With Fall🍂 Marathons already kicking off for some runners and Berlin around the corner this week the fall racing season is underway!  And with that comes all the excitement of your summer training coming to fruition.It always feels like a breath of fresh air when you go from summer training in hot and humid conditions to (usually) much better conditions for your races in the fall/winter. So make sure to continue to be prepared mentally for races in the fall where weather is still a factor and have a game plan to adjust pace and increase your hydration strategy.  

 

As we just witnessed in the World Marathon Championships in Tokyo that even professionals have to deal with some pretty extreme temperatures at times and they have individual strategies to help themselves best deal with it.  At the end of the day, whatever the weather brings, it's still you vs you out there and you can still have the best day for yourself even if the environmental conditions aren't supportive of that.  There are many other victories in a race than the time on a clock, so go celebrate all your training this fall because remember, Training is the Test, but Racing is the Celebration 🎉!   

 

 

Let’s get after it!

 

A: If you’re dealing with an injury and running less, or not at all, your first instinct might be to cut back on food. But that mindset could actually slow your recovery. Recovering from injury is a metabolically demanding process. Your body is doing the hard work of repairing muscles, rebuilding tissue, and possibly even healing bone, and that takes energy. So while you might not need to carb-load like you're racing a marathon, cutting calories or restricting food can actually delay healing, increase fatigue, and set you up for more problems down the road.

 

Think of it like this: you wouldn’t tell a child with a broken leg to eat less because they’re less active, you’d give them the nutrition they need to heal. But somehow, when it comes to ourselves, diet culture convinces us that less food = better recovery. That’s just not how bodies work. Your body can’t rebuild without essential building blocks (aka fuel)!

 

So what does change during an injury? Mostly, you’ll naturally remove the run-specific fueling (pre-run snack, during-run fuel, recovery shake), but the rest of your nutrition should stay largely the same: balanced, consistent, and supportive of healing. Injury is not the time to under-eat, it’s the time to support your body so it can come back stronger. 💪

 

 

If you want to learn more about nutritional needs while recovering from an injury, check out this amazing podcast episode of The Running Explained Podcast (Season 3, Episode 7) with Registered Dietitian Steph Hnatiuk (@steph.the.runners.dietitian):

 

56% of you would rather LISTEN TO MUSIC

While 44% said they'd rather TALK TO A FRIEND

This past weekend the World Championships took place in Tokyo and we have gotten to experience so many incredible races from runners all across the world.  Track and Field is my favorite thing to consume and I have enjoyed watching alot of these Championships, although I always wish we could have a full on Team Scoring Cross Country Style race because nothing would beat it in this distances runners opinion.   That said so much excitement across all the races but for this I will talk more about the marathon because both of those races were incredible tactical battles filled with excitement to the very end.

 

In the Women's race a couple Americans Susanna Sullivan and Jess McClain were seen up front early on with Susanna leading a good chunk of this race and she battled back to finish 4th while Jess McClain finally getting her shot finished 8th.  It was so cool to watch them up front and really putting themselves in this race but the overall winner Peres Jepchirchir won in a sprint finish over Tigist Assefa on a track of all places which was a sight to see at the end of the marathon and just an incredibly exciting finish to this race.

 

However not to be outdone the Men's Race also came down to a sprint finish that was a Photo Finish which is rarely ever the case in a 2 hour long race like the marathon.  It was Alphonce Felix Simbu out sprinting Amanal Petros to take the win just barely as they both had the same time 2:09:48!  As for the American Men Clayton Young was the top finisher finishing in 9th place and was even clipped early on in the race and took a fall at around 14k but was able to get back up and join the pack with ease.

 

Lots of other amazing performances and world records taking place at these championships and are filling me with tons of excitement for the Fall World Major racing scene ahead and it all gets started this weekend with the Berlin Marathon!

If you’re a runner who’s always chasing the next PR, you’ve probably seen endless wellness trends promising to boost your performance, like keto supplements, high-protein diets, intermittent fasting, and the “clean eating” craze. But here’s the thing: not every flashy new idea actually works for runners, and some can even do more harm than good. On the Running Explained Training Blog, we break down the science behind these popular fads, showing why runners have unique nutritional needs that don’t always fit the latest hype. Spoiler: carbs matter, fueling consistently beats fasting, and balance is key. If you want to stop wasting money and start fueling smarter for real gains, this one’s for you.

 

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