Chicago Marathon Weekend with Ten Junk Miles
🚨Enter to Win a $100 gift card, see details below. 🚨

We just came back from 4 days of running, cheering and meeting with friends in Chicago. The marathon weekend was in full effect with many running activities.Â
We met up with the Ten Junk Miles podcast to eat the best deep-dish pizza in town and to record a group show. We had a long conversation about how PATH projects started, things we have learned in the past 2 years, upcoming products and much more. Episode link to follow next month.

With Scott Kummer, Holly Lindroth and Adam Benkers in the Ten Junk Miles studio.
After visiting the marathon expo, we went for a running tour of downtown Chicago. The rain and wind was coming down in full force and gave us a glimpse of fall running in the Midwest.


On Saturday morning, we set up a marathon shake out run with friends from PATH projects, Ten Junk Miles and Extramilest. Great to meet runners from all over the US, Canada, Australia and Europe. We ran by the water front and talked marathon training and racing strategies.

On Sunday we cheered on more than 40,000 marathoners at mile 24 on Michigan Ave. Very exciting to see the elite runners flying by so fast and smooth.Â
Incredible to watch Brigid Kosgei set a new women's world record in 2:14:04
Coach Morgan from The Run Experience hosted a 2 hour live web cast from mile 24, while everyone cheered on the runners.

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Join our upcoming group runs:
Oct 31 - Thu
Central Park Group Run, New York
Join us for a mellow 4 ish mile run.
Nov 1 - Fri
PATH projects photo shoot - Central Park, New York
Join us to shoot some photos for the PATH projects Blog
Nov 2 - Sat
New York Marathon Shakeout Run
Join us for a short (30 minutes) shakeout run. Hang, chat, and more!
Dec 7 - SatÂ
CIM Marathon Shakeout Run - Sacramento, CA
Join us for a short (30 minutes) shakeout run. Hang, chat, and more!
🚨Enter to Win a $100 gift card🚨
Congrats to last week's winner AJ Neufeld for winning 1 Cascade T-shirt and 2 Tahoe Base liners.Â
This week enter to win a $100 gift card from PATH projects. Let us know in the comments, what is one advice you would give other runners looking to improve their running?
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Think about all the beer you can drink after your run!
Find your groove and your passion, then set reasonable but challenging goals. Took me a while to find trail running, but it’s been the best thing for me recently. Started slow after knee surgery (road running injury) and built up my love for distance on trials. Did my first 50K ultra a few months ago.
Chill out and have fun. See what’s around you and just run.
Run slower and increase mileage
Run hills and work on cadence as you head up.
Work on your mobility, e.g. dynamic stretching, foam rolling, yoga. It’ll help in injury prevention, and make you feel better in general!
Consistency, consistency, consistency. Put in the work to build that aerobic foundation by going slow and then layer on speed. Don’t jump straight from “primary school running” to “university running,” if you will. Take the whole journey.
Move with heart, it’s smarter than you 💛.
Take the needed rest, if the training becomes all work it’s time for a break. You’ll thank yourself for doing so in the long run.
get off road as much as you can!
Learn how to always make it FUN!
Keep going! Don’t give up. Keep going out your front door no matter what is happening. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. A breakthrough will come!
Consistency is important, but be sure to mix in something silly (sing “Who are the people in your neighborhood?” at full volume while pushing your toddler counts), something challenging (throw in an unplanned attempt at the local Strava segment just because), and be present in the moment.
Relax. Drop your shoulders. Look ahead. Have full-forward arm movement. “Hip to Nip.” Land your feet under your body. Smile. Run with a friend. Most of all enjoy being able to run!
Don’t forget to breathe! Breathe up the that hill. Breathe through the rough stuff!
The best time to start running is 20 years ago. The second best time to start is today.
Don’t just run… add yoga (preferably hot) and if that hammy or achilles is barking at you then scrape it, roll it, and rest accordingly.
Keep showing up and be consistent. Kick things up every once in awhile, by getting out of your comfort zone to test your limits and see what happens. If you’re going to miss a run, don’t miss your long one.
You have to get to the start line before you can get to the finish line – if you feel some niggles or injury coming on, best to address them sooner rather than later. Much easier to take time off in the beginning/middle of a training cycle than realize you’ve crossed a point of no return with only a couple weeks to go til race day
Have fun, believe in yourself, train hard, back off if you sense an injury coming on, and realize that you’re always capable of running faster than you think you can!
There is a lot of good advice here, but I would say that it took me a while to believe it, but taking the easy days easier than you think you should is very beneficial as long as you put some effort behind the hard days.
Don’t take it so seriously that it’s not still fun. Run with people that make you happy and don’t be afraid to get a little out of your comfort zone. You’ll be amazed by what you can accomplish!
Consistency
Running-specific: listen/pay attention to your body/sensory data. Sometimes there is a reliance on data from GPS watches and heart-rate monitors, and being too tied down to a training plan. You need to learn how you FEEL when you’re dancing on that line of discomfort mid-run, and how you FEEL the day after a tough workout. You don’t HAVE TO do 4 miles at 8:30 pace on your easy day if you feel exhausted for whatever reason, and you don’t have to run 7:30 pace for 10 miles if you’re on vacation in a hilly area, or a hot area, or on a trail instead of roads, or if you just feel like 7:50 pace is equivalent to how you felt last week doing 7:30. Likewise, if you go into a race with a 6:30 per mile goal, and 6:15 feels awesome, don’t panic and slow down because your watch says so. You’re having a great day. Enjoy the ride!
Non-running specific: running is a choice. We are not obligated to run. Do what you can to make it enjoyable. If you like running with people, find a group. If you like to travel, find out-of-town races. If you like food, make your own post-race snacks and meals. Don’t make running something you feel you have to fit in. It should be something you look forward to.
Be consistent. Ditch the watch, run by effort. Do harder workout days, take rest days, do easier effort days. Put in the effort and always keep the long term in mind.
Consistent running is the key to a big performance jump! Find the way to be consistent, even if that means slowing down runs, and you’ll be ahead of the game!
Advice – chill out and be consistent. Don’t stress about the nitty gritty. Just get out there, do your runs, and make it fun.
Be selfless! You have to find time that not only benefits you and your training program, but time that acknowledges you wife, Family, and/or friends. These are The people that are going to cheer you on, during the race. You can’t be selfish and only wanting to improve your self, you need to motivate and improve the other people around you helping you improve yourself. #RuntheMileyou’rein
As simple as it sounds, you have to work to improve. If you want to run faster, you have to run faster. If you want to go farther, you have to run longer. If you want to climb better, you have to run hills. But extra work also means extra recovery and without recovery that work won’t be sustained.
Don’t compare yourself to others. Don’t worry about what others are doing or more importantly posting on social media. Set goals for YOU and take pride in the fact that no matter how small your improvements may seem you are in fact moving forward and becoming the best runner YOU can be!! #RunMichigan
set the intention and sustain it. Listen to your body and make incremental improvements. Mastery of your running practice will come in time with sustained effort. Be patient.
If you want to improve, make sure you challenge yourself just enough so you don’t brake. Make sure to rest, work on your strength and do NOT care about your friends progression. Everyone is individual.
Vary your training. Running the same miles, at the same pace, in the same place, on the same schedule is a recipe for burnout. Shake up your training by exploring different locales. Improve your performance with a mix of speed, hills, recovery, road, trail, cross training, etc
In your mind start counting starting from 1 to infinity (repeat if your mind wanders or you get fatigued). Gets you in the trance zone!!!
Get plenty of sleep and cut down on sugar. Easy to say, but tough to live!
Some advice I would share is slow down to go fast. Work speed in short focused sessions. The rest should be easy miles building the foundation to allow you to explode when you need to pour it on. You’ll be amazed how strong you feel once the miles start clicking off.
Strength train, strength train, strength train. Makes a world of difference.
When running long distances, you’ll be in pain but eventually you’ll realize that pain doesn’t get any worse. Keep moving and push thru the lows and ride the highs.
Find a local running club. You’ll meet like minded people. Then, seek out the veterans and listen to them and not much of the BS in the major running magazine. I’ve found that running marketing is becoming as bad as bicycle marketing in its efforts to convince us to buy so much crap!
Listen to your body.
Not every run looks like the opening scene of “Chariots of Fire”. It’s okay if it’s boring – that’ll build mental strength. But it’s also good to spice things up: new gear, new music, new trail, new companions, new race registration. Nothing changes if nothing changes.
When I first began running I thought I had to run hard all the time to get faster. Tempo runs followed by too hard recovery runs. Long runs to hard which left me drained and unable to important workouts days later. One of the tools I used was a heart rate monitor. I was astounded to learn that my “recovery runs” were muck closer to tempo runs than to an easy run. So, once you get a good base built and want to do a formal training program, either get a heart rate monitor and use it properly. You will have to find your max heart rate (HR) and a resting HR to calculate your numbers and then have at it. Or you can go by a scale of 1-10. 1-2 is a walk, 3-5 is an easy run (you can carry on a conversation while running), 6-7 is moderate to pre-tempo(can talk in short sentences in between breaths, 8 is your tempo pace(maybe a couple words, breathing harder now), and 9-10 is your repeats or sprints. Maybe a word here and there. To sum it up: run hard when you are supposed to and super easy on your recovery days. Happy trails!!
I think my best advice, and the advice I wish I’d gotten earlier on, is to do whatever it takes to enjoy your running. It seems simple, but it took a long time to realize sometimes that means doing it a lot less, and sometimes changing training dramatically. I find I run least when it feels like a chore and an obligation. Then I switch up the objective and start focusing on different goals like journeys runs, etc.
Find a group or two you can meetup to run with. They will keep you honest, They will keep you encouraged, they will push you beyond what you thought your limits were and will become your closest friends
Set realistic goals, stay consistent, try to find an accountability partner, keep it simple, don’t live by the watch, take care of yourself, take care of your trails, if you come up short don’t beat yourself up, join a local running group, make friends in the running community, X-train, learn your body, take it easy ,& enjoy the ride!
Set realistic goals, stay consistent, try to find an accountability partner, keep it simple, don’t live by the watch, take care of yourself, take care of your trails, if you come up short don’t beat yourself up, join a local running group, make friends in the running community, X-train, learn your body, take it easy ,& enjoy the ride!
If you are moving into a longer mileage training plan (e.g. more total weekly runs and/or increasing long runs) I’ve found that gradually implementing a plan is best. In other words, don’t be in a rush to crank up the mileage and risk injury/fatigue that will set you back. We all want to be running “for years to come”, so what’s the rush?
Just keep runnin’!!!
Add strength training and foam rolling right away to your routine. This is foundational to injury free running and more efficient recovery. Running can’t improve if your injured and it is the worst to be off because of injury
Set small goals that lead up to big goals. Make sure that there is a payoff in the end.