Runners stop doing this 💩 | TTT July22

My current fitness, how to rest between races, recovery swims, strong toes, warmups, and things runners should NEVER do

Jul 21

🏃🏽‍♂️Skim time (5k pace): 51 seconds

🚶🏽‍♀️Read time (long run pace): 5 min 54sec

What is up! Welcome to Three Thing Thu (TTT), the internet’s most exciting running and endurance sport newsletter.

It’s a new year (halfway through), a new newsletter platform (whatup Substack), but the same format that keeps serving up that heaping fire for that inbox.

This month is actually a gift to you. It’s temporarily renamed “Six Thing Thursday" to compensate for the six months I was gone (see below). I promise next month’s newsletter will be shorter than this one. But I’m here to serve the world. #GiveGiveGive

In this extra special issue, I’ll bring more heat than your shoes at the end of a marathon and go deep on things like;

My current fitness/training/racing recaps
Nose vs mouth breathing: What’s better?
The off-time between races: How to do it right
Recovery swims in polluted water
Big toes and running efficiently
Warmups: Why we really do them

First and foremost what is up to the new folks (and old) out there. I appreciate you joining me and the others in this super-engaged community on this journey to perform better as you age. While the process is mostly consistent I make sure as hell it's not boring.

On consistency... some of you that have been ‘running' with me for a while might have noticed (or not) that it's been six months since my last email. Yes, SIX! And… your next sequential question would then be, “Bruh, why you take a break for 6 months?!”

Great questions deserve great answers.

TBH, I needed to sort out my content sh*t. I'm a creative dude (ie: dlake CREATES) and it wears on me. I’ve got a bunch of ideas sitting in my computer (and brain) that are in some state of 10-90% completed. It was giving me a bit of paralyzing anxiety. To solve this, I created systems and processes to organize and finish a bunch of stuff, and it worked so damn well that I can now focus on one of my fav pieces of long-form content- this newsletter, baby!

Quick refresher about WTF this newsletter does

It’s been a while.

If you are receiving this message, it means that you are officially subscribed to “Three Thing Thursday" – a monthly (ish) newsletter from me, Daren "DLake Creates”. This newsletter will help you navigate the confusing and complex world of running and endurance sports better than Google Maps!

Each month (Ish) you can expect a fun and informative (fun-formative is STILL a thing, y’all) email where I’ll highlight three interesting/important running ideas that I have been using either in my training, racing, or life.

All of this will be in a “summed up and dumbed down” format because…

Feeling this? Share this link with a friend - dlakecreates.substack.com

No more yapping - let's get into it.

Where’s my training at now

(I’ll go over what this is next month)

Follow me here on Strava for daily updates and training motivations.

Thing 1: My last 5k race was a beautiful disaster

My last 5k time was scumbag but I learned a lot.

Last May 2021, I crushed this race and surprised myself with a time of 16:47. But one year later, running a smart race and what I thought was my most fit ever was - I finished with a 17:33. WTF?!

Things I learned in the last training block

What the upper limit of my training is
Fatigue is compounded and delayed. Respect the recovery
The 7-day training cycle DOES NOT WORK for me.
I need 72 hours between hard workouts.
My body recovers extremely well from short workouts - 600m - 200m repeats, plyos & strength
Slower and shorter long runs (90 mins or less) are key for my body type and life

👀 Peep the ~~highlight~~ lowlight reel here.

Thing 2: 10 things a runner should NEVER do

As runners and endurance athletes we all love knowing what you should do.

But sometimes it’s nice to look at the inverse. Inverse just means the opposite. In the context of running and training, knowing what IS NOT good for you is just as effective as knowing what is.

Top 10 things you should NEVER do;

NEVER Ignore pain
NEVER skip your warmup/cool down
NEVER not stretch
NEVER expect the best time every race
NEVER follow a training plan perfectly
NEVER start a race off too fast
NEVER not rest enough
NEVER go too hard on easy days
NEVER put off your recovery meal
NEVER obsess over the numbers

Check all them donts out here

Thing 3: How long should your break be between your "A - races"?

Some of us in the world are in the middle of summer. And with the summer brings the break between marathons or your main "A-races”.

So, how long should your break be between a-races?

Like most of life, it all depends. But mainly depends on;

1 - The type of "a-race" and load/type of terrain

2- Your weekly volume and experience level

3 - Your mental attitude/life stress, etc.

Learn more here

Thing 4: How to avoid swimming in polluted water (and why!)

Summer’s here which means recovery swims! How safe is that water? Well, don’t swim in open water, ocean, lake, or river 24-48 hours after rain.

Find out more here.

Thing 5: The importance of your big toe in running

We all know how important feet are for running. They are the only thing that touches the ground. But how does one strengthen the big toe? By doing toe exercises and workouts (Duh!). They are easier to do than you think.

Learn more about the big toe in running and big toe workouts here.

Thing 6: What actually happens to your body when you warm up?

I’ll never forget when I was 15yo and started running distance how I would just get out the door and get up to my z3 heart rate within 2-3 minutes. No warmup, no stretching, just super excited to get some conditioning in for the upcoming basketball season.

I got away with it then but fast forward 25 years later and I take my warmup seriously. It’s like a meditative ritual ceremony. I’ve got my strength warmup, easy run warmup, my hard run warmup and my race day warmup.

But why should you warm-up anyway? For 2 main reasons; 1- injury prevention, 2- performance.

Learn more here.

Notable Quotable

And…

…for July.

🚀 I appreciate you taking in all the rockets of knowledge I launched your way.

Again, if you're liking this stuff please share a link with cool folks like you.

If you want me to talk about something or even give you a shoutout for reaching your goals - hit me up - talk@dlakecreates.com

For real-world documentation of my training/races follow me on Instagram.

PS - The best 800m Olympic race comeback, EVER!

Train smart: race easy,

The Trees & DLake Newsletter