Recent Posts and Updates from Jeff
The Endurance Diet: What to Avoid
Avoid the following: Salt - Salt consumed during the 24 hours before the race will produce blood more concentrated in sodium. Fluid is then taken from muscle tissue and other areas, reducing your capacity for performance through dehydration. Fat - The more fat in your...
A revolution in running shoe buying
Combining the convenience of online shopping with their 45 years of expertise in shoe fitting, Phidippides is changing how online running shoe shopping works. Worried that you'll order the wrong shoes online or that your local store doesn't have consistently...
Stretching
“Stretching causes many injuries.” - It may surprise you to learn this, but I’m not a big advocate of stretching. After having worked with tens of thousands of runners, and conducting surveys, I’ve discovered that those who stretch regularly have more injuries - often...
If You Are Running Until You’re 100, Are You Working Too Hard Toward a Time Goal?
Mature runners who have time goals can get too focused on running faster almost every run. This often results in injury. One of the first signs is increased stress associated with running, often resulting in motivation problems. At the first sign of these symptoms,...
Hill Training Builds Strength – And More
Hill training strengthens the legs for running, better than any other activity I know. At the same time it can help you maximize your stride length, increase leg speed, and improve your ability to run hills in races. The hill training period provides a gentle...
Eating During Exercise
Most exercisers don’t need to worry about eating or drinking during a run until the length exceeds 90 minutes. At this point there are several options. In this case, most runners wait until the 30-40 minute mark in the workout before starting to take the blood sugar...
Benefits or Trail Running
As you move along a trail through forest, desert, or parkland, you enter a different state of mind. You’re constantly interacting with the ground, vegetation, elevation change, and a variety of sounds and aromas. Mind-body activity is elevated to a higher level of...
Go Slow in the Long Runs
You get the same benefit from a long slow run as you do from a long fast one and you’ll recover faster from the slow run. If you go further than 20 miles in the long run, you will improve your marathon stamina dramatically but you must run slowly. Remember that...
The Many Ways to “Win” a Marathon
There are an almost unlimited number of different marathon “missions.” Each can enrich your life in a different way, while delivering about the same exhilaration as received the first time. Over the past 20 years, I must have compared notes with over 50,000 veteran...
Treadmills Are Just as Good as Streets
More and more runners are using treadmills for at least 50% of their runs - particularly those who have small children. It is a fact that treadmills tend to tell you that you have gone further or faster than you really have (but usually are not off by more than 10%)....
Prescriptive Exercise: Knees – The Stiff Leg Lift
If you have knees that ache regularly, here is an exercise that strengthens the various muscles in the thigh. By developing strength in the range of muscles above, you may tighten the connections around the knee getting better support. When this group, the quadriceps,...
Marathon FAQ
Question: What type of speed training will help? Answer: the type of speedwork that has helped my runners the most is a form of interval training called “mile repetitions.” The training format is detailed in Running - A Year Round Plan and Galloway Training Programs....
The Talk Test – How Aerobic Are You?
You’re aerobic - if you can talk for as long as you want with minimal huffing and puffing (h & p) You are mostly aerobic - if you can talk for 30 sec + then must h & p for no more than 10 sec You are approaching anaerobic threshold - if you can only talk for...
Reason to Run #52: I want to keep my joints active now and 30 years from now
Reason to Run #52: I want to keep my joints active now and 30 years from now It may surprise you to know that runners tend to have better orthopedic units than non-runners as the decades go by. When I wrote my book Running Until You’re 100, I compiled the studies on...
Running Enjoyment
Find a way to enjoy parts of every run - even the faster training. Most of your runs should be...mostly enjoyable. You increase the pleasure by ensuring that there are social or scenic runs every week. Too often, busy people leave these out. Take control of your...
Rehearsing for Success
Rehearsal has been used for decades by individuals in various fields to achieve their potential on any given day, under a variety of conditions. Mentally envisioning a series of challenges and rewards, all the way to the goal, gears up the mind-body team to work...
Fast Twitch vs. Slow Twitch Muscle Fibers
We are born with a combination of two types of muscle fibers. Those with a high percentage of fast twitchers can run fast for a short distance, and then become very tired. Fast twitch fibers are designed to burn the stored sugar in your muscles: glycogen. This is the...
Boston Qualified on a Run-Wall-Run Bet
Jason had been running for about two decades, and encouraged his wife, Chris to join a Galloway program to start running. The Run-Walk-Run method allowed her to ease into running while meeting a great group of new friends. When she heard stories of faster running...