WhyWeRun

History  Taylor Jacob Pate was born on September 11th, 1983 in a small town in Louisiana. He got his bachelors in English at Louisiana State University or better known as LSU, from there he got his masters at The university of Texas at Austin where he studied English in Fine arts, not only being a student but also a professor for three semesters. During this time he stopped smoking cigarette's and picked up running, since then he hasn't stopped as he has ran every single day for the past 7 years.   The Beginning Taylor started running during grad school which was around 2012. " I didn't have responsibilities except teaching people so I started drinking heavily and I gained a bunch of weight so I started running to lose all that, get healthy and to clean out" Taylor says in our interview. For the first three months Taylor hated running but one day everything clicked and that was when trail running came into the picture.  Specialization  At first trail running was...

Background  Leopoldo Leo Martinez was born on July 26, 1978 and was raised in Lubbock, Tx. He moved to Austin in the early 2000s. He helped start the Austin project, later the November Project , a program that holds free workouts all around the city or in Leo's words "Free99 workouts". Leo recently on September 15th and 16th completed the Run Rabbit Run 100-miler, which took him 35 hours to complete.  The beginning  Leo's running journey began in 2017 at the Zilker relays. In October of that same year he signed up for a 10k run where he experienced what people call a "Runners High" . He wanted a bigger challenge so he moved up to half and full marathons by 2020. He didn't stop there, as he signed up for a 100-mile ultramarathon in 2020 as well. To this day, Leo has ran five 100-mile races.  Specialization "Ultramarathons is the sweet spot for me", Leo said in our interview. Anything over a full marathon is an ultramarathon and is most likely he...

Long Distance Racing There are many long distance races that you can sign up for, especially in the next 5 months as race season is lurking around the corner. One thing that is super important before signing up for a race is making sure you are training for that specific race as some of these races you could putting your body through a massive amount of stress and the last thing you want is a stress fracture, tendonitis, shin splints or any other injury. The Mile Run One of the quickest races you could do that is still considered long distance is the mile run. 3200 meters that usually take place on a track. Usually training for a mile requires a bit more of speed as you are trying to get your best mile time. The average mile time is around a 7 minute 30 seconds.  5k  The first of the four main long distance races. 3.1 miles that usually take around 20-40 minutes or more depending on your level to run. You would have to up your mileage to around 10-20 miles or more a week to ...

Intro I've been working in the running shoe industry for the past year and one common consensus that many people have is that all running shoes are alike. This is not true by any means. There are many different types of running shoes that are meant for different purposes and in this blog, you will learn about these models.  Heel to Toe Drop Before we get into all the fun stuff let's talk science, each shoe has what's called a heel to toe drop which is the difference in height from the heel of the foot to the toes by. So, a higher drop around 12 millimeters will elevate your foot 12 millimeters from your toes. Everyone has their own opinions about heel to toe drops but I say go with what feels the most comfortable. Each shoe company would have different models that will have different drops.  0-6 Millimeter Drop A lower millimeter drop will most likely make you a bit more stable and feel a bit closer to the ground. Usually, you have more calf engagement when the drop is lowe...