#258: Strength Training for Runners: Simpler Than You’d Think
Strength training for runners: Sarah and co-host Adrienne Martini have a long convo with strength training expert Michele Olson, Ph.D., a professor of exercise science at Auburn University. For starters, find out if Gyrotonic is a swirling beverage—or the next big fitness trend. The ladies then take a deep dive into HIIT (high-intensity interval training). Michele shares the best resistance exercises for runners based on recent studies, and how merge strength-building workouts with training for a half- or full marathon. The talk turns to “dead butt,” including a simple test to find out if you have it and why correcting it can save your knees. Michele describes the most effective ways to do several key exercises, including lunges and step-ups. Sarah and Adrienne suspect BAMRs will soon be able to spot Masters-age mother runners by the fact they hold weights over their heads when doing those simple strengtheners. This podcast is packed with loads of solid, strong advice!
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Room on the Road: In the Deep End
Standing in the kitchen, rattling off a written list of activities to do for my son’s birthday party, my eyes skip over the word swimming, omitting it from the list. I feel my daughter’s gaze. Busted.
“Mom! You skipped swimming!” I look at the list again, acting like it was an error on my part, even though I skipped it on purpose, “Silly me, of course I did. Sorry about that.”
Reading my mind, she says, “You never go swimming with us.” Seeing the disappointment in her eyes, a lump appears in my throat. She’s right. I don’t go swimming with them. But I want to.
A rush of sadness and anger swell up inside of me. Sad about missed opportunities with my children. It’s just one activity; we do a lot of other things together. The anger less defined, pumping through my body. But it’s THE one that holds me back from so much.
The emotions follow me into the next day. You never go swimming with us, you never go swimming with us, you never go swimming with us, echoing in my head, becoming louder each time it circles my thoughts.
I think I’ve reached my tipping point. Not learning to swim is something I will regret. As a person that doesn’t live comfortably with regrets, I struggle with this. It scares me. I don’t want to be 80 and asking myself why I never learned how to swim.
Enough is enough. I’ve had it. Well, I think I’ve had it. I really have but… I’ve been here before. Here, in this moment, the moment where I’m racing towards a hurdle that I can’t clear. The moment where the fear of doing something is faced with fear of doing nothing.
Taking a deep breath I try to center myself. Swimming. Fear. Trust. It’s all tangled together, keeping me in one place for too long.
Learning to swim, for me, feels like the release of a dam, emotions and strength that are finally set free. It sounds so good. But what if I can’t get past my fear? That thought scares me the most. I have to make this happen. There has to be a way.
I reach for my laptop in search of the magic answer. Sitting next to the laptop is an envelope, labeled “swimming money,” a small cache of savings patiently waiting for the right opportunity. Most days it sits on a shelf in my closet, right next to a small Virgin Mary and a statue of Ganesh, the remover of obstacles.
Right now my biggest obstacle is resisting the temptation of spending it on a couple of lattes.
Overwhelmed by my simple google search — fear of water, adult learners, fear of the deep end — I redefine my query and add the most important word of all CONQUER.
A book title pops up, Conquer Your Fear of Water by Melon Dash. Within minutes it’s sitting in my Amazon cart. This is where I need to start. It’s true I am afraid. But I can do this. Then another title catches my eye, Some Nerve by Patty Chang Anker. On the cover is a woman diving into the water. In my cart it goes. I feel an instant connection with this book. Anxious to read it, I pay for expedited shipping. I want to start NOW. I want to overcome this fear NOW. I have no time to waste.
A day later, the books land on my doorstep. Excited, I fumble to get the books out of their box. Out comes Conquer Your Fear of Water, I toss it on the table like it was a hot potato. I don’t think I can go there just yet, I might have to work my way up to this one.
Waiting for the right moment. Until then it is tucked away in my nightstand.
Some Nerve on the other hand is practically screaming at me: what are you waiting for? Read me! Grabbing the book, I make a beeline for the sunroom, where the good reading happens. Desperately wanting it to contain the answers I’m looking for, I open to the first chapter.
An hour passes and I’m already deep into Patty Anker’s life and those she interviewed. People like me, finding ways to conquer their fears. By the time I hit chapter two, I want to pick up the phone and call her for a coffee date. We have so much to talk about.
I reach page 56 and stop. I had been so afraid of letting go. The words jump off the page, haunting me, and not wanting to forget how they make me feel. I rummage my desk drawer for some sticky tabs to mark this moment.
From then on, while reading the book, I keep the sticky tabs with me at all times, marking every sentence that resonates with me. By the time I reach page 200, I’m startled by how many tabs are peering out of the pages.
My well-loved copy, with just a few sticky tabs. My daughter suggested that I should just highlight the entire book.
Ten sticky tabs later I’m faced with words so provoking they warrant two sticky tabs. Words I can’t forget, words that follow me around for days, like a shadow.
“…you’ve been addicted to your story and you are using that story to keep you out of the driver’s seat.”
I’m not learning to drive, but it doesn’t matter. It’s not about holding a steering wheel or swimming freestyle. It’s what stops us from doing it that matters.
Rattled by those four words, “…addicted to your story…” I question my story.
What is my story? What am I really I’m afraid of?
Answers instantly appear, words waiting in the wings, always ready to remind me why I’m afraid. What if I drown? What if I’m not strong enough? What if I can’t do it? I’m scared. I can’t touch the bottom. It doesn’t feel safe.
I can’t swim.
I almost drowned.
Twice.
But I didn’t.
Am I addicted to my story? And not just my swimming story, my life story, my running story, have I used these stories to protect myself or excuse myself? I’ll never lose weight, I’ll never run faster… are these the stories I truly believe?
I make my way to page 328 and can’t get myself to finish the book. I’m not sure why I don’t want it to end. I admit, I’m a little afraid of not being immersed in the pages connecting me to familiar stories.
I’m also a little afraid of finishing the book and never finding the opportunity to learn how to swim. I’m afraid of getting to a place in my life where I stop racing towards the hurdle and give up. Addicted to a new story. My opportunity has passed, the window has closed, I’m too old, it doesn’t matter anymore.
I email the author, Patty Chang Anker, telling her how much I related to her book, that I have an embarrassing amount of sticky tabs scattered throughout and that I’m on my own mission to overcome my fear.
She warmly replies, thanking me, wishing me luck with my plans, and letting me know that she has completed three open water triathlons last year. Amazing. Now I really want to meet her for coffee.
Rewriting this story won’t be easy, but I have a newfound determination. I’ll keep searching for an instructor and program that feels right (I have my eye on an all-women’s week long class in Florida) and I’ll keep stashing away some cash so I’m ready when it happens.
In the meantime I will finish the book, trusting that the right moment will appear. I will find my strength in the deep end. And just because the book ends doesn’t meant the story is over; it just means that the next chapter is up to me.
#257: 2017 Boston Marathon Recap
Sarah and co-host Amanda Loudin bring you this year’s Boston Marathon recap, from which world record was broken to how many children the women’s winner has. (And whether it’s more impressive that she won after birthing them…or trained while mothering them!) The gals dissect the once-again unseasonable heat, and why it might have been worse than the 2012 Boston (which they both ran) when temps touched 89 degrees. Find out if Sarah and Amanda hold onto dreams of running Boston again. Listen to the marathon version of a booze cruise Amanda is helping organize for a gal-pal. And marvel along with SBS how the number 50 keeps popping up!
*Rev up your runs with Aaptiv, the mobile app with coached workouts for running, indoor cycling, elliptical, yoga, strength training, and more–all set to amazing playlists! For a free month, sign up ataaptiv.com and enter code AMR30
*If you’re digging our podcasts, we’d be super-grateful if you’d take a minute (because we *know* you have so many to spare!) to write a review on iTunes. Many thanks.
**Also, the quickest way to get our podcasts is to subscribe to the show via iTunes. Clicking this link will automatically download the shows to your iTunes account. It doesn’t get any simpler than that. We’ve also joined the Acast podcast network, download their app to hear our podcast and many others like
Dry Martini: 10K++ = PR
I’m going to cut right to the chase, so to speak, since no one was actually chasing me: I did PR at the Sachuest Point10K in Newport, Rhode Island, on April 9. Only, because I am bad at remembering things, I didn’t figure out it was a PR for a few hours after I’d crossed the finish line.
Let me back up.
My boon (and non-running) companion Jenny and I left for Newport, about a 4 hour trip from where we both live, on Friday, April 7, which also happened to be my 46th birthday. My family and I celebrated in our usual way by not really celebrating at all. We manage expectations by keeping them as low as humanly possible; that way everything is a lovely surprise.
Best. Card. Ever. And it was.
Non-running Jenny and I farted around Newport — a lovely city that is very New England-y in all of the best ways — on Saturday, then met up with some mother runners for dinner. There was chatting and eating and more chatting.
Spotted at Run Newport while we were farting around. Very tempting.
The next morning, after shoving a bagel in my face and hitting the bathroom one last time, we drove to second beach. When I picked up my bib and t-shirt the evening before, I learned the 10K++ had miraculously become a bona fide 10K, thanks to some flooding. While the organizer was disappointed because it meant the course was more of an out-and-back than she’d intended, I was thrilled. Rather than turn off Herr Garmin the Second at the actual 10K mark, which is what Coach and I agreed on, I could just run without paying too much attention to the distance. My goal, which we also came up with during our conversation, was to keep my pace just a little bit faster than I felt comfortable with.
Not race-related but the hotel where we were staying was also hosting a wedding. The bachelorette party must have been the night before the nuptials. There was a trail of naughty glitter all over the halls the next morning.
After a windy, chilly start, the first mile clipped by. As did the second. I felt great, frankly, and was able to keep the first two miles under 10:45 as planned. The hills started right when I was going to pick it up for the next two miles. A bit of a bummer, yes, but I made sure to stay uncomfortable even when I slowed off of my goal pace to heave myself up and over the course. By the last mile, I was ready to be done. I put what was left of my pedal to the metal and booked it on home.
My A goal was 1:07; B goal was 1:08 — both of which I knew would be PRs, even if I couldn’t remember exactly what my PR was because, unlike some mother runners, those numbers aren’t etched on my brain. Back when Coach and I first started working together a couple of years ago, I’d told her my 10K PR was 63 minutes, which couldn’t possibly be true. If it is, I can find no record of it and it likely only exists with a naked Timothy Olyphant riding a unicorn in the fantasy section of my brain.
The BAMR dinner crew.
After a quick shower and brunch, Jenny and I hit the road. I was pretty sure that my 1:09 wasn’t a PR, which, like the hills, was a bummer, but I was thrilled by the run I’d put together. I felt strong the whole way through and pushed harder than I thought I could. I didn’t beat myself up when I slowed down on the uphills, which is a minor miracle for me. Plus, the love for running I really hadn’t felt for a few months was finally back. And that was enough.
Still, I had to check.
After some poking around online, I discovered that my best 10K was a 1:11 in 2014, which means I’d knocked two minutes off of my time. And, lo, there was much rejoicing.
Any race that ends near the ocean is OK by me.
There is no rest for the weary mother runner, however. I’m gearing up for the Pittsburgh Half, where I shall run with no urgency because I’ll be working the Expo most of the weekend (and finding other mother runner shenanigans, too). My only race goal is to take a selfie on each of the five bridges the course crosses. I love a good bridge. Hope to see you there.
So are you a BAMR who remembers her PRs down to the second? Or are you a BAMR who can maybe remember the first number, if you’re feeling lucky?
On this Patriot’s Day, a Boston BAMR Throw-back.
This morning, 35,000+ runners will take off from Hopkinton, Mass., travel 26ish miles on foot, turn right on Hereford then left on Boylston to complete the 2017 Boston Marathon. Here’s a little throwback to last year when our very own Sarah Bowen Shea laced up her Sauconys and made the epic trip.
Smiling on Comm Ave or Beacon St. TOTAL acting. I was pretty much in agony by this point.
What was your time?
4:34:49. Going into Boston Marathon training, one of my mains goals was to beat my 2012 Boston time, which was 4:43 due to extreme heat. I’m proud I achieved that goal, although I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t dreamed of a faster finish. My coach, Briana Boehmer, told me a few days pre-race she felt I was poised to run one of my strongest marathons ever. But the weather—and I suspect the course’s net downhill in first half—conspired against me.
But I also just remembered one of my goals was to finish in under 4:15, and most folks finish times were about 20 minutes slower than they were shooting for…so by that standard, I nailed my goal! #GlassHalfFull
My face says it all: PAIN CAVE.
Heard it was hotter than expected. What’s up with you bringing stark sunshine and high temps to Boston in April?
I know, I know: I need to turn down my Mary Sunshine tendencies! While the mercury didn’t climb as high as it did when I ran in 2012 (88-degrees), it was way too hot for a late-morning start (high 60s/low 70s). And hardly any shade in the first half of the course, which was rough. It really took it’s toll, and wore me (and many runners) down. Thankfully, coastal breezes greeted us around Mile 16, so temps dropped some, but the damage had been done.
How did your ankle fare?
Amazingly well! My ankle rarely bothered me in training, but sometimes the inner side of my Achilles felt tight. From about Mile 8-17, my Achilles decided to complain, and it caused me concern. Then it shut up. But my Achilles started shrieking as I walked (hobbled) from the finish area to the hotel. I iced it and started dosing with new-for-me Hyland’s homeopathic tablets called ArniSport. I was really concerned about the pain in my Achilles and how badly my quads (and even toes!) were cramping in the first hours post-race. Amazingly, I woke up Tuesday feeling better than I have after most of my 13 marathons. I’m giving ArniSport credit as my legs were pretty much in agony in the final miles and post-race.
Me near Mile 15, exuberant–before I started attacking the hills.
Did the Newton Hills make you their b*tch?
How I attacked the infamous hills is one of the two things I’m most proud about my #Boston2016 (the other is my strong finish). I realized early in the race—by Mile 8 or 9—it was not my day to run a “fast” race (see Heat, above). From that point until about Mile 12, I struggled. The crowds were somewhat sparse in sections (thank you, Natick, for turning out in force!) and the course was sun-baked and not terribly interesting to look at. (No disrespect.) Always wanting to pull a positive element out of a less-than-ideal situation, I decided my race-redemption would be to charge the Newton Hills, and pick off people on the uphills. I really leaned in and played flashbacks of hills Molly and I had tackled in training.
After leaving Heartbreak Hill and its sister hills in my rearview mirror at Mile 21, I knew the course was a net downhill, which wasn’t the relief it should have been. My quads and hip flexors were fairly thrashed by that point, so descents were bittersweet: easier on the cardio system, but fairly torturous on the legs. Thankfully, there were numerous climbs in those final 5.2 miles, and as I approached each one, I talked myself up. As in, I said in my head, “Excellent! Another hill: I am crushing hills today!” and “Fantastic: You can charge up this hill!” (Honestly: I “uttered” those full, silly sentences in my muddled mind in the final miles!)
Did you hear me cheering for you?
I can’t begin to express how strongly it motivated me and buoyed my spirits every time I heard someone shout, “Run strong, Sarah Bowen Shea!” or “Go, Champy!” Or “Yeah, SBS!” I tried to give a wave or thumbs up every time I heard personalized cheers.
Nicole and I at Athletes’ Village, pre-race (you’ll hear more about Nicole next)
Did you pee your capris rather than stop in a port-a-potty?
Oh, you know me so well!! I copped a squat in the starting corral (telling my friend Nicole to move as the puddle was migrating toward her shoes!), pretending to tie my shoes. Then around Mile 17 or 18, I peed a bit (on purpose) in my Saucony Bullet Capris. But the heat + wind really negated the need to pee, despite drinking a lot during the race.
Oh, and I was very impressed: I saw another female runner drop trou mere feet from the race course. I assumed she was merely peeing, but I didn’t look long enough to see for sure.
Finish line!!!!
Did you talk to yourself in the third person?
Not as much as I did in my BQ marathon. Instead, I switched things up and often used the second person—a lot of “you are strong!” and “you are crushing the hills!” (Always with exclamation points.)
Post-race medal and arms.
Kiss any Wellesley “girls?”
Not just one, but two! Perhaps to make up for not smooching any gals in 2012.
#256: Conversation with Running Icon Kathrine Switzer
Sarah and co-host Dimity delightedly welcome back to the pod Kathrine Switzer, the pioneer in women’s running best known as the first woman to run the Boston Marathon as a registered runner with a bib number. On Monday, April 17, Kathrine will once again run the 26.2 miles from Hopkinton, MA, to Boston to commemorate the 50th anniversary of her historic feat. In this interview recorded in March, Kathrine recounts nearly being pulled off the race course in 1967, when the race director realized she was a female. She talks about how that captured-on-film incident—which she describes as “a radicalizing—and an inspiring—experience” —captured the public imagination. Kathrine and the mother runners talk about the “inherent stressfulness” of big marathons, and she reveals what her 26.2 training looks like now, at age 70, versus as a college student half a century ago. Kathrine talks about helping other women “find their fearless” through the global community she founded, 261 Fearless. And Kathrine talks about the re-issue of her memoir, Marathon Woman, this month—and reveals there’s an upcoming audio version of this fantastic book.
You’re guaranteed to be inspired and moved by this interview!
*Rev up your runs with Aaptiv, the mobile app with coached workouts set to amazing playlists! For a free month, sign up at aaptiv.com and enter code AMR30
*Save 20% on all your favorite Nuun flavors, including new Vitamins (4 flavors + 2 caffeinated ones!), using code hydrateAMR at nuunlife.com
*If you’re digging our podcasts, we’d be super-grateful if you’d take a minute (because we *know* you have so many to spare!) to write a review on iTunes. Many thanks.
**Also, the quickest way to get our podcasts is to subscribe to the show via iTunes. Clicking this link will automatically download the shows to your iTunes account. It doesn’t get any simpler than that. We’ve also joined the Acast podcast network, download their app to hear our podcast and many others like