Listener Q&A: September 2017

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Don’t look now, but 2017 is 2/3 history!

The end of the month around these parts means one thing: it’s time to answer some questions!

This Month’s Questions

This month there is only a handful of questions, so this might be a quickie.

FYI: If you’d like to get your questions answered in a future episode of the show, the best thing you can do is join our FB group.

Every month I put up a post asking for questions, and those are the questions that get answered here.

So without any further ado, let’s get into it!

Can I get some guidance on stretching? Before a run and after? Dynamic vs static?

A lot of people think that stretching and warming up are basically the same thing.

Tell ’em governor.

Before a run or a race, warming up is beneficial.

A good warm-up will help get your heart rate elevated and increase blood flow to your muscles/extremities, which is rather important if you are planning to run/race hard.

With that in mind, warming up needs to involve movement.

That could include an easy run, doing calisthenics, doing some squats/lunges, or all of the above.

Warm-up before, stretch after.

If you get one thing from this answer, that needs to be your key takeaway.

After your run is finished and while your muscles are still warm, that is when you want to do your stretching.

If you’re not sure what stretches to do, here is a post I did awhile back highlighting some great stretches for runners to do.

When it comes to dyamic vs static, in most cases opt for static stretches.

Dynamic stretching isn’t bad at all, but your risk of injuring yourself while stretching goes up dramatically if you are performing dynamic stretches. If you’re new to the stretching game, focus on static stretches only until your muscles have loosened up a bit.

 

In order to fit running into my schedule, I need to run in the mornings. Everyone else is in my house is a night owl. Any suggestions to allow us to live in harmony?

That’s a tough one.

I don’t think there is a simple solution to this one. That said, I think the solution is less complicated than it may first seem.

If you’re going to run early, that means you need to at least go to bed at a decent hour.

That means you need a little cooperation from the family to make sure that they aren’t being too loud and rambunctious every night so that you can get some sleep.

So if you can work a bit of a deal with the family to allow you to get some quiet after a certain time at night in exchange for you being as quiet as possible in the morning, that may be the best solution.

If the worry is sacrificing family time, that solution may be a bit tricker but it’s still doable.

You just have to be creative.

If you’re missing out on time with your spouse/partner in the evening because they want to stay up and you need to go to bed, how can you make up that time on other occasions?

Can yall have a lunch date once or twice a week? Maybe make sure for an hour or two in the evenings there are no phones/electronics/books getting between the two of you?

Maybe make sure for an hour or two in the evenings there are no phones/electronics/books getting between the two of you?

Maybe after your long runs on the weekends, you can jump in the shower and slide back into bed before he/she wakes up for a little morning something something?

Or just make him/her breakfast in bed, which is almost the same thing.

Making extra time for the kids can be a little more difficult since they are less likely to be ok with putting the phone down and having conversations.

But if you can be creative, you’ll figure it out.

Whatever things they are interested in, become interested in yourself. And then maybe once a week or so, you can have some time for just the two of you to do that thing.

Do that with each of your kids, and I’m pretty sure they will love you for it.

And hopefully, that will help bring a little more harmony to the household, which will make it a bit easier for the contrasting scheduled that everyone is trying to keep.

I’ve heard it said that you will never get faster until you’re running more than 20 miles per week. Any truth to this?

No. There is no truth to that, with one asterisk.

For experienced runners, maybe that could be true. If you’ve been running for years and you’re “only” running 20 miles per week, you may not be stressing your body enough to make the changes that will result in you getting faster.

But if you’re new to the sport, or haven’t been running for an extended period of time, simply by running regularly you will get faster no matter how many miles you’re logging.

What race have you always wanted to run but scares you when you think about it? (Not Barkley or Boston)

Honestly, I can’t think of any race that really scares me.

Barkley is probably the only specific race that I’d consider myself to be legit scared of.

The idea of never qualifying for Boston scares me, but nothing about the race itself really scares me.

What does scare, however, is less of a specific race and more of a specific distance.

100 miles.

I still have no desire to do a hundo, but I could see that changing in another decade or so.

And everything about that statement legitimately scares me.

I have a black toenail and not sure what to expect. Any advice?

We could go ahead and amputate it now.

Kidding, mostly.

I’ve honestly never had a black toenail in my life as a runner, but I’ve seen them before and the process is pretty simple.

Let the joker grow out, and eventually, the nail will likely fall off.

No big deal at all. The nail will keep growing and pretty soon your little piggies will be back to normal.

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That’s it for this month.

A handful of questions, and hopefully a handful of useful answers!

To get your question in the mix for next month, make sure you join our FB group and watch out for the post asking for questions. I usually put that post up mid-month, and when you see it fire off your questions in the comments!

What Was Your Favorite Question and/or Answer this Month? Let Me Know in the Comments Below!

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