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Molly Mirhashem is used to running around in circles – literally.
Mir-Hashem runs six days a week near her home in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Most of her weekly mileage is on the same 3.5-mile loop in a nearby park. The training will help: This weekend, she's running the Buffalo Marathon in upstate New York, her ninth time completing the 26.2-mile run since first catching marathon fever in 2017.
Mir Hashem, fitness editor at Well Desk, came to The New York Times last month from Outside magazine, where she spent eight years assigning and editing health and wellness stories.
One of her goals at The Times is to reach readers who are just starting to get into fitness but want a little more advice.
“We speak to beginners a lot, but then we also have experts who are looking to improve their marathon times,” she said in a recent interview. “I think there's room to serve a middle-class audience as well.”
Here, Mirhashem talks about what motivated her to jump into her new role and the biggest challenges in the fitness department. These are edited excerpts.
Have you always been interested in fitness?
I've been a lifelong runner. I started running in track and field as a kid and continued through high school, ran track and cross country in college, and then took on the marathon.
When did your love for fitness and your passion for journalism come together?
After graduating, I worked for a while in political news in Washington DC before moving to Santa Fe in 2016 to work as an editorial assistant at Outside. This was where I first started to blend my personal interest in health and fitness into my work. At Outside, I covered all kinds of health and wellness topics, not just fitness.
What does a fitness week look like for you?
People often assume that because I'm an editor who works in the fitness industry, I take a ton of supplements or participate in all kinds of crazy workout classes. My routine is pretty simple: I run six days a week. I also do some light range-of-motion and bodyweight training, but not as much as the research recommends.
What is the biggest challenge in your role?
Fitness advice can seem boring and repetitive, but the essence of fitness is finding an activity you enjoy, doing it consistently, getting enough rest, and staying well hydrated. Most people don't have the time for that. Finding new ways to teach the basics in a way that's appealing to people who aren't necessarily interested in working out or running marathons is the biggest challenge.
Where do you find article ideas?
I read a lot of health and fitness newsletters, so that's one place. Also, I've been a runner for years, so a big part of my community and friend group are runners or people who are into fitness and exercise. So conversations naturally happen between people that I know, and then I have to do the work of finding out if an idea is solid or if it's just anecdotal. Outside had a really great lineup of columnists and reporters who were in the field and constantly following new research and talking to people.
Is there any story you've written for Outside that you're particularly proud of?
I edited Alex Hutchinson's “Sweat Science” column for about seven years. He covered the emerging science of endurance sports and exercise science. He has a PhD in physics and is an elite runner, but he had a gift for summarizing key points. Working with him really informed my whole philosophy about the role of service journalism in this field, and the importance of having a skeptical eye and the importance of having empathy.
I also did a lot of articles about the gender gap in sports science research and how little research there is with women, many of which were written by Christine Yu, who went on to write a book about how a lot of training and nutrition protocols are based on small studies that intentionally don't include women, and what that means for female athletes.
What song is on repeat on your workout playlist?
I don't listen to music when I run.
Wow. Why is that?
I like to be aware of my surroundings and the outdoors. Even if I've run the same lap of the park hundreds of times, I want to feel like I understand my environment well. Also, on a more technical level, it's hard to gauge my level of effort if I'm listening to something.
So, are you just listening to your own inner monologue?
Yes, unfortunately.
