A Running Coach’s Duty
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What makes a great coach great?
The North girls xc team had a great coach.

What makes a coach a good one? Are the best coaches the ones with the most technical knowledge, the most popular or trendy training theories, or the ones who get the best results? Or maybe there’s something else that makes a coach truly great.

I’ve been pondering this question a lot lately. I’ve had my share of coaches as a high school athlete and then as an adult. My children are now in sports and have their own coaches. I’ve coached adults and recently I started coaching kids too. Knowing what I’ve experienced, I’ve felt a crushing sense of responsibility and I’ve wondered what I can do to ensure I’m upholding my duty to my athletes.

As I’ve contemplated this I’ve realized there’s a more important question that needs an answer: what is a coach’s duty to his or her athletes anyway?

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The #SaltyMadness17 Local Running Store Champion Is …
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68 stores, 67 match-ups, seven rounds and two amazing stores remained: Rochester Running Company from Rochester, NY and 605 Running Company from Sioux Falls, SD. Both stores defied the odds, trouncing many higher seeded stores. Both stores pulled out all the stops. Both stores put their hearts and soles into this tournament, but there can be only one winner of the

✨GOLDEN SNAIL™!

Early on it looked like 605 had it in the bag, up 75% to Rochester’s 25% of the vote at half-time. But then Rochester began their assault, slowly chipping away until going into full-on rally mode. In the end, the difference was 53% to 47%! And the store that came out on top is …  Read more >>

O’Rly? Are You Sure No One Ever Regrets That Run?
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Yeah, we’ve all seen that meme, the one that’s meant to shove Bertha aside and get us out the door for our run no matter how rational Bertha’s arguments might be.

Cold? Suck it up.

Tired? Too bad.

Something hurts? Wah.

No matter what your excuse is, Mr. Meme here says you’ll always be happy that you got out there and put in the miles.

But that got me thinking. Would there never ever ever ever ever be a time I regretted going for a run?

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March Madness – Round I!
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It’s time for the big show! Yesterday, eight teams went head-to-head to earn a coveted spot in Round I of the 2017 Salty Running March Madness Tournament. In the Northeast Division, we had a 50/50 tie and it all came down to a coin flip – heads, higher seed number, tails lower seed number. I launched my quarter into the air and when it landed… Rochester Running Company beat out Mojo. In the Southeast Division, Ken Combs tried hard and fought through much adversity, but tournament veteran Stinky Feet ascended to victory by a mere 3 votes. In the Northwest Division it was a landslide for last year’s Miss Congeniality, See Dick Run, which strode right on past the fierce Beyond Running And, while it was a horserace from beginning to end with the lead switching back and forth multiple times, tourney veteran Flatirons Running Company delivered a last minute heartbreak to newcomer iRun Phoenix in the final minutes of the game.

Wow! But now let’s get rolling with Round I!

Below are 32 match-ups of the 64 awesome local running stores all vying to advance to Round II. Voting will be open until 1:00 p.m. Eastern tomorrow, Friday March 18. Good luck and may the best 32 teams move on to Round II!

Still don’t have your bracket? Get it here. Click through to vote!
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March Madness 2017
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MMBanner

Are you ready for some Salty March Madness?! For our fifth year, we’re celebrating the finest local running stores around the USA. Consider this your ultimate guide to the players. Print and fill out your bracket to get started, and then vote for your favorites during the tournament schedule. Just like the real thing, we’ll kick things off Wednesday, 3/15 with the first four match-ups, in which eight stores will play to compete in the main tournament. Vote here at SaltyRunning.com for your favorites and share with your friends, and your local running store could win the title as …

THE GREATEST LOCAL RUNNING STORE in the USA!!

TWEET THIS AWESOMENESS!

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Ski Down? I Prefer to Run Up! Benefits to Training and Racing Outside Your Comfort Zone
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To say I enjoy running is an understatement. There is no better way to start my day than on Boston’s Charles River esplanade watching the sun come up and the rowers fly by. It makes me feel alive and clears my head before the day. However, even I feel the need to spice it up once in a while to prevent boredom and what I like to refer to as “route burn-out.”

It was that desire that led me to the Race to the Summit: a five mile, 2,000 foot elevation, off-trail race up to the summit of Loon Mountain on a course designed by former Navy SEALS. What could be more fun!? Many people say I must be nuts. I say embrace the nuttiness and jump on in.

Signing up for a race that isn’t in your comfort zone is a great way to break out of training boredom by forcing you to train and race outside of your well-worn rut!

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If the Presidential Race Were a Running Race
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Hillary and Donald RaceAll of us here at Salty love running and many of us love politics. No, we don’t all agree on everything, but we always have a lively and productive conversation. Sometimes, we’ve shared that with you. Back during the presidential primaries we considered which candidate was the best runner. We took a quiz to figure out who the best candidate for us was based on our running. And we expounded on how to Make Running Great Again™.

As election day draws near (finally!), inspired by all the debate zingers, we wonder what this campaign would be like if Hillary and Donald were running a race rather than running for president. So come along with Bergamot to an alternate universe where she cheers on the sidelines while our favorite NBC Olympic announcers, Tom, Kevin and crew, describe the race of the century, not for the White House, but rather an almost-expired gift certificate to the local running store and a plastic trophy shaped like a person with terrible running form.  Read more >>

SaltyValu™#NMR Collection Running Apparel
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#NMR Running ApparelAt SaltyValu™ we know women runners are all about three things: fitness, beauty and shopping! By popular demand, we’ve combined all three of these elements to bring you #NMR – a new line of apparel just for the discerning SaltyValu™ woman! If you’ve loved fantastic SaltyValu™ products like our drug tests, our international sporting competition, our intense cross-training program or our clean eating diet cookbook, you’ll go berserk when you discover the fashion-forward options we’ve designed to ensure you look your absolute best while running … and always at an incredible price, that’s the SaltyValu™ guarantee!

What is #NMR? We’ve created a detailed profile and lookbook to get you excited to sign up for our low-cost monthly delivery service.

#NMR IS YOU

All great ideas start with great inspiration. Our designer Pimento wanted to create looks that remind us that all runners’ bodies are beautiful, so she turned to one of nature’s fiercest feminists, an animal that lives in colonies dominated by a single queen. The mother of the entire colony, she releases pheromones that leave her competitors with no sex drive, eliminating all her competition to be number one. She is a mother we can all support, a true ruler that we can emulate on the track or the roads. Best of all, these animals are completely unapologetic about their bodies.

Who is this noble creature?  Read more >>

⭐️The Great Salty Running Contributor Search!⭐️
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Salty Running contributors make a great team!

Welcome to the latest episode of the Great Salty Running Contributor Search, where you can apply to become part of the next class of Saltines. A panel of our finest runners and writers will decide which of our amazing applicants will join our team! Whether you’re a yuge training log fan, a lover of race reports, find the feely posts fantastic, or can’t get enough of our training tips, if you have something unique to say and a flare for saying it, we want YOU!

If you would like to be considered for one of our open contributor spots, please read our criteria. Then fill out the form below and send us a writing sample by midnight EST on Sunday, September 4, 2016*. We will make selections and notify you shortly thereafter.

***If you have previously applied for a contributor spot*** we have updated our application and request that you fill out this form below to be considered.

If you have any questions, please see the FAQ below the application or send us an email any time.

Can’t wait to hear from you!

?? Salty Read more >>

Make Running Great Again™!
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MRGA hatIntroducing our new slogan: Make Running Great Again™!

Why might we change our slogan from the perfectly adequate “Get Chicked™”? Well, these are dark times in running, between the USATF infringing on athletes’ rights, to the doping epidemic and EPO flooding our borders, to the biased media indoctrinating us with the idea that we have any business spending hours training for marathons. And we long for the good old days, when people whistled while they worked, people knew where to sit on the bus, and we women had fewer choices to confuse us.

Yes, America! We must go back when women were thrown out of the Boston Marathon, and when we could never dream beyond running 800 meters in an Olympic Games, but only manly chicks did that anyway, so we didn’t bother with that dream.

It’s time, America! We’re going to turn back the clock and Make Running Great Again™! It’s gonna be a YUGE success! Read more >>

Is Running Bad For You?
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Canis lupus baileyi running
Quick. Someone tell this coyote it’s killing itself. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ever since the untimely death of Micah True and various sensationalized marathon deaths around the country, the subject of whether running is good or bad for you–and how much running is good or bad for you–has been a media and discussion board hot topic.

Never mind that True’s death was due to cardiomyophathy, an enlarged heart, which can be caused by something as simple as an infection, not necessarily from running.  Never mind that more people die skiing or playing golf every year, or getting out of bed in the morning, or having sex.  Never mind that noise pollution increases our chances of having a cardiac event, and even the yearly switch from daylight savings to standard time and then back again increases heart attack risks.  No, let’s ignore all of that and pick on running.

For those who welcome another excuse to remain firmly ass-planted on the couch, this is music to the ear. Stop running so much, the experts advise. You’re killing yourself! Read more >>

Confessions of a Born Again Racer: Introducing Espresso!
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bow10
A stride during the first wave of my competitive running days.

I’ve called myself a ‘runner’ for 40 years – And in many ways running, along with the important people and core values I hold near and dear, serves to define this self I call “me”. It’s just part of who I am.

I ran my first race when I was 8 years old. This was back in the days of gray sweats and Keds tennis sneakers. This was several years before Title IX passed. My parents took me and my 13 year-old sister to the track at a private boys Catholic high school not too far from our house in suburban New Jersey. I cannot recall what sort of event this was. All I knew was that I was there to run. There were lots of other kids there milling about. I remember noticing that my sister and I were the only girls actually running. Other girls were there, but I never actually saw any others run. The girls sat on the bleachers with their parents watching their brothers race around the oval. We lined up straight across the track, one girl, and five boys. I had never actually run around a track before, but I had run around my block many, many times, and I imagined that it would be much like that. The starters gun fired, pop, and feet, knees and elbows flew. I remember moving my legs and feet as fast as I could possibly make them go. As we rounded the final turn I experienced for the first time the feeling you have when you push your legs to a point where you can no longer feel, nor control, them. When you make such an effort that your legs just sort of leave you – and you are your legs – they are no longer just part of you. I came in last, though it was close. That was it. I became a runner that day. Read more >>

On Being A Fat Happy Runner – A Guide to Plus Size Running
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courtesy myyeartothrive.wordpress.comHello, everyone!  I suppose I should open by introducing myself. I’m Joy, and I blog at My Year To Thrive.  I was really excited when Cinnamon contacted me about guest posting at Salty Running to talk about being a plus-size runner who runs for fun and health without the goal of weight loss.

On my personal blog I write about running as a short, fat, Bipolar woman.  Yes, it is just as fun as it sounds! I am a big advocate for HAES (Health At Every Size) and for people to run in the body they have now rather than saying, “I’m waiting until I lose some weight.”  My mother was one of those women who was always waiting till she lost weight and that stuck with me.  Running is amazing for both your mental and physical health, and I think almost anyone who can put one foot in front of the other can do it, even if they start out a snail’s pace (guilty). Read more >>

Point Me To the Good Female-Authored Running Resources
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Women's Centipede
So many good women runners, so few running resources written by women (Photo credit: naturalturn)

If you are reading this blog, it’s likely that (a) you are a runner, (b) you want to be a better runner, and (c) you are a woman (unless you are Mark).  Not that there’s anything wrong with hanging out on Salty Running as a man, so long as your interest in bouncing boobs is purely scientific (and I’ll verify that there is no video included in that post).

So let me ask you a question – why does the Salty Running team seem so unique in trying to provide sound, science-based advice for women, while, lo and behold, being women themselves?  Do you disagree on this?  Let’s take a tour of the world of resources available for competitive runners, shall we? Read more >>