APRÉS RUN

APRÉS RUN

Healthy Holiday Bliss Balls – 3 Ways

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We all know that the way to people’s hearts is good food. I love gifting homemade treats to people that might either be hard to shop for or seem to ‘have it all’ already. If your holiday gifting budget is small this year, or you’re trying to save money, it’s also a sweet, thoughtful way to gift that is always appreciated – and sometimes even moreso than giving material things.

I recipe-developed these healthy holiday bliss balls with gifting in mind. You can certainly get more mileage by making smaller balls, but I think the larger size looks better and more robust when packaged and given away.

I made the bliss balls in three of our most-loved holiday flavors – chocolate peppermint, gingerbread, and sugar cookie. I think sugar cookie was unanimously our favorite, with gingerbread a close second, but all the flavors are unique and delicious, and sure to please a crowd! Plus, there’s fun in getting to try them all 😉

Made from nuts, dates, oats, real maple syrup, and spices, these bliss balls are not only tasty – they’re also super nourishing and something you can feel good about gifting to anyone. For the active people in your life – they also make a great pre-workout snack!

If you try these, you have to let me know which is your favorite!

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Healthy Holiday Bliss Balls – 3 Ways

  • Author: APRÉS RUN
  • Prep Time: 5
  • Cook Time: 5
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: 6–8 large bliss balls 1x
  • Category: Snacks
  • Method: No-bake
  • Cuisine: Healthy
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Description

These bliss balls are a super festive and tasty way to get in the holiday spirit, and best of all – they’re great for sharing, and gifting to others. We love all three holiday flavors, but feel free to make just one if you favor chocolate peppermint, gingerbread, or sugar cookie in particular. You can easily double and triple the batch to make a surplus.

These balls are no-bake, super nutritious, and come together in around 10 minutes. They’re also a super fun, hands-on recipe to make with kids.

Scale

Ingredients

Chocolate Peppermint Bliss Balls

  • 1 1/2 cup raw walnuts
  • 8 medjool dates, pitted and then soaked*
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons drippy almond butter
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract
  • Optional: 1 candy cane or handful Little Secrets Dark Chocolate Peppermint Pieces, crushed, for rolling on top

Gingerbread Bliss Balls

  • 1 1/2 cup raw almonds
  • 10 medjool dates, pitted and then soaked*
  • 1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
  • 1 tablespoon cashew butter
  • 1 teaspoon cocoa powder (unsweetened)
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ginger
  • 1/8 teaspoon cloves
  • 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/8 teaspoon allspice
  • Pinch of sea salt
  • Optional: More cinnamon for dusting on top

Sugar Cookie Bliss Balls

  • 2 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup raw cashews
  • 1/2 cup real maple syrup
  • 2 tablespoons drippy peanut butter**
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • Pinch of sea salt
  • Optional: Coconut sugar for dusting on top

Instructions

  1. Combine ingredients for your ball of choice in a food processor and blend on high until a sticky dough forms.
  2. Roll dough into 6-8 large balls, and dust with suggested toppings, if desired. If making the Sugar Cookie Bliss Balls, I recommend placing in the freezer and letting firm up for 5-10 minutes.
  3. For all bliss balls, store in an airtight container in the refrigerator (for up to a week or so) or the freezer (for longer-term storage).

Notes

* To soak your dates, first remove and discard their pits. Then, place in a small bowl with warm to hot water and let soak for 10 minutes.

** Use natural peanut butter, which should be drippy in consistency and have only one or two ingredients in it (peanuts and salt) – not conventional peanut butter with hydrogenated oils in it.

Keywords: bliss balls, holiday bliss balls, holiday treats, healthy holiday baking, no bake bliss balls, chocolate peppermint, gingerbread, sugar cookie

Holiday Gift Guide for the Runners and Sweaty People in Your Life

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I LOVE the holidays, and I LOVE gifting! So I was so excited to put together my first-ever gift guide for the blog – with plenty of time left to do your holiday shopping. Below I’ve curated some of my absolute favorite products (things I’ve been loving and want to shout from the rooftops), as well as things I’ve been coveting myself – all perfect for the runners and sweaty people in your life.

I’ve included a wide range of products for all budget types (from $ to $$$), and I’ve also tried to include women-run and small or local businesses wherever possible.

Obsession-worthy running gear

(1) Lululemon Speed Up Tight 28″ Full-On Luxtreme – $108 – This is my current favorite Lululemon tight for running (and that’s saying something, because I love my Lulu). It has just the right amount of compression, so it’s supportive but doesn’t make you feel like a sausage; it has big, stretchy side pockets that can safely store car keys, gels, etc.; and it has a nice, thick, comfortable waistband that hits in just the right places.

(2) Lululemon Align Pant II 25″ – $98 – If you think your wife or friend has enough Lululemon Align Pants, you’re wrong. Buy her more colors. If your wife or friend has never *tried* a Lululemon Align Pant, do her a favor and change her life. These are my absolute favorite non-running tights of all time. (Note: I do run in them, but they’re not ‘technically’ running tights, and won’t have pockets for storing things.) They are buttery soft, and have a super flattering high (but not too high) waist. I plan on wearing these well into pregnancy, since they’re nice and stretchy… but they’re just as flattering and forgiving for non-pregnant people who want to indulge in a few extra holiday desserts 🙂

(3) Athleta Speedlight Glow Top – $79 – I love Athleta’s long sleeves for running. They really nail all of the technical details – from the sweat-wicking material, to the length, to the grippy fabric on the bottom seam that keeps it from riding up while you run, and of course – thumb holes. And I love that this style has a little sparkle in it – super fun and festive for the holidays!

(4) Oiselle Crest Vest – $162 – This is on my coveting list. Warm base layers – and vests – are a must for cold-weather running, and Oiselle’s outerwear is to-die-for. I love the high (but not too high) neck and hidden pockets of this design, as well as how well-insulated it is! This is something I would reach for day-after-day on freezing 5 AM runs.

(5) Aftershokx Aeropex Headphones – $159.99 – Something I’ve been coveting big-time! Everyone I know who has these raves about them. They’re wireless headphones that actually stay put in your ears, but more importantly they let you still hear sounds and noises around you for safety. A great tool for all runners – especially women – who do the bulk of their running alone.

For someone you REALLY love (higher $$ items)

(6) Run coaching – $139-159/month – What better gift for a runner than the gift of a (potential) new PR? Obviously I am a little biased, but I’ve seen firsthand how 1-on-1 run coaching has helped people enjoy their running more, set better goals, feel more fulfilled and purposeful in their working out, and knock off PRs at every distance. There’s nothing like having someone on your team and writing training that it totally customized to you. If you have any questions or doubts about how run coaching works, feel free to shoot me an e-mail – I’m always happy to chat! Bonus – Lift Run Perform, the coaching service I’m a part of, is a women (and mom) run small business.

(7) Stumptown Coffee subscription – $120-390/month – For the runner who loves really good coffee, there is really nothing better than Stumptown, which is roasted daily in Portland, Oregon. I think this is a such a sweet, unique gift, especially for the person who seems to ‘have it all’ already. Food and experience gifts – to me – are the master trump card.

(8) The Garmin fenix 5S Plus – $749.99 – You can definitely get everything you need from a cheaper Garmin model (I’ve been using the Forerunner 235 for years and love it) – but how pretty is the fenix model with the white and rose gold band?! High on my coveting (want, not need) list, I love that this looks nice enough to wear when not running, and I love that it would sync up with my music, give me route feedback, and let me make post-run Apple Pay purchases, should I want a sweaty Starbucks or smoothie somewhere.

(9) Le Creuset Signature Oven, 5 1/2-Quart – $330 – I’m a firm believer that homecooking is one of the single best things you can do for your health (and your running). Another really thoughtful gift – and a great home investment – is a giant Le Creuset dutch oven. These things will never go out of style and are perfect for everything from big batches of soups and stews, to roast chickens, and even homemade hot chocolate for a crowd in the wintertime. This one pot will replace 3 or 4 others already in your arsenal and save you so much counter space. I’m a sucker for this gorgeous pink color (!), but if pink isn’t your thing, I LOVE it in the Sur-la-Tab-exclusive Sea Salt, too.

For race weekend getaways

(10) The Forestbound ESCAPE Traveler in Olive – $299 – I have the plain canvas version of this bag and have gotten compliments on it for YEARS wherever I go! It is my most-loved weekender, and perfect for packing 2-3 days worth of clothes, plus all your race supplies. My only regret is not getting my bag in a darker color, because it picks up stains easily. This beautiful new olive color should fit the bill perfectly, though. I love supporting Forestbound because it’s a women-run business local to New England, and everything is 100% made in America.

Jewelry

(11) Erica Sara Designs – “Because you can’t wear your race medal forever.” ESD is an amazing women-run business, and she does everything by hand and by herself. I had the pleasure of meeting her at a running retreat this Fall (and receiving a piece of her jewelry!). She is truly the real deal, and one of the sweetest people you’ll meet in the running community. I had trouble choosing just one of my favorites to feature, so here are a couple:

  • Personalized Silhouette Necklace – $128 – You send her a picture of your running stride, and she’ll create a custom necklace with your silhouette on it. Perfect for commemorating a great race (or favorite race photo).
  • Mantra Washer Necklace – $74 – I really like the look of this washer charm necklace, which you can have engraved with your own personal mantra and wear around your neck. Such a meaningful piece to wear with you on training runs and race day.
  • Race elevation map necklaces – $60-78 – Totally one-of-a-kind – I LOVE these! She makes necklaces with the elevation maps of famous marathons, from Boston to New York to Marine Corps and more. Such a unique gift for your favorite marathoner.

Relaxation, recovery, and gear for outside running

(12) Deep tissue massage – $80-200 (roughly) – Find a really good local massage therapist or studio that works with athletes, and gift your favorite runner some TLC time for their muscles. A relaxed and uninjured runner = a happy runner 🙂

(13) Sarah Marie Design Studios RUN Muscle Tank – $40 – A cute lounging around tank for runners. I have several SMDS tanks and tees and love them all! (It’s where I got the tank top in my pregnancy announcement post.) SMDS is a women-owned business, which I love, and she makes some of the cutest (and comfiest) gear.

(14) Patagonia Women’s Los Gatos 1/4-Zip Fleece – $99 – Ok, so obviously teddy jackets are super trendy right now. But why fight a trend when it’s this comfy? I want to wrap myself in this and wear it all winter. Perfect for before and after chilly runs, and cute enough to go out shopping in. Also – if you like supporting companies doing cool things, Patagonia is one to buy from. This fleece is sustainably made, and they do awesome work with conservation and recycling efforts.

(15) Outdoor Voices CloudKnit Hoodie & Sweatpants – $85 each – Truly the lux-est of fabrics, and makes the cutest lounge set together! Outdoor Voices really nailed this one. Perfect for rest days, or hanging around in post-long-run.

Stocking stuffers & gifts under $50

(16) Oiselle Rainbow Knit Beanie – $34 – If you have to bundle up to hit the roads, you might as well make it festive. I love pom beanies, and I especially love the fun, bright colors of this one, which will help you to be seen out on the roads.

(17) Oiselle A.T. Mittens – $34 – Sorry not sorry for all the sherpa spam. Another fleecy staple I want to wear all winter long. I get Reynaud’s in my hands during the winter, so mittens are a must for me. They trap heat so much better, and keep you so much warmer than gloves.

(18) Athleta Workout Wash Kit – $34 – How cute are the metallic colors of these dopp kits?! Women always need more bags to store all their stuff, and this is the perfect, compact size to throw into even the smallest of gym bags or backpacks.

(19) Minimalist Baker Everyday Cooking: 101 Entirely Plant-Based, Mostly Gluten-Free, Easy and Delicious Recipes cookbook – $24.48 – One of my most-used cookbooks. It’s a great entry-level cookbook for someone looking to add more plants into their diet – but just as good for an experienced cook looking to mix things up and add new recipes to their repertoire. You have to check out her Pizza Burger recipe (it’s on the front cover for a reason). The premise of Minimalist Baker is that all recipes require 10 ingredients or less, 1 bowl, or 30 minutes or less to prepare.

(20) Yeti Rambler 10 oz. Mug – $24.99 – I bought one for my husband for Christmas last year and kind of regret not getting a second for myself! This super durable camp-style mug will hold up against dings and scratches and keeps your coffee hot FOREVER. Perfect for the multitasker, commuter, or mom of young kids. And perfect for your pre-run coffee. I like that it’s aesthetically-pleasing and comes in lots of fun colors.

(21) Stance Uncommon Solid Wool Crew Socks – $20 – Crew-length wool socks are a must in the winter, and these are made with performance wool, which means they’ll keep you warm AND wick sweat while you run. Super comfy, and stylish (like all their socks), this is a great stocking stuffer for any runner on your list.

(22) Ursa Major Essential Face Wipes – Bag of 20 – $24 – This brand has been life-changing for my skin, and these have quickly become my favorite post-run face wipe to stash in my gym bag. Not only do they smell AMAZING, but they do a really good job of getting all the post-workout sweat and grime off, without leaving a weird residue. They’re also a clean and nontoxic skincare brand. I’ve converted several others to Ursa Major, and everyone who tries them loves them.

How to Shop at Whole Foods on the ‘Cheap’

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I’ve always been fascinated by people’s grocery buying habits. I know people who love grocery shopping, and others who loathe it. I know people who go to three or four different grocery stores to get everything they need, and I know others who use a subscription or delivery service to grocery shop for them, streamlining everything as much as possible.

Since settling into our condo in Providence two years ago, our weekly grocery routine has been pretty consistent. We drive down to the closest Trader Joe’s (20-25 minutes away, depending on traffic) for the majority of our supplies, and then supplement with the (much closer) Whole Foods for specialty items and things Trader Joe’s might not have had in stock. For us – just shopping at Whole Foods would be way more convenient. But we make the effort to go down to Trader Joe’s because we can get so much more food for the same dollar amount there. Grocery shopping for us is a process, and it takes us a good couple hours on a Sunday. Time that I sometimes wish I could be spending doing other things!

This weekend I decided to give myself a personal challenge – If I was really careful and strategic, could I do a one-stop grocery shop at Whole Foods, and still come in close to what we’d spend at Trader Joe’s and other supermarkets? I decided to do a little research beforehand, and I promised I’d put together all my findings in a blog post to help others who might be in the same predicament.

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen me share on my stories Sunday – I was SO excited by the results of my challenge! Just tracking what we typically spend on a week of groceries (all stores included), I know that our baseline is somewhere around $200 – plus or minus a little, depending on whether it’s a restock week, and/or how carried away I get with the specialty items. Going into this challenge, I set a goal of getting a FULL 7 days worth of groceries, only shopping at Whole Foods, and for $150-175. I ended up getting us SO much food, and spending a total of $167.65!!

Some notes:

  • I totally get that everyone’s food budget is different, and I realize that for some people this might be a lot to spend on a week of groceries. For us, investing in good food is such a huge piece of our health and happiness, so we make it a priority and would rather cut corners on other things, if needed. We also are both very active people and eat a LOT of food. And lastly – we don’t buy a lot of processed food, so the majority of our grocery bill is coming from meats, fish, fresh produce, etc., which are definitely the most expensive things in the supermarket.
  • I wanted to make this a realistic challenge and didn’t want us to have to sacrifice all our favorite specialty items ($7 granola, some dairy-free cheeses and yogurts, etc.). I definitely could have cut costs even further by eliminating some of these items, but instead I tried to just pick and choose a few specialty items I knew we would really enjoy.
  • We do have a pretty well-stocked pantry, and this wasn’t a restock week for us. So things like brown rice, bread (which we keep in the freezer), chickpeas, and pasta are things we already had on hand. (We pretty much have a Banza shrine – 6-8 boxes of pasta – in our pantry at all times. That’s how much we love pasta.)
  • We did have one lunch planned with friends on Friday, and we wanted to try a new brunch place together Sunday morning – so this isn’t all all-encompassing of our weekly food budget (technically). But it is close.

Here is everything I bought with our grocery budget for the week – feeding 2 people over 7 days:

Here is our weekly dinner menu, plus our lunches and snacks for the week:

We pretty much eat the same thing for breakfast every morning – eggs and avocado toast, with a cup of coffee. Sometimes we’ll do oatmeal.

How I made it happen – My top Whole Foods shopping tips

  1. Shop first, write the menu later. If you go in with a specific agenda of what you want to make for the week, you’re going to end up spending a lot more than if you went in with an open mind. There are definitely pluses and minuses to both ways, but if your #1 goal is to save money, I recommend shopping first, then meal planning after.
  2. Build your meals around weekly sale items. I start shopping in the meat and produce sections, since I know that’s where the bulk of our meals are going to come from. I start with seeing what is either on sale this week in both departments – or what I can get at a really good price. For example, this week they had a great price on grass-fed ground sirloin… which normally is NOT cheap! I like to (roughly) think of each dinner as having 1 veggie component, 1 starch, and 1 protein – so once I have one of those components, I’ll build the rest of the meal around that.
  3. Skip pre-chopped veggies. Buy loose veggies (instead of packaged) whenever possible. It’s amazing how much $$ is added to produce when they chop the veggies for you, or even when they add some basic packaging. For example, I noticed I could buy a full pound of loose mushrooms for the exact same cost of half a pound of packaged mushrooms. You’re going to have to wash and chop them anyway – why not just buy them loose? Make an exception for things that are going to make a massive difference in your life. For example, peeling and chopping a whole butternut squash can be a pain in the a**. For this, I chose to buy pre-cut and packaged.
  4. Choose Whole Foods (365) brand products over name brand whenever possible. Whole Foods’ in-house brand (called ‘365’) is actually really, really good stuff! We get their oatmeal, hummuses, and nut butters and spend WAY less than name brand/specialty counterparts. All non meat or produce products on my grocery list are 365 brand, unless otherwise noted.
  5. Pick and choose which specialty items are most worth it to you. Like I said before, we like being able to buy our $7 fancy granola and $7 cashew cheeses, etc., and this week’s grocery haul included both of those things. Things like plant-based yogurt, cheeses, fancy dark chocolate bars, artisanal chips and crackers, and baking mixes are all going to add massive $$$ to your grocery bill if you don’t keep yourself in check. You don’t need to eliminate all of those things, but try to just pick a few to enjoy each week. Next week you can always choose some different ones.

Are you someone who shops at (or avoids) Whole Foods regularly? I hope this post is helpful! Please feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit from it, and leave a comment below with any tips you use or that I might have missed!

Mint Chocolate Smoothie Bowls (gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan)

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Next week I’ll talk about some of the changes I’ve made to my diet during pregnancy (besides the obvious… like avoiding alcohol, raw fish, runny eggs, and certain seafood). One of these has been the emergence of the #dailysmoothie! I’ve always been a big fan of smoothies, but since becoming pregnant I’ve made it a goal to get one in consistently every day.

Why? One – it’s a nice way to add some extra (healthy) calories and make sure I’m eating often throughout the day. And, two – I pack a ton of good stuff into my smoothies and can feel good knowing I’m giving my baby a ton of easily-digestible nutrients in one go.

For those of you who struggle with eating healthy during the upcoming holiday season, or who will be entering their busy seasons at work – you might think about starting your own #dailysmoothie challenge. Not only are smoothies super quick to make, and easily transportable – think of them as ‘nutrient insurance’. Even if you indulge in a few too many desserts, or eat nothing else healthy that day – you can have peace of mind knowing you’ve covered a ton of your nutritional bases (fruits, veggies, and healthy fats) in one mealtime.

I’ve been making smoothie bowls recently for Ryan and I as a way to mix things up, and also to make our smoothies into more substantial snacks. As a lover of all things mint and chocolate, this recipe has been one of my personal favorites. If the avocado in the ingredients list scares you, don’t let it! I promise you won’t even taste it, but it adds a great thick and creamy texture (and lots of healthy fats). This recipe is kid and picky-eater friendly!

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Mint Chocolate Smoothie Bowls

  • Author: APRÉS RUN
  • Prep Time: 5
  • Cook Time: 5
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: 1 1x
  • Category: Smoothies
  • Cuisine: Healthy
Print

Description

Lovers of mint and chocolate – rejoice! This smoothie bowl tastes like a healthy mint chocolate chip milkshake, and is packed with super nourishing ingredients like bananas, avocado, dates, and hemp seeds. It will fill you up and make you glow from the inside out!

Scale

Ingredients

  • 2 frozen bananas*
  • 2 Medjool dates, pitted**
  • ½ a medium to large ripe avocado
  • 2 tablespoons hemp seeds
  • 2 teaspoons matcha (optional – adds extra antioxidants, and a nice, bright green color!)
  • ¾ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • Dash of peppermint extract***
  • ¼ cup ice
  • 2 tablespoons dark chocolate chunks
  • Cacao nibs, for topping
  • Extra banana (optional), for slicing on top

Instructions

  1. Pour almond milk and peppermint extract into a high-speed blender. (Adding the liquids first will help the smoothie to blend more efficiently.)
  2. Add frozen bananas, dates, avocado, hemp seeds, matcha (if using), and ice.
  3. Blend, starting at a very high speed and gradually working lower. Either use a tamper, or stop to scrape down the sides of the blender as needed, to help keep things moving. Your smoothie should (purposefully) be very thick.
  4. Once well-blended, add in the dark chocolate chunks and pulse for 10-20 seconds. I like to leave a little texture to my chunks, but if you prefer a smoother smoothie, you can blend longer.
  5.  Use a spatula to transfer your smoothie into a bowl. Sprinkle with cacao nibs and top with sliced banana (optional).
  6. Enjoy!

Notes

* I recommend freezing your bananas in small slices or chunks for easiest blending.

** You may want to soften your dates slightly beforehand to make them easier to blend. To do this, place your dates in a shallow bowl, fill with hot water, and let sit for 10 minutes.

*** You’ll only need the tiniest dash of peppermint extract. Peppermint is super potent, unlike other milder extracts (like vanilla or almond), and it’s a very fine line between a nice mint-chocolate taste and making your smoothie bowl taste like mouthwash!

First Trimester Recap

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Happy Halloween, everyone! Now that I’m 18 weeks pregnant and well into the second trimester, I wanted to make sure I shared my first trimester recap… mainly before I forget everything! Once I found out I was pregnant, I wanted to learn as much as I could, and I loved reading about the experiences of other women. I especially appreciated women who didn’t mince words and told it like it was, and I really appreciated the stories of women who did not have ~magical~, glowing first trimesters, since that was my experience as well. If I can do any good, I’d like to help de-glamorize pregnancy and show that there are a wide variety of experiences to be had out there!

As brutal as the first trimester was, I will say I’m amazed at the body’s ability to forget pain. I feel like a totally different person now that I’m in the second trimester, so hopefully that can lend hope to others who may be going through it. I have to remind myself sometimes how awful I felt just as recently as a month or two ago.

Also worth noting – we have the most healthy baby boy, with a strong heartbeat, all his limbs, chromosomes, and healthy body proportions, and today we got to see him squirming around like crazy at the anatomy ultrasound. So that has truly made this whole journey worth it.

Weeks 1-14 of Pregnancy

I thought getting pregnant would take us several months, so when I went off birth control after our honeymoon, I did start taking a prenatal (just in case), but I truly had no expectations. I had heard so many stories of people struggling for months and years to get pregnant, and (perhaps overcautiously) I did not have any illusions it was going to be an easy or quick process. I also didn’t want to get my hopes up. Little I did know… we would get pregnant literally right away 😳

Weeks 2-4(??): Weird cluster of symptoms – but the main ones were crazy fatigue (way beyond the scope of normal tiredness… I suddenly couldn’t get out of bed in the mornings and felt like I’d been drugged!), as well as dizziness and lightheadness. One morning I got so dizzy and lightheaded I passed out out of the shower. Ryan was so worried he took me to the Urgent Care after work. They tested for me iron deficiency, Lyme disease, thyroid deficiencies… literally everything under the sun (lol), plus pregnancy. At that point the pregnancy test (and everything else) came back negative.

Week 4.5: When I found out. The night before, my sister-in-law was over, we had a nice dinner, and we all took limoncello shots (brought back from our honeymoon in Italy) 😬 Yikes… That night in bed, I was looking at the calendar, adding up symptoms, and wondered if I should take another pregnancy test just to be sure. I rolled over, looked at my husband, and went, ‘Do you think I could be pregnant…?!” And I think he looked at me like I had two heads. But sure enough… the next day I got the positive result.

Week 7: All-encompassing nausea and fatigue begins. Still having enormous trouble getting out of bed in the mornings – early morning (my former 4:30-5:00 AM) wake-ups are no longer possible. Intense sense of smell also starts developing – as do the food aversions. Suddenly there are SO many foods I never want to smell, touch, see, eat, or be anywhere near. If Ryan makes or eats any of these foods, he has to eat it from the other end of the living room 😷(Poor guy…) Carb cravings begin! Carbs = life, and I only want bread, bagels, and potatoes in all forms.

Week 8: First OB appointment. Baby has a viable heartbeat!

Week 9: All-encompassing vomiting begins. From this point on, I’m throwing up 1-4 times a day pretty much every day, and not able to get a lot of food (or water) in in between. It is a very miserable time, and these weeks feel like months with no guarantee of an end in sight. This was by far the lowest point (to date) of the pregnancy – it was extremely isolating, mentally and emotionally trying, and if it had lasted a little bit longer I would have tried to see a mental health counselor, because I think I was starting to get clinically depressed. I was hospitalized once with dehydration and had to get IV fluids, plus intravenous nausea meds. No over-the-counter remedies OR combo of meds worked for me, which was enormously frustrating. I think the only that helped was time and just waiting for this to pass. Thankfully I was able to work remotely from my couch at this point, and working actually helped, as it gave me something to keep my mind off how terrible I felt.

Things I tried to stop the nausea (that didn’t work):

  • Ginger – ginger tea, ginger tablets, ginger-flavored food
  • Eating small meals throughout the day
  • Plain, starchy foods, like crackers and dry toast
  • Accupuncture
  • Exercise – didn’t help, but also not even possible after a certain point, since I was so weak from all the vomiting
  • Zofran
  • Compazine
  • B6 + half a Unisom tablet (an over-the-counter sub for the prescription med Diclegis)
  • Reglan via IV

Week 10: We opted to have genetic testing done. Baby came back low risk for all chromosomal abnormalities, and we found out ‘it’ is a HE!

Weeks 11-12: I got a brief respite from the nausea for a few days around this time – when I was able to go to the Lift Run Perform Rise.Run.Retreat! But afterwards the nausea and vomiting came back in full force.

Week 14: (Officially a week into my second trimester): Vomiting finally ends! 🙌🏻Truly feels like emerging from the dead, and my energy starts slowly coming back as well.

Food cravings and aversions in the first trimester: Food aversions = literally everything. I didn’t pressure myself to stick to my normal, healthy diet, because I figured anything was better than nothing for the baby. Also, things like smoothies, veggies, and big salads were all 🤢😷at the time. I was so desperate to get *anything* into my body, that I would eat donuts, gummies… anything with calories that actually sounded appetizing and that I could keep down for more than a few hours.

Exercising in the first trimester: Very little. I was getting back into my running and lifting routine after our honeymoon (which I had purposefully planned as a downtime from running). But the weird cluster of symptoms starting at Weeks 2-4 make things a little more irregular as I worked to figure out what was going on. Once I found out I was *just* pregnant, I took that as the green light to start (cautiously) ramping things back up. But later I would be sidelined by the nonstop nausea and vomiting. During my first trimester, my motto was just ‘do the best you can, when you can, and for as long as you can.’ So that meant very sporadic running, minimal lifting, and I never really ran above the 3-6 mile range.

Easy Snickers-Stuffed Dates

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Vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, refined-sugar-free

Looking for healthy Halloween recipes? Look no further than these super easy, 6-ingredient Snickers-Stuffed Dates. Two or three will satisfy your sweet tooth without sending you on a sugar high, thanks to fiber from the dates and healthy fats from the crushed peanuts and natural peanut butter. Plus, they’re so delicious, you just might want to enjoy them all year long!

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Easy Snickers-Stuffed Dates

  • Author: APRÉS RUN
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Description

An easy, fun, and healthy Halloween treat that won’t spike your blood sugar and leave you ‘hangry’ a few hours later. Bonus: they’re super fun (and hands-on) to make!

Scale

Ingredients

  • 20 medium to large Medjool dates
  • 1/4 cup natural peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup chopped or crushed peanuts (raw and unsalted), for topping
  • Flaky sea salt, for topping
  • 1 3 oz. dark chocolate bar, ideally 70-85% cacao
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

Instructions

  1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
  2. Start by slicing your dates down the middle and gently prying them open so they can be stuffed. Place dates along the baking sheet, making sure to leave some room in between them. Things will get messy!
  3. Next, stir your peanut butter well so that it’s not overly runny and the oil doesn’t seperate. Spoon peanut butter into the center of the opened dates, one at a time. I recommend just over 1/2 a teaspoon of peanut butter per date.
  4. Break your dark chocolate bar into pieces. Either on the stovetop or via the microwave, melt the dark chocolate and coconut oil together. Be careful not to ‘overcook’, as chocolate burns easily. Stir vigorously.
  5. One at a time, dunk and roll the stuffed dates in the chocolate mixture. Place back on tray to cool and harden.
  6. Sprinkle chopped peanuts and flaky sea salt over the dates to finish.
  7. Place your tray in the fridge for at least an hour to allow the chocolate shell to harden and solidify. After that, enjoy! These treats are best stored in the fridge, but can be frozen, as well, for longer-term preservation.

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