the motivational trainers, the option to stream your own music (just sync to Spotify or Apple Music), and the run-specific cross-training options (like Runners Strength and Balance or a 12-minute Run Ready Flow). Prior to March 2020, the NTC app offered both free and paywalled workouts, but Nike has since offered all content for free. Best Subscription PELOTON DIGITAL / FREE FOR 30 DAYS, THEN $13 PER MONTH You don’t need a bike or treadmill to benefit from Peloton’s programs. The variety, community, and music set this app apart. Trainers…

One of my favorite T-shirts says, “Not Running Sucks.” It makes me laugh, and if you’re reading this article, I know you feel me! Like so many of you, I’ve had to deal with the cramping of my training and race schedule due to the pandemic. Sure, I’ve been able to get in solo runs at my local spot, Magic Johnson Park in Compton, California, but as a Deaf person, I’ve found the new restrictions on group runs challenging. Running solo, I have to be aware of my surroundings. I have to use my eyes as my ears to keep myself safe. With group running, I found comfort, safety, and community. I’m reminded now, more than ever, how important it is that run clubs and running events consider accessibility and…

INTERMIT TENT fasting (IF) is based on the time windows you consume food. Generally, IF refers to periods of fasting that last less than 24 hours but are done more frequently, from daily to weekly. A popular version is to fast for 16 hours—only eating, for example, between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Another method is to fast just under 24 hours, say from dinner to dinner, and is sometimes called one meal a day (OMAD). PROS If weight loss is your ultimate goal, IF can be a reliable method because limiting the time frame to eat generally results in a calorie deficit. Eating like this can actually help you drop from 3 to 8 percent of your weight over three to 24 weeks, according to a review published in…

REVIEWS & RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE EXPERTS IN THE RW TEST ZONE ATREYU THE ARTIST PRICE: $100 | TYPE: Road WEIGHT: 7.3 oz (unisex) DROP: 6 mm ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS for a lightweight racer with a carbon-fiber plate? Crazy. So was starting a shoe company in 2020, but that’s just what founder Michael Krajicek did. And since he didn’t come to his gig the way a lot of shoe company pioneers do—through retail—he’s taken a new approach to slinging shoes: a subscription model. Commit to buying a pair of Atreyu every month (or every three months) and they’ll cost you a fraction of what you’d pay for shoes from other brands. Atreyu’s first model was a $55 racing flat that was too thin and firm for most of our testers. But…

Nathan Walker, 43, of Detroit, was inspired to found a new running club—Keep the Beat—to raise money for independent musicians suffering from financial hardship during the pandemic. You can support them by following @KeepTheBeatRC on Twitter. Congratulations to Cathy Mark, 51, of Waukesha, WI, who PR’d her marathon time by 13 minutes and finalized her divorce. Craig Common, 66, a chef from Chelsea, MI, treats himself to a steak and a glass of red wine after finishing a long race. Marjorie Asturias, 48, of Fruita, CO, chomps down on a brown-sugar-cinnamon Pop-Tart before every single race. If it’s a marathon, she’ll eat an extra half to fuel up. If you’re looking for a killer hill, Erin Cristales, 38, of Denton, TX, knows one: A two-mile loop at Isle du Bois at Ray Roberts…

WILL EGENSTEINER ASSOCIATE TEST DIRECTOR *BARELY PERCEPTIBLE HEAD NOD* PRODUCTS I’M USING RIGHT NOW 1 / Brooks Ravenna 7 Shoes $110 These are a few years old, but they fit my wide, high-arched feet so well, which is good for when I just need to get out and plod for a few miles. 2 / Headsweats TruckAir Hat $26 It’s rare for me to find a hat that fits on my big ol’ head. The TruckAir does, and its wide mesh lets sweat evaporate better than any other lid I’ve tried. 3 / Saxx Pilot 2N1 Shorts $65 Any guy who’s run in Saxx boxers or shorts knows the level of support they afford. The BallPark pouch naming is a little corny but appropriate. COFFEE OR BEER? Beer. Coffee is…

RUNNER’S WORLD+ MEMBER AMY ALLARD, 30 PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND ONE MORE MILE COLD OR WARM? Cold. The heat zaps my energy much quicker. MY 2021 RESOLUTION Run five days a week and compete in a half marathon. My Running Style in Three Words CALM, CONSISTENT, NEON. Why I’ve Embraced Solo Runs While I do miss large group races, it’s been very freeing not having to run according to a training plan. I like waking up each morning and deciding how far or fast I want to run based on what my body is telling me in that moment. I can feel myself getting stronger and faster because of this approach. MY ROUTES: THE USUAL AND THE NOT-SO-USUAL Cemeteries, because they are always so peaceful and beautifully landscaped. If you run…

BODYWEIGHT BURNER • Squat: 30 reps • Straight-leg sit-up: 20 reps • Push-up: 10 reps • Repeat 5x Rest as needed between sets 20-MINUTE TO TALBODY WORKOUT Perform each exercise for 40 seconds on, 20 seconds off. You’ll need a set of dumbbells. • Squat to overhead press • Dumbbell renegade row • Reverse lunge to biceps curl • Burpee • Repeat 5x through REVERSE PYRAMID RUNNING HIIT Warm up with an easy jog and dynamic drills. • Run hard for 3 minutes • Recover for 3 minutes • Run hard for 2 minutes • Recover for 2 minutes • Run hard for 1 minute • Recover for 1 minute Take 2 minutes of rest, and repeat the set 1–2 more times.…

“I CAN’T CATCH MY BREATH!” WHAT MIGHT CAUSE THIS Oxygen deficit to your muscles WHEN IT CAN HAPPEN Shortly after starting a run HOW TO FIX IT / Perform a proper warmup that will help prime your body and muscles for exercise. We recommend including a sustained burst of intense running in your warmup—like running 45 to 60 seconds at 5K race pace, for example—about 10 minutes prior to the beginning of a workout or race. This priming run will activate enzymes and dilate blood vessels, allowing you to more quickly adjust to your desired pace. “I’M TRAINING HARD, BUT I’M NOT SPEEDING UP!” WHAT MIGHT CAUSE THIS Recruitment of inefficient muscle fibers WHEN IT CAN HAPPEN Sustained, medium-effort runs/races like a 10K or half HOW TO FIX IT /…

I used to run just to stay in shape. I didn’t love it. I’ve been wrestling competitively for 25 years and am one of the top masters wrestlers in the world. Running throughout my wrestling career helped me cut weight, but I never went farther than eight miles. That all changed in October 2017, when my life nearly ended. While traveling to Bulgaria for the World Veterans Wrestling Championship, I started experiencing headaches, nausea, and vomiting. I thought it was food poisoning and fatigue from cutting weight. Instead, I was diagnosed with a brain hemorrhage, and later, a life-threatening AV malformation with a cavernous tumor in my frontal lobe. I was medevacked to Germany, and spent a month in ICU. After spending weeks in a hospital bed, my muscles atrophied.…

The past year brought a new metric for runners to track: pulse oximetry. “It’s a noninvasive way to measure the amount of oxygen carried in your red blood cells,” says Jonathan Parsons, M.D., a pulmonologist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Now, smartwatches, including the Fitbit Sense and Apple Watch 6, have redesigned their optical heart-rate sensors to measure blood-oxygen levels. They can only provide an estimation of your blood oxygen (SpO2), but for data-driven runners, “they’re accurate enough to give you a ballpark number and frame of reference as to how your numbers are trending,” says Parsons. When the number is lower, your blood is carrying less oxygen and workouts will feel harder—this is especially true if you’re at altitude. A lower number may also suggest that…

THIS DIET HAS STAYED POPULAR FOR decades—and those who follow it may even live longer and run better. The Mediterranean diet is rich in vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, unrefined grains, olive oil, fish, poultry, and regular but moderate amounts of wine. PROS The Mediterranean diet is recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans to prevent chronic diseases, and it’s also easy to sustain, unlike other more restrictive diets, according to the World Health Organization. Well-established research shows people who regularly eat the foods included in this diet—which is both anti-inf lammatory and high in antioxidants—can boost their mental and gut health. And a 2019 review published in the journal Circulation Research found that adhering to the diet is associated with lower risks of coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke, and total…

DANIELLE ZICKL HEALTH AND FITNESS EDITOR AT THE END OF THE DAY, RUNNING SHOULD ALWAYS STILL BE FUN PRODUCTS I’M USING RIGHT NOW 1 / Tracksmith Brighton Base Layer $88 Perfect to wear under a vest, jacket, or sweatshirt. It’s so soft, comfortable, and breathable. 2 / Brooks Formation Crop Leggings $85 Thick enough to keep me warm on chilly runs, but not so thick that I’m totally overheating. 3 / Adidas Ultraboost Shoes $180 These got me through my first half marathon, and I’ve since bought a couple more pairs. I’m not in any rush to fix what’s not broken. My Soul Route Anywhere on a boardwalk or by a beach. The crashing sound of the waves and the salty smell of the air really makes me feel like…

AFTER THE YEAR we’ve experienced, I’m ready to turn over a new leaf. And I know I’m not alone. Pandemic. Work from home. Job losses. Election stress. Homeschooling. Holiday cancellations. There were a lot of external forces that would cause a runner to take a zero. Lord knows I have a fair share of blank days in my 2020 training log. I had some highs, but also plenty of lows—it was my lowest annual mileage total since 2012, when my child was born. But for all those same reasons, a lot of you stacked up big miles as a means to escape from it all or because of newfound free time. Likewise, some of you picked up the sport for the very first time. If that’s you, welcome. But if…

Confession: Tempo runs scare me. Those long, hard, sustained efforts always look impossible when I see them on paper. Doubt creeps in. Some of my worst workouts have come from tempo runs. I remember one run in particular—a 50-minute slog at a ludicrous pace in the spring of 2018. I saw it on my plan and immediately began creating a laundry list of excuses as to why this was simply just not going to work, why I wasn’t fit enough, why I wouldn’t finish, why I would fail. Before I even laced up my shoes, I’d already convinced myself I couldn’t do this. Instead of using the warmup to find my groove, prepare for success, and get excited to make the best of it, I adopted a loser’s mindset, revisited…

ROLLERBLADING This activity, potentially made popular by TikTok, nearly tripled in popularity in March to September of this year compared with the same time last year. Blading reduces impact on the shins, knees, and hips. Also, it can help build the aerobic base, says Mike Thomson, CSCS and USATF-certified coach at LifeTime Overland Park. MEDITATION Many of us turned to meditation—the activity saw a major increase in logs—for stress relief. Fitbit users ages 30 to 49 recorded 40,000 meditation sessions in 2020 compared with around 1,000 in 2019. The major spike supports the idea that mindfulness activities are effective at helping us chill out. JUMPING ROPE Using this tool works everything from your calves to your mind and builds endurance, stamina, and coordination, says Amanda Kloots, creator of AK! Rope.…

I’m 24 years old—only a year younger than Ahmaud Arbery was on the day he was pursued and killed while out jogging this past February in Satilla Shores, Georgia. My skin is the same tone as his, and I’ve run thousands of miles through suburbs in the decade that I’ve been a runner. Coincidentally, my sister even knows one of Ahmaud’s best friends. In recent months, I’ve been lamenting and grappling with why the broader African American community has often struggled to embrace distance running and has not been able to reap the same benefits the sport has brought me. It comes down to opportunity. My introduction to running came after my sophomore year at Chantilly High School in Virginia, when I decided to stop playing soccer and focus on…

IT’S RACE DAY, AND IT’S FREEZING. Connie doesn’t have gloves or a hat. She wears black yoga pants and a cotton sweatshirt. On her feet are a pair of bulky five-yearold white Nikes she bought at a Foot Locker. The crowd around her buzzes with strange talk of Garmins, and racing flats, and PRs, whatever those are. At the gun, her friend says, “Just run. Just follow the people.” It’s 2013, and Connie is 24. When her friend suggested a few weeks prior that she register for the Valentine’s Day 5K in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, she’d asked, “What’s a 5K?” “It’s just a loop of the park,” he said. How should she prepare, Connie wanted to know. “Just run on the treadmill,” he said. She figured, How hard could it…

Home workouts will continue to be a necessity for many of us for the foreseeable future. The upside: There’s an endless number of training apps, from free resources like YouTube to paid subscription services you’ll see below, that help you get fit and build strength at home. Still, that overabundance of options can lead to analysis paralysis, which ultimately stifles your motivation. Through our testing of dozens of apps, we’ve come to know that there’s no one-size-fits-all suggestion, but there are a few standouts we love.…

Through lockdowns, quarantines, and social distancing, running has remained one thing we can count on. But keeping yourself and fellow runners safe is paramount. Public health guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control suggest that wearing a mask is the most effective way to slow the spread of Covid-19 when you are in a public place that doesn’t allow for adequate social distancing—even outdoors. If you plan to run solo or don’t think the trails will be crowded, bring a mask in case you need to stop—whether for a snack, bathroom, or encountering an accident. As for that viral Duke University study that seemingly suggested gaiters are ineffective? It was misinterpreted. The researchers only intended to study one technique for testing mask effectiveness. Newer research from the University of Georgia…

If you’re a runner looking for a healthy diet to add to your list of 2021 resolutions, don’t get that confused with healthy eating. ¶ As an endurance athlete, a lot of the diets you see influencers touting on social media won’t fuel you properly when you’re pushing for a PR or running consistently. Making the habit stick is even more difficult if you’re doing a 180 on other habits to ring in the new year. ¶ If you revamp your diet—and it’s working—great! The trendy diet options here have their possible benefits: potential weight loss (if that’s a goal), the promise of more energy, or discovering what causes those frequent stomach issues. ¶ Consult with your doctor or a registered dietitian before making dietary changes to ensure you’re meeting…

TRY THESE RAINOR-SHINE SHADES District Vision claims that its Calm-Tech lenses are the world’s first porous options, able to partially absorb fog and light rain to boost clarity. Runner-in-Chief Jeff Dengate tested the brand’s Takeyoshi glasses with a fine-mist spray bottle, and the difference is evident: The District Vision glasses disperse the droplets and minimize the number of hard round edges you see from behind the lenses. Of course, the surface won’t stay bone-dry in a downpour like 2018 Boston. But in snow flurries and drizzle, moisture forms beads and dissipates quickly for a much clearer view. THESE SHIRTS WON’T SHRINK IN THE DRYER You’ve probably been there: While taking your clothes out of the dryer, you realize you forgot to pull out your favorite running top and now it’s…