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I saw the race and was like what kind of moon boots is he wearing? Seemed like more spring in them.

Why I stopped taking creatine 👇🏻 It wasn't because of side effects, and it wasn't because I think creatine doesn't work. I started taking creatine about five years ago (before it turned into the mainstream health trend it is now). My reason had nothing to do with the gym. I'd come across an obscure study in a science magazine. It wasn't even in humans. Rats supplementing with creatine seemed to need less sleep. They could function on about five hours the way they normally functioned on eight. At the time my wife was pregnant with our first child, and I knew what was coming. So I started creatine for the possible sleep and cognitive angle. I wasn't trying to get bigger. I already knew the strength literature, which is a different story. That research goes back decades and started in bodybuilding. So once I was taking it, I kept going for the strength effect when paired with lifting. As a runner, I figured it wouldn't hurt and might help with recovery and muscle strength. I took it for several years. Honestly, the benefits were hard to feel. That's not a knock on creatine (a lot of things that work don't announce themselves.) What happened when I stopped? The most noticeable change was on the scale. I lost about two to three pounds. That's expected, because muscle holds more water when you're on creatine, which is part of why lean mass goes up when people take it. I didn't mind losing it. Subjectively, my strength and power felt the same. Running felt a little easier a couple of pounds lighter, which is how it usually goes. But I want to be clear about what that is… a feeling! I'm not measuring any of this objectively. On it or off it, I don't feel much different. There's only one published study I know of looking at creatine in runners. It found a lower VO2 max. That sounds bad until you look at why. The runners gained weight, so their VO2 max relative to body weight went down. I don't think that's a reason for runners to avoid creatine. A little extra power can help. Where I get frustrated is the way creatine gets talked about online, by influencers treating it like a miracle. I've read basically every creatine paper from the last several years, and the part that's oversold most is the cognitive side. People talk about creatine like it's caffeine. I've heard people say they took 20 or 30 grams in the morning and their brain "lit up." That's not how it works. Creatine isn't an acute stimulant. It builds up in muscle over about three to four months, and whatever effects it has on the brain also come from that kind of slow accumulation, not from a big morning dose. There is something real behind the brain claims, which is part of why they spread. There are a couple of sleep-deprivation studies using about 20 to 40 grams at once, and those doses seem to pull cognitive function back toward normal in people who are sleep-deprived. And if you take around 10 grams for a while, it can accumulate in the brain. But for people who are cognitively healthy, not sleep-deprived, and not under high stress, brain benefits aren't well established. I've said this before and I still stand by it—creatine is not a cognitive enhancer unless you're sleep-deprived, or you're around 60 or older and dealing with dementia. So why stop? It was an experiment. I'd taken it for years without being able to feel what it was doing for me, and I was training for a marathon. Stopping was a way to find out whether I'd notice. So far the answer is: not much. I feel about the same, I run about the same, and I'm a little lighter. I'm still open to the strength case, and if you're lifting regularly, I think it's a reasonable thing to take. If you're a runner worried about a little weight gain, I wouldn't let one VO2 max study scare you off. Extra strength can be worth a pound or two. Fin.

The first 1–2 miles of my run are my warm up for the rest of my run.

It’s never not sad for me when it’s time to throw away a pair of running shoes 🥺

The phrases you repeat when things get tough may change how long you can keep going. In a randomized study, motivational self-talk training helped people cycle to exhaustion about 18% longer.