SBQs Are a Great Reason to Subscribe!
“SBQs are a great reason to subscribe?”
“What,” you may ask, “are SBQs?”
An SBQ is a “Single Biggest Question”, which is something that you may pose to me about your running or walking when you become a SpryFeet.com subscriber.
You have the opportunity as a subscriber to tell me:
- What is your SINGLE BIGGEST FEAR when it comes to your training and racing?
- What is your SINGLE BIGGEST FRUSTRATION when it comes to your running or walking?
- What’s happening as a RESULT OF THIS FRUSTRATION?
- WHAT have you tried so far that HASN’T WORKED?
- If you had a magic wand, what would be the IDEAL SOLUTION for you?
- What is your SINGLE BIGGEST QUESTION when it comes to your running or walking?
Your answers to these questions let me get to know you better, so that I can better tailor future products toward serving you and your fellow subscribers.
A Great Reason to Subscribe
Each week I broadcast to SpryFeet.com subscribers my answer to one of these SBQs. The message is succinct, gives you some background about the subscriber who asked the SBQ, and is nicely formatted for easy readability on even the smallest smartphones.
[Tweet “What is your SINGLE BIGGEST QUESTION when it comes to your running or walking?”]
I respect my subscribers’ privacy, so I never reveal in my weekly SBQ message any of the subscriber’s personal details other than favorite race distance and whether he or she self-identifies as a runner, a walker, or a run:walk athlete.
By reading each week a fellow subscriber’s SBQ — or maybe even your own one day! — and my answer to it, you get great tips and come to appreciate that you are not the only one who has similar questions about your running or walking.
You May Jump the Queue, Too
Beyond waiting for me to address YOUR particular SBQ in one of my weekly messages, you are welcome to “jump the queue” by writing to me directly. I will do my best to respond with an answer!
Here is an example of a question emailed to me in response to one of my SBQ messages:
Hi, I’ve been training for a marathon on my own for some time now, but lately I have been getting really tired. My time has been slowing down, instead of speeding up, and I’ve been grumpy. Any tips on how to get through this?
Here is the answer that I returned:
Without more details, it sounds as if you might be over-training. My group training program follows this pattern: long group run on Saturday mornings, followed by easy run on Mondays, speed work or hill work on Tuesdays, and an interval run on Thursdays. So, I don’t run on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and I am a HUGE fan of taking time off. Your body needs time to recover and to rebuild from wear and tear to muscles and the rest of your body.
So, if you are slowing down because of running every day or almost every day of the week, then try injecting a break-from-running day or two into your week.
On the other hand, if you are slowing down as you increase your run distance, then I encourage you to expect this. Nobody runs a marathon as fast as he or she runs a half marathon, for example. Do you want proof? Look up Ryan Hall. He is the American record-holder in the half marathon (set here in Houston in 2007), with a time of 59 minutes and change. His best marathon time, in contrast, is NOT simply double this; it’s more like 2h:5m.
The above is a good example of the way that I answer SBQs, too.
Now It’s Your Turn
Please give some thought to the questions at the top of this article, and then give me YOUR answers when YOU become a SpryFeet.com subscriber.
Perhaps I will address the SBQ from YOU in a future weekly message!
