Mojo for Running

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MFR 123: Thoughts on Knee Surgery

By Debbie Voiles

This episode is about knee surgery for runners, the considerations, topics for thought. It will not tell you when you need surgery. I’m not a doctor. It doesn’t bash knee surgery, not at all, but it is food for thought, things to consider, if knee surgery may be in your future, or if a medical professional is recommending it for you.

First, I need to cover some critical points.

For as long as running has been a popular sport, some people have believed that running is bad for your knees. Let me put that rumor to rest. Running is NOT bad for most people’s knees. Some people believe it will ruin your knees. This has been studied and evaluated and researched and disproven.

Now, some people do have problems with their knees, especially women, because of the way our bodies are made. My point is that a blanket statement that running ruins your knees is entirely wrong. 

That said, I’ve worked with many runners with knee problems. As I mention in this episode, the great majority had injured their knees in some way, years ago, usually playing sports in high school or college. In those cases, there’s not much I can do. In most cases, though, I’ve found that when people do two things, the pain is either largely alleviated or goes away, completely. Those two things are:

  1. Strengthening all the other muscles. The muscles around the knee, stabilize it; if they’re weak, then the knee is at risk. Other times, though, strengthening the hips or core muscles is what makes the difference.
  2. Correcting form. Almost always when I get these people to run with smaller steps, making sure their body, their center of gravity is over their foot when it hits the ground, there is no more problem.

Let’s say this didn’t work for you, then you may be one of many runners looking at knee surgery. In this episode, I relate the experiences of some of my friends as well as my own experience and provide some insight that I think will be helpful.

 

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Filed Under: mfr-podcast, Running injuries and prevention Tagged With: injured their knees, knee surgery, knee surgery for runners, runners with knee problems, running is bad for your knees

MFR 122: Run Off Road and On the Trails

By Debbie Voiles

Run Off Road and On TrailsIf you haven’t run off road – or on trails – I hope this episode will convince you to give it a try. I explain the many of excellent reasons why you should run trails, and I explain how to get started.

I’ve said it many times, I live an hour from Disney World and Universal and 30 minutes from Busch Gardens, but even if I had to pay the same amount, I’d rather go for a trail run in the woods. Listen in and find out why I believe everyone should go run trails, specifically, single track trails. 

Sadly, most adults, most people, go years without every spending time in the woods. Trust me, besides all the fitness benefits, the mental benefits of running trails are even more significant.

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Filed Under: mfr-podcast Tagged With: run in the woods, run trails, single track trails, trail run, trail running

MFR 121: Three Key changes to Help You Run Faster

By Debbie Voiles

Most runners want to get faster. Not everyone can afford to hire a coach, and not everyone has time to train for a marathon, but most runners hope to set new PR’s on a regular basis. This is absolutely possible, but you need to know how to direct your time. Most people have full-time jobs. You probably do, or you’re a full-time parent. Your time is limited; so, you need to know the best most efficient way to spend your running training time. 

In this episode, I explain three things that virtually every runner at every level can do to run faster.

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Filed Under: mfr-podcast, Running Faster, Training Tagged With: new PR, run faster, runners

MFR 120: One Foot at a Time

By Debbie Voiles

It’s the little things that often have the greatest impact, and so it is with the concept of focusing on the fact that when running, you are always, 100 percent of the time, putting the full weight of your body on just one foot or the other. Oddly, you don’t hear much about this, and if you go to the gym, you’ll notice that most people are doing exercises with both feet firmly planted on the floor. 

Think about it. Doesn’t it make more sense to stand on just one leg at a time, imitating, or more closely imitating, the running stride? 

Keep this simple concept top of mind, all the time, when cross training, and you’ll be able to make minor changes, choose different exercises, or different ways to perform exercises, different activities, or different ways to perform the activities you perform regularly. It won’t require major changes, but it will pay major benefits.

In this episode, I discuss all the elements that come into play and how to change your activities to improve muscle balance, decrease injuries, and benefit your running performance. Perhaps most significant is that you’ll feel better, more even, more stable, and stronger, when you run because your running form will, naturally, be improved, increasing your comfort level.

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Filed Under: cross training, injury prevention, mfr-podcast Tagged With: muscle balance, running performance, running stride

MFR 119: Five Pillars of Intelligent Running

By Debbie Voiles

Five Pillars of Intelligent RunningWe all think of ourselves as intelligent runners, of course, but even the most experienced, veteran runners sometimes lose sight of the wise and effective path to their goals. Why does this happen? I think because we get caught up in the here and now, the ‘today,’ instead of keeping our eyes on the long term goal, not just our long term running goals but sometimes even our life goals. Yes, running can sometimes distract us from our most far-reaching life goals. That’s bad, but on the flip side, running can make us into the person we need to be to achieve those goals, right?

After all, at the most basic level, we want running to keep us alive and healthy, but beyond that, we set running goals for the purpose of making us into stronger people, finding out what we are, who we are, how much we can handle and overcome.

With this episode, I want to take you back to square one to evaluate whether you’re doing the most basic things to facilitate your trip toward both your short term goals and your most distant goals. I break it down into just five pillars. There is a big difference between an intelligent runner, training with wisdom, and just focusing on the next five miles. 

Don’t get me wrong, to some extent, that’s just what you need to do, focus on this run, absolutely, but I just mean that it’s a mistake to become so focused on those next miles that we forget where we want those miles to carry us, the reward we’re working toward. 

I hope this podcast will facilitate your running journey and that that will help you reach the destination of your life journey.

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Filed Under: mfr-podcast, Training Tagged With: intelligent runners, running, running goals, running journey

Day 10: Evaluation and Implementation – BRV 045

By Debbie Voiles

Become a Runner Class: Evaluation and ImplementationThis is it! You’ve been learning about what to do for nine days. Think of this as graduation day, the day you get the last, but most critical, piece of the puzzle. Today, you find out exactly what you should do, and I mean you, personally, should do on Day 1 of your running journey. Today, is you diagnostic run.

In this podcast, I explain what to do to find out how far you should run during each running segment of your walk to run mile, which is the distance you should start with. 

I also explain how to progress from there, the three variables, and the details regarding the decisions you’ll be making in deciding what to change and when. 

I’m excited for you because this is, of all the secrets I’ve imparted, perhaps the most crucial one, because if you try to start your running training with too much, you’ll likely never succeefd

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Filed Under: Beginner Runner Village, Beginner Runners, brv-podcast, First-Timers Tagged With: running journey, running segment, running training, walk to run

Day 9 of Beginner Runner Class: Turtle Power – BRV 044

By Debbie Voiles

Become a Runner, Day 9, Turtle Power

I’ve been hearing the phrase, ‘turtle power,’ for years, always from ‘slower’ runners, usually in an upbeat, positive way, an “I’m fine with that” way, but sometimes they utter the words apologetically, and that makes me sad.

Often, these are beginner runners, but not always. It is my hope that after listening to this podcast, no one listening will ever feel bad, in any way, about being a slower runner. What is slow, anyway? It’s all relative, isn’t it? When an Olympian runs a 6 minute mile, it’s an off day. Most runners will never see the faster side of 9 minutes, and some will always run 12 minute miles, and I sure hope those people don’t apologize for that because there is no reason to be the least bit apologetic. To me, that’s like apologizing because you have brown hair.

If anyone ever makes you feel like your pace is too slow, then that person is just being unkind and isn’t worth worrying about. You have as much right to go your own pace and be happy with it as any other runner has a right to go the pace that is comfortable to them.

After all, running is an individual sport. One of the most enjoyable elements of running is that anyone can do it; you don’t need to be a gifted athlete, but I sure hope you do realize that anyone at any pace is an athlete.

Turtle Power is the mantra of slower runners everywhere, and so it should be. I hope it’s empowering. If you’re a slower runner, and since you’re a beginner, you probably are, own it; don’t apologize for it. Turtle runners unite!

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Filed Under: Beginner Runner Village, Beginner Runners, brv-podcast, Training Tagged With: beginner runners, slower runners, turtle power, turtle runners

Day 8 of Beginner Runner Class: Nutrition and Running for Weight Loss – BRV 043

By Debbie Voiles

Weight loss or management plays a role in the life of virtually every runner. Either they start running to lose weight or they’ve alreaady lost weight, and the want to become a runner to help them maintain that weight loss or they’re worried that their weight will gradually creep up if they don’t get lots of exercise. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: brv-podcast, Training Tagged With: become a runner, guidelines for nutrition, running, running to lose weight, starting to run, weight loss

10-Day Become a Runner Class: Injury Prevention – BRV 042

By Debbie Voiles

10-Day Become a Runner Class: Injury PreventionThe two main reasons why beginner runners don’t succeed are these:

  1. They get injured and conclude their bodies can’t handle it.
  2. They don’t enjoy running; they may even dread the workouts.

[Read more…]

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Filed Under: Beginner Runner Village, Beginner Runners, brv-podcast, injury prevention, Training Tagged With: beginner runners, enjoy running, run healthy, running injuries

Beginner Runner Class: Warming Up and Walking Paces – BRV 041

By Debbie Voiles

warming up and walking pacesMany beginner runners don’t warm-up because they think the only reason to warm-up is to prepare to run fast; they know they don’t run fast, so they skip the warm-up. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Beginner Runner Village, Beginner Runners, brv-podcast, Training, walking Tagged With: beginner runner, run program, runner warm-up, running intervals, walk run interval, walk to run, walking paces, warming up

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