When you find yourself really in the thick of it with ramping up for a big race (especially if it’s a distance race) it’s pretty easy to lose sight of things outside of running your heart out to help with training and recovery. That being said, here are a few cool and helpful tips I’ve gotten from various sources along the way in preparation for my many races past (and the many more coming up) that I thought you might find useful:

1) Carboload with beer – Don’t be shocked. Yes, beer, an alcoholic beverage. While you are out having your pasta meal the night before the race have a couple (don’t get wasted though). Did you know that Frank Shorter had about two liters of beer the night before he won the 1972 Olympic Marathon? Yup, true story. You can check out this dedicated beer running blog as well.

2) Ice bath – after a long (13-15 mile) run soak in a tub filled with ice water (like bags of ice in the tub) for at least 20 minutes. Try not to scream (too loud). The last thing you want after a tiring run is to feel like your freezing your legs off but the ice helps close the capillary veins in your legs and prevents swelling. You’ll feel great after (the during part is *not* a party).

3) Slow down – if you are just starting out on long distance endurance training, the best first step that you can take with racking up mileage is slowing down. A lot of training plans will only have you run at race pace one or twice during the rest while the rest of the runs are anaerobic, to get your body to catch up with the cardio fitness you’ve already built up with the faster pace. There is even a method by Jeff Galloway that proposes a run/walk method to make sure that you have breaks between your running segment.

4) Run less – Cross train. I have to confess, I am guilty of lack of cross training, I’ve been forcing myself to get into strength training which is not fun and trying to switch up a day or 2 of working out during the week with a non-running workout. It’s a work in progress but I know that it will come with a big pay off.

5) Be flexible with goals – I can’t stress this enough. I have been guilty of telling myself that this week I have to hit 50 miles or 45 miles or I need to run 4 miles under 9 minutes at least, but if you find that you didn’t get a chance to rest or eat enough before your run or you have less time to run because of your work schedule, still make sure that you are getting it done – anything is better than nothing. When I have really hard and fast rules especially with mileage I find that I usually end up not running at all. But now that I am a little more flexible on mileage goals (sometimes) I will do the 3 mile run (as measly as it feels) whereas before I would scrap the run, scrap the week and then start over the next week.

Take a different spin on things and it might just rock your running world.

Here’s a song to help you along:

MSTRKRFT – Breakaway (Blende Remix)