Obsessed Runner Blog
2017-04-26 - Run off the road
I can relate to the Ancient Druids who supposedly drew their energy from direct contact with the earth, the dirt. A couple days away from the woods and I seem to become weak, tired and foggy, like a near-dead battery. It's not like I want to run trails, I NEED to run trails. We spend much of our lives in temperature controlled buildings and cars, re-breathing air that contains who knows what, while walking on man-made surfaces, yikes! I've heard runners say, "but I don't live near a trail". The truth is that if you look, you can find trails just about everywhere, if not out your door, then at least on the way to where you head daily. Seek, and you shall find, sanity and your legs will love you for it. Friends don't let friends put in all their miles on pavement! Make this the year to train on dirt and race on dirt!
Run wild forever,
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed trail runner who hopes you're joining me this weekend for the 31st annual Trail race weekend ... Or, June 3rd in Novi for the Flirt With Dirt, 5K, 10K (Yep, gnarly trails in the land of Malls and Mansions!) or August 5th at The Legend 5 mile, 10 mile and 13.1 mile just north of Lansing. If not these events, than for sure at Run Woodstock, a healing weekend in the woods September 8, 9 and 10, 2017. Last but not least, perhaps a road trip to a Dances With Dirt! Get all the DIRT here!
PS: We are now accepting volunteers for Flirt With Dirt! Check out all of our awesome volunteer opportunities HERE! RF Events volunteers receive fun volunteer swag, a $30 voucher towards a future event and MORE!
2017-04-19 - Run smarter than me
Early spring can be a risky time for us runners. A perfect running day can lure us into miles or a pace our body is not ready for. The body needs time to adapt, rules like not increasing your weekly mileage by more than 10% may be frustrating but not as much as an early season pain that requires days off. Many of us will be racing long this weekend at the Martian Invasion or elsewhere. The weather is looking perfect, run within yourself, go out easy and shoot for a negative split. This is a difficult concept to put into action and the most common mistake in running is going out too hard. Records are set with negative splits. I recently read a statistic that the majority of people who qualified to run The Boston Marathon did it without running negative splits. What this means is that they could have ran faster and even the seasoned faster runners have difficulty going out easy. Just sayin'.
Run smart and prosper,
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed runner who continues to write this stuff to remind myself to run smart and not how I want to. Ha. As I said, the weather on Saturday looks perfect, there is still time to enter 5K, 10K, 13.1 or 26.2 at http://martianraces.com/ Even if you are not ready to race, come visit the expo on Friday for a bit of motivation.
2017-04-12 - Share the gift of running
Our running is a gift, a tool for coping with the world when things get ugly. That said, when it comes to our running, we need to be careful to not keep it on a pedestal, never beating ourselves up about how our run went. We set goals, sometimes we hit them and sometimes we blow them but it's important to remember that running is what we do for fun and to escape. There is never a time to get overly upset about our performance, we win no matter how our run goes. The run itself is our success. When we line up to start a race or make our way out the door for our daily run, that is enough of a reward. Anything above this should leave us humbled. How to repay the running gift? Share it, invite a sedentary friend out the door, even for a walk... then pick up the pace, ha! Seriously, you can be the inspiration. Another way to give back to the sport is to volunteer at an event and make it possible for others to experience the success we get with every run!
Share your gift today,
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed runner... Who will be working the Martian Invasion of Races next week and would love to have you join me to make it a success. Click this volunteer link, or come and run... either way, we win!