Why I Started PhysioRunner
The origin story of PhysioRunner: what it means, and where it's going.
As far as I can remember, I have always been curious. No matter the subject or topic, I have always wanted to know more and understand "why." And as I got older, that question, "why?", became more and more frequent for me. In school, I found practically every subject interesting, and outside of school, I constantly was on YouTube furthering my understanding of everything from how ancient Roman aqueducts were engineered to how caffeine affects mitochondrial function..
And then in early 2021, I started running. I was in 6th grade, and our school had its cross country season during the spring because of Coronavirus in fall of 2020. I had never heard of cross country before, and I certainly had never considered distance running. I really only knew about sprinting and Usain Bolt. I think I joined it because I thought it would be cool to say I run, and I certainly thought it would be easy. But that was far from reality; my first day of practice, we were instructed to run "The Trail," which is a 0.78mi long trail that loops in the back of the school. I don't think I was even able to run a half mile without walking. It was brutal, and it sucked. But I had this coach who was running, and he ran it as easy as you and I can walk down a road. That was striking to me. He was the first and primary influence on me as a distance runner, and I owe it to him for my love of running. That coach loves running so much that he took his time and effort to show us the way and teach us the possibilities and the world of distance running. From that season, I never looked back. I kept running and was chasing improvement. I still had no clue about the ins and outs of the sport, and no concept of the science behind it.
It really wasn't until my freshman year of high school when I really began to wonder what the sport really is and how it works. That same coach from the middle school is now one of my coaches in high school, so that relationship never waned. In fact, now I got the opportunity to see him daily at practice all year around, alongside my other two coaches. At this point, we were really training and running "real" mileage. It was shocking at first, but I still had this immense desire to stick with it. I wore my first carbon-plated shoe, "super shoe," the Nike Vaporfly Next% 2. I probably had no business in such an aggressive shoe so early on, but I loved it. That's when my love for running apparel and shoes kicked off. Once again, that coach heavily influenced me and my love for running apparel, specifically the brand Tracksmith. The older guys on the team had all the cool shoes and gear, and in normal Cuyler fashion, I had to have it.
By the end of my freshman XC season, we had an 800m time trial and I managed to run a 2:15. Decent, for a freshman, but I was on top of the world. But this was the first time I had ever run an 800m, and also the first real time I've experienced "the bear jumping on your back": blood-lactate buildup. I obviously didn't know that was the explanation, but it surely burned and I wanted to know why. That is probably the earliest point where I researched something related to run-science or physiology in general.
The interest in run science really began in my sophomore year, when I was dealing with the distance runner's worst nightmare: a stress fracture. I was dealing with two separate stress reactions on either side of the sacrum. The pain came about during the backend of October, and I really didn't take it seriously until late January. Being told that there would be no track and field season was a major blow not only to me physically but mentally. Just like everyone with an injury, I questioned, "why me?" It didn't seem fair, especially after coming off of a subpar XC season. So for 9 weeks, while my teammates warmed up in the fieldhouse and practiced outside, I sat on the wall with my laptop and went to researching. A fury of Google searches, ChatGPT questions, and countless articles and literal academic and scientific studies were found and read. I wanted to understand everything there was to know about what caused my injury and how it could've been prevented, as well as basically everything there is to know about science of running. That big question, "why" began to pop up. During this time, I attempted to start a running shoe website, called ShoeReport, and its purpose was to bring knowledge and education to the running shoe space, and give new and experienced runners an outlet to understand latest shoe tech at a digestible level. And it started out with an Instagram, with hopes of bringing in a website. But the thing is, eventually I got healthy and finally cleared. My first run back was actually the day of my team's Indoor Conference Championship, in the last week of March.
So with running making its return and school at its highest point, I got busy and effectively scratched ShoeReport. But the desire to read and learn more about run science only increased. Especially with being in classes like Honors Chemistry. I have always loved science, but biology and chemistry at this level was especially intriguing. I think chemistry was one of my favorite classes because I could so easily tie practically every single concept we learned back to distance running. It felt like what we learned had real-world applications. My first "publication" or compiled body of work was a Google Doc guide about electrolytes, specifically as it relates to running. I broke them down at the chemical level and explained what makes an electrolyte, and how they affect the human body. I get a lot of questions from teammates about electrolytes, how they work, and what the best drinks/mixtures are, so I felt that a guide would be appropriate. My approach to running is that the more knowledge you have about a certain aspect of the sport, the better prepared you'll be and consequently you should expect better performances.
It's finally summertime, all I do is go to my team's summer running every morning at 8am, then on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I volunteer as a distance coach for a local track club. So I have plenty of time to actually do what I love: research and learn. During the summer, my coaches hold individual goal setting meetings for each athlete in efforts to set personal time goals and preview the season. For mine, I planned on coming in with an entire 80-page binder worth of my research, notes, and a major training proposal. But I just couldn't quite compile it the way that I envisioned. So instead, I thought maybe I should just start a blog where I can constantly post my findings and help to educate more people on complex concepts, and just write about topics I enjoy.
That's how PhysioRunner was born.
The name blends my love for science, specifically physiology, and running. This blog is where I'll dive into the questions I care about; from injury science and biomechanics to gear analysis, training theory, and more. I hope it can be a place for other curious runners too — people who want to understand their sport at a deeper level.
If I've learned anything over the last few years, it's this: Stay curious. That mindset has shaped my running, my learning, and now, this blog.
As far as I can remember, I have always been curious. No matter the subject or topic, I have always wanted to know more and understand "why." And as I got older, that question, "why?", became more and more frequent for me. In school, I found practically every subject interesting, and outside of school, I constantly was on YouTube furthering my understanding of everything from how ancient Roman aqueducts were engineered to how caffeine affects mitochondrial function..
And then in early 2021, I started running. I was in 6th grade, and our school had its cross country season during the spring because of Coronavirus in fall of 2020. I had never heard of cross country before, and I certainly had never considered distance running. I really only knew about sprinting and Usain Bolt. I think I joined it because I thought it would be cool to say I run, and I certainly thought it would be easy. But that was far from reality; my first day of practice, we were instructed to run "The Trail," which is a 0.78mi long trail that loops in the back of the school. I don't think I was even able to run a half mile without walking. It was brutal, and it sucked. But I had this coach who was running, and he ran it as easy as you and I can walk down a road. That was striking to me. He was the first and primary influence on me as a distance runner, and I owe it to him for my love of running. That coach loves running so much that he took his time and effort to show us the way and teach us the possibilities and the world of distance running. From that season, I never looked back. I kept running and was chasing improvement. I still had no clue about the ins and outs of the sport, and no concept of the science behind it.
It really wasn't until my freshman year of high school when I really began to wonder what the sport really is and how it works. That same coach from the middle school is now one of my coaches in high school, so that relationship never waned. In fact, now I got the opportunity to see him daily at practice all year around, alongside my other two coaches. At this point, we were really training and running "real" mileage. It was shocking at first, but I still had this immense desire to stick with it. I wore my first carbon-plated shoe, "super shoe," the Nike Vaporfly Next% 2. I probably had no business in such an aggressive shoe so early on, but I loved it. That's when my love for running apparel and shoes kicked off. Once again, that coach heavily influenced me and my love for running apparel, specifically the brand Tracksmith. The older guys on the team had all the cool shoes and gear, and in normal Cuyler fashion, I had to have it.
By the end of my freshman XC season, we had an 800m time trial and I managed to run a 2:15. Decent, for a freshman, but I was on top of the world. But this was the first time I had ever run an 800m, and also the first real time I've experienced "the bear jumping on your back": blood-lactate buildup. I obviously didn't know that was the explanation, but it surely burned and I wanted to know why. That is probably the earliest point where I researched something related to run-science or physiology in general.
The interest in run science really began in my sophomore year, when I was dealing with the distance runner's worst nightmare: a stress fracture. I was dealing with two separate stress reactions on either side of the sacrum. The pain came about during the backend of October, and I really didn't take it seriously until late January. Being told that there would be no track and field season was a major blow not only to me physically but mentally. Just like everyone with an injury, I questioned, "why me?" It didn't seem fair, especially after coming off of a subpar XC season. So for 9 weeks, while my teammates warmed up in the fieldhouse and practiced outside, I sat on the wall with my laptop and went to researching. A fury of Google searches, ChatGPT questions, and countless articles and literal academic and scientific studies were found and read. I wanted to understand everything there was to know about what caused my injury and how it could've been prevented, as well as basically everything there is to know about science of running. That big question, "why" began to pop up. During this time, I attempted to start a running shoe website, called ShoeReport, and its purpose was to bring knowledge and education to the running shoe space, and give new and experienced runners an outlet to understand latest shoe tech at a digestible level. And it started out with an Instagram, with hopes of bringing in a website. But the thing is, eventually I got healthy and finally cleared. My first run back was actually the day of my team's Indoor Conference Championship, in the last week of March.
So with running making its return and school at its highest point, I got busy and effectively scratched ShoeReport. But the desire to read and learn more about run science only increased. Especially with being in classes like Honors Chemistry. I have always loved science, but biology and chemistry at this level was especially intriguing. I think chemistry was one of my favorite classes because I could so easily tie practically every single concept we learned back to distance running. It felt like what we learned had real-world applications. My first "publication" or compiled body of work was a Google Doc guide about electrolytes, specifically as it relates to running. I broke them down at the chemical level and explained what makes an electrolyte, and how they affect the human body. I get a lot of questions from teammates about electrolytes, how they work, and what the best drinks/mixtures are, so I felt that a guide would be appropriate. My approach to running is that the more knowledge you have about a certain aspect of the sport, the better prepared you'll be and consequently you should expect better performances.
It's finally summertime, all I do is go to my team's summer running every morning at 8am, then on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I volunteer as a distance coach for a local track club. So I have plenty of time to actually do what I love: research and learn. During the summer, my coaches hold individual goal setting meetings for each athlete in efforts to set personal time goals and preview the season. For mine, I planned on coming in with an entire 80-page binder worth of my research, notes, and a major training proposal. But I just couldn't quite compile it the way that I envisioned. So instead, I thought maybe I should just start a blog where I can constantly post my findings and help to educate more people on complex concepts, and just write about topics I enjoy.
That's how PhysioRunner was born.
The name blends my love for science, specifically physiology, and running. This blog is where I'll dive into the questions I care about; from injury science and biomechanics to gear analysis, training theory, and more. I hope it can be a place for other curious runners too — people who want to understand their sport at a deeper level.
If I've learned anything over the last few years, it's this: Stay curious. That mindset has shaped my running, my learning, and now, this blog.
As far as I can remember, I have always been curious. No matter the subject or topic, I have always wanted to know more and understand "why." And as I got older, that question, "why?", became more and more frequent for me. In school, I found practically every subject interesting, and outside of school, I constantly was on YouTube furthering my understanding of everything from how ancient Roman aqueducts were engineered to how caffeine affects mitochondrial function..
And then in early 2021, I started running. I was in 6th grade, and our school had its cross country season during the spring because of Coronavirus in fall of 2020. I had never heard of cross country before, and I certainly had never considered distance running. I really only knew about sprinting and Usain Bolt. I think I joined it because I thought it would be cool to say I run, and I certainly thought it would be easy. But that was far from reality; my first day of practice, we were instructed to run "The Trail," which is a 0.78mi long trail that loops in the back of the school. I don't think I was even able to run a half mile without walking. It was brutal, and it sucked. But I had this coach who was running, and he ran it as easy as you and I can walk down a road. That was striking to me. He was the first and primary influence on me as a distance runner, and I owe it to him for my love of running. That coach loves running so much that he took his time and effort to show us the way and teach us the possibilities and the world of distance running. From that season, I never looked back. I kept running and was chasing improvement. I still had no clue about the ins and outs of the sport, and no concept of the science behind it.
It really wasn't until my freshman year of high school when I really began to wonder what the sport really is and how it works. That same coach from the middle school is now one of my coaches in high school, so that relationship never waned. In fact, now I got the opportunity to see him daily at practice all year around, alongside my other two coaches. At this point, we were really training and running "real" mileage. It was shocking at first, but I still had this immense desire to stick with it. I wore my first carbon-plated shoe, "super shoe," the Nike Vaporfly Next% 2. I probably had no business in such an aggressive shoe so early on, but I loved it. That's when my love for running apparel and shoes kicked off. Once again, that coach heavily influenced me and my love for running apparel, specifically the brand Tracksmith. The older guys on the team had all the cool shoes and gear, and in normal Cuyler fashion, I had to have it.
By the end of my freshman XC season, we had an 800m time trial and I managed to run a 2:15. Decent, for a freshman, but I was on top of the world. But this was the first time I had ever run an 800m, and also the first real time I've experienced "the bear jumping on your back": blood-lactate buildup. I obviously didn't know that was the explanation, but it surely burned and I wanted to know why. That is probably the earliest point where I researched something related to run-science or physiology in general.
The interest in run science really began in my sophomore year, when I was dealing with the distance runner's worst nightmare: a stress fracture. I was dealing with two separate stress reactions on either side of the sacrum. The pain came about during the backend of October, and I really didn't take it seriously until late January. Being told that there would be no track and field season was a major blow not only to me physically but mentally. Just like everyone with an injury, I questioned, "why me?" It didn't seem fair, especially after coming off of a subpar XC season. So for 9 weeks, while my teammates warmed up in the fieldhouse and practiced outside, I sat on the wall with my laptop and went to researching. A fury of Google searches, ChatGPT questions, and countless articles and literal academic and scientific studies were found and read. I wanted to understand everything there was to know about what caused my injury and how it could've been prevented, as well as basically everything there is to know about science of running. That big question, "why" began to pop up. During this time, I attempted to start a running shoe website, called ShoeReport, and its purpose was to bring knowledge and education to the running shoe space, and give new and experienced runners an outlet to understand latest shoe tech at a digestible level. And it started out with an Instagram, with hopes of bringing in a website. But the thing is, eventually I got healthy and finally cleared. My first run back was actually the day of my team's Indoor Conference Championship, in the last week of March.
So with running making its return and school at its highest point, I got busy and effectively scratched ShoeReport. But the desire to read and learn more about run science only increased. Especially with being in classes like Honors Chemistry. I have always loved science, but biology and chemistry at this level was especially intriguing. I think chemistry was one of my favorite classes because I could so easily tie practically every single concept we learned back to distance running. It felt like what we learned had real-world applications. My first "publication" or compiled body of work was a Google Doc guide about electrolytes, specifically as it relates to running. I broke them down at the chemical level and explained what makes an electrolyte, and how they affect the human body. I get a lot of questions from teammates about electrolytes, how they work, and what the best drinks/mixtures are, so I felt that a guide would be appropriate. My approach to running is that the more knowledge you have about a certain aspect of the sport, the better prepared you'll be and consequently you should expect better performances.
It's finally summertime, all I do is go to my team's summer running every morning at 8am, then on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I volunteer as a distance coach for a local track club. So I have plenty of time to actually do what I love: research and learn. During the summer, my coaches hold individual goal setting meetings for each athlete in efforts to set personal time goals and preview the season. For mine, I planned on coming in with an entire 80-page binder worth of my research, notes, and a major training proposal. But I just couldn't quite compile it the way that I envisioned. So instead, I thought maybe I should just start a blog where I can constantly post my findings and help to educate more people on complex concepts, and just write about topics I enjoy.
That's how PhysioRunner was born.
The name blends my love for science, specifically physiology, and running. This blog is where I'll dive into the questions I care about; from injury science and biomechanics to gear analysis, training theory, and more. I hope it can be a place for other curious runners too — people who want to understand their sport at a deeper level.
If I've learned anything over the last few years, it's this: Stay curious. That mindset has shaped my running, my learning, and now, this blog.