Real Life Runners with Angie and Kevin Brown

If you’re like a lot of runners that we work with, you may have noticed that your body isn’t responding the same way it used to.  As you get older, you may start to notice some aches and pains that weren’t there before.  Many runners experience some form of lower back pain, before, during, or after running.  Today we are going to address why it may be happening and what you can do about it.     Hi...

How do you know if you are being consistent?  Is it running 5 days a week? 6 days?  Running hard?  Running easy all the time?  Truth is... consistency looks a little different for everyone.   In this episode, we talk about consistency and why understanding your brain can improve all of our relationships with running days.  Understanding how our brain works is even more powerful than motivation. No...

We talk all the time about recovering after a hard workout.  Recovery is needed for adaptation, so sleep and nutrition matter.  What about the recovery during a workout?  How long should you break for during an interval session or a strength routine?  In this episode, we look at how the body recovers during a workout, and why you may not be getting the results you are aiming for.    Highlights of...

Runners often talk about a base-building phase as though high mileage is the only component. They think of it only as a build up to a longer race, or as something they might “need” to do. Maybe you’ve heard the term before but don’t really understand what it means or why it’s used. In this episode, we challenge the idea that base building is only about increasing mileage, and point out some other...

Have you ever crossed the finish line thinking you should have gone faster because you are not that tired?  Have you ever begged for the finish line to be a few miles closer because you went out way too fast?  Today we are talking all things pacing.  We will cover pacing strategies for races as well as training paces to help you reach your goals.  Runners take your marks...go!   Highlights of the...

Races are starting to come back onto the schedule. Whether it is a smaller local race or a major marathon with thousands of runners, racing is returning. With racing can come a major issue for many runners - pre-race nerves. The anxiety around racing has disappeared for the past year, but as runners prepare to pin on their numbers, let’s take a look at these jitters and what to do about them.   Hi...

Quitting. It’s something we never want to do, but are there times when that might be the best option? How do we know when to push through or pull the plug? In this week's episode, we answer this and some other questions posed to us by our listeners. Tune in to hear the answers!   Highlights of the Episode   How do you bring yourself to go back to running? How much is enough?  When should you...

How do you see your body?  Do you use positive or negative words to describe yourself?  When we assess our physical body, we generally do so as a comparison to some image in our head.  In this episode, we want to discuss the physical stereotypes cast upon us.  We look into how these societal expectations are different for men and women, and how they change over time.  We also talk about the idea o...

As runners, we understand that food is more than simple nutrition. Food is fuel. While many runners struggle with their poor relationship with food, the bottom line is that you can't optimize your run and training well if you don't fuel properly. In this episode, Kristy Baumann, a registered dietitian and marathon runner, shares her wisdom about proper fueling and nutrition for runners....

Many runners head out for a run without worrying about pace or effort.  They take off and run and they finish pretty tired.  They fall victim to the moderate effort trap.  They never run that hard, but they never run that easy.  If you have moved to a more polarized approach, remember that moderate effort still deserves a place in your training, and could unlock much greater potential.     Highlig...

Running is hard and as much as a good inspirational message or video can make you want to run up a mountain, sometimes we just need to recover.  Sometimes recovery looks like some extra sleep and an off day, but sometimes recovery can be remarkably active.  As with most things running, understanding both where you are and where you are aiming gives you the best chance to reach the goal.  Recovery...

In order to consider different shoes for different race distances, you have to decide what the purpose of the race is?  The same consideration comes up when you decide that you would like to always be “race fit.”  Can you pull out your optimum race performance if you have a couple days notice?  Is that a beneficial goal or does it actually put limits on your ability?   Highlights of the Episode  ...

There are so many different runners out on the roads and trails and they all run with a somewhat different look.  You can often pick out friends and family from quite a distance after you have run with them awhile.  Do the small differences in form really make a big difference in results?  As with most matters in running and life, it's a little more complicated than making one small change an...

In today’s bonus episode, we speak with one of our Real Life Runners, Angelica Flanigan, about her running journey during pregnancy and infertility. Angelica shares her story about her secondary infertility, how she bravely faced this challenge and found a good balance in her running. Angelica is an occasional blogger and a mom of one sassy toddler girl with a baby boy on the way! She loves food a...

Running seems so simple.  It’s at the center of most sports.  Kids do it so easily.  It takes relatively little equipment.  Yet, beyond running is training to run, and that is a little more complex.  The wrong approach can lead to frustration, injury, and burnout.  Whether your goal is to run faster, longer, or simply more consistently, avoiding these costly mistakes will have huge benefits.   Hig...

Runners tend to fall into two categories when it comes to strength training, love or hate.  While some runners cherish strength days to feel stronger and tone their body, others would much rather be logging some extra miles.  In this episode, we talk about the dangers of both camps and why understanding the benefits can improve all of our relationships with strength days.    Highlights of the Epis...

How often do you reach the end of the day or the workweek and wonder what happened?  Where did the time go?  How did you get so little accomplished when you had such big plans?  Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe when this current thing is completed and I have more time...that’s when I will get to reach my goals.  Knocking off checkboxes is not going to change the 24 hours in the day.  Your ti...

Remember when you were a kid and you used to just sprint from place to place without worrying that you would get tired?  Remember the thrill of flying down a hill or running across a beach?  Can you think back to the excitement of running so fast that you were not sure if your feet would keep up or if you would fall over?  We live in a world of practicality and safety.  Running slowly has enormous...

In today’s bonus episode, we speak with one of our Real Life Runners, Erin Gallardo, about her running journey and her quest to find her intuition through running. Erin shares how her running journey has helped her to grow into the person that she is today, and how achieving her goals in running has led her to achieve more in other aspects of her life as well.   Highlights of the Episode:  What is...

Wouldn’t it be great if we could simply decide to have a better run or a better race or even a better life and it would just happen?  Controlling our perspective on what is happening around us really does affect how our life plays out.  Just as two people can see the same situation completely different from each other, your attitude towards an event actually changes the situation itself.   Highlig...

Goal setting is super popular at this time of the year.  It can come with some apprehension causing us to create smaller goals than we should.  On the other hand, it can come with a bold ambition that may stretch beyond our limits.  In this episode we discuss goals.  Big ones, little ones, previous ones, and the benefits and negatives that come with each.   Highlights of the Episode   Goals are no...

There is no argument that 2020 is a very challenging year for us. But the uncertainties and difficulties that we faced actually can be a catalyst for bringing forward the best in us as we look ahead to 2021. Angie and Kevin are here to help you reflect on, and learn about the ways that you need to have the best running year of your life.   Highlights of the Episode   3 Things needed for consistenc...

As we approach the end of 2020, many people are bidding good riddance to a year like no other.  Prior to goal setting for 2021, which is important to set up a great year, we need to take some time to reflect on what happened this past year.  Before we brush off the year and dismiss the struggles and challenges, we need to remember that the struggles are usually where we learn the biggest lessons. ...

Many runners head out during the week to see how fast they can run. Others take all of their runs at too comfortable of a pace, unsure of how to incorporate speed or wary of injury. Neither path leads to great success. Whether you are looking to run faster, feel stronger, or just improve consistency, incorporating a variety of running paces is key. In this episode, we discuss the wide range of pac...

Running is a very interesting sport.  From training runs around your neighborhood, to trails, parks, and tracks, most runs you have gone on just bring you back to where you started.  If we do not pay attention, we may think this is just a lot of sweating to not get anywhere.  However, running as a way of being will take you to many new places.  You can find new places within yourself.  Give runnin...