Relaxing during a run is a really common technique.  Even as much as you hype yourself up for your run, relaxing can do just as much good!  Whether you need to mix it up or use it to refocus, you relaxing and meditating during a run is beneficial.  Not everything needs to be at 110% effort or the heavy metal music blaring through your ear phones.  Try a tempo song every 20 mins in your running mix to let your brain and your body know that it’s time to switch gears and relax for a minute.

Try it out – you might be surprised what happens.

Photo credit via lorypc

What do you think of this song to run to? Yay? Nay?

Click the button to download from

Got a suggestion of your own? Email me at sarah@socialmediarunners.com and I’ll feature it!

There’s this guy. He’s super fast and I pass him on the West Side Highway. Usually he wears a red shirt. Frequently he’s very sweaty. And he always has a smile on his face. All. The. Time.

At first I thought, what is this guy happy about? I’ve got a cramp in my side, a blister on my left foot, and my legs feel like lead. Sure, it’s nice to be out here, but my running face usually says “Hey! I’m hardcore! This hurts and I’m gonna kick your butt!”. My game face, if you will. No smiling allowed.

Or so I thought…

I digress. Mr. Smiley runs past me again. Surprise surprise, his eyes sparkle and he smells like roses. Still confused, I decided to start smiling for the rest of my run too. I had to find out what he was so crazy about. What proceeded to happen was nothing less than a little brain chemistry, neuroscience, and stuff that Jonah Lehrer is more apt to explain. In my terms though:

a) Running immediately got easier, if not even more fun. I started going faster.

b) Became happier and more optimistic about my run. Felt as though I could go farther, longer, and faster.

c) My “game face” quickly went out the window. Smiling made me feel like a badass. It felt good running past people essentially saying “hey, I love this!”

d) Another way to motivate myself. Ever heard of the term “grin and bear it”? This is that phrase at it’s finest. Pain is pleasure and you might as well put a smile on for it.

What do you think about this? Do you smile while you run?

Try it next time as a little experiment: 10 minutes regular, then 10 minutes smiling. Repeat for your whole run. What happens?

What do you think of this song to run to? Yay? Nay?

Click the button to download from

Got a suggestion of your own? Email me at sarah@socialmediarunners.com and I’ll feature it!

If you’re in the first category, kudos to you! If you’re in the second category (like me), running is a little more of a challenge. Quite frankly, I’m fine with that. I’m always up for a good challenge. What is hardest for me about running though is the mental aspect.

How Much Does Your Mentality Impact Your Run?

There are days where you don’t want to run. There are days that hurt, days that you’re tired, and days where it’s raining. The drive to get out there though and just move your body still exists though. So how do you flip that switch in your mind?  The switch that changes your attitude from “I have to to do this” to “I’m gonna run and feel so freaking good about it”?  Personally, I know that my mental state at the begining of my run will determine how fast and how long I go.  I can literally stop running if I physcailly feel fine but my mind is saying negative thoughts. To overcome this takes practice.  I hope that I’m not alone in conquering this.

Tips for Better Mental Running Performance

• Use a mantra. Might be cheesy, but my personal one is “power power, glide glide”.  It makes me feel like I’m floating and running becomes easier.
• Visualization. When my legs start to get tired, I visual myself as a world class runner.  Doing this makes me feel like I’m using their legs, which are stronger, fresher, and faster than mine.  I also envision myself as I am, but picture myself from behind.  Watching myself run from behind allows me to notice and change my running form.
• Positive Self-Talk. This works surprisingly well, especially to battle the “I feel tired”, “I can’t do this”, or “I’m not strong enough” negative thoughts.  While running, sometimes I’ll say to myself “Dang, you’re the shit.”  Or “Wow, you are such a beast!”.  Or “You are doing awesome!”.
• Break it up. I get nervous when I know I have to run more than 4 miles at a time.  I’ve done it before, yet I still feel anxiety in anticipation of the run.  Once I get out there, I break it up.  If I’m going for a 60 minute run, I break it up into four 15-minute segments (or races).  Finish one, and then start fresh. Before you know it, you’re run is over and you’ve done a great job!

These are a few that I’ve picked up.  Do you have any more?  What mental tricks or methods do you use while running?

I love this band!  This song is great to run to because it has an upbeat tempo and makes me want to run harder and faster.

What do you think of this song to run to? Yay? Nay?

Click the button to download from

Great song for a longer, steady run.

What do you think of this song to run to? Yay? Nay?

Click the button to download from

For the past few years, Nike organizes the Nike+ Human Race – a 10k race where everyone in the world can run the same race at the same time.  All you need is Nike’s adapter that goes on your iPod and you’re in the race!  I think it’s an awesome concept and and am definitely running it this year.  What’s even cooler is that in big cities like New York City, there is an organized event where everyone can race together.  If you’re a social media runner in NYC or any other city, it would be awesome to meet up to train or run the event together!  If you’re in another city, why don’t you put together a Social Media Runners group for the event?  We could even get a little competition going – lowest average score WINS!  You game?

The Nike+ Human Race is on like Donkey Kong!  Let us know if you’ve signed up yet in the comments.

When do you like to run?  In the morning? During the day?  In the evening?

Have you experimented with how your mood, business, or productivity is affected by when you take your run?

Photo credit thomashawk

Well, I have a lot of ideas.  I like running.  I love meeting people.  I want to get better at running.  I want to meet more people.  What if I were to combine to two?  My idea for Social Media Runner is to develop a community for whose who participate in the online space and also love running.  Wouldn’t it be fun to create a “Craigslist” of runners?  My fantasy would be that you are traveling somewhere for work, or a conference, or to see family.  You want to go on a run.  Log onto SocialMediaRunners.com, find someone in that city, link up, run, talk, huff and puff, and develop yet another contact.  I think there is little difference between business and athletics (on a mental basis), and it would be awesome to combine the two.

Here’s where you come in

This is an open source project.  If it interests you, great!  Feel free to voice your ideas and see if we can create something together.  There are many communities out there – let’s create another one.

Some Things To Run With (No Pun Intended)

• Expand to different cities – have “city captains”.
• Local sponsors – are there local mom and pop shops that sell athletic gear?  We’d love to promote them
• National sponsors – that’d be cool
• Link to Twitter/Facebook (ie. when you sign up for SocialMediaRunners.com, find other Twitter friends who are also signed up).
• “Current location” function to let other runners see where you are.  In the same city?  Link up and take a run!

What next?

If you’d like to be involved in this project, drop me a note.  We can start forming something together.

Got a good running story where you met someone interesting?  Would love to hear about it!

Want to design a new logo for the site?  Go for it.

Feel the urge to tell your friends about Social Media Runners?  Rock on.

Hope to talk to you soon!

-Sarah