If this nice stretch of weather has you enjoying the outdoors, running more, keep it up! But if you need to stop and walk occasionally, don’t worry about it – in fact, it’s good for you!

Whether your goal is to build distance or conserve energy for the long haul, plenty of runners take walk breaks. It lets you recover without having to lose time, especially if you’re involved in a 5K race and trying to break your previous time. Researchers have found that a combined run/walk strategy allows everyday runners achieve similar times, and with far less discomfort.

Walking comes in particularly handy when encountering hills. It takes less overall aerobic effort, and in some cases, can even be faster than running up them. Plus, a hill becomes a lot less daunting if you reframe it as your walking break.

But remember, if you end up walking overall more than you’re running, you may be able to go farther, but you won’t find your race times improving. Your best bet is to try an easier run.

Image Credit: VTT Studio / iStock / Getty Images Plus

It happens to us all – sometimes we need a little extra motivation. But if there’s no one around and you need a self-pep talk, refer to yourself as “you” and not “I”.

A new study found that when talking to yourself in the second person – like “you can do this” – running performance improved.

Psychologists think this works better because if you say “I can do it” – there’s a better chance that your brain will respond with “I can’t do it” – and that will lead to a lessened performance.

Pretend you’re giving someone else a pep talk, and you just may see the results you want!

Image Credit: Bastian Weltjen / iStock / Getty Images Plus

You eat right, you exercise, you stay healthy – but are you doing the right things, or are there some health myths you’ve subscribed to?

Maybe you’ve heard that coffee stunts your growth. Not true – it’s really genetics, and the only real medical condition a cup of coffee will give you is a slight increase in blood pressure.

Maybe you think eggs cause high cholesterol. Well, that’s another myth as they have nearly no effect on cholesterol, and some studies show they improve heart health.

You’ve probably heard you should go for 10,000 steps per day. While walking more isn’t a bad thing, it’s really more like 6,000 to 8,000 steps that you need – past that, and the health benefits don’t really increase.

You might think social media influencers will inspire you to diet and exercise – but it turns out it’s the opposite and can lead to body dissatisfaction.

Image Credit: Tomwang112 / iStock / Getty Images Plus

We all want to be liked. But if you want people to like you even more, there are three easy things you can do.

First – be seen often. Being seen by people more often makes them more likely to enjoy being around you. And that also means, when you’re working from home, you have your camera on during a Zoom meeting!

Also, ask questions – when having conversations, research shows that people who ask questions are liked more by who they’re talking to. It shows that you value what they have to say, and that’ll make the more likely to want to hang out.

Finally, don’t forget to smile! People who smile often are perceived as competent and more attractive, and, unfortunately, it’s true that people are more likely to want to be around someone they consider attractive.

Image Credit: jacoblund / iStock / Getty Images Plus