Drink more water.  Being dehydrated by 1% can decrease performance by 10%.  Experts suggest you drink half your body weight in ounces per day if you are sedentary and 20 oz more per hour of working out.  That means id you are 160 lbs you should drink 80 oz of water as a baseline before taking into account what you lose by working out.  I don't know how that works out for Kg...sorry metric friends!  Some people sweat more than others so I suggest weighing yourself naked before a run then weigh yourself after.  The difference is the amount of weight you lost by sweating and you need to figure out how to get that back in.  So if you lost one pound on your hour long run you need to hydrate appropriately by drinking 16 oz of water per hour. Make sense?  This is a good way to feel it out.  I think it is safe to say that upwards of 75% of the general population are dehydrated.  A lot of people mistake thirst for hunger as well.  Drinking more water has been very effective for many people as a simple way to lose weight.  So drink up!  You will feel better and perform better which will make you stronger and healthier.

Peace.

Hello running pals!  Today I would like to talk about ice.  We have all heard the acronym RICE right?  Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation.  This is what you do when you are injured.  Ice is so helpful in helping your sore muscles recover more quickly.  I am nursing a bit of calf pain soreness right now and I am getting ready to ice the ol puppies down.  What I like to do is fill small Dixie cups with water, pop em in the freezer and bam you have really big ice cubes with a wrapper that keeps your hand from getting cold (sorta).  Peel the cup down to expose the ice and rub whatever is hurting until it's melted which is usually around 3-4 minutes.  This direct ice contact is much colder than using a cold pack and more effective in less time.  I can't stress ice enough.  If you are sore use ice and you will feel better faster than if you don't use ice...FACT BOMB! 

Until next time my running renegades.

Elite runners run with a cadence of over 180 foot strikes per minute.  That means each foot strikes the ground at least 90 times per minute.  It makes sense that if we want to run fast and efficiently we should model our form after the fastest most efficient runners right? Right! Aside from being copy cats there are physics based reasons for this too.  Running at a cadence over 180 takes advantage of ground reaction forces (every reaction has an equal reaction so when you foot pushes down on the ground the ground pushes back) and muscle elasticity.  More on that later.  Do this:  Count your steps when you are running.  Take a sample of 20 seconds and count how many times your right foot hits the ground.  Multiply that by 3 and you have your one foot cadence per minute.  That should be greater than 90.  If it's not increase that turnover.  Running any other way decreases efficiency and increases your chance of injury so pay attention to this.  This is the most important/easiest to change things you can do to fix your running and prevent injury.

OK I can't beleive I just made a committment to blogging daily and then missed the following day!  That is an epic fail but I have an excuse. I got an iPhone yesterday and got caught up playing with it.  That iPhone is going to be integral to this site as I post videos as well.  Here is a shoe review.  I currently and forever will be running pose so the shoes I recommend will always be minimalist lightweight and flexible.  This review is for the Puma Street Kosmos.  This is the shoe I ran in befoire I switched to the Merrell Trail Glove.  I have logged at least 300 miles on them and they have held up nicely.  They weigh in at 8 oz which is a very light shoe and have a slipper feel to them.  These shoes are very flexible which makes them a good minimalist shoe.  I removed the insert from them to get a better ground feel myself but they are ok if left in.  I tried wearing these sans socks for a while and they really tore up my feet so I do not recommend that.  These are wonderful shoes for running POSE.  The materials they are made of last.  I ran a half marathon in them in the rain and they take on a lot of water and had no traction going downhill so I do not recommend them for running in wet hilly conditions.  I have heard some with wide feet say the toebox could be roomier but I have narrow feet and they fit me great.  The drop on this shoe (difference between height of heel and height of forefoot) is very small, perhaps 1mm and at $65 they are well worth it.  Summary: These shoes are lightweight, flexible with a 1mm drop and a comfy slipper like feel.  They can be tight in the toebox for those with wider feet (as are most Pumas) have limited traction (especially going down hill when wet) and take on water like a sponge and are not recommended for sockless running..  I recommend them for everyday running/racing on the roads (though i do wear mine on the dry trails) for a minimalist/POSE runner.

Ok sportsfans, here's the deal.  I have this site and have been really slacking on developing and maintaining it but that is all about to change.  This post is a call to action for yours truly.  I am committing to blog everyday for the next 365 days and I know I will do it.  I implore you to take a look around and come along for the ride.  Do I have 365 days worth of interesting content to post?  Absolutely!  There will be running advice! There will be nutrition advice! There will be stories of pain and stories of triumph over adversity!  So stick around and let me know what you think!!

L8r Sk8R.