25 Keys of Running

So, as is my perogative, I will continue to voice my opinion on articles on runnersworld.com pro or con (mostly pro). This edition of my article review is devoted to some key points to running. These might be in a book somewhere, they might have just been developed by people shooting the breeze on a run. Or, the least possible scenario: a physician developed them. For someone who has been running competitively to semi-competitively for over a decade, most of these come as common sense to me. I realized as I was purusing them, that other people might not think of them as common sense. They might even see some of these rules as counter-intuitive. I'll highlight some of my favorites, but I strongly encourage you to read the entire article. I know it is a bit long, but you can speed read through it.

The 2-Day rule: If something hurts for two straight days while running. Take two days off.
The Heads-Beats-Tails rule: A headwind slows you down more than a tailwind speeds you up. (I discussed this with one of my friends while cycling the other day. We used physics to explain it, but I'll keep it non-science as possible) Running into a headwind can slow you down to half speed, but the tailwind can't possibly speed you up to twice your pace. Okay, I have to put some numbers to this: running at 10 mi/h into a 5 mi/h headwind slows you to 5 mi/h, but running with a 5 mi/h tailwind at 10 mi/h only equals 15 mi/h at most, not 20 mi/h. Using physics: think of it in terms of vectors.
The Seven Year rule: Runners improve for about seven years until they plateau. Lower mileage runners improve longer.
The Sleep rule: Sleep an extra minute per night for every mile that you run in a week. Ex: Doing a 25 mile week? Sleep an extra 25 minutes EACH night.

Also, check out the dress for success table to know how to dress properly for different weather conditions.

The 25 Golden Rules of Running