Oatmeal could be the right late-night snack
Late-night hunger has a way of turning a quick snack into a raid on the pantry, but oatmeal may be a useful peace treaty. According to “Dietitians Agree—Oatmeal Is Actually…
In case you missed them, we’re bringing you the most-loved stories from the last month. Friends don’t let friends skip important running advice. Cheers!
Trying to force yourself asleep is the bedtime equivalent of flooring it when you’re stuck in the mud. If you’re willing to try something unorthodox, a recent story from Time explains how a change of scenery could help. According to “Can’t Sleep? Try Getting Out of Bed,” sleep specialists recommend a counterintuitive reset called stimulus control. Once you notice frustration or racing thoughts, leave the bed and do something calming until drowsiness returns. Getting up interrupts the cycle of hovering between wakefulness and sleep, allows sleep pressure to rebuild, and helps preserve your brain’s association between bed and rest. Choose a screen-free activity you enjoy, such as reading, knitting, or browsing a cookbook, while avoiding work, bills, or other stimulating thoughts. Return to bed when you start yawning, and repeat the process as many times as you need. This advice reminds us of another recent oddball sleep experiment, “How to safely lower your body temperature for better sleep,” which suggested chilling a pair of lightly damp socks before bed during hot weather. For a strategy you can try without leaving the mattress, “Use the Military Sleep Method to Fall Asleep Within 2 Minutes, Starting Tonight” recommends relaxing your face, shoulders, arms, chest, and legs in sequence, then clearing your mind with a calming image or repeating “Don’t think” for ten seconds. The method reportedly takes practice, but Navy pilots swear by its efficacy once you get the hang of it.
#BedderOff
Our global HQ sits a short distance away from Heartbreak Hill on the Boston Marathon course. For years we believed that the legendary climb hit so hard because it’s positioned at mile 20 of the course, just when your body’s stored fuel runs out. This new story opened our eyes to the idea that technique and form may have just as much to do with cresting the hill as your GU packets: “The Biomechanics Of Hitting the Wall: It’s Not Just About Glycogen.” The story cites a study which tracked 297 runners across 58 marathons and found that those who slowed sharply late in the race showed measurable changes in their mechanics, including shorter strides, longer ground-contact times, lower cadence, and reduced vertical stiffness. In other words, the legs appeared to lose some of their spring-like behavior as fatigue accumulated. That doesn’t mean you should consciously lengthen your stride when the wheels start coming off. The authors point instead toward conservative early pacing, progressive long runs, strength training, and practiced carbohydrate intake to help preserve your normal mechanics deeper into the race. Form is important, but that’s not to say you can forget about fueling strategy. Our recent story, “How to fuel for every race distance,” notes that recommendations for mid-race carbohydrate intake vary widely. We’ve seen suggestions everywhere from 10 to 140 grams per hour, so training is the time to experiment with amounts and sources your stomach can tolerate. Elite runners may push that ceiling much higher, according to: “The fueling science behind the first sub-two-hour marathon.” The story describes Sabastian Sawe taking in 115 grams of carbohydrates per hour after specifically training his gut for that load. For most runners, avoiding the wall may require protecting both sides of the equation – enough fuel to keep producing energy and enough muscular durability to keep putting that energy into the ground efficiently. It helps to have a shoe well-suited to long distances well, which is why in his review, Brian Metzler recommended Tracksmith’s Eliot Ryder (for Men and Women) as a great high-mileage workhorse shoe.
#BeyondTheWall
If you draw inspiration from the hype-up songs playing at every race’s start and finish line, Spotify can now help you replicate that experience. The music giant released a new smart playlist feature for runners, according to: “Spotify adds a running mode to its app.” Premium iOS users can build workouts from 25 presets – including interval, steady, and pyramid runs. Then, you can customize duration, beats per minute, and musical preferences. Spotify uses those inputs to choose songs for different phases of the session, giving your playlist some structure instead of relying on a random shuffle. Speaking of running playlists, there’s a good reason to put some thought into your soundtrack: “How Your Favorite Workout Playlist Impacts Your Endurance” cites a small study where 29 cyclists riding at about 80% of peak power lasted nearly 20% longer with self-selected music than in silence, despite similar heart rate, oxygen use, lactate, and perceived exertion at the point of stopping. Researchers suggested music helped participants tolerate discomfort for longer, so Spotify’s new feature could make it easier to match the right songs with the hardest parts of a workout. Of course, sometimes we’d rather trade beats for conversation. If you’ve missed the song recommendations Coach Trax has shared with us in the past, she’s been busy launching “Still Running” with fellow SMM contributor Ashley Arnold. Their new podcast covers training, motherhood, ambition, identity, and other parts of life as a woman runner, giving you another listening option for your next run.
#SoundTrackAndField
Running is such a joyful and primal sport – if only we could figure out a way to reduce injuries. Most runners experience at least one ailment per year that is bad enough to sideline them for a week. Luckily, our partner, Coach Greg McMillan, has done decades of research on avoiding injuries and shared this 7-point plan recently: “Interrupt the Injury Cycle For Runners.” Greg points out that most running injuries start out as just a feeling of tightness or restriction – usually due to an imbalance or dysfunction in the muscles, tendons, or fascia. Getting at these root causes is the key to avoiding tightness turning into time off. Definitely check out all seven of Greg’s recommendations in the full story, but we particularly like his advice to double down on mobility work and seek the help of a professional massage therapist or PT once tightness or restriction rears its ugly head.
#KneadForSpeed
These days, running records are dropping faster than cups at an aid station. First the two-hour marathon barrier fell, then the mile record, and now Yomif Kejelcha has notched another mark on his half-marathon belt. According to “Yomif Kejelcha Breaks the Half-Marathon World Record He Used to Hold,” the 29-year-old Ethiopian ran 56:51 in Buenos Aires, averaging about 4:20 per mile and finishing 29 seconds faster than Jacob Kiplimo’s still-unratified 57:20 from March. Kejelcha broke clear at 7K and covered the final 14K alone. Even for a pro, that’s an absurd pace, so congrats to Yomif and his team! For the rest of us mere mortals who need a different strategy to squeeze the best time out of 13.1 miles, “How to Walk-Run a Sub-2-Hour Half Marathon” makes the case for planned walk breaks. Its suggested formula is four minutes of running at 8:40 per mile followed by 30 seconds of brisk walking at 15:00 pace. Repeated over the race, that averages 9:06 per mile and projects to a 1:59:12 finish. The idea is to walk before fatigue forces the issue, preserving enough energy to keep your running segments on target. We recently explored a similar approach in “Can Japanese walking transform your health and running performance?” Alternating three minutes of fast walking with three minutes of easier walking improved blood pressure and leg strength in a 2007 study, and a 2024 study found gains in flexibility and endurance among older adults. Whether you’re chasing a PR or simply better fitness, a well-timed walk can be part of moving faster overall.
#WalkThisWay
To be honest, there are days when a little rain is enough to send us back inside for a treadmill run. If that makes us look wimpy, we hope we never have to stand next to Canada’s new Masters National Champion in the 200m, Wendy Alexis. The 71-year-old crossed the finish line in a blistering 31.11 seconds to capture gold, and as if that wasn’t impressive enough, she did it in the middle of a downpour. In a clip shared by @athleticscanada, they write, “Rain or shine, Wendy delivers.” No kidding. Congrats to the new champ – we’ll keep this one in mind the next time bad weather has us second-guessing a run.
