APRÉS RUN

APRÉS RUN

The Ultimate Marathon Packing List (for All Weather Conditions)

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When you’re preparing to run a marathon (and especially when you’re preparing to travel for a marathon), you’re probably a little nervous and have a million different thoughts running through your mind. You never want to be underprepared on race day when you’re running a distance as long as the marathon, and yet, in the chaos of race week, it can be so easy to forget something. I wanted to create a one-stop-shop packing list for all marathoners, and inclusive of whatever conditions you might be racing in. Some of the things on this list may seem obvious, but it includes literally everything you’ll need for race weekend. Print this out and use it as your check list to make sure nothing gets left behind.

Know someone running a marathon soon? Help out another runner and share this post with them!

For race weekend

  • Toiletries
  • Shampoo, conditioner, and body wash (if needed)
  • Make-up (for women, if you wear it)
  • Hair brushes, hair products, and a blow dryer (if needed)
  • All outfits – Running and otherwise. Don’t forget socks, shoes, and underthings.
  • Pajamas
  • A reusable water bottle – Hydration is so important leading up to a race. Wherever you go on race weekend, make sure your water bottle goes with you. Make sure you’re sipping all day long.
  • Lots of snacks – On race weekend, I want to keep my fuel stores as topped-off as possible and never like to let myself get too peckish. Some of my favorite snacks to pack: portable fresh fruit (bananas, grapes, apples, oranges), nuts, trail mix, dry cereal, popcorn, homemade energy balls, healthy energy or snack bars, protein shake packets (it can be hard to get healthy, adequate sources of protein while traveling).
  • Any compression and/or recovery gear – Compression socks, sleeves, foam rollers, stretching ropes, lacrosse and/or trigger point balls, etc. – to keep your legs feeling fresh and healthy before and after the race.

For race day

  • Running watch and charger
  • Trainers
  • Racing outfit and any back-up options if you’re unsure – Make sure you have at least one of each: (1) top, (2) bottom, (3) socks, (4) underwear, (5) racing shoes (if not racing in trainers), (6) sports bra (for women)
  • Any accessories you like to race in – Headbands, hats, sunglasses, arm sleeves, compression gear
  • Hair ties (for women)
  • Band-aids – For blisters and/or for covering any sensitive areas. Also just a good thing to have on hand.
  • Warm up gear – If the forecast isn’t super hot, you’ll likely want to wear something over your race outfit while warming up. Make sure to do your research ahead of time and figure out what your options are for either storing, handing off, or discarding your warm-up gear… you may need to buy cheap or second-hand ‘throwaway’ gear you can dispose of just before the start.
  • All your race-day fuel – (1) Breakfast (if making in your hotel room), (2) electrolyte packets or tablets, (3) enough gels/sports drink/chews to get you through 26.2 miles (plus a few extra, just in case), (4) anything special you may want for recovery afterwards
  • Any storage solutions you may need to carry your gear – Hydration belts, SPIbelts, Koala Clips, etc.
  • Headphones (if using, and permissable on the race course)
  • Body Glide or your favorite anti-chafe lube
  • SPF that you’ve tested – AKA, one you know won’t run into your eyes while sweating
  • Garbage bag – For collecting sweaty clothes afterwards
  • A clean, dry outfit to wear after the race – Don’t forget an extra pair of socks! (Clean socks = heaven after a marathon.)
  • Slide-on shoes – For after the race, when you’ll want to be wearing anything but your running sneakers
  • A towel, body wipes, and body spray or deodorant (optional) – For transitioning to your amazing and well-deserved post-race feast
  • A gym bag for storing your post-race clothes and gear – Plan to either bag check this or leave it with a friend/loved one. DO NOT leave this in your hotel room. Your body temp will take a nosedive after finishing a marathon, and it’s very important to get you in clean, warm, dry clothes ASAP.

For rainy marathons

  • A waterproof outer shell – If under a certain temperature
  • A few garbage bags – One for wearing to the race start (best pre-race poncho, and you simply toss it in a trash can once at the starting line), and one or two more for collecting wet clothes after the warm-up and race
  • A hat and/or sunglasses – Nonnegotiable for rainy races. It will help keep the rain out of your eyes and prevent you from squinting/wincing the entire time. If wind is also a factor, you may want to either slip ear warmers, or a headband, around the top to hold your hat in place.
  • Extra warm clothes for after – Remember to pack a little more warmly than you think you’ll need… running a marathon in the rain will drop your body temp even more severely than normal.

For cold marathons

  • A hat and/or earwarmers, and gloves – Really important for keeping your core body temp up. If you’re unsure you’ll want to wear them the entire race, you may want to choose ‘throwaway’ options. If it’s really cold, consider two layers of gloves. Mittens will keep you warmer, but you’ll want the tactile control of gloves for taking your water stops well.
  • Hand warmer packs – For keeping you warm in the starting area and on your warm-up (if needed)
  • Thick socks – To put on over top your racing socks and keep you warm in the starting area and on your warm-up.
  • LAYERS – Preferably some of which are throwaway and which you can discard as you go along (should you choose)
  • Extra warm clothes for post-race

Marathoning gear I love

  • My all-time favorite race day short: The Oiselle Race Day Short – Sadly, these are either out of stock or have been discontinued, but I found a limited number of (small) sizes left here. If you like racing in short spandex shorts like me, you’ll love these, and they have tons of waistband pockets for all your gels.
  • Oiselle Toolbelt Roga Short: Another favorite short for those who like a shorter short (but maybe not a compressive one). They have a 4″ inseam and super flattering cut that gives you plenty of room in the quads. They’re also very lightweight and dry quickly, which means you’re not carrying around a ton of stored water if you get wet.
  • Lululemon Fast & Free 6″ Short: If you like a longer compressive short, you won’t find anything as buttery and comfortable as these. Big, stretchy pockets on the sides let you store lots of gear (gels, and even your phone), AND they’re slightly high-rise which makes them super-flattering for most.
  • Megababe Thigh Rescue Anti-Chafe Stick: I first tried this product after seeing it everywhere on the internet. It definitely lives up to the hype. It’s super effective, leaves no residue, and is made with nontoxic ingredients (unlike Body Glide), like aloe, grapeseed oil, and pomegranate seed extract.
  • GRID Foam Roller: My favorite foam roller. I have the full-size version that I use at home, as well as the shorter one (linked), which I bring with me to travel. It doesn’t take up a lot of space and does such an effective job at getting at tight muscles. Also, this brand is super sturdy and you never have to worry about the foam denting like with cheaper models.
  • CEP Compression Socks: I’ve been using compression socks for years, and this is by far my favorite brand. I like a tight compression (to feel like they’re actually doing something), and these give the perfect amount – without also making your calves feel like sausages. They stand the test of time and have lasted me years and years without getting holes in them or becoming dingy-looking.
  • Ursa Major Essential Face Wipes: My favorite nontoxic face wipes for post-workout. I buy the 20-pack bag and throw it in my gym bag. They come individually wrapped, so they never dry out, they smell amazing, and they truly leave you feeling clean (with no weird residue after).

My Favorite Mental Tips & Tricks for Running

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Over the next couple weeks, I have a few posts planned to talk about the mental side of running. As rewarding and enjoyable as our sport can be at its best, it can be equally frustrating and disparaging at its worst. Running demands the best of you – physically, mentally, and emotionally – and I’ve found that while there is so much information out there about the physical (training) side of our sport, most advice about how to work on your mental game tends to be really generalized and nondescript. ‘Be tough’ and ‘just push through’ are not really good or helpful advice for anyone dealing with mental roadblocks. SO, as a certified running coach and B.A. in Psychology, I thought I’d share my own tips and insight.

If you find this post helpful, please give it a share!

Setting yourself up to succeed

First, there are a lot of things you can and should be doing in the months leading up to a goal race. Preparation doesn’t just come from doing the physical work – it also comes from mentally rehearsing, training, and ‘callousing’ your brain.

1. Visualization – The best parts of visualization are that it is FREE, not time-consuming, and can be done any time and anywhere. You can visualize for 5 minutes before going to bed; you can visualize while out on the run; you can visualize in the shower getting ready for work. Visualization is a really powerful tool and ensures that when you’re standing on the starting line of your goal race, it’s not a shock or a surprise, and it’s not your first time doing so. When you’ve already run the race mentally so many times, you’re confident, self-assured, and know exactly what to do at each turn.

I’d advise you to write out a super detailed race plan, from a minute-by-minute of your morning to exactly what pace you plan to go out at, when you plan to speed up or make any moves, what positive self-talk you plan on using when things get tough, and what you plan to do in the final miles. (A good coach will help you do this, as well.) Be as detailed and descriptive as possible, from what you plan on eating for breakfast, to what you plan on wearing, where you’ll do your warm-up, etc. Then, mentally run through each of the steps in your plan, trying to imagine any negative thoughts or fears that may come up along the way and how you plan on combatting them. But mentally ‘seeing’ yourself doing all of these things and executing your plan seamlessly will give you so much less anxiety or uncertainty come race day.

Some “cues” to help you get in visualizing mood: I like watching footage or browsing through pictures of past years’ races (it will give you happy chills), or listening to the same pump-up songs I plan on listening to on race day.

“Before I had it, I closed my eyes and imagined.”

– Kanye West

2. Practice, practice, practice – For me, confidence has always come from practice. Nailing workouts, overcoming obstacles in a training cycle, and going back and ‘beating’ workouts that I used to struggle with are the biggest things that help me to feel ready on race day. Prior to race day, take some time to look back and reflect on your training cycle – the good, bad, and ugly, and what you’re most proud of. Remind yourself of the times you pushed through when you weren’t feeling at 100%, the workouts you did in the rain, heat, cold, or dark, and the very best workouts you’ve done this cycle. Training is cumulative, and you take all of that (plus all your ‘miles in the bank’) with you to the start line.

The power of not giving up

My best advice for racers is to never, ever give up. ESPECIALLY in a long race where there is so much time and so many unknown factors at play. You have no idea what could happen, and if you run long enough, you will truly see it all play out in different race scenarios.

If you’re competing for the win, a spot on the podium, or prize money, you have no idea who is going to drop out, take a wrong turn on the course, or fade in the last couple miles.

If you’re competing for your own personal best, stay engaged in the race even if you’re hurting early and think it may not be your day. Find a way to adjust and get through the early miles, even if it means slowing slightly off goal pace. I tell my athletes: in ANY race (from your worst to your very best), there’s inevitably going to be points you feel good at, and there’s inevitably going to be points you feel bad at. If you feel ‘bad’ early on, maybe your good is coming later. Racing is an ebb and flow, and a range of emotions and feelings. You have to be able to ride through all of it. Even if you’re never able to find that next gear and it really isn’t your day, you know you’re going to be disappointed at the finish if you didn’t fight for it anyway and go down trying.

Getting through tough spots and salvaging a bad race

In a race, there will always be moments that you feel good, and there will always be moments that you feel bad. Sometimes it is just a bit skewed as to which of those sensations you’re experiencing more of. A few of my favorite tips and tricks for pushing through the tougher spots in racing:

1. Focus externally – When things aren’t going well in a race, what’s the first thing most of us do? We go internal and get in our heads. We start overthinking and catastrophizing. The best way to get out of our heads is to focus on something external. It could be the rhythm of your breathing. It could tuning into the race music or the sounds of nature. It could be taking a moment to (mentally) pause and notice the landscape around you, and feel gratitude for getting to run in such a beautiful place. Maybe you make a game out of counting houses, or trash cans, or lampposts.

An external-thinking trick I use with a lot of my runners: in the final miles of a race, I tell them to focus on picking people off one at a time. As soon as you catch one, put your eyes up and decide on your next target. Picking off people and playing this ‘game’ distracts you from how badly you’re hurting at the end of a race. It also ignites your competitive side, and it gives you forward momentum that makes it easy to end up running way faster than you thought you were capable.

2. Think small – The next turn. The next mile marker. The next telephone pole. The next family or friend you know you’re going to see on the course. Find a way to make a long race really small. Tell yourself, “I just have to get there.” Once you get do, do it again.

3. Reset the clock – My college teammates and I made up a mental game to get us through long 10K workouts that seemed impossible on paper. After 4 or 5 or 6 long reps, we would tell ourselves to ‘reset the clock’. That we hadn’t done anything up until this point and were completely fresh. And we only had 1 rep to run. Or 2. Or 3. And we would say, “Ok. Well that seems doable. 2 hill reps on its own is a very easy workout.” It sounds silly, but it works. It’s compartmentalization. The best part? You can reset the clock as many times as you need. Maybe you tell yourself you just have to run ONE mile, and you ‘reset the clock’ every time you hit a new mile marker. After that, again – “Ok. I just have to run ONE mile.”

4. Throw in a few 30-second to 1-minute surges – I’ve used this on many a long run when my legs were feeling dead and I found myself gradually slipping further and further off my goal pace. It can be applied just as well in races, too. When you find yourself either going backwards or having settled into a slower pace that you just can’t seem to get out of, you need to disrupt the trend. Surging will feel impossible, completely shocking to the legs, and like the last thing you could possible want to do. But remind yourself that you can do anything for just 30 seconds to 1 minute. Oftentimes a few short surges is all you need to wake your legs back up and get you back in the game.

5. Find someone to help – My former boss, the Head Cross Country and Track Coach at Michigan State, always told this to his runners. If it’s not your day, find someone who’s struggling, and help make it their day. Giving back is a guaranteed feel-good recipe. It’s always rewarding and something you never regret. But oddly enough, it’s often when we find someone else to help that we end up helping ourselves in kind. Find someone just up ahead of you who looks like they’re struggling, go run with them, encourage them, and tell them you’re going to do this together. Maybe you help them get through 1-2 miles, and you go on to find someone else to help. Don’t be surprised if somewhere along that process you end up finding your own second wind or inner strength.

All About Running & Recovery – What’s Important and What’s Not So Much

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Stress + rest = growth. That’s the formula for getting better. Most people only focus on the first part and neglect the second part, while some people overemphasize the second part but aren’t doing the day-to-day work they need to do to get better. Hence, recovery can be a very polarizing topic.

What a lot of people focus on today when they talk about recovery: all the ‘tools’ and gadgets they think they need to recover effectively. Cryotherapy chambers, Normatec boots, ice baths, contrast baths, vibrating foam rollers, Theraguns. These things can have a place in your recovery toolbox, but they can only do so much if you’re not aiding your recovery in much larger, more important ways. These things are the so-called ‘2%’ of recovery.

But what is actually going to move the needle the most when it comes to recovery? (AKA, the 98%) Four things: sleep, diet, proper training, and mobility work.

  1. Sleep – If you were to understand all of the incredible processes your body carries out while you’re sleeping, you would never think of sleep as a ‘luxury’ again. Sleep = work. Sleep = training. This is when your body releases human growth hormones and when your muscles are healed and repaired. If you have a lifestyle that prevents you from getting 7-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night (whether you have young kids or a job that forces you to work late), your recovery will be impaired and you should make sure you’re adjusting your training appropriately. See #3.
  2. Diet – Food = fuel, and food heals. With running, you get what you give. If you’re putting a ton of refined, processed, and nutrient-poor food into your body, OR if you’re undereating and in an energy deficit, your body isn’t going to be able to perform optimally. On this blog I share lots of whole-food, anti-inflammatory recipes that support your training and help your body recover and adapt to training naturally. The body is amazingly sophisticated and complex. It is really terrific at healing itself naturally, IF you give it the tools (sleep + plentiful, varied, and nutritious food) it needs. But shortchange any of these things and watch your recovery become impaired.
  3. Proper training – Every body is different, and every body responds differently to training. We know this already, right? But how about how everyone’s lifestyle is different? I wish I could record the number of conversations I have with my athletes about why can’t they run x miles per week, or how come they’re not already running 20 milers every weekend? It would at least make people feel less alone and crazy. With the prevalence of social media (and the rise of the ‘Instagram running community’), we’re now getting a ton of data about what everyone from world-record marathoners to sub-3:00 ‘local elites’ are doing on a daily basis. If you want to break 3:00 like the woman you follow on Instagram, shouldn’t you be doing the same training she is? No. Because you don’t know what her ‘behind the scenes’ lifestyle looks like (Instagram doesn’t show everything), or her training history, or injury history. Maybe she’s able to get 8-10 hours of sleep a night, and that’s just not possible for you. Maybe she’s actually training unsustainably and is a month away from a year-long series of stress fractures. You have no idea. Training SMART and in a way that is right for YOU is a huge way we can prevent injury. What does this mean? Taking the proper number of rest days that allow you to recover effectively, building your mileage and intensity gradually, and proactively adjusting the plan when unexpected aches and pains creep up. Most people struggle to do this on their own, which is why hiring a coach can be so helpful.
  4. Mobility work – Research has shown runners don’t necessarily need to be flexible and loose all the time to run fast and prevent injury. In fact, some stiffness in the muscle actually helps you perform better, and overstretched muscles might be just as prone to injury as overly tight muscles. Therefore, instead of trying to learn the splits or achieve an impressive level of hamstring flexibility, we just want to make sure the muscles have adequate mobility and can go through proper range-of-motion. What impairs mobility and range of motion? Sitting all day. Also spending hours per week moving in the same plane of motion (AKA run training). Also hard workouts – which create adhesions and microscopic tears in your muscles. If you run and then immediately jump in the shower, get in your car, or sit on the couch, you’re letting everything tighten right up. You want to spend at least 5 minutes doing some kind of mobility drills or range-of-motion exercises to jumpstart the natural recovery process and prevent harmful stiffness and tightness from building up.

The ‘extras’ or ‘2%’ — ice baths, epsom salt baths, contrast baths, cryotherapy, compression socks, Normatec boots, and all the recovery gadgets (Theraguns, vibrating foam rollers, Roll Recovery wheels) are AWESOME and great to have. I personally use several of these and have found they work really well for me and many of my athletes. BUT, it’s all about giving them their proper time and place. If you’re religious about your post-workout ice baths but skipping meals or not sleeping, you’re wasting your time. Also, your Normatec boots can help you feel better and maybe less sore from big workouts, but they’re not going to be what gives you the big PR you’re looking for. SMART, hard training does that. And giving your body the ‘big’ tools it needs to recover properly.

Bonus: For those who love their recovery gadgets and are afraid of being sore, there might be such a thing as ‘recovery addiction.’ Steve Magness has wrote about this really well and in-depth. Check out his blog post here.

What are your thoughts on run training and recovery? For those who have been running for a long time, what are the biggest recovery lessons you’ve learned, and what has made the biggest differences for you personally?

A Letter to All Athletes: You Don’t Need ‘Perfect’

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When I was fresh out of college, a psychology grad, and starting my coaching apprenticeship at Michigan State, I created a blog to share everything I was learning, reading, and thinking. A lot of it was probably garbage, but this post was one of my favorites. It still resonates with me today, and I wanted to share, as I think it’s an important sentiment for all athletes. Whether you’re preparing for a high school or collegiate cross country season, or gearing up for a fall marathon, you should know you don’t need ‘perfect.’ Here’s why.

The great warrior Achilles had his heel. Samson, the strongest man alive, had no self-discipline. Macbeth was brought down by his ambition and lust for power, and Hamlet by his inability to act. In literature, we call it a tragic flaw. Mine, without a doubt, has been perfectionism. Maybe that sounds like a humblebrag (See also: “My Lamborghini is so flashy, cops always think I’m speeding when I’m not”… “I wish people could like me for me and not the famous people I always hang out with”… “I can’t find a dock big enough to park my yacht around here.”). I assure you it is not.

The thing is: perfectionism sounds like “perfect” by its name only. In reality, there is no correlation to “perfectionism” and “perfect”, and more often than not, perfectionists are not the high-achievers – in sport, in business, in academia, et al.

In the psychological literature, we recognize that perfectionism is a multi-dimensional construct. That means it has implications in various different branches of psychology – from motivational psychology to social psychology to cognitive psychology. It is also multi-directional – there is both what we call positive and negative, or adaptive and maladaptive, perfectionism. Most of the research focusing on perfectionism and sport has focused on evaluating the effects of maladaptive perfectionism on performance. This type of perfectionism is characterized by rigid, black-and-white thinking. Things are either “good” or “bad”, and there is nothing in between. There is either “success” or “failure”, and often nothing in between. Perfectionists strive off of rules, structure, and clear expectations. When adversity strikes, the maladaptive perfectionist athlete might feel the whole “plan” has been thwarted, and they may mentally check out because they feel there is no way the end goal can be reached any longer.

Life is messy.

Write it on your mirror, on the back of your hand, in your diary, on the top of your training log. Write it wherever you will see it – if this is something you need to hear.

Life is messy.

Training is messy.

Performance on any given day is complicated and imperfect.

We are not robots who exist in a laboratory! 

The beautiful and heart-breaking thing about our sport is that you can check off all the boxes in your training, live a simple, ascetic life; you can run all the workout times that all the coaches and exercise physiologists agree will allow you to run xx.xx, and you can still miss the mark. Sometimes, you will lose a race and it will have absolutely nothing to do with you or how you prepared. And you have to be able to be okay with that in order to be able to move on. In order to be able to free up the mental space you need to put yourself back out there and on the line again – hungry and ready to compete at 100% of your best effort.

I don’t think I ever fully realized this in all my four years of college. I’m just learning this now.

By now you’ve probably realized I am a fan of Elizabeth Gilbert’s writing. I will share another quote of hers. Several weeks ago, after lots of travel, she posted this to Facebook, and I think it illustrates, again, not only how messy life can be but also how the messiness of life is everything. There’s no changing it; you’re stupid to try to fight it or mentally resist it; you might as well just embrace it – it’s the gift we get for being fully alive.

“Been on the road now for two and a half months, Dear Ones. Three more events in Germany — and then home. It’s cold and raining. I’m super tired by this point. I’m out of toothpaste. A huge construction project right outside my hotel woke me up with a bang-boom-crash extra early today — hooray! LIFE IS IN SESSION! We can do this! We get to be alive another day! I embrace every single bit of it. There’s no other world I would rather be in than this world — this weird, loud, chaotic, beautiful, exhausting, jacked-up, freaky world. Let’s roll.”

The high-level athlete is: relaxed, open-minded, even-keeled, able to think on their feet, and able to respond quickly to competitive demands. Just like a high-level runner is one who can quickly and effectively change gears in a race, a high-level athlete (in any sport) is one who is able to “change gears” in any competitive situation – for example, if the weather is bad and demands a training session be modified; if a bag with some gear is lost en route to a competition; if the pre-competition warm-up area is limited; or the meal you always eat before a competition is not available.

Every runner who has competed for at least a few years can probably recall a time they felt like garbage on the warm-up or pre-meet shake-out and ending up running a personal best or really great race. This is a fairly common experience.

I’ll share with you, though, how some of my best races in college were fundamentally founded on “imperfect”. Hopefully this serves as a reminder for anxious athletes to always stay engaged and open-minded in the days leading up, and during, a competition. You never know how your body is going to respond, even if the signs appear against you, and never, ever underestimate your potential. You have NO idea what you are capable of, and your next breakthrough could be just around the corner. That’s what makes our sport so fun.

In outdoor track my sophomore year, my first race of the season was a 5K at the Colonial Relays at William & Mary. My sophomore year of college was more like my freshman year, because my actual freshman year was a mess of sickness and injury compounded on more sickness and injury. My freshman year, I hardly competed at all. Come my sophomore year, I was still kind of figuring things out and was still very new to collegiate competition. I had some success already sophomore year, running 40 seconds faster for the 5K than I had in high school. Still, it was the first week of April, I was just coming off a month of very tough, high-volume training, and I didn’t particularly feel ready to run fast yet. Nonetheless, my coach took a risk on me and petitioned to get me moved up to a faster heat of the 5K. I remember him looking me in the eye and telling me not to mess this up. I nodded and promised him I wouldn’t.

Things I remember about the day of and day before the race: Our bus ride down was 6 ½ hours or so. The pre-meet once we got there was very rough – I don’t think I cracked 8:00 pace once, and that felt hard. I was worried my legs wouldn’t feel good come race time the next day. The morning of, I felt super lethargic, and ended up lounging in my hotel bed all morning after shaking out. Once again, I was nervous this was a bad sign. Where was my energy?

The night of the race: I was the only one from my team in my heat, so I had to figure out a warm-up route on my own. Anyone who knows me knows I have just about the worst sense of direction ever. Naturally, I got horribly lost. My 2 ½ mile warm-up ended up turning into about a 3 ½ mile warm-up (including a stop to ask for directions to the stadium), and the last half mile was me tempo running back to the track (but trying to look casual once I made it to the infield). I had to cut short my drills, because I was now behind schedule. I started doing frantic strides. Then, a couple of minutes before I thought my race was about to go off, my coach told me they run fast-to-slow, not slow-to-fast (the opposite of what we originally thought), and I suddenly had about 17 extra minutes before my race. I had to add some more jogging back in, and then re-start the drilling and striding-out process over again.

Now, much of went wrong logistically I could have easily prevented, but that’s not the point. The point is, it didn’t matter. What I did right was: once the race went off, I was totally composed and calm like nothing had happened, and I executed the race plan my coach gave me perfectly. It was the most patient race I’ve ever run. I ran a 27-second PR. To this day, my coach doesn’t know any of what happened on my warm-up (he will now). I was just determined to deliver on a promise to run well.

After a year of huge improvements my sophomore year, I came out my junior year thinking I had to PR in every race again. Constant, linear improvement, or I wouldn’t be happy. Come my indoor track season my junior year, I had not yet surpassed my PRs from outdoor the following year. I thought this was a failure. I thought I needed to beat my outdoor PRs in indoor in order to feel assured I’d hit even bigger PRs come outdoors, when it really counted. Our league meet was a week or two away, and I was down in the dumps and probably not very fun to be around. I had pretty much already written off the season as a failure. And if I wasn’t hitting my goals for indoors, how could I possibly expect to hit my goals for outdoors? The whole year was a wash!

Going into this league meet, I had an attitude totally different from my normal attitude leading up to a big meet. I was still checking off all the boxes, taking care of the details, but I was doing it much more detachedly. I pretended like I didn’t really care about running (probably self-protectedly), but this meant I also wasn’t overthinking running, or my training, outside of practice. I showed up, did the work, and then just left it at the door of the field house. I felt so bad about myself at that time that I decided I just wasn’t going to attach myself to any outcome any longer.

About ten or so days out, we did our last big workout before the meet. It was a Bucknell standard 2 x 2 miles on a road loop. Me, with my moody new “unattached”, “not-caring” attitude ended up running one of my best times on that course ever. Suddenly, a switch went off in my brain. I felt like I had put myself back in the running. Maybe this thing could go well for me after all. I decided I’d be mentally engaged for this one race and just give myself a shot to see what I could do. It was Leagues, after all, and the team needed me. At our League meet that year, my legs ended up feeling really great on the day, and I just went with it. I put myself in the race, ended up scoring, and running 15 seconds faster than I’d run yet that season (just 6 seconds off my personal best ever). My time also qualified me for the Indoor ECAC meet, which I had never qualified for before.

This taught me that things can change on a dime. It also taught me the value of sometimes letting go and letting things happen on their own, without obsessing and overthinking.

What I would consider to be the best race of my college career came during cross country season of my senior year. Boston University had joined our league the previous year, and that first cross country season, they just crushed us. They continued to crush us in indoor and outdoor track. At the end of the year, we regrouped and decided, “Enough is enough.” We made some changes in order to elevate our program, we went to work over the summer, and each race of that next cross country season, we focused on getting better and better. Come November, we were ready for a second try.

What we lacked in a front runner, we knew we had to make up for with incredible depth. Our goal was to place a big pack just off the front of the race and to keep this pack together for as long as possible. If we were to give ourselves a shot at winning this race, we knew we had to be very deliberate about our approach. We were given a very specific race plan through 3K, and after 3K, it was simply attacking the course and pushing as hard as we could to the finish.

On the day, I remember nothing about the warm-up felt good. I tried doing an extra minute or two at up-tempo pace during the warm-up to try to get my legs to come around. I did a couple extra snappy strides. But sure enough, the whole first mile of the race, I felt like garbage. At the mile mark, we executed our plan perfectly and had all five of our top five runners in a pack up front. But I felt like I was barely holding on. I knew I was working way harder than I should be in the first mile of a 6K race. I didn’t think I could sustain this pace. However, I was so locked in to our mission, I wouldn’t let myself consider the possibility of dropping off that front pack. I told myself, “Just one more K,” and I got through the first 3 K’s of that race just willing myself to the next one.

My coach told me before the race I needed to be right next to our top runner, Katie Jessee, at the 3K mark. In fact, he told me he would be standing right there at the 3K mark with a camera, and I’d better be in that frame! Right before 3K was when I slowly started fading. I was increasingly having trouble holding onto the pace. But I thought of my coach, and the picture, and I put in a surge just before that 3K post in the ground, and come 3,000m, I made sure I was right at her side.

After that, Katie and one or two of our other runners started taking off, and I just focused on maintaining a good, steady pace and not going backwards. I knew I couldn’t fall too far off them if we were to have a shot at winning. Between 4K and 5K, we approached the toughest (mentally and physically) part of the course. Right around that point, I got the strangest, most remarkable second wind. I’m not sure I’ve gotten anything like it in any race before or since. My legs were turned around. Suddenly, I was powering through the winding trails and uphills, and I caught my teammates who I thought were long gone. I put myself in the top 10 of the race, and then into 9th place, and by the finish, 8th place. My highest finish at a cross country league meet ever – by 14 places, and a big 6K personal best. And best of all, we ended up tying the race, coming so heart-breakingly close to winning and beating a team that destroyed us the year before.

From this race, I learned how to self-sacrifice for a greater good, and I learned that whether you feel good or bad at any given point in a race, that will change. This also brought full-circle for me the idea that “perfection” is an illusion, and that being at your best has more to do with fighting through imperfection than it does with achieving this illusive “perfection” in the first place.

I think it is important to hammer into athletes that there is an important and distinct difference between working relentlessly hard (which you need to do if you want to be competitive at the highest level… there is no sugarcoating this) and putting together “perfect” training. From my experience and learning from the experiences of others, what is able to constitute for Type-A people a “perfect” training block is usually the early stages of overtraining syndrome. This is a very slippery slope and can easily ruin seasons. And it is especially important for college athletes, who only have a limited number of seasons to explore their potential.

I think one of the best tools you can have as an athlete is a keen awareness of both your greatest strengths and weaknesses. You need to let both guide your training. If you know you are a Type-A person, that is something you can be aware of. If you are a Type-A person, you can use that awareness to know you will always overtrain yourself before you undertrain. You can know you might need to finish every workout, every training day, every training week feeling like you are “satisfied” but not entirely content with what you have put in. You can know you might need to feel like you gave 95%, versus 100%. For the Type-A athlete, this will always feel itchy and uncomfortable, but it is a necessary and small sacrifice one needs to learn to make to be able to give everything they have come race day, when it counts.

Athletes should always be reminded that they are “training to race” and not “training to have impressive training logs”. This is not a take-home test. Everyone’s training logs are not collected at the end of the race, evaluated and tallied; the medals are not awarded to whoever has achieved the most “perfect” and consistent mileage progression, or strung together the “perfect” series of uninterrupted workouts. You do not get an asterisk next to your name on the results sheet because you left your race in that 4 x mile workout two weeks ago.

QOTD:

“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”

– John Steinbeck

Almond Butter & Jelly Snack Bars (gf, df)

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I first started running in the eighth grade for my middle school’s cross country team. Back then, my race day lunch was always the same – a double-decker peanut butter and jelly sandwich from our school’s cafeteria – loaded up with heaping gobs of (processed) peanut butter and spilling with jelly. It was comforting, tasty, and something I could trust to keep me full through warm-ups hours later.

As training and race day routines have evolved, the love for peanut butter and jelly has never died. But I’ve gotten much more discriminating with what I put in my body, and I now hold my food to higher standards.

Behold, a new pre-workout (and snack) solution: these upgraded Almond Butter & Jelly Snack Bars. I swap processed peanut butter for natural almond butter, use unsweetened or fruit juice sweetened strawberry jelly, and make them into bar form – much more portable, and easy to take on-the-go. I hope you give them a try for yourself!

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Almond Butter & Jelly Snack Bars (gf, df)

  • Author: APRÉS RUN
  • Prep Time: 20
  • Cook Time: 40
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 12 1x
  • Category: Snacks
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: Healthy
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Description

These snack bars are a wholesome take on a classic childhood favorite. Packed with whole grains and healthy monosaturated fats, they are a feel-good food with all day staying power and won’t leave you hungry an hour or two later. They’re enjoyed just as well for breakfast, an afternoon snack, dessert, or pre-workout. Enjoy!

Scale

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups oat flour
  • 1 cup almond flour
  • 1/2 cup coconut sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted*
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1/2 teaspoon real vanilla extract
  • 1 cup strawberry jam (unsweetened or fruit-juice-sweetened preferred)
  • 2–3 tablespoons natural almond butter, for drizzling on top**

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350° F. Prepare a square baking dish – either lining with parchment paper or greasing with a little coconut oil. Set aside.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients (oat flour through salt).
  3. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together melted coconut oil, beaten egg, and vanilla extract.
  4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, and knead together until a thick, sticky dough forms. Don’t be afraid to use your hands!
  5. Measure out 1/2 cup of the dough, and set aside. Using either a spatula or your hands, press the rest of the dough into an even layer at the bottom of your baking dish. This will form your crust.
  6. Spoon the strawberry jam on top of the crust layer, and spread evenly to cover the dough.
  7. Crumble the reserved dough over the strawberry jam layer to finish.
  8. Bake for 40 minutes, until the crust and top layer reach a nice, golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes.
  9. Drizzle drippy almond butter over cooled bars, then cut into squares and remove from pan.
  10. Enjoy! Bars are best stored in the fridge and served cool.

Notes

*Make sure melted coconut oil is cooled slightly before combining with the beaten egg – otherwise it will scramble.

**Natural almond butter has just one or two ingredients – almonds and maybe salt. It should have a drippy, wet consistency (unlike Jif or Skippy brands). Warm if necessary before drizzling.

Keywords: Almond butter, jelly, peanut butter and jelly, healthy baking, snack bars, healthy snacks, healthy on the go

Creamy Cashew Tomato Sauce (vegan, gf, df)

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Pasta dinners: The perfect summertime solution. Dinner is on the table in 20 minutes, there’s little clean-up, and everyone is happy and full. We do some type of Banza pasta almost every week now, and in my constant quest to find sauces that keep it interesting and satisfying, I created this one. Behold — a creamy vegan tomato sauce that comes together in one blender and under a few minutes. It’s packed with nourishing ingredients like cashews, tomatoes, basil, spices… but tastes rich. Try it for your next past night and thank me later.

Makes enough sauce for 1 lb of pasta

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup raw cashews
  • 1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes (no salt or sugar added)
  • 1/2 cup hot water
  • 2-3 whole cloves garlic
  • 1 handful fresh basil
  • Generous pinch salt and ground black pepper (each), to taste

Instructions:

  1. Bring 1/2 cup of water to a boil, either via stovetop or electric tea kettle.
  2. Add into a high-powered blender or food processor, along with rest of ingredients.
  3. Blend until smooth and creamy!

6-Ingredient Crispy Chickpea Patties with Dill-Yogurt Dressing (vegan, gf, df)

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A couple of weeks ago on my Instagram stories I asked what recipes people wanted to see more of. A recurring theme quickly emerged: you wanted “fast”, “easy”, “prep-ahead”, “one-bowl”, “one-pan”… etc.

These Crispy Chickpea Patties not only fit the bill, but they’re fresh and full of light Spring flavors, while still being hearty enough to keep you full all afternoon or evening. You only need six ingredients to make them (not counting salt, pepper, and olive oil for frying… but you should have those on hand already). AND, you’ll only dirty one bowl and one pan to make them. They come together in under half an hour and are delicious served with a super easy Dill-Yogurt Dressing.

Ingredients:

Chickpea Patties

  • 1 can chickpeas
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup almond flour
  • 2 eggs, whisked
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
  • 1 heaping tbsp minced garlic
  • Sea salt and black pepper, to taste
  • Olive oil, for frying

Dill-Yogurt Dressing

  • 1 cup dairy-free yogurt (I like this cashew yogurt and this coconut yogurt)
  • 1/4 cup avocado oil mayonnaise
  • 1/4 tsp sea alt
  • 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp dried dill

Instructions:

  1. Drain chickpeas and either mash by hand with a potato masher, OR toss into either a high-speed blender or food processor. Pulse for just 10-15 seconds, until chickpeas are mashed but still retain a good texture. If a few chickpeas are still whole, that’s great.
  2. Transfer chickpeas to a large mixing bowl, add in remaining ingredients (except olive oil), and combine.
  3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, add a few tablespoons of olive oil, and once the oil starts to shimmer, add in your patties. You can either use a 1/4 cup or 1/2 cup measuring cup to evenly form your patties, depending on how large you want them to be. Make sure they’re packed in tightly, so that they hold together while cooking. Cook until crispy and golden brown on the bottom, and then flip.
  4. While patties are cooking, whisk together ingredients for the Dill-Yogurt Dressing in a small mixing bowl, let sit for 5-6 minutes, and then serve dolloped on top of the patties.
  5. Enjoy!

Blueberry Chia Race Weekend Power Pancakes (vegan, df, gf)

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These pancakes are everything you want on a race weekend or in preparation for going long. They’re power-packed with antioxidants from blueberries, potassium from bananas, healthy fats from olive oil, chia seeds, and almond flour, and hearty, slow-digesting carbs from oats.

(Did you know chia seeds are a superfood for runners? See here, here, and here for more.)

They’re satiating enough to keep you full for hours (and help build glycogen stores), but they’re also incredibly energizing, and light enough to leave the breakfast table feeling good — not weighed down.

And did I mention they’re delicious?! By now you should know that my favorite type of pancake is slightly crispy on the outside and melt-in-your-mouth in the middle. These certainly fit the bill. If you want them extra crispy, try greasing your pan with coconut oil instead of cooking spray.

Ingredients:

  • 2 medium very ripe bananas
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 1 dash of cinnamon
  • 1 tsp. real vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
  • 3 tbsp. chia seeds
  • 1/2 cup your favorite gluten-free flour blend (I swear by Bob’s Red Mill, which uses chickpea flour as a base)
  • 1/4 cup almond meal
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup frozen or fresh blueberries

Instructions:

  1. In a large mixing bowl, start by mashing your ripe bananas together with the baking powder.
  2. Add in salt, cinnamon, and your wet ingredients (vanilla, oil, and almond milk). Stir until well-combined.
  3. Next, stir in your chia seeds. Mix until well-incorporated with the batter and let sit for 5-10 minutes — the chia seeds will work its magic.
  4. Add in the dry ingredients one at a time — until incorporated but not over-stirred. You want the pancakes to remain as light and fluffy as possible.
  5. Lastly, stir in the blueberries.
  6. Grease a griddle or large frying pan, bring to medium heat, and cook up the pancakes until just browned on the outside. Flip, repeat, and serve with vegan butter (or coconut oil) and real maple syrup. Enjoy!

The Best Nutrition Changes I Made for Body Comp, Performance, and Happiness

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I think that everyone — but especially women — go through a unique relationship with food over the course of their lives. Today I’m sharing the changes I’ve made over the past several years that have had the biggest impact on my body composition, performance, and happiness.

Could I be leaner than I am right now? Yes. Do I want to be? Yes, because I’m always working to improve myself — but not by much. Whereas in the past, I thought skinniness = happiness on an infinite ascending curve (where happiness increases as skinniness increases, and there is no endpoint), I now have a clear sense of where my “healthy median” is: where I feel energized day-to-day, I’m not hungry all the time, I can recover well from training, and my hormones are functioning at healthy, happy levels. I try not to stray too far above or below this set point.

Also — Note that I listed three things in the title, and the most important of those is without a doubt happiness. If the way you’re eating is consistently detracting from your happiness, and if the way you’re fueling isn’t consistently making you feel good… you probably need to make some changes of your own.

My best changes from the past several years

1. I stopped being afraid to eat more. I stopped calorie counting many years ago, but for me, I still had some picture in my head of what was and wasn’t a reasonable amount for me to be eating (???!). I had to completely throw out the drawing board and write a new one. I once had a nutritionist tell me that at 5’8”, my body is a “stretch limousine, not a taxi cab.” Things that you have to take into consideration when deciding how much food is right for you:

  • Your activity levels – Including and outside of exercising. If you have a more active day job, or more active weekends, for example, you need to take this into account. If you’re a fidgety person who hates sitting (like me), you need to take this into account. (Google “NEAT.”) If you’re running 40-60 miles a week, or if your mileage has just jumped up, you need to take this into account.
  • Your height and weight – Larger people need more fuel. It’s science. Even if you are larger for your frame but trying to lose weight, your starting energy expenditure is going to be higher than someone who is smaller and of the same frame size. So take this into account and don’t make drastic cuts. The same thing applies if you are tall and thin. Your body needs more fuel than someone who is 4” shorter than you, just at baseline.
  • Your metabolism – There’s a lot of mixed research on metabolism speed, but from my personal experience amongst teammates and friends, I do think metabolisms vary. In college I had a friend of almost the exact same height and of a similar build. We were running similar mileage and doing the exact same workouts. But she ate like a bird and I was always starving. I think that as adults, most people can identify whether they’re someone with a “fast”, “slow”, or “normal” metabolism. I’ve had a fast metabolism since I was young, and my mom and brothers are the same way. I would encourage you to resist comparing the amount of food you need to what others are eating, as bodies are so individual.

2. I started frontloading my calories. This has made a HUGE difference in the way that I fuel. Step 1a was eating more overall, and step 1b was redistributing my calories. Before the cycle would look like this – Start the day eating the way I “thought” I should be eating. End up hungry an hour or hour and a half after eating. Have a massive blood sugar drop around 2 PM. End up at the mercy of my low blood sugar, sometimes making poorer food choices, and all of the time consuming the majority of my calories in the second half of my day. Now, I eat proactively instead of reactively. I always have a very big breakfast plus a mid-morning snack when needed, and I’ve made my lunches more hearty. As a result, I feel much more well-fueled. I’m eating the majority of my calories during the time of day I’m most active (and need them the most). Come dinnertime, I’m not eating a massive meal, and afterwards, I’m satisfied and not having crazy cravings.

3. I stopped depriving myself. No foods, except what I’m allergic to, are off limits to me. I don’t believe that “fit people” only eat protein, brown rice, and vegetables. Fit people eat all foods, they just prioritize foods that are good for their body and make them feel good.

The other side of this: when you prioritize fueling your body with healthy, from-the-earth and –farm ingredients, your taste buds start to change. In turn, you start craving low-nutrient foods less. It takes trusting your body to realize that allowing yourself to eat “bad” foods does not mean your body is going to want “bad” foods all the time. Now, I honor whatever cravings my body has, I enjoy it, and I move on. I don’t say “I shouldn’t eat that” and I stand up for myself when people say “You’re really going to eat that?!” Eating junk food no longer turns into a weeklong downward spiral of despair, self-hatred, and overeating/trying to compensate. It has taken me a lot of years to get to this place, but it’s been so incredibly worth it. Fight against diet culture, stand up for yourself, and start honoring your body’s cravings instead of fighting against them. A great book on this topic is Melissa Hartwig’s Food Freedom Forever.

4. I started eating more fat. This was a huge dietary change I made after my freshman year of college, which was disastrous for me running-wise. Eventually I’ll dedicate a whole separate post to this (because I feel so strongly about it!), but simply put: FEMALE RUNNERS NEED FAT!! When most people try to “diet” or even “eat healthier”, fats and carbs are two of the foods that are usually first to go. But fat is so important not only for appetite regulation (eating too low fat of a diet will make you hungry all the time, and can give you crazy sugar cravings especially), but it’s also incredibly important for female hormonal health. A good training diet is plentiful in healthy oils, avocados, natural nut butters, fatty fish, egg yolks, etc.

5. Non-nutrition-related… I started consistently strength training. The famous longtime University of Colorado coach once said that strength training is even more important for females than it is for males – because of hormones, bone health, and body composition, and I can’t agree more. Research shows resistance training:

  • Improves bone density
  • Improves hormonal health (in both males and females… but in different ways)
  • Changes body composition in favorable ways, even in otherwise active people
  • Creates resistance to injury
  • And so much more

Since committing to lifting more consistently than ever before, I’ve watched my body undergo changes I’m really proud of, and without having to make any crazy changes to my diet. I can eat more at rest (muscle is active tissue and actually burns calories, whereas fat does not), my abs are tighter and more toned despite not doing a ton of targeted “ab work”, my legs are more shapely and defined, my back and arms are more developed, and my waist has actually shrunk. My body is not perfect by any means, and I still have a lot of things I want to improve, but noticing all these changes has been fun. The benefits of lifting will also become a separate post at some point!

I want to know: As you look back on the past several years, what are the best changes you’ve made for your body and happiness?!

The Best Places to Eat & Run in Boston

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I’m so excited to team up with Christie Wang of @fitwithchristie on Instagram and the blog at https://www.christiewang.co/blog for this post! Christie is a Boston-based Pilates instructor (she’s incredible), and has been living in the city for the past seven years. I’m just an hour south of Boston in Providence, RI and despite having a city of my own, drive up to be in Boston just about as often as I can.

As lovers of all things food AND running, we combined our knowledge to create a list of the very best places to eat and run in the city. For all those coming into the city this weekend for the Boston Marathon, good luck, and we hope you get to soak in all the city has to offer!

Best Places to Eat – Daytime:

– Tatte – This could just as easily fall into the “Best Cup of Coffee” category as in the “Best Places to Eat” category. Tatte is a Boston staple with the most beautiful of interiors, European-quality baked goods, and menu items that are just as good (try their shakshuka — they’re famous for it!). Check their website for locations, as they have a couple cafe locations throughout the city.

– Flour Cafe – Another Boston cafe staple, Flour is famous for their sticky buns. Beyond just sweets, we’d recommend the hearty sweet potato sandwich and soups. They also have several locations throughout the city.

– Jugos Supremo – Jugos’ flagship location, attached to the train station, has long been a staple for commuters and people new to the city. The convenience can’t be beat, and you can get ridiculously fresh juices, smoothies, bowls, toasts, and other healthy take-away goods. Now, they have a second location, Jugos Supremo, with an expanded menu that includes sit-down items such as more elaborate toasts, egg dishes, even Belgian waffles. You can expect the freshest fruits and vegetables, all local ingredients, and the fact that all their nut milks are housemade.

502 Massachusetts Ave, Boston, MA 02118

– Mother Juice – Just a couple blocks from the Boston Marathon finish line, you’ll want everything on Mother Juice’s menu. It is totally plant-based but could convert even the biggest meat-eating skeptics. Try their big salad bowls (pictured below: BBQ Chickpea), smoothies, overnight oat bowls, and energy balls.

291 Newbury St, Boston, MA 02115

– Eataly – A great post-race option right next to the finish line, Eataly has several mini-restaurants within it (for incredible salad, pasta, bread, and wine). Plus, shop their selection of meats, cheeses, and baked goods to bring home.

Prudential Center, 800 Boylston St, Boston, MA 02199

– FoMu – For the BEST vegan ice cream, in flavors such as Bourbon Maple Walnut, Magic Bar, Salted Caramel, and Sweet Lavender. FoMu has locations in Allston, Jamaica Plain, Fenway, and the South End.

Best Places to Eat – Pre- or Post-Race Dinner:

– Myers and Chang – Located in the South End neighborhood, just a few blocks away from the finish line, this Asian fusion restaurant offers a popular Dim Sum brunch on weekends and Cheap Date Prix Fixe on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Expect flavorful Asian style dishes presented in a “small plates” format.

1145 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02118

– Citrus and Salt – A “coastal Mexican” foodie paradise that has Instagram-worthy cocktails. Their Sunday brunch is a fan favorite. If you have a big appetite, try the waffle tacos! If you’re just stopping by for drinks, get margaritas and a whole vat of their guacamole – it’s that good.

142 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA 02116

– Lolita – Another incredible Mexican restaurant in Boston, you can expect free chips and salsa at the start of your meal and cotton candy to finish things off with a sweet touch. The spicy cucumber margaritas are my favorite.

In Back Bay and the Seaport

– Pammy’s – This Italian inspired restaurant is in the heart of Cambridge. People love it for their hearty pastas and incredible cocktail selection.

928 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139

– Oleana – Oleana is on the fancy side but, it’s worth the reservation (usually booked a few weeks out on a weekend night). It’s a very vegan friendly Mediterranean style restaurant. You can either order everything in a small plates, shared fashion or go with their incredible tasting menus (opt wine pairings). I’d highly suggest the veggie tasting menu. If you have any dietary restrictions, just let them know and they’ll happily adjust. As a bonus, if you love sweets, go for their well known Baked Alaska.

134 Hampshire St, Cambridge MA, 02139

Best cup of coffee:

Dunkin Donuts may well be the official coffee chain of Boston (locals are fervently loyal), but don’t let that stop you from experiencing a city that has an incredible coffee scene. Here are our picks for the best cups in Boston…

– Pavement Coffeehouse – A local Boston brand. Try one their specialty lattes for something fun (they carry oat milk, which we love), or a pour-over for something classic. They also have great bagels and light bites.

With locations in Allston, Berklee, Boston University, Fenway, Symphony, Newbury, Brighton, and Harvard Square

– Caffe Nero – The best of European coffee in Boston. Come for the gorgeous, moody vibes and great espresso.

They have locations all over the city. Check their cafe map here to find the closest one near you.

– Gracenote – Super cute decor and delicious, artisanal coffee tucked in the Leather District of Boston. A must-stop if you’re in the area.

108 Lincoln St, Boston, MA 02111

– Ogawa – Created by Japanese coffee artisans, Ogawa is distinctly unlike any of the other coffee spots on this list. Stop in for something different, and to try all the matcha-flavored things. They also have a full food menu if you want something more than just a light bite.

10 Milk Street, Boston, MA 02108

– Blue Bottle – There are only a few locations of Blue Bottle in the world — this is a must-stop! Try their signature New Orleans iced coffee.

Located right in the Prudential Center (by the Boston Marathon finish line), but also has locations in Harvard Square and the Exchange

Best places to run:

– The Charles River – You can find a great full map of the river here. To run the Charles, just pick two bridges and make a loop. The Charles loop “unofficially” ends at the Museum of Natural Sciences, and you can take the river all the way out past Harvard, MIT, Boston University, and into Watertown and Newton.

– The Common – Try the long hill for hill sprints or hill reps. It’s about 1 mile to cover the whole diameter of the common and the “big hill” closest to Beacon St is .25 miles, for reference! This is one of the only “big hills” in the Downtown Boston area so, you’ll catch many of the run groups doing hill repeats here on any weekday night.

– The Emerald Necklace – This pathway starts in Fenway and spits you right at Jamaica Pond.

– The Chestnut Hill Reservoir – Affectionately called “the Res”, it’s a beautiful 1.5 mile path right off of Boston College’s campus.

– The Newton Carriage Trails – Run the toughest parts of the Boston Marathon course along the beautiful carriage roads of Newton. You’ll pass some of Boston’s most beautiful homes and get some hills in to boot.

Have you ever been to Boston before? Do you have any favorite spots you think we missed?! Would love to hear in the comments!