A Free 4-Week Mental Training Plan, For You

We all can agree that running is a mental sport.

And yet, so often we only focus on the physical side of training.

I do it too, and it’s because the physical stuff is easier. Even the hard parts. Most days, I’d rather go on a hard run than be forced to examine my feelings, biases, beliefs, or God forbid try to change any of them.

I run because I want to be physically strong, but I also know I run because I want to grow mentally and emotionally.

Over time I’ve been shifting my coaching to focus more and more on the mental side of running (and life!).

I wanted to make something for anyone to dip their toe into mental training, so I present to you with great excitement … this free 4-week mental training plan. Over the course of a month, you will focus on a new skill every week

You will learn:

• How your mindset matters more than your miles

• How you see yourself as a runner, and why that matters

• Why running is important to you

• How your data could be helping or hurting your running

• How to develop your athletic intuition

I made this an email course instead of an instant download PDF, because I want anyone doing it to focus on one thing at a time and be truly present in their weekly practice. Sign up below and get started with the first lesson delivered to your inbox right away!

Fast Isn't Interesting

Race times are everywhere. A 1:30 half marathon, a 6 minute mile, a 5 hour marathon.

But do they tell us anything interesting?

The time alone doesn’t mark a success or disappointment, no matter how “fast” the time may seem.

The interesting part isn’t someone’s race time, it’s the story of how they got there. How did they become a runner? How did they pick that race? What did they hope to get out of it? What was their training like and what did they learn along the way?

I’d rather talk to someone who never thought they’d be a runner and just ran their first marathon in 7 hours, than someone who regularly coasts through 3 hour marathons but doesn’t really think about what value running adds to their life.

I’m the slowest runner I’ve ever been right now. My easy run pace has gone from 8 minute miles to 10 or 11 minute miles. But magically, running still gives me all the enjoyment, mental clarity, challenge, and fulfillment it always has. Even more, actually. I appreciate and prioritize it more than ever, and you’ll never hear me say I had a bad run, because there’s no such thing. My only challenge is finding some new on-pace running friends, but I can wait patiently for Bumble or Strava to release a run-friends-matching app (my million dollar idea!).

The saying goes: “The journey is the destination.” I think we can love both the journey and the destination, but the journey is the interesting part.

PS - My music recommendation this week is San Fermin. If you want a song to start with, try In This House.

Podcast: Running in Pregnancy and Postpartum

Listen in on my conversation with Liya Leng of Bump & Baby about my advice for running during pregnancy and postpartum:

When you fail

That dreaded moment of crossing the finish line and knowing you didn’t reach your goal. You might have been way off, or so close you could almost touch it. Either way, you’re as deflated as a big popped party balloon.

What do you do?

First things first, it’s time to get in a bath with all your sorrow, disappointment, frustration, confusion. Maybe you literally get in a bath. Know that it is okay, and even healthy and natural to give yourself this grieving period. This wallowing. And also, know that this period doesn’t have to last forever. You can sit in it until you don’t want to anymore. You can say to yourself, “I’ll be sad for 1 week, or 1 day,” whatever it may be.

When you’re ready to move on, what comes next?

You’re probably going to want to look back. You might go through your training log and calendar from the last few months - assessing what was going well and what was challenging in both training and life. Perhaps you could have done more of certain things. Gotten more sleep, done more strength training, more yoga, more hydrating. Or maybe you could have done less - less drinking, less unnecessary work, or even less mileage or fewer workouts. (Over-training is just as much of a possibility as under-training!)

You might have benefited from doing things differently. OR your training could’ve been perfect, and you might just need more time. You might have just had an off day. You will never know, and you can let this haunt you, or set you free. You’ll never know, so there’s no pressure to try to figure it out.

Maybe you can make some changes to your training, or maybe you just keep doing what you’ve been doing and link arms with your good friends patience and trust.

If you genuinely ask yourself, you’ll know if you need to make a change or stay the course.

Big goals take time, and far fewer people reach them on their first try than you’d think.

Life is a series of peaks and valleys, including all the hard-won scrambles, glorious meadow views, plateaus, and switch backs in between.

You will never know exactly why you didn’t have a good race. And when you do reach that goal, you’ll never know exactly why you had a good race either.

That’s okay. You can embrace that uncertainty as freedom. As trust. Trusting the process, and yourself.

What does it really mean to use VISUALIZATION in your training?

You may have heard how elite athletes visualize their big races, and this sounds like a helpful practice in theory, right?

But when was the last time you visualized something? If anything, some runners will visualize a race the night before. But think about it - your body can’t do things it hasn’t practiced (and practiced and practiced), and neither can your brain. Unless we use visualization frequently and purposefully, we can’t actually reap the benefits.

Now you might be thinking - I just run for fun, I don’t need these fancy tricks! I’d disagree and ask you this - have you ever felt tired on a run and wanted to keep going? Have you ever been in the middle of something challenging at work and wished it didn’t have to be so painful? Visualization can change all of this. We can’t often change reality, but we can always change our thoughts about it.

Runs will always inevitably feel hard, work will always have challenges, so will life! What you can do is practice seeing yourself experiencing these moments and deciding how you want to feel and think about it. With enough time, patience, and practice, you can actually rewire your brain to see challenges in a new way. In whatever way you’d like to see them! Maybe you’ll start seeing challenges as opportunity, or as the part of the day where you’re expanding yourself, or as a meditative time where you surrender and go with the flow. It doesn’t matter what you pick, it matters that you recognize you have a choice.

Here’s how I suggest you start practicing visualization. Once you get the hang of visualizing your runs, you can use visualization for any aspect of your life.

1. Set aside 1 day a week where you will take 3-5 minutes to visualize an upcoming run. Pick a specific day - this could be an easy run, workout, long run, etc. You can use this for any type of workout day - including your easy days. Maybe for you, you need to practice going easy on those recovery days, so you will visualize yourself doing the smart thing and going easy enough.

2. Set a timer and close your eyes. I have some guided audios you can listen to here, or you can read the following and guide yourself through:

Start by thinking about how you’ll get ready for your run, think about what the weather might be like, then picture yourself warming up, and getting started. How might you feel during the run? If you’re feeling great - what will you say to yourself? If you’re feeling tired or sore - what will you say to yourself? What skills will you use to get yourself through the workout? How might you feel when it’s over? Picture the cool down and then continuing on with your day.

And repeat! The key with making this work is repetition, so keep going with the same visualization each time you practice, and eventually you can add a 2nd or 3rd day to your week.

Lastly remember - not every run is supposed to feel great, and in fact, probably half of your workout days will feel lackluster. That’s how training goes, and if you can reset your expectations to prepare for that, you’ll save yourself a lot of disappointment and frustration. Wouldn’t that be nice!

Running & Exercise During and After Pregnancy

There are a LOT of mixed messages out there about pregnancy and exercise, and the hard truth is that recommendations DO vary from person to person. Your previous exercise experience, pregnancy symptoms, other health conditions, and lifestyle will all affect what constitutes safe, supportive exercise during pregnancy and postpartum.

That being said, I tried to compile the best tips that nearly everyone can use to help create your movement routines during and after pregnancy.

I’ve put the information in the video above into an easy to use free PDF, grab it below!

As always, if you have questions about your training - email me at caitlin@tendathletics.com

What You Need to Know About Running & Your Period

If you ask most female runners about their period, they’ll probably tell you they hate it because every month they feel shitty for a week and their training suffers. You may even hear stories of races “sabotaged” by a period ... oh the nerve! 

Yes, periods can really suck. But what if you didn’t have to fight against it all the time? What if I told you that understanding your cycle and embracing adjustments to your training can actually improve your performance and contribute to your longevity as an athlete? 

I spoke with Dr. Constance Ohlinger, a naturopathic doctor who specializes in womxn’s health and hormone balancing, to get all the details on how understanding your hormone and menstrual cycle can help you improve your training. 

Dr. Ohlinger is currently leading a year-long course called Bleed Like a Badass: It’s a gender inclusive and holistic virtual course aimed at reimagining our menstrual cycles as a source of self empowerment. Enrollment is ongoing and some features are free or donation based. The month of March will focus on Athletic Performance & The Cycle, so check it out now!   

Q: What do you think runners need to know about how their hormones can affect their training?

I think the top thing to remember is that hormones aren't always just "that annoying thing that happens each month"- there are some wonderful effects they can have as far as giving us good energy, muscle building, helping with restorative sleep, you name it! But I think we can get bogged down a lot with the negatives. Instead of writing off our cycles as a hindrance to performance, what if we asked ourselves, "How can I use these monthly changes to my advantage?" When we start thinking in that way the possibilities for using our natural cycles for optimizing performance can be pretty mind-blowing! 

Q: Is it true that your performance may be limited during menstruation? 

Yes and no. It goes back to that mindset of, "How can I use this part of my cycle to my advantage?" The premenstrual week is a great example. Culturally, there's a lot of talk out there about how we feel pretty crappy in this phase of our cycles. There can be a lot of cramps and joint pain, which don't exactly make us feel great all the time (a totally valid feeling to honor!). We also can have more intense emotions here (which often get written off...but that's another soap box for another day!). 

But this premenstrual week isn't all bad! Progesterone is high in this time, which does cause some extra joint mobility (among many other things). While this extra mobility can be a cause of more joint pain- if we instead ask, "How do we use this to our advantage?" then the answer is quite simple! This is a GREAT week to work on mobility. 

If we can get creative about adjusting our workouts each week to our needs then I don't think anything can hold us back!

Q: How can you optimize your training to meet the fluctuations of your cycle?

I think the first step to optimizing training with our cycles is to start with self-awareness in our bodies. Practice self-awareness before every workout. I call this the "Naturopathic Warm-Up" and it's just a few deep breaths, eyes closed, and a quick body scan before we dive into the workout. 

Ask yourself:

"How do I feel today?"

"How do my joints feel today?" 

“How is my energy today?"

Over time, this practice will allow you to be your own coach, your own smart-watch, and even better - your best athletic self! 

In my class Bleed Like a Badass, we talk through all of the details- there are times that we need longer warm-ups to prevent ligament injury; there are times where long-distance cardio might be easier on our bodies; there are times when estrogen is high and we have a great opportunity to go all out on muscle building workouts! At the end of the day, if we listen to our bodies, they will likely tell us the same answer if we can practice using that intuition. 

Q: Do you have any tips for eating, sleeping, or other habits you can adopt during certain times of your cycle? 

I definitely recommend more dynamic and longer warm-ups in the week of and leading up to ovulation (that's usually around Day 14-16 for most women. Remember, Day 1 is the first day of your period). There is consistent research showing we have an increase in ligament tears (particularly ACL tears) that week because that high-estrogen time can make our ligaments more fragile. 

Menses week - the week we bleed - is a great time for replenishing nutrients, especially iron. I highly recommend cooking in a cast-iron pot that week if you have one, or talking to your doctor (or naturopath!) about a good non-constipating iron supplement if you have a tendency for iron deficiency anemia. 

Q: What do you think men can take away from learning more about how hormones affect training and athletic performance? 

I think it's important for everyone (including cis-men) to understand that every body is going to have different needs when it comes to physical, nutritional and mental well-being, just as a start. 

Cis-men should know that they have hormonal cycles too! Their testosterone is the primary player in their cycles, and male cycles vary tremendously in time (sometimes they last 2 weeks, sometimes months long!).

Most consistently though, we know that testosterone is highest in the mornings, and this is partly what can help us with that get-up-and-go feeling. We can use this to our advantage too: Morning work-outs might be more productive for muscle-building work-outs, and may also help keep a good circadian rhythm. In the afternoon - when testosterone is relatively lower - that might be a better time for mobility work, since we know that testosterone does impact ligament rigidity. 

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to share that often surprises athletes? 

There's so much we wish we knew about how hormonal cycles affect our performance, but there is such a bias in the research towards male athletes! The small female-based studies that are out there (what a lot of my class is based on) are really small studies on 7-10 athletes on one team, and usually are only done over a single months' cycle. 

A lot of them conclude something like "grip strength doesn't differ between the luteal and follicular phases". But I think every female athlete will tell you that they feel different in different phases! So taking what we know about hormones and putting it into the context of how we feel is so important. It's really why I put this course together, and I hope it's going to be really helpful for athletes and trainers to do a deep dive into options for training around our cycles!

Here are my key takeaways from talking with Dr. Ohlinger: 

1. Developing your sense of how your body is feeling is the most powerful tool you can build as an athlete. 

2. Everyone benefits from times of higher training intensity followed by times of lower intensity, so embrace this and use the weeks you feel off as a time to back off training and rejuvenate. (I train most of my clients to build in workouts and mileage for 3 weeks, and then take 1 “down” week - try a structure like that to fit into your cycle). 

3. Don’t skimp on good nourishment during your period - try to get enough iron and a balance of whole foods - including plant or animal protein, fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain carbohydrates, and unsaturated fats. 

4. No two people are the same, so when considering taking a training tip from a friend or teammate, experiment with it and ask yourself, “Will this work for me?”

Resources to learn more about athletic training and your period:

Dr. Ohlinger’s course: Bleed Like a Badass

ROAR by Dr. Stacy Sims 

Try a period tracking app like Flo 

Want to ask Dr. Ohlinger a question directly?

Ask her here! 

Why Your Plantar Fasciitis Isn't Getting Better

Plantar fasciitis can be the WORST. It is a super stubborn and persistent injury and can feel elusive to cure. I spent four years struggling to heal PF in both of my feet. Along the way, I made tons of mistakes and learned a lot. There is no one magical way to cure it, but I hope my experience can help you in healing from your plantar fasciitis:

My Tips for Healing Your Plantar Fasciitis

1. There is growing evidence that plantar fasciitis (which means an inflammation issue) is in fact plantar fasciosis (which means there is dead tissue in/around the plantar fascia). This is important because dead tissue is caused by lack of circulation, so part of the cure is to increase blood flow to the area. Many of the ways to do that are actually the opposite of a lot of standard plantar fasciitis protocol. Watch this video by the foot experts at NW Foot and Ankle to learn how to treat yourself for plantar fasciosis.

Immediate Pain Relief for when you’re in the thick of it:

1. Don’t Run: Know the difference between soreness and pain - this takes a lot of trial and error, but likely your plantar fasciitis needs a break. Even if it doesn’t hurt on your run, if it is hurting significantly after - that’s a problem. Remember, there ARE other things to do besides run.

2. Vary Movement: Just because you can’t run doesn’t mean you can’t exercise. You can bike, swim, aqua-jog, elliptical, kayak, row, do low-impact (aka no jumping) strength training, rock climb, do yoga or pilates … there are SO many possibilities! Not only will these activities keep you sane and healthy when you can’t run, but also these are great practices to keep even when you start running again. Our bodies thrive on variety.

3. Consider A New Approach to Self Massage: I used to looove grinding my foot into a golf ball. I’d hear all the popping sounds and say, “I’m working out the knots, I’m loosening my fascia!” Wrong-o! What I learned is that I was actually reigniting my injuries every time I did this.

   Self massage is an incredible tool for an athlete but must be executed with caution. Rolling an injured area on hard surfaces like golf or lacrosse balls damages those tissues more and activates our sympathetic nervous system - our “fight or flight” response. In this state, our bodies experience stress and cannot recover.

   When we roll gently on softer, squishier surfaces like tennis balls, soft foam rollers, or Yoga Tune Up balls, we activate our parasympathetic nervous system - entering our “rest and digest” state that supports recovery, builds muscle tissue, restores our hormone balance, and boosts immunity and digestion.

   It’s also important to only roll sparingly, or perhaps not AT ALL, on injured areas. So I stopped rolling the sole of my foot completely and instead started rolling out my whole body, with an emphasis on my calves and between my metatarsals.

4. Active Recovery: An injury in one are is always linked to issues elsewhere. So assume you need to roll out/do yoga/active stretches more often for your whole body, and take this on like it’s your job. If you’re being really serious, set aside 2 times each day where you do a combination of yoga and rolling out for 10-20 minutes. Try these 5 essential stretches for plantar fasciitis relief.

5. Strengthen your feet: Your feet have to work so hard to keep you moving, and likely you’ve never worked on intentionally strengthening them. Make the time to perform these exercises for 10-15 minutes, 3 times each week.

6. Comfort First: If your feet feel best in crocs, wear crocs. If they feel best barefoot, go barefoot. Whatever will keep your feet as pain-free as possible, do that! Later when you are pain free you can reconsider your footwear.

How to transition back to running:

1. Strength Training: It’s essential that ALL runners establish a regular strength training routine. At minimum, take 15-20 minutes, 3 days/week to go through some basic strength training that targets your glutes, core, and shoulders. Strengthening these muscles will enhance your stability and form while running.

   • Start here for a simple strength routine

   • Find more strength moves and free classes here

2. Consider Your Shoe Choices: The most important thing about a shoe is that YOU feel good in it. There is no universal shoe knowledge that everyone can use. It’s more important to have a strong body than to have the “right” shoe.

   Learn more about picking out a shoe and how to minimize your injury risk by rotating your shoes here.

   For some people, highly supportive orthotics keep their feet healthy and happy. For others, like me, the minimal and “natural” shoe approach may be better (I only wear Altras). The key is to experiment and to do so GRADUALLY. Never jump into a new shoe style on day one (more on breaking in shoes here).

   If you want to learn more about “minimal shoes” that feature a wide toe box and zero drop, keep in mind it could take years to adapt to this type of footwear. I recommend learning from the work of Dr. Ray McClanahan at NW Foot and Ankle and Katy Bowman, the author of "Whole Body Barefoot.”

3. Go Slow: Transition back to running with run-walk combos. Yes, walking! Be patient. Take a few weeks to gradually increase the amount you run, as you decrease the amount you walk, by following a plan like this (“normal” or “full” pace refers to the average pace of your easy runs before injury. Don’t worry about being too specific, just run slow and easy to start!):

Being injured can feel like a dark and lonely place sometimes, so try your best to keep your spirits up and remember that you can do hard things. Perhaps take the time you would’ve been running to start a new hobby like painting, playing an instrument, or reading. Find the opportunity!

For more injury support, check out the Running Injury Encyclopedia from Recover Athletics.

Questions about how to deal with your plantar fasciitis? Email me, I’d love to help!

Why Five Minutes of Yoga Might Be Better Than Sixty

Here at Tend Athletics, we offer custom yoga videos … and you may be thinking, “What is that and why would I need a custom yoga video when there are thousands of free yoga videos online?”

That’s a great question.

I wanted to take you behind the scenes to see how one of our athletes, Phoebe, is using her custom yoga videos to write her dissertation (Almost Dr. Phoebe!).

I made six videos for Phoebe, each about 5 minutes long, that she can use as movement breaks throughout her day.

Why just 5 minutes each?

People think, “If I don’t have an hour or 45 minutes for yoga, it’s not even worth it.”

Try practicing yoga for just 5 minutes a day, and you’ll see why they’re wrong.

You can experience all of the physical and mental benefits of yoga in just a few minutes, and we all need breaks from work anyways, so why not make that short break a yoga break?

Keep reading to hear what Phoebe is getting out of her 5 minute yoga breaks with our custom yoga videos…

Why did you want custom yoga videos?

“I’m writing my dissertation right now and spend most of my time sitting at a computer. I have to make sure that I get up frequently to move and stretch or I end up in a lot of pain by the end of the day. I do a lot of regular yoga classes which are helpful for my back, hips etc, but I wanted some quick 5-minute sequences I could do between writing sessions. I realized that with custom videos, I could be addressing my specific issues a lot more efficiently. I could maybe have tried to cobble together my own routine, but I knew I would be a lot more likely to actually get up and move with someone telling me what to do!”

What will you be using your videos for?

I’ll be using my videos to reset between writing sessions, because sitting all day really messes with my back and hips. I try to use one of my videos for a writing break twice a day. I also asked Caitlin for a standing video that I could do while supervising my cats during their meal times. I used to stand around and do random stretches but now I have a more focused sequence.

What have you gotten out of using your custom yoga videos?

They’re an amazing mental and physical break from writing, and they help me end the day feeling a lot better. I like that I don’t have to think about what to do, and after 5 minutes I’m totally reset.

Now you can take a 5 minute break with a sample of one of Phoebe’s videos above. We hope you will also finish feeling totally reset!

Is This A Good Time for Reflection and Goal Setting?

Most of us have put all plans “on hold” right now.

But what if this was actually an excellent time to reflect and set some goals - for your running, business, relationships, or life?

I can hear you starting to say, “Why set goals right now when the future is so unknown?”

really, the future is always unknown.

When you make a goal to run a race, you never know if you will get injured, have a work project come up that will change your plans, get the opportunity to go on a cool trip, or any other number of changes that could happen.

Right now athletes everywhere are asking themselves, “If not for the competition, why bother?”

If you haven’t already, ask yourself this question. Underneath the finish lines, PRs, and post-race celebrations, why do you really run?

With that, we invite you to use our go-to practices for reflecting on your past year of training and setting goals for the year ahead with our free workbook below.

Remember, goal setting isn’t just for January 1st. We have the opportunity to reset any month, day, time, and place that we choose.