Boosting the Mind + 10 Running Tips

“One of the most important things about running is being humble. I am happy to stay in a small house with other athletes, work with the group, wash clothes and chop vegetables. I like to help younger athletes and be a role model.” — Eliud Kipchoge

Moving the body, boosting the mind: running your way to better mental health →
I once lived a life almost ruled by anxiety, intrusive thoughts and paralysing fear. I spent years looking for the thing that would release me, and when I finally found it, it wasn’t medication or therapy (although both helped). It was running.

People with certain mental health conditions, such as depression, have also been found to have elevated levels of inflammatory markers, adds Stubbs: “Therefore, one way that exercise helps protect against and manage mental illness may be reducing inflammation.” It goes to show, “there is no health without mental health”.

Remembering Kelly Catlin: Concussion questions follow death of beloved Olympic cyclist →
But over the last six months, she dealt with what her father, Mark Catlin, called “a perfect storm” of issues: Depression, the concussion, overtraining, “not being able to say no,” and possible cardiac issues — all of which, her family members believe, may have been linked. She also suffered from headaches and light sensitivity, family members said.

10 running tips from London Marathon champ Eliud Kipchoge →
Kenya’s two-time London marathon winner Eliud Kipchoge shares tips on fueling, the importance of training diaries, and why he’s always in bed early.

On some days I train twice – once in the morning (at 6am) and once in the afternoon (at 4pm). When you do two sessions in a day it tells your body and your heart and your lungs that you need to repair (recover) quickly so you get fitter.

Digital Reduction: Making Room for Running →
Byron Powell, of iRunFar, talks about his desire to declutter his life and rid himself of the distractions that tend to take over our lives. All in an attempt to make space for his running which he's struggled with this winter.

Mental Health within Athletics: The Invisible Competition →
A typical day begins in the training room to prepare for 7:00-11:00 a.m. practice, followed by preventative physical therapy back in the training room before classes. Every day, student-athletes take care of their bodies to excel, and I believe that every day student-athletes should take care of their mental health to the same extent.

Trail running after 50: impossible is just an opinion →
The year Gilles Poulin quit smoking, he ran his first marathon and smiled the entire race. A few years later, in his mid-40s, he started trail running. In less than 10 years, the 53-year old has run over a dozen marathons and 10 trail-ultra races up to the 100-mile distance.

Poulin advocates for not overtraining. He runs three to four times a week, with a base around 30K per week, and including one long run, one interval or hill workout, and one longer-distance run at marathon pace. Before a 100-mile race, he aims for at least 100K weeks for two to three consecutive weeks.

Elite sport is gradually waking up to widespread mental health issues →
The NBA’s commissioner, Adam Silver, made a statement that was both shocking and profound: many of the league’s players, who have an average salary of $7m a year, were “truly unhappy”. He told the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference: “The outside world sees the fame, the money, all the trappings that go with it, and they say: ‘How is it possible they even can be complaining?’ But a lot of these young men are genuinely unhappy.”

Sabotage Your Own Race: A How-to Manual →
We've all done it—some of us repeatedly. Need ideas on how to tank your upcoming race, Mike shares his recommendations on Capra.run.

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