Nice weather gets people out jogging

>By: Brad Vivacqua
LIVERPOOL, N.Y. -- The last several days of comfortable weather conditions have encouraged many people to get outdoors and go for a jog. Maybe you've recently considered doing the same but haven't thought about all the benefits. News 10 Now's Brad Vivacqua recently spoke to a running expert and has some tips for us.

The weather has really been encouraging if you've been thinking about getting started. Local running expert Dave Oja of the Syracuse Chargers Track Club said if you haven't run in a while, it's a good idea to start out with walking a few days a week.

Oja said plenty of great local venues in our region offering a number of great trails to get you started.

Once you're up to a good thirty to thirty five minute walk a day and you're feeling good you may want to start jogging. If you've got some health concerns it's smart to get your doctors approval first.

Tips for runners
The last several days of comfortable weather conditions have encouraged many people to get outdoors and go for a jog. Maybe you've recently considered doing the same but haven't thought about all the benefits. News 10 Now's Brad Vivacqua recently spoke to a running expert and has some tips for us.

Oja said a person can be surprised on how much running can improve their overall health. He also said if you've been running you may also want to try entering your first road race this summer.

Here in our area there's an event nearly every weekend from now through October. A road race can help you set a goal, meet new people, and give you a feeling of accomplishment.

"I certainly recommend it, I certainly recommend that anybody who is out there putting in some miles and feeling reasonably fit, and anyone who knows he or she can cover the race distance safely, give it a try and see what's in it for them," said Oja.

Before you head outdoors, you'll want to make sure you have some comfortable running clothes and footwear and don't push yourself too much once you get started.

Dollars and Sense

Almost all runners can find shoes that suit their needs for $85 or less. If you’re a beginner, I don’t think you should spend more than that because you’re probably still learning what type of shoe you need. You’ll be less likely to be honest about abandoning a model that doesn’t work for you if you’ve just plunked down several days’ pay for it.
At the other end of the scale, unless you can find discontinued models on sale, try not to spend less than $60. I know that the dollars can add up fast if you’re only getting 400 miles out of a pair of shoes. But shoes that retail for less than $60 are often cheaply made, without enough support and cushioning. They’re made in mass quantities out of inferior materials and are dumped on unsuspecting shoppers in megastores. They can lead to injury, and, well, they just don’t feel as good as “real” running shoes. Isn’t staying injury-free and enjoying your running worth that extra $10 a few times a year?

Shopping for Shoes

These days, there are shoes on the market that cost more than the per capita income of some developing nations. Do you really need to spend $150 for a pair of shoes? No doubt, all of the shoes on the market that cost more than $100 are well-made, but that doesn’t mean they’re necessary. Many running shoes have more to do with marketing hype than with helping you to run better. Let’s face it: Like other people, some runners are driven by status. They just have to have the newest shoe with all the fancy colors and the cool logos. If that’s you, and if it helps you feel better about yourself as a runner, then by all means, purchase the high-ticket items.

Your Shoes Are Killing Your Feet

By Dylan Tweney

Foot Your shoes are destroying your feet. More specifically, they're messing up the perfectly-balanced, coordinated bipedal gait that our species evolved over millions of years.

That's the argument touted by a lengthy article in New York magazine this week, You Walk Wrong. Its starting point is a number of podiatric studies showing that going barefoot is better for your feet than wearing shoes: unshod Zulus have healthier feet than shoe-wearing Europeans, and prehistoric humans appear to have had the healthiest feet of all. And if you must wear shoes, it turns out that the less shoe you wear, the better, because expensive running shoes are no better than cheap ones, and wearing expensive running shoes actually increases your odds of getting injured by 123%.

But first, New York wants you to know all about Galahad Clark, the scion of a British shoe-manufacturing family, who got into the un-shoe business after hanging out with the Wu-Tang Clan, Rem Koolhaas, and a young tennis-playing industrial designer named Tim Brennan. Eventually Clark came up with the Vivo Barefoot, a $160 un-shoe that is as close to going barefoot as you can get while still providing some protection against the dog shit, hypodermic needles and broken glass that clog the streets of New York (and San Francisco, for that matter).

The authors of the "shod vs. unshod" study (.pdf), Bernard Zipfel and Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, argue that going barefoot is the optimal condition for humans. It makes a certain intuitive sense, because the human foot evolved over millennia in the absence of shoes, during which time humans walked just fine, thank you very much. Modern shoes significantly change the way the foot works: Their stiffness prevents the foot from flexing as it normally would, and their big, cushioned heels absorb so much shock that they actually encourage you to drive your heel into the ground much more firmly than you would if you were barefoot.

A barefoot walking or running gait is much gentler and smoother, in which your foot placement is flatter (rather than heel-first) and the arches of your feet deflect more to absorb the load. And it turns out that this might be better for your knees as well as your feet, because even though those thick soles are absorbing the immediate shock to your foot, your steps while wearing shoes still transmit more shock to your knees than your barefoot steps do.

In light of this, it should come as no surprise that there are many advocates of the barefoot lifestyle and barefoot running on the internet, and there's even a barefoot marathon-running Christian minister.

There are a couple of problems with the "let's just kick off our shoes" line: People have been wearing shoes for 30,000 years, and prehistoric humans tended to get killed off by disease, starvation or predators at a much younger age, meaning they had a lot less time to wreck their feet through ordinary use. And there are a lot of places where you really don't want to go barefoot, or even really wear a thin un-shoe: Like in the snow, or at work, or when trying to hail a cab.

Still, I'm predisposed to like the anti-shoe argument, because I enjoy going barefoot, and, heck, it's Spring. What about you?

Image: What shoes can do your feet. Source: University of the Witwatersrand

Shoe Wear, Tear, and Care

Like everything else in this world, running shoes eventually break down. They just seem to do so much more quickly than other shoes. Remember, with every running step, you create a force of about three times your body weight. Even for the lightest of us, that’s a lot to ask our shoes to put up with. So with more miles, your shoes begin to deteriorate. The outsoles get worn out. The midsoles compress. The uppers start to tear. Next thing you know, that shoe that used to feel so good is making your knees ache with every step. Most runners can comfortably wear their shoes for 500 to 600 miles. In fact, none of the cushioning technologies used in today’s shoes are designed to last more than 800 miles. Trying to squeeze more miles than this out of your shoes is the runner’s version of being penny wise and pound foolish, because it can lead to injury. In the early ’70s, I once wore clean through the outsole of a pair of running shoes; no wonder my calves were killing me at the time! So watch the wear and tear on your shoes. It’s a good idea to keep track of how many miles you have on a pair of shoes so that you can better estimate when you need new ones.

Even if you don’t meticulously record the mileage on your shoes, always keep an eye on them. If you’ve worn through a spot in the outsole, ditch ’em. The shoe is so worn down that it’s going to throw off your normal stride, and that’s a good way to get injured. You should also check the heel counters. If you set your shoes on a level surface and look at them from the back and see that the heel counters point in significantly, they’re no longer doing their job of providing support.

After a few hundred miles, you’ll probably also start to see wrinkles in the midsole. These wrinkles mean that the midsole is getting compressed and can no longer absorb as much shock as when the shoes were new. When your shoes get in this condition, press a fingernail in the midsole. If doing so leaves a mark that doesn’t quickly disappear, it’s time for new shoes. Lastly, if you start to notice little aches and pains that you can’t attribute to other causes, your worn-down shoes are probably the reason.
There are some things you can do to maximize how long your shoes serve you well. For example, I have a little area on the forefoot of my left shoe that wears down long before the rest of either shoe. I can sometimes get another two or three weeks out of a pair of shoes if I apply Shoe Goo to this spot every two or three days. After I do that, I’m back to normal biomechanically. That is, the wear on my shoes isn’t making me run differently; my footstrike is back to how it should be.

You can also extend the life of a shoe by doctoring the inside. I think most of the arch supports and inserts that come with running shoes are weak. As your shoes get a bit worn, you can take out the standard-issue inserts and replace them with a couple of the many commercial inserts available at running shoe stores. Many of these inserts supply extra cushioning, which I find to be helpful as the midsoles of my running shoes compress.

Which Type of Shoes Should You Wear?

There are many ways to make an educated guess at which type of running shoe is best for you. If you’re already running, look at the forefoot of your old shoes. (Don’t bother looking at the heel, because almost all runners land on the outside heel. It’s what happens after landing that determines your needs.) Neutral runners usually see wear in the center of the forefoot; overpronators often find wear near the big toe; supinators may find wear toward the little toe. Also, examine your old shoes from the back when they’re on a level surface. Do the heel counters tilt in significantly? If so, you’re probably an overpronator.

Also, if you’ve had any running injuries, these can give clues as to your biomechanics. Overpronators tend to get injuries caused by soft-tissue fatigue, such as tendinitis and knee problems, because of the extra motion required of their muscles, tendons, and ligaments. In contrast, supinators subject their bodies to great amounts of shock because their feet move through too small a range of motion. As a result, they’re susceptible to such injuries as ankle sprains, stress fractures, and shin splints.
If you’re new to running, have a friend watch you from behind while you walk and run. Have your friend note what happens to your feet after your heel has landed. If it looks as though the inner part of your heel is still in contact with the ground when you’re pushing off to the next stride, then you’re probably an overpronator. If your heel appears relatively flat when you push off, you’re probably a neutral runner. And if it seems that your foot is moving toward the outside as you push off, you’re part of that rare breed of supinators. A good sales clerk at a running shoe store should be able to make the same assessment for you.

The Three Types of Running Shoes

To address the different biomechanical needs of different runners, shoe companies play
with the basics of construction. The shoes that they produce as a result create a continuum
of models from heavy, ultrarigid ones to light, flexible ones. There are three main
three types of running shoes:

• Motion-control shoes, which are designed to combat overpronation
• Neutral shoes, which are for runners without significant biomechanical problems
• Flexibility shoes, which are designed to provide maximum cushioning for supinators

Although this list is simplifying things a bit, these broad categories are helpful to keep in
mind when you start your search for the right running shoe.
Motion-control shoes usually contain these features:

• Combination or board lasting
• A straight shape
• A medial post that extends to the arch
• A thick midsole
• Heel and forefoot cushioning technologies

Because of these construction features, motion-control shoes are usually the heaviest ones
on the market.
Neutral shoes usually contain these features:

• Combination or slip lasting
• A semi-straight shape
• A small medial post
• A medium-thickness midsole
• Heel cushioning technologies

As you can see, these middle-of-the-road models are designed to suit the majority of
runners.
Flexibility shoes usually contain these features:

• Slip lasting
• A curved shape
• No medial post
• A thin midsole
• Forefoot cushioning technologies

Flexibility shoes are usually among the lightest on the market.

All Feet Aren’t Created Equal

The best running shoe is the one that best suits how your body, especially your feet, adapts to the stress of running. You want a shoe that best complements how you move through the gait cycle (what running geeks call biomechanics).
Running shoes are constructed to address what happens when your feet hit the ground. Ideally, your foot lands on the outside heel, rolls in until your heel is aligned under your lower leg, then becomes rigid as it propels you forward. About half of all runners are blessed with something close to this kind of biomechanics. But many runners’ feet roll in too far or continue to roll in as the foot prepares to push off; this type of footstrike is called overpronation. And a small minority of runners’ feet don’t roll in enough; this type of footstrike is called supination. The following figures illustrate these three types of running biomechanics.

The Myth of the Perfect Running Shoe

Buying a running shoe is like buying a computer: There’s no accurate answer to the question, “Which one is best?” The right question is, “Which one is best for me?” Like computer users, runners have different needs. I weigh less than 130 pounds and land with the greatest amount of force on my forefeet. That means I need a different kind of shoe than a heavier runner who lands with the most force in the heel, just like someone who does graphic design has different computer needs than an accountant.

The Last Shall Be First: Shoe Construction

Running shoes vary greatly from one to another, but all good ones have these basics of construction in common (refer to the following figures):

• Outsole, the bottom of the shoe that hits the ground
• Midsole, the soft, cushioned part directly above the outsole
• Insole, the usually removable part on which your feet rest
• Upper, the top part of the shoe that holds the laces
• Heel counter, the sturdy back part of the shoe

How these parts of a shoe are built and shaped is what makes one shoe good for you and another one not.
In addition to the midsole, most modern shoes also provide cushioning through technologies that the various running-shoe companies have devised in their labs. The best known is Nike’s Aircushioning. (It’s so well known, in fact, that if you ask runners what shoe they wear, they’ll often say, “Nike Air,” rather than accurately name the model.) Other examples are Asics’s Gel, Brooks’s HydroFlow, and Etonic’s StableAir. Although the running-shoe companies would vehemently deny it, most of these cushioning technologies are roughly equivalent for most runners. They all do a good job of increasing the amount of shock that the shoe absorbs and therefore decreasing the amount of shock your legs absorb. Some shoes have these cushioning technologies only in the heel, some have them only in the forefoot, and some have them throughout the shoe. The other major construction part of a shoe is its last. Running geeks love to bandy about this term because it can be used in two ways, so it can confuse outsiders. For the purposes of this book, the last is how the shoe’s upper is attached to its midsole. There are three basic types of last:

• Board lasting, in which the upper material is glued to a shoe-length board (usually made of paper fiber), and then attached to the midsole
• Slip lasting, in which, as in a moccasin, the upper material is stitched directly to the midsole
• Combination lasting, in which the upper material in the forefoot is attached directly to the midsole, as in slip lasting, while the upper material in the rear of the foot is attached to a board, as in board lasting.

You can tell which kind of last a shoe has by removing the insole. Once it’s out, you’ll see either a solid piece of material (a board-lasted shoe), a piece of material that runs to the arch area (a combination-lasted shoe), or stitches (a sliplasted shoe). The best last for your shoe depends on how you run.
The term last can also refer to the shape of the shoe. To avoid confusion, this book uses the term shape. There are three types of shoe shapes:

• Straight, in which the shoe is built straight along the arch
• Semi-straight, in which the shoe is built so that the forefoot points slightly toward the heel
• Curved, in which the shoe is built so that the arch area appears partly carved out A shoe’s shape is best determined by looking at it along the outsole.

As with a shoe’s last, which shape your shoe should have depends on how you run. A final piece of construction lingo you may run across while shoe shopping is dual-density midsole. In many shoes, you’ll see that the inside of the midsole will be darker than the rest. (It’s usually gray.) If you push on this area, you’ll notice that it’s harder than the rest of the midsole. That darker, firmer area is a medial post, designed to add stability to the shoe. Shoes that have a medial post have a dual-density midsole, which means that part of the midsole is denser than the rest.

Why Running Shoes?

All sports have shoes made just for them, running included. But you’ll often see beginning runners hitting the roads in any old shoe they have sitting around in the closet. Tennis shoes, boat shoes, basketball shoes—you name it, people think that they’re OK to run in. That’s too bad, because those people are probably going to hurt more than they should and not enjoy their running as much. Just as you wouldn’t expect to shoot hoops well if you hit the basketball court in bowling shoes, you shouldn’t expect to run well unless you’re wearing running shoes.
What makes a shoe a running shoe? It’s made for one thing, moving forward. After all, that’s what you want to be doing as you make your way down the road. Unlike, say, a basketball shoe, a running shoe doesn’t need to protect your ankles from side-to-side motion, nor does it need to help you jump. It just needs to help your body deal with the repetitive stress of putting one foot in front of the other, thousands of times per mile. So let me say this as clearly as possible: If you’re going to run, get running shoes. Your body will thank you.

Avoid the Extremes

Consistency is the key to progressing as a runner. It’s infinitely easier to stay motivated if you can see that you’re able to steadily chip away at your goals. Try to avoid the extremes of overdoing it or not doing it.
Most of this chapter is about how to keep running. You want to know how to prevent those spells where you don’t run for a week or two at a time and see your progress erode. Avoiding these spells is important because psychologically, periods of low motivation can feed on each other so that the less you run, the more frustrated you get, and the more you feel like giving up because your goals seem farther and farther away. Physically, it’s important to keep at it because after as little as one week away from running, you start to lose the benefits. One study found that after only two to three weeks of inactivity, a group of runners lost almost half of their aerobic fitness. Talk about use it or lose it!
But consider the other extreme on the motivation scale. Runners are ambitious people; after all, no one is making you do this sometimes difficult thing. Just by starting a running program, you’ve shown that you are motivated. Problems can arise when that motivation runs amok. You can get so fired up that you start running more than you’re ready for. In that case, you’re overtraining. When that happens, you’ll eventually either get injured or get so burned out that you won’t want to run. In either case, you’ll be as susceptible to seeing your fitness slip away as if you were undermotivated.
Overtraining is most common in highly ambitious runners who think that more miles are always better than fewer miles. They base their training more on reaching a certain number of miles per week than on structuring their training to best meet their goals. As a result, they wind up running a lot of junk miles. Also, they usually don’t meet their goals, and they get injured and feel flat pretty easily. Because the amount of running people can handle varies so much from individual to individual, overtraining can happen at what might seem like a low level of mileage. If you go from being sedentary to running 15 miles a week within a month, you’re putting far more stress on your body than if you were a long-time runner who increased his or her mileage from 40 to 55 miles per week. Unfortunately, overtraining isn’t like a broken leg, where you definitely know what’s bothering you. Its symptoms are many, and they can be caused by a lot of things besides just running too much.
Still, there are some ways to determine whether you’re overtrained or to prevent overtraining in the first place.
One of the best ways is to regularly measure your resting heart rate, or pulse. Over the course of several mornings, see how many times your heart beats in one minute when you first wake. If possible, try to take your pulse on mornings when you don’t wake to an alarm clock. Your resting heart rate is usually going to be within a few beats of the same measure from day to day. If your resting heart rate is more than five beats per minute higher than usual, something’s up. You might be on the verge of getting sick, or you might be dehydrated, or you might be under a lot of stress. For whatever reason, your heart has to work harder than usual just to maintain your body’s systems at rest. If that’s the case, then think how much harder than usual it’s going to have to work when you run.
If your morning pulse remains elevated for a few consecutive days, you need to take it easy. If you’re not sick, or can’t otherwise explain why your pulse might be higher than usual, then you’re on the verge of overtraining. If you keep running at your usual level, you are risking injury and staleness.
Other signs of overtraining are the following:

• No desire to run on most days
• Lower energy during the day and when you run
• “Heavy” legs that don’t feel better as you run
• An otherwise unaccountable drop in running performance
• Abnormal sleep (either too much or not enough)
• Unexplained, increased irritability
• Frequent minor colds and infections

The more of these symptoms you have had for at least a week straight, the more likely it is that you’re overtrained. If so, cut your running by half and limit yourself to a very easy pace.
Good records in your training log will help you note trends in your running. You can get a better sense of if you’re on the verge of overtraining, as well as learn how much is too much from past mistakes.
Two things are important to note here about overtraining. How much running it takes to make you overtrained depends on not only how much you’ve been running lately, but what else has been going on in your life. If there has recently been a lot of stress in your life, even if it’s a lot of good stress, your usual running routine is going to take more out of you. Be more careful about not overdoing it when you’re deep in the weeds of a major project at work, or you’ve just moved, or a loved one is ill in the hospital.
Also, variation in how you feel from day to day is unavoidable in running. So any of those signs of overtraining might hit you on a given day. Don’t immediately assume that you’re on the verge of falling apart. It’s when a majority of them occur day after day that you’re probably overtrained, not just when you’re feeling a little sluggish. With more running experience, you’ll be better able to know which warning signs are serious, and which ones are transitory and par for the course.

The Buddy System

The best way to stay motivated is to make your running interesting, easy, and enjoyable. The single best thing you can do to make your running easier and more enjoyable isn’t getting the latest, greatest pair of shoes or eating just the right food, or putting on those cool running sunglasses. It’s much simpler than that—run regularly with a friend. That person is your training partner.

We’ve all heard about the loneliness of the long-distance runner. Yes, running can be an intensely solitary experience, and that’s one of the main things that many people love about it. I certainly enjoy the opportunity to get away from the usual distractions with only my thoughts to accompany me. But if that’s how you always run, you’re missing out on one of the greatest and generally unknown aspects of running—the social side. Most people find that the miles pass a lot quicker when they’ve got a friend by their side (see the following figure).

When I was training to be the best marathoner in the world in the ’70s, I ran twice a day, pretty much every day of the year. That’s a lot of runs! I had company on more than half of those runs. These days, I might run with someone else only once or twice a week. This makes the running tougher now, even though I only run about half the number of miles per year that I used to. That’s because training partners are great motivators. As I said in the introduction to this chapter, inertia can be one of your toughest foes as a runner. Once you get out the door and start running, you’ve won the battle for the day. The best way to do that is to plan to meet a friend to run. Knowing that your friend is depending on you to be at such and such place at such and such time makes it very unlikely that you won’t show. Once you show up, you’ll start your run, and the workout will take care of itself.

Training partners can also help to motivate you during your run. If the two of you have planned to run five miles together, but you’re feeling a little apathetic that day, you’re a lot more likely to stick with your original goal for the day when you’re with someone than if you’re running on your own. That’s why even the most solitary runners often try to hook up with others for their longest run of the week. In the same way, training partners can help you to get more out of yourself on days when you’ve planned to run faster than usual. You’re just a lot less likely to give up and take it easy if you and a friend are out there sharing the effort, helping each other reach your potential.
Not that running with someone else is all about mutual teeth gritting and pain withstanding. Running at an easy pace with others is one of my favorite social activities.

Nonrunners often can’t believe this, because they think that running always hurts and always leaves you breathless. The opposite is usually true when you run with a friend—you can’t get yourselves to shut up! For a lot of people, running seems to loosen their tongues like a few drinks do. (Note that when you run with someone else, you’ll regularly be seeing whether you can pass the talk test and are running at the right level of effort.)

How do you find training partners? The easiest way is to have a friend or spouse who runs at about the same pace as you, but don’t worry if you don’t. Most local running clubs hold group runs a few times a week. There, runners of similar pace levels will hook up, even if they don’t know each other. You can also meet potential training partners through the people who finish near you in a race.

I don’t want to get too hokey here, but the whole idea of training partners is a big reason why I think runners lead more interesting lives than most people. Once you’re an adult, it can be pretty tough to make new friends away from work. But running with someone, even a stranger, has a way of making bonds like few other things do. Running has created and strengthened innumerable friendships, because the training partners have been through so much together.

What to Write, When to Write

The more often you write in your training log, the more it can help you. Writing in your log within an hour of every run is ideal, because that’s when the run is freshest in your mind. Another good time is soon before you go to bed, because you can put the run in perspective with the rest of the day. If you have a decent memory, it’s OK not to write in your log after every run, but try to write in your log at least twice a week so that you don’t forget to include relevant information.
What information should you include in your training log? It depends on what factors are significant to you in determining your progress. Here are just some of the things that runners record in their logs:

• Distance run
• How long the run took
• How the run felt subjectively
• What the course was like
• What the weather was like
• Any ache or pain during the run
• Whether the run was a solo effort or with others
• Weight
• Morning heart rate
• Number of hours slept
• Any other exercise for the day
• Significant nonrunning events that might make running harder or easier that day, such as a late night at work
• Mileage for the week and month
• Goal for the coming week and month
• Assessment of progress toward goals

All of this information is more than most people want to write down a few times a week. At the minimum, I think you should include distance or time run, anything significant about the course or weather, anything significant about how you felt during the day or on the run, and, at least twice a month, how you’re progressing toward your goals.

What you write in your training log might not seem important to anyone else in the world. No matter. One of the things I love most about running is that I do it solely for myself, and my success is determined solely by me. That kind of control is hard to achieve in most other areas of life. In running, there’s no such thing as office politics, racial or gender discrimination, or other arbitrary things that can impede your progress. You can’t schmooze your way into becoming a better runner. Your training log is a great place to turn to take refuge from these kinds of standards, because you can look in it and see the work you’ve done and the progress you’ve made. This clear reward for effort is hard to come by in most parts of our lives, even things that we’re very passionate about, such as being a parent.

Your Very Own Guide Log

I like to use my training log to see how I’m chipping away at my goals. Say I’m aiming for that 10-mile race I talked about earlier. To get ready for that race, one of my key workouts is several repetitions of running hard for a mile, jogging very easily for a few minutes to recover, and then running hard again. As the race nears, I want to be sure that I’m doing the hard miles at least a few seconds a mile faster than the pace I hope to maintain in the race.

After each workout, I write down my times for the hard miles. From week to week, I should be able to see that my times are improving. This record will motivate me to keep striving for my goal, or it can signal that I should revise my goal. Use your log the same way. If your goal is to lose 20 pounds in the next four months, track your weight in your log. That’s a goal that you can mark your progress to, just as focusing on a race and trying to reach a certain level of fitness for it is for me. The same principle applies if you’ve been running a few miles a day and want to try to run more. Write down with pride when you run farther than you have so you have a record of the great strides that you’re making.

Training logs also help you to learn from your mistakes. Say that lately you’ve been dragging. Every run feels harder than it should, and you just don’t seem to be as eager to run as usual. You look back in your log, and notice that a few weeks ago, you had the flu, but ran farther than usual anyway (runners are stubborn!). Training logs can help to remove some of the mystery from your running. Over time, you’ll be able to see what does and doesn’t work for you.

Logging On Your Progress

The best way to track your progress toward your goals is to keep a training log. This log is a notebook, journal, or even just random piles of paper in which you record key information about your running (see the following figure).
A training log gives you an objective record of your progress as a runner. A lot of runners, including me, regularly consult their training logs to look at the work they’ve done in the past to provide motivation for the future.
The changes that running causes are subtle on a day to-day basis, and memories are notoriously selective.
Taken together, those two things can make it hard to get a sense of how your running is going. But if you mark key information a few times a week in your log, you have an undeniable record.
When you’re feeling down and thinking that you’re not making any progress, you can look back and see that the run you just got back from that seemed to be a disaster would have been a major accomplishment just a few months ago. Many runners lack confidence in themselves and their abilities, and they downplay their accomplishments. By providing a visible manifestation of your running, training logs are great psychological comforters.

The Means to Get to the Ends

The other big reason to be specific with your goals is because doing so will help you to know what to do to meet your goals. I turned 50 while writing this blog. One of my big goals for my first year as a 50-year-old is to break the American record for 10 miles for a man of my age. That time is 52:24, which is just a bit faster than 5:15 per mile. So I know that I need to do some training at or faster than that pace to reach that goal. Contrast that goal with if I just said that I wanted to run a fast time for 10 miles. What does that mean? How fast? How would I know what to shoot for in my training? The same principles apply to your short-term goals. Do you want to be able to run five miles without stopping two months from now? OK, then you know that to get to that goal, you need to work up to three miles, then four miles, and so on at a pace that you can handle, rather than concentrating on how fast you’re running.

When you meet that short-term, three-month goal, give yourself a break! Promise yourself a meaningful reward while you’re working toward the goal, then give yourself that reward when you meet it. The reward could be a nice dinner at your spouse’s expense, or a new piece of running apparel, or a book or CD that you’ve wanted for a long time.
Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t meet your goal. Instead, be honest about how much progress you made and evaluate why you didn’t quite get to where you wanted. I might have a goal of running a certain time at an important race that’s three months away. If I don’t perform as well in the race as I had wanted to, I pat myself on the back for what I did achieve in the race and then look at where and why I fell short. Did I set too tough of a goal? Was it unreasonable of me to expect to be at this point in three months based on my fitness when I started working toward the goal? Did I not work hard enough?

Did I do the wrong types of things to get me to my goal? Ask these kinds of questions, and remember: You’ve almost undoubtedly made some progress. Say your goal was to be 15 pounds lighter at the end of three months, but you’ve lost 10 pounds. That’s still a tremendous achievement! Focus on congratulating yourself for what you have done, not beating yourself up over where you might have fallen short. Then learn from your experience and move on toward your next goal.

Keep It Real

To use goals to motivate you to run, start by setting short-term goals that you can achieve within three months. These goals should be specific and challenging, yet within your grasp. For example, your goal might be to be able to run three miles in less than 30 minutes at the end of three months.
To get to your short-term goal, you need to set shorter-term goals that follow a logical progression. After all, if you can now run two miles at a pace of 12 minutes per mile, and you keep doing that for the next 12 weeks, then you probably won’t achieve your goal of three miles in 30 minutes. You need to map out intermediate steps along the way to get you from your starting point to your goal. To continue my writing analogy, those shortterm steps are the sections within a chapter. The first section leads to the second section, which builds to the third section, and so on until a chapter is complete. Your intermediate goals should be two to three months away so that you can achieve several shorter-term goals. Two to three months is long enough for you to make some progress in your running and long enough to allow for the setbacks that all runners encounter occasionally. But it’s also a short enough period of time that you can stay focused on the goal.
Being specific with your goals is the best way to make sure that you can track your progress. “I’d like to run faster” or “I’d like to lose weight” are amorphous goals.
Three weeks into your running program, you’re probably running faster, and if you’ve lost a pound, then you’ve lost weight. So why continue? But if you say, “I want to run three miles in less than 30 minutes by the end of June,” or “I want to lose 10 pounds by the beginning of November,” then you have something quantifiable to go after. You can chart a course toward meeting that goal, you can monitor your progress as you near it, and you can definitively say whether you achieved it.