Runners' World: Ticker Taping?

How Exactly Does a Fitness Tracker Monitor Your Heart Health? 

We tapped an expert to break down how a heart rate monitor works—and who should invest in one. JORDAN SMITH/Runners' World.com/Sep 18, 2020 

Tracking your heart rate during workouts isn’t new, but heart rate tracking technology is rapidly advancing. Gone are the days of merely monitoring your beats per minute; the latest trackers can now alert you to an irregular heart rhythm, and some are even rolling out low-range VO2 max tracking. 

With more younger people suffering from strokes, and more reports of cardiac arrests happening during exercise, it might be a good time to consider upgrading your tracker. We tapped experts to find out just how much you should rely on your new tracker’s heart-monitoring software...

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PodiumRunner: A Short Marathon Build-Up?

The Case for a Shorter Marathon Buildup

The uncertainty of racing makes it hard to plan 4–6 months out. Take heart, 8–10 weeks might be a better marathon buildup. 

Sep 4, 2020/RICHARD A. LOVETT/PodiumRunner 

If you’re looking for candidates for the type of runners who’ve been most severely impacted by COVID-19 restrictions, marathoners are probably top of the list. After all, it’s fairly easy to do a virtual 5K or 10K — or give the mile or the 800 a go on a track or measured road. 

But a virtual marathon? With no aid stations and no other runners to keep you focused during those long, later miles? That’s a different beast, entirely. 

Which means that once COVID-19 restrictions on road racing start to ease, there’s going to be a big clamor for marathons. But, when a marathon finally becomes possible, that will raise another question: how far in advance do you need to start training for it?

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PodiumRunner: Embrace The Alternative

How to Embrace Cross Training

3 Keys to finding enjoyment and satisfaction in alternative activities. 

August 25, 2020/Jonathan Beverly/PodiumRunner.com 

 ...I’m usually not much of a cross-trainer. I’m a runner. I run. It’s been who I am and what I do since 1977. I don’t foresee that I’m going to overthrow that identity and become primarily a hiker, biker or tree-climber anytime soon. And, I confess that my new-found enthusiasm for cross-training is due to my doctor suggesting I give my knee a chance to repair some damage that running is inflaming. But I am enjoying what I’m learning, even if it is forced: namely, that running gives me the mental skills and physical endurance to cross-train effectively — be that traditional modes or decidedly unconventional ones — and that cross-training can provide not only physical benefits but much-needed mental ones. 

The physical ones are rather obvious and well documented. But I’m discovering a few keys to making cross training more mentally satisfying... (Link to article)

Runners' World: Screen Time Is Hurting Us

How Increased Screen Time During Coronavirus Outbreak Is Affecting Your Mental Health
Less exercise and more screens may lead to higher depressive symptoms, a preliminary study finds.
JORDAN SMITH/Runners World.com//AUG 21, 2020

As the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) continues to recommend physical distancing measures across the county to slow the spread of COVID-19, it’s taking a toll on everyone’s mental health. But how exactly does a change in exercise levels and increased screen and sedentary time affect you...?

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Podium Runner: Training Partners?

Running Free with the Pack
My dogs love every run, with no goals, measurements or expectations. I need that right now.
JONATHAN BEVERLY, PodiumRunner.com/AUGUST 18, 2020

For the past decade, I’ve had the privilege of running with a pack nearly every day. A pack of dogs, that is: three rescue pups with whom we’ve shared our rural home. They may be the luckiest dogs in the world, free to run leash-free with me over the trails and dirt roads of the high plains. When they’re not chasing rabbits or pheasants, they usually fall into a pattern: one out front scouting, one a bit behind herding, and one so close I can reach down and touch his head...

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Runner's World: Connecting Black Runners and Allies

In the Wake of the George Floyd Protests, This Run Club Connects Black Runners and Allies
By uniting the community through running, Dyani Cox hopes to empower them to make lasting change.
BY TAYLOR DUTCH JUL 31, 2020

Dyani Cox sees running as a gift that keeps on giving. In addition to empowering the 37-year-old Chicago resident to overcome personal challenges in her own life, running has inspired Cox to encourage more people in the Black community and beyond to develop a sense of agency in the fight against systemic racism...

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Runners World: Stay (Running) In Place

All of the Ways to Run While Sheltering in Place, Ranked from Best to Worst
From backyards to balconies, creative running courses have been resurrected in wild places during the coronavirus pandemic.

By HAILEY MIDDLEBROOK APR 23, 2020/Runners World On-line

With races cancelled and lockdown orders in place across the globe because of the coronavirus, some runners have turned to creative measures to get in their miles. Ultrarunners have measured out 50-plus mile courses in their small neighborhoods. Others have logged serious mileage on the treadmill. And some have completed marathons on the track, on a rooftop, inside a building, and even on a balcony. Here, we’ve ranked the weirdest places we’ve seen people running during the pandemic, ranked from best (the most approachable option) to worst (the one most likely to make us say, “I’ll pass”).

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