Simple Tips For Uphill Running

• Lean slightly into the hill
• Pump your arms a little more than you normally do while running
• Your foot should hit the ground on the mid- to front part of your foot. (Especially for heel strikers)

Running up hill isn’t really ever easy, but simple adjustments can improve your uphill running experience. That’s true for just about every exercise.

What’s one simple adjustment that you made during your workout today that made an exercise more effective?

Here’s another simple thing you can do to make a difference and help support the American Diabetes Association:

Fruit 2o is asking people in 10 cities across the country to pledge for better health on their Facebook page. All you do is go on, make a pledge, tell them what city, and $1 goes to the American Diabetes Association chapter of your choice.

Today I did a little hydration test to see if I could stay hydrated during my run. I weighed myself (without clothes) before and after my run. In apporximately one hour I stopped at three water fountains. Two during my run and one after. I came home, took off my clothes and stepped on the scale. I was down 3 pounds!!! Which means I lost 3 pounds of fluid during one hour of running!

Losing as little as 2% of your body weight can cause an increase in perceived effort and a decrease in performance. Which means my workouts are physically and mentally harder because I’m not drinking enough water. Silly me.

It’s hard working out in this heat and I’ve been making it even harder with my poor hydration levels.

I know I have a high sweat rate, but I was astounded at the results. Here’s how to tell if you are properly hydrating for your run.

• Weigh yourself without clothes on before your run.
• Weigh yourself as soon as you return home from your run.

To read more on hydration and to find out how to replace the lost fluid check out The Candid RD’s post on Fluid Recommendations.

Tonight the ever impressive owners of The Bar Method Soho, hosted a class for FCITC readers. Which means we got to experience the pretzel together.

Here are a few of the ladies who came out tonight. That’s Ashley, Missy, Erica, Nicole and Jacquie before class. It was so much fun seeing everyone!

If you missed tonight’s class, never fear for you too can join me in doing the pretzel.

Thank you to Amy, Kristen and Tim at The Bar Method Soho for inviting us out and making us sweat!

First off the instructor and co-owner, Amy met every one of my 10 things you should expect from your group class instructor. Secondly, everyone at the studio seemed genuine, down to earth and knowledgeable.

Today I bring you 5 things you can learn from walking into The Bar Method studio in Soho to make yourself a better customer service professional.

Don’t only ask clients what their name is, but remember their name no matter how many people are in the room.

Make everyone know that you are the owner. You don’t have to actually be the owner, but act like you have sunk every penny you have into what you are selling. Ownership displays passion, dedication and enthusiasm.

Be real, approachable and friendly. I can’t tell you how many places I’ve gone into where everyone working there had some sort of attitude or seemed unapproachable.

Offer personalized correction when teaching/training, but do it with a gentle touch not as if you are calling someone out in class.

Listen to what your clients have to say and learn something about them. Then use that knowledge to offer them personalized packages when trying to sell. The person at Bar Method, knew that I’m a personal trainer with a lot of fitness commitments. When discussing different package options the sales person acknowledged the fact that I wouldn’t be interested in a monthly unlimited package with all my other working out.

I’ll admit that I am terrible with names… terrible. I’m really motivated to work on learning more peoples names in my classes after seeing Amy so impressively remember everyones name and even some of our last names if there were multiple people in the room with the same name.

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Tomorrow morning I’m heading to Kentucky to hang out with my sister and nephew. Be on the lookout for a giveaway and some other fun stuff on FCITC.

See you guys from the Blue Grass State!

A few years ago I found this great exercise on a segment with Kelly. I love the exercise and often do it with clients. Give a try, I think you’ll like it too!

Are you secretly obsessed with any celebs and their fitness routines?

Everything I learned about cycling I learned from the Husband. He’s a certified USA Cycling Coach and has quiet the bike racing history himself. He’s a humble guy so he probably doesn’t want me to tell you that he spent some time racing in Europe.

One of the first things he taught me was to always clip into a bike wether it’s a spin bike, road bike or mountain bike. If you’re not clipping in your missing out.

While on a bike your foot makes a full circle. When wearing sneakers you’re only working during the down part of the pedal stroke, eliminating 1/2 of the movement, giving you 1/2 the power.

The down part of the pedal stroke primarily utilizes the quads, hamstrings and glutes. The up part of the pedal stroke primarily utilizes the hamstrings, shin muscle (tibialis anterior) and hip flexor (psoas).

Bike shoes lock your foot into the pedal of the bike (similar to a ski binding) allowing you to push and pull throughout the pedal stroke. Most importantly bike shoes have a hard sole where as sneakers have a flexible rubber sole which bends under pressure. A hard soled bike shoe will allow for a direct power transfer from your feet to the pedals.

Here are some links for places that sell affordable cycling shoes:

• Performance Bike
• Sierra Trading Post
• Bike Nashbar

I promise that once you ride in cycling shoes, you’ll never want to go back to sneakers.

Run for 2.5 miles.

Do three sets of push-ups (20,20,10)

People watch between sets

Repeat for a total of 5 miles and 100 push-ups

What’s your favorite new workout?

While I had similar pain during the Manhattan 1/2 it wasn’t nearly as bad. One reason I felt like poo was probably because of these:

You’ll notice they are not my normal running shoes. I made a last minute decision to run in shoes I had only ran in twice. My longest run in these shoes prior to the race was 4.5 miles.

It was a rookie mistake.

I wore them because my plantar fascia didn’t hurt while wearing these shoes the same way it hurts in my old ones. I guess I traded in one painful body part for another. I’d much rather have pain in my foot than pain radiating up from my knee and into my psoas and piriformis. I literally thought my legs were going to give out at the end of the race.

Lesson of the day: No matter why you think you should switch out shoes on race day DON’T DO IT!!!

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned recently regarding your workouts?

When I got to the park that early, I’d actually beat all the “real cyclists” there. It was nice to get a lap around the park in without getting yelled at. (For those of you that haven’t experienced an early morning bike ride in Central Park you must know that the cycling and tri teams yell at everyone. I’ve been yelled at for riding too slow, riding to far too the left, riding too far to the right and for chatting with a friend just to mention a few).

My days of early morning bike rides and runs have faded into the past and now I’m the one doing the  yelling (at clients). Okay so I don’t yell. I’m nowhere close to being a Jillian.

Fueling for early morning workouts is challenging.

Here is how I fuel for them:

• Running: no fuel for anything under 7 miles
• Cycling: Light snack or sport drink in water bottle (I get so hungry riding, plus I can ride with food in my stomach)
• Spinning: small snack
• Yoga: Nothing
• Boot Camp or High Intensity Workout: small snack

I almost always drink a small glass of water before heading out for any of these workouts.

My advice for clients:

• Experiment to find what works for you.
• If you can’t handle food in the A.M. make sure that you eat enough at dinner.
• New exercisers usually need to eat a small amount of food before a workout. I don’t know why but they do. 99% of the time when a client gets sick to their stomach or nauseous during an early morning workout they haven’t eaten anything before the session. 99% of the time, the client resolves this problem by eating a small snack about 100-200 calories before their session.

How do you fuel for early morning workouts?

While I have a running jacket, I’ve been needing a jacket that could also act as a vest.

Okay, to be completely honest with you I really just wanted a better looking jacket. The one I currently have is in it’s fourth winter. I bought it back when I was running at 5:30 a.m. in the dark.  I didn’t care what it looked like.

Shh! Don’t tell my husband, I bought this for vanity reasons. He thinks I needed it.

Good thing it was 40% off!