Strength Moves for Runners: the Squat
Welcome back, Angie Krueger! The certified personal trainer is serving up a series of strength moves for runners to help power every stride. Angie’s back story: Aside from having run 27 marathons in 27 different states, Angie was recently featured on AMR’s podcast (episode 194, where she explained, among other things, what “cough muscles” are and how to activate them for better results. Intrigued, aren’t you?). Recently she shared the DOs and DON’Ts of a plank, and here, she shares the secrets to the power squat. Come back every other Tuesday for a follow-up move to help you #findyourstrong.
This week’s focus is the squat. Squats are good for the glutes (your butt) and your quads (top, front legs muscles comprised of four muscles), and the stronger your quads and glutes, the better your legs can help you on your run.
1. Set yourself up so your feet are outside of your hips and toes slightly pointed out.
A view from the front, including feet placed outside the hips.
2. Hinge from your hip, bringing your hips and butt back and down until it is even with your knees, not lower. Lower than knee level can open up your knees to injury.
Angie showing great form with slight hinge in hip.
3. Squeeze your butt cheeks tight together on the way up to engage your backside and make sure all of the weight is in your heels, not your toes. In a squat you need to make sure you are keeping your knees behind your toes. Think: Port-a-potty squats. You don’t want to touch the port-a-potty but you also don’t want to pee on your toes, so keep knees behind them.
4. Repeat 3 sets of 15.
Modification: If you need a challenge, add a jump or hold dumbbells to the move.
Watch out for:
Poor form with knees over toes.
or poor form with legs straight and complete hip hinge.
Add the squat to your plank for a mini strength-training session you can fit in daily (while the kids are in the bath, waiting for the water to boil while cooking dinner, pre-run, or hey, at the gym!), and check back in two weeks for a follow-up move to add to your AMR strength-training circuit.
Tell us: where’s the strangest place you’ve squeezed in a workout?
5 Inspiring Pieces of Running Advice To Keep You Moving
We introduced our Role Mothers in this post and this post and we revealed their running essentials recently. Now, they’re offering up their best advice to keep you logging miles both physically and mentally. So next time you’re having a hard time lacing up or want to turn around and head home early, think of these words of encouragement to get you across that personal finish line.
Nicole, regular runner:
The best piece of running advice I’ve received came from my husband, Scott, and actually had nothing to do with running. Whenever I feel myself getting anxious or tangled up in my own head about an important meeting or interview or speech I need to give, my husband says, all calm and even: “Let you be you.” It means, relax, get out of my own way and let my authentic self press through. Over the years, I’ve added the word “breathe” to the private mantra, so it’s now: Breathe, and let you be you. For running that translates to doing my own thing, staying focused that, and not getting distracted by someone else’s pace or race Because I can’t be them; I can only be me.
Pam, the grandmother:
A 12-minute mile is the same distance as a 6-minute mile. It’s okay to slow down or walk if you body is telling you to.
Ashley, the beginner:
Run for YOU. It is YOUR race, YOUR training, and most importantly YOUR pace. This was my biggest mistake when I first started running. I was so stuck on running a 10-minute mile. The treadmill was my biggest enemy and just the thought of trying to run at that pace made me want to cry, but I attempted to and I was miserable. The second I “slowed my role,” I suddenly felt the opposite of what I thought I would. I felt like a BAMR. I felt like I was unstoppable, and it was a change I made for myself. With time, came endurance, and with endurance, came a decrease in my time.
Tania, the sputterer:
Don’t compare yourself to others. It’s your race and your pace. Make your own goals, and don’t worry about what others are doing. You are awesome, and don’t forget that.
Melissa, the marathoner:
On my first official long run, while training for my very first marathon over a decade ago, it hit me. Both a piece of smart running advice and sage life advice, the simple statement, “Your mind will give out way before you body does” suddenly made total sense, as I struggled to squeak out my first ever run over 10 miles. I knew my body could do it, but my brain thought otherwise. Ever since then, my mind has continued to wage a battle of wits with my legs. “Just walk.” it says. “You can stop now. It’s OK.” it whispers. “You’re not gonna make it,” it teases. “That’s long enough for today,” it tempts. But now I know better. I know not to listen to the negative self- talk, which is often harder to push out of the corners of my brain than pushing a double jogging stroller uphill. I also know that mental toughness and mind training is just as important as intervals and tempo runs. Flexing the positive self talk muscle between your ears is a total must, especially when tackling long runs. Even after 10 marathons, I still struggle with the lively, defeating, and often ridiculous conversations going on in my brain from about mile 18 to mile 26. But I also know and can process what is happening; my mind may be giving out, but my body doesn’t need to follow.
How about you: What’s the best running advice you’ve ever gotten–or figured out yourself?
#199: A Lively Conversation with Running Apparel Expert Leigh-Anne Zavalick
Leigh-Anne Zavalick of Saucony sandwiched between two brightly clad mannequins. If she had turned sideways like we asked for photo, you could see her belly-bump!
Sarah and her running partner, Molly Williams, welcome Leigh-Anne Zavalick, the gal at Saucony (our fav running brand!) in charge of women’s apparel. Due to technical difficulties, Molly is only on for the intro, but it’s a lively one about quarters found on recent runs. Then Sarah dives into grilling Leigh-Anne about everything from layering to reflective technology, as well as the surging popularity of capris. Leigh-Anne opines about how running apparel has changed as women switch from wearing it for an hour a day to all day. A lover of TMI on par with Sarah, Leigh-Anne talks about why and when to have a “no-panty party.” The guest, a first-time mom-to-be, says why a sports bra is, “a piece of equipment, not a piece of apparel,” and explains the shelf-life of your over-the-shoulder boulder-holder. After listening, we suspect you, too, will start using the word “lifestyle” as an adjective or perhaps work the word “athleisure” into casual conversation.
Thanks to Glossier.com for supporting the Another Mother Runner podcast. To get 20% off your first purchase, go to Glossier.com and enter code “AMR.”
Dry Martini: So. Many. Hills.
By my back-of-the-envelope calculation, I’ve started this race report from the Austin Half Marathon at least a gazillion times. I just want it to be perfect, you know? And fully encapsulate every last minute of what wound up being an amazing weekend with 10 other BAMRS (but that also makes those who weren’t there feel good about their life choices)? And that manages to inspire and amuse? And that I can pull together when I’m deep in post-race ennui and under several metric tonnes of laundry and don’t even really have the will to make a grilled cheese sandwich?
My looming deadline has forced me to focus on progress rather than perfection, which is how I approach my running, too. In the hope of actually writing something (even if it doesn’t soar, dammit), I’m going to make a list, because a list is what I can handle right now.
- First thing first: my time was 2:37, which is not even within shouting distance of my half marathon PR. Viewed simply by that metric, the race was a failure. But by any other metric in the universe, it was a smashing success.
The BAMR contingent.
- I lived in Austin for five+ years in the mid-1990s — the husband and I both went to UT after we graduated from Allegheny College — and will pine for parts of the Austin experience for as long as I’m alive. Austin has changed quite a bit since I lived there, as have I. I’m already in the tank for Austin, is what I’m saying, so take this next part with a grain of salt: there are few hike and bike trails better than the one around Ladybird lake. My Friday morning shake-out run with BRF Lisa , who I only get to run with quarterly, took us on parts of the path that were mere sketches the last time I was in town. It was glorious to be on a boardwalk over the water on a 60 degree morning.
BRF Lisa laid hands on the great Stevie Ray Vaugh (with a photobomb from Moxie, who jumps up on his monument every morning).
- If you ever have the opportunity to watch the Olympic Marathon Trials in a roomful of runners, each of whom broke out in goosebumps toward the end when Shalane and Amy were doing their best friend supportive thing, please jump on that opportunity. It’s even better if you are eating excellent brisket and foam rolling in prep for the next morning’s race.
- On that note, who wants to host a viewing party in 2020?
Flat Adrienne, reporting for duty.
- During last week’s podcast, Sarah and I joked that it was likely that more than a few mother runners had their own Shalane-Amy-friendship-support moment during their long runs that weekend. I certainly did. Coach Christine ran on my right for my 13.1. BAMR Heidi G. was on my left. Last years’ AMR in Saucony runner Amy would wander up ahead, then drop back to relay information about food and beverages on the course. BRF Lisa would turn up every now and again to report on which song had cycled up on her running mix and to give me a refreshing moist towelette when I felt like I was about to parboil. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve such running friends.
Maybe Coach Christine and I shouldn’t be allowed to be unsupervised at Expos.
- What’s amazing is how well the whole weekend came together. I’d casually mentioned in one of the Mother Runner Facebook groups that I was really tempted to run this race. Suddenly, there was a posse. While its size waxed and waned during the months before the race, ten runners + me made the trek. Each BAMR found a need and filled it, from transportation to reservations to snacks. Natalie, whose birthday it also happened to be, had shirts made. Of course, we all felt the need to eat cupcakes in celebration of her natal day — and for carb-loading, of course.
- I’m pondering doing the 3M in January or the Mission Run in San Antonio in February. Just putting it out there.
- Around mile 8, shortly after I felt like I couldn’t take a decent, deep breath and just couldn’t keep up a PR pace, there was a woman watching the race from her yard with her pet pig. Both seemed amused.
- We chatted during the first parts of the run, where the course goes up and up and up for what feels like 1000 miles. There was some good cop/bad cop from Coach and Heidi. There was a joke about the use of the word “bolus” that was funnier at the time. Both seemed really concerned that I wasn’t carrying water or drinking from offered bottles. Given that I usually don’t run with water, I didn’t think too much of it.
- Did I mention it was hilly? Holy Mother of Pearl, it was hilly. There’s a hill at mile 12 that was just cruel. By then, though, I knew that just finishing would be a victory and walked most of it.
- On my flight home, I finally had a chance to read the Runner’s World interview with Shalane about her race. When she started to describe how she felt during her last few, dehydrated miles — chills, red face, dizzy, urge to walk — I had a revelation. Since I’ve only been running for a few years, I just figured that was how the end of a long run should feel. Those adjectives describe nearly the last few miles of nearly every long run I’ve done.
The visor I wore during the race and my medal. Yes, those are salt stains. Yes, I now know that I should get liquid in my body.
- That revelation alone was worth the price of the race, flight, hotel (to say nothing of the fun and BAMRs and brisket). I’m not simply out of shape, I need to hydrate while running. You’d think I would have figured this out long before now. You’d be totally wrong. What other blindingly obvious facts am I missing?
No, I’m really asking. What other blindingly obvious running facts am I missing?
How to Deal with GI Issues While Running
No one wants to spend more time in one of these than she absolutely, positively needs to.
A few years ago, we ran this article on how to deal with GI issues while running. But given that runs are longer as we approach spring racing season, we feel the time is right to revisit this TMI Tuesday-style topic!
Let us be blunt: Dealing with stomach issues while running can be the shits. Literally. Yet it’s a fact of life that, for many runners, tummy troubles can cause a bevy of issues, from pain to diarrhea. Here at TLAM Club, we don’t shy away from crossing the proverbial port-a-potty threshold in search of some solutions.
For a poop-primer, let’s start with why running can wreak havoc with your GI system. The up-and-down motion of running jostles your innards, turning the last night’s dinner into a sloshy mesh. On longer or more intense runs, your body struggles to provide your muscles with the blood they need to push you through your hill workout or past mile 14. Thus, different organ systems like your GI tract can end up with a serious deficit of oxygenated blood at any point during your workout. Short-changed on blood, your gut can revolt, which can then be, well, revolting.
This doesn’t mean we have to succumb to suffering through split times interrupted by a pit-stop behind a bush or hours spent in the bathroom post-run. What follows is some advice from us and sage suggestions from other mother runners:
–Hydration is one of the most commonly offered-up solutions. While dehydration can certainly be adding to the problem, especially on longer, hotter, more humid runs, simply drinking more water will not always be an easy fix to the problem. Sara reminds us that, especially when talking GI issues, it’s important not to overlook electrolytes (think Nuun or Salted Caramel GU). Carolyn, a devoted electrolyte-drinker, finds taking several small sips is better than stopping for longer “chug-a-lug” breaks.
Margaret, who is a Marathon Maniac, thinks it is absolutely essential to avoid alcohol the night before a long run or race. For her, alcohol the night before is a guaranteed cause of gastic distress.
-Coffee is also used by many to clear the [poop] chute before a morning run. Pamela, for example, found herself without her usual arsenal of coffee at the Chicago Half-marathon and says she has learned her lesson ten times over. Becky, like Pamela, finds the best results waking up half an hour to an hour early before her run to treat her body to, “a warm cup of GI start-up liquid.”
Why, yes, that *is* SBS coming out of a Honey Bucket (and, yes, they are really called that here in PacNW!), but photo was staged. For realz.
–Diet is another culprit people commonly blame as the cause of pesky stomach disturbances. While there is no one food that helps everyone, lots of mother runners have commented on Facebook about experimenting with what, how much, and when they eat in relations to their workouts. Cheryl, for example, has found eating a piece of toast or bread before her runs helps.
Amanda and Erica, conversely, found removing gluten from their diet practically eliminated GI distress “overnight.” Heather got the same result from decreasing the amount of dairy she eats. Daniela has found, regardless of each individual’s dietary needs, the best way to experiment, and hopefully finding real results, is to keep a food diary.
-Imodium is a solution many runners with GI issues end up turning to. While some of the tribe has had mixed results with it, many women have found that either taking Imodium before a run, after, or both before and after saves them the stress of mid-run pit stops. Other mother runners have experimented with TUMS and probiotic treatments. Once again, it doesn’t work for every runner but worth a shot. Megan swears by a liquid supplement called Prev. She said, “I used to struggle to run a mile without stopping to use the bathroom. Now I can train for and run a half (almost) carefree.”
-Lastly, staying relaxed before and during runs can also cut down on GI problems. Although for many of us this is a double-edged sword, since running is our de-stresser and it doesn’t help when it gets interrupted by intense GI pain, creating a routine before runs and races that keeps your mind and body calmer could potentially help. Heidi, for example, is very self-aware of her stress level going into a run and switches up her workouts to accommodate what’s been happening in her life.
Remind yourself: Each run doesn’t have to be a crap shoot (ba-boom-CHA!).
How do you, mother runner, keep your poop-chute in check when you run?
What Would Another Mother Runner Do? Exercise Addiction
How many miles–and crunches–are too many?
Around AMR, we have the occasional What Would Another Mother Runner Do? series, a collection of questions for collective input that are both serious (skipping a marathon you’ve trained for because you just don’t want to do it) and humorous (bringing two left shoes to a triathlon). The next in the series falls into the more serious category: a BRF writing in about her BRF who seems to be overdoing it. (Note: Names have been changed.)
Here’s the situation, told from a concerned BRF’s eyes: Gina, my running partner, got a new job a few months back. She now gets up way before humans should: 4:30 a.m.. Some days she does a morning workout before leaving for work at 6 a.m., then she will do also a workout before bed, around 9 p.m. She works full time; has a 30-45 minute commute one way to work; is the mom of two kids in elementary school and after-school activities; and is married.
I’m worried she’s burning herself out. I’ve noticed this pattern in her even before she had her new job. I have said something to her, but her response is something along the lines of, “I’m fine. I’ve got it under control.” I’m not sure what her goal is or what she’s out to prove. She was telling me what she ran and what cross-training activities she did over the weekend, and I told her she needed to take a rest day or she would end up getting injured.
Her response was, “I know. I will take it easy.” But I can see her Strava account, and I know she isn’t. Since it’s crummy winter weather outside and her schedule has changed, we don’t do a lot of together workouts anymore. Read: my keeping her exercise in check isn’t so easy right now.
Besides saying something to her husband, I’m not sure what else to do. I don’t want her to get injured or hurt, but I don’t want to nag her, either. I’m afraid she’s burning the candle at both ends and it will end badly. I don’t want to lose my BRF if I keep bringing it up, but she’s getting out of control with her workouts.
I’m glad she’s diligent about her health, but how much is too much? If she was your running buddy, what would you do?
Dimity says: First of all, I love your concern for her. That said, it sounds to me like she has a form of exercise addiction; like alcoholism and other addictive behaviors, the impetus for change has got to come from within—and chances are, you saying anything to her either will fall on deaf ears or, as you mentioned, sabotage your relationship. (I also think her exercising habit is likely one of the only forms of control she has in her hectic life, so, as weird as it sounds, it likely brings some fulfillment and calm to her perspective.) I wouldn’t talk to her husband or her again in the near future. Instead, I’d keep the runs you do together as moderate as possible and keep an eye on her from afar. If it becomes too crazy, I’d consult a professional. My hope, though, is that this is just a phase and she’ll find some balance in her life sooner than later.
Sarah says: As someone who had a borderline, if not full-blown, addiction to exercise when I was going through marital problems then life as a newly divorced woman, I feel for this woman. I like to think I would say something to her husband and maybe any mutual friends we had, as I think the people in her life need to band together to spur her to take action (or, rather, inaction). I also would tell her I was taking a break from exercising with her as I wouldn’t want to be a party to her obsessive behavior. She needs to know her level of exercise (and lack of rest!) is troubling to those around her. It’s a tough stance to take with a friend, but I think she’ll eventually thank you.
Managing Editor Maureen says: I agree with Dimity in terms of control issues. This is probably one place she can hang on for dear life and feel like she is in charge of the output. I also agree with Sarah: You can’t work out with her an enable her behavior. It sounds like she needs a plain old BF more than a BRF right now. Ask her if the two of you can meet for coffee or breakfast on one of those early mornings. Or meet her for one of those early-morning runs, but come with coffee in hand and ask to chill in the car and catch up. Rather than point out her Strava account, ask her about everything that’s going on right now. She might be more likely to open up once she covers work, home life, and more.