Deanna M asks: How do you avoid repetitive injury if you allow healing time?

Repetitive injuries are common with runners because it gets frustrating sitting on the “sidelines”. But if you ask any experienced runner/athlete, they will tell you to rest rather than go all out on your next run. Here is how you deal with the possibilities of repetitive injuries while allowing it to heal properly:

photo credit: truthlying

1) Rest your injured body. This is very straightforward. Listen, if you have pulled your back or your shins are firing up to the point you can barely run or whatever it is, the best thing to do at that point is rest. There is no reason why you should be running or pushing yourself while sustaining an injury.

The one question that pops up is: “how long do I rest for?” The answer to this question is solely based on the extent of the injury. There are injuries that are more serious where the injury involves damage to the skeletal structure. For those injuries, your physician will have the most realistic rest period. For smaller injuries, rest for a couple of days at the very LEAST before jumping back into exercise or the same injury will reappear faster than you can say “OUCH!”.

2) Ease into running. Once you feel that your body is 80-90%, ease into running rather than immediately going for a 10 miler. It’s funny because I was in the situation where I had enough of just sitting around. The day I felt good, I ran like I never ran before and was running as if I were chasing freedom!

…when I got home, that inspirational and invigorating run turned into a world of hurt and pain. The best way to start running again is doing lower impact exercises. Go on the elliptical and the bikes before you start running on the paved ground. What many runners really enjoy is swimming during injuries. I swam a couple of times during rough patches of training and I have to say that I enjoyed the change of pace.

3) Track your results or prepare for more injuries. Tracking your training through tools such as journals or an online tool such as Training Peaks. Here is more information on what running logs are and how you can take advantage of them: Running Logs.

An injury is simply but repetitive injuries are even worst. I’m sure that with resting, easing into running and tracking progress as the body heals, running will go back to normal and enjoyable!

Here is an article by a friend of mine, Matt Fitzgerald. He has just released his book “Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance”. Matt wrote the book to help runners, like you, manage their weight during their training schedules. I don’t know about you, but there are definitely hundreds, if not thousands of runners who jump into running to get that instant gratification; they want to shed those pounds ASAP!

Matt shows you how to realistcally manage weight and the challenges along the way. Enjoy the article!

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“There are lots of good books on endurance sports nutrition. There’s Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes, by Monique Ryan; Nutrition Periodization for Endurance Athletes, by Bob Seebohar; Performance Nutrition for Runners, by yours truly; and many others. Most of these books contain a chapter on weight management. But body weight and body composition are such major factors in endurance performance that they really deserve more than a single chapter, don’t you think?

I thought so, anyway, so last year I set about writing the first book exclusively focused on the issue of weight management for endurance athletes. That book, entitled Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance”, has just been published. If you have ever struggled to reach and maintain your optimal racing weight, you’ll want to check it out. I know I’m biased, but I think it will help you!

Racing Weight is divided into three parts. Part I (“Finding Your Racing Weight”) covers the importance of being light and lean if you want to perform better and gives you some unique new tools to determine your own optimal performance weight and to track your progress toward it. In this section you will also find chapters that address seasonal considerations (which cover topics such as managing your weight during the off-season versus the competitive season), as well as sport-specific nutritional challenges, and tips for beginning endurance athletes.

Part II (“Five Steps to Your Racing Weight”) presents a five-step plan to get leaner and lighter in a way that maximizes performance and all-around health. Each step in the plan is based on the latest advances in the science of weight management, especially as they relate to endurance athletes, and on the practices that are proven to work best in the real world. Here’s a quick synopsis of the Racing Weight plan for body weight optimization:

Step 1: Improve your diet quality.

Step 1 in my Racing Weight plan is to improve your diet quality, or the amount of nutrition you get from each calorie in your diet. Increasing the nutrition-per-calorie ratio of your diet will enable you to get all the nutrients you need for maximum performance from fewer total calories, thus enabling you to become leaner. An effective way to improve your diet quality is to grade or score the quality of your current diet and continue to score your diet quality as you make efforts to improve it. Nutrition scientists have come up with various ways of measuring diet quality. Most of these approaches are a bit too complex to be useful to the average runner, so I created a simplified diet-quality scoring system that you will find very easy to work with and that will help you nourish your body for health and endurance performance.

Step 2: Balance your energy sources.

There are three main sources of energy for the human body: carbohydrate, fat and protein. Each of these three “macronutrients” is used by the body in a different way. There are also different types of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins that affect the body in slightly different ways. Consuming the right balance of macronutrients and the right balance of carbohydrate, fat, and protein types will help you achieve your optimal performance weight.

Step 3: Time your nutrition.

When you eat affects your body as much as what you eat. The timing of your food intake has a big impact on what’s known as energy partitioning, or what becomes of the calories you consume. There are three main destinations of food calories in your body: muscle, fat cells, and energy. If you want to become leaner, you need to shift the balance of energy partitioning so that more calories are incorporated into your muscles, fewer calories are stored in your fat tissues, and more calories are used to supply your body’s immediate and short-term energy needs. This shift will lead to more metabolism-boosting lean tissue and less health-jeopardizing fat tissue.

Interestingly, you can often achieve this objective with little or no reduction in the total number of calories that enter your body. We’re really talking about redirecting calories once they’ve entered your body, not about decreasing the number of calories that enter your body in the first place. The practice of nutrient timing, or consuming the right nutrients at the right times throughout the day, will enable you to partition your energy more effectively and achieve your racing weight.

Step 4: Manage your appetite.

Appetite is important. It is your body’s built-in mechanism for food intake regulation, and its job is to drive you to eat enough to meet your body’s energy and micronutrient needs, and no more. The appetite mechanism works very well under normal circumstances, having survived millions of years of evolutionary testing to the benefit of our health. But our modern lifestyle does not constitute “normal circumstances” in relation to the environment in which most of our evolution took place. Consequently, our appetite cannot be entirely relied upon to ensure that we don’t overeat.

In recent years scientists have learned a lot about how the appetite mechanism works. Understanding how your appetite works puts you in a better position to manage it effectively so that you consume only the number of calories you need to maximize your performance and no more.

Step 5: Train right.

Training errors are common in every endurance sport, even at the highest levels of competition. Many of these training errors not only limit performance but also prevent athletes from becoming as lean as they could be. Training methods continue to evolve at the elite level of each endurance sport. Bringing your training methods up to date will help you raise your level of performance and achieve or maintain your racing weight.

Part III of Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance” (“The Racing Weight Menu”) provides resources that will help you put the Racing Weight plan into practice. These resources include sample food journals from elite athletes in several different endurance sports (including Ryan Hall and Chrissie Wellington);

21 delicious and easy-to-prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipes created by professional triathlete and dietitian Pip Taylor; and information about the few nutritional supplements that may help you get leaner.

‘Tis the Season

The holiday season – also known as the off-season for many endurance athletes – is upon us. This is the time of year when we tend to stray farthest from our ideal racing weight. That makes it the perfect time to invest a little pocket change in a resource that will help you reverse the trend. Don’t wait: Get your copy of Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance” today!”

Here’s a video from Runner’s World. In this video, you’ll see three moves that are made to strengthen your core and allow you to have greater control when you’re out running.

Your core plays a key role in your running form and your endurance. If you haven’t been working on your core, I suggest that you start with these three exercises.

Have you ever had those runs where your have aching heavy legs? After a couple minutes, it feels like you can’t even lift the legs off the ground. There are many reasons for this common issue known as “heavy legs”. Here are reason why you’re legs feel heavy and what you can do about it on your next run:

photo credit: Zach Klein

1. Running high mileage: As you increase your mileage in the early stages in your training, it’s important to pay attention to how your body responds. If you are having troubles with the mileage in week 2, there is an issue present. Building a stronger foundation may be the solution. Take into account what kind of mileage you’re comfortable with running and what distance or weekly mileage causes heavy legs.
2. Stiff muscles and joints: When running long distances, you muscles and joints take a lot of stress. In order to reduce the stress, your body must become more flexible to absorb the stress instead of compounding it. There are a variety of methods of allowing your body to ease into flexibility and prevent heavy legs. My favourite method is to practice yoga because of its challenging yet zen-like feeling. After doing yoga, there is also a refreshing  feeling which is an added benefit. Other methods of becoming flexible are actively stretching and practicing other methods of yoga such as hot yoga.
3. Inability to Recover: the biggest reason why heavy legs are reoccurring during your runs is because of your body’s inability to recover from previous runs. When a runner’s legs feel heavy, suddenly, their mental discpline is challenged because we become weaker when we feel pain or discomfort. The same powerful runner becomes a weakened runner due to the fact that he/she can’t focus as much on their running which leads to difficulty maintaining the same pace compared to the other  runs. To help recover your body and legs, here are factors to take into consideration: the strength of your nutritional plan, the amount and quality of sleep the night before the run, your age. I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but the older we get, the slower we recover.

These are the three common reasons why runners experience heavy legs. To prevent the feeling of heavy legs, you must increase your mileage only at a pace your body is comfortable with, become more flexible to relieve stress from your muscles and joints and promote recovery of your body.

Running fatigue is one of the worst feelings a runner can experience while running a marathon. To the untrained mind of a runner, the instant that fatigue sets in, the runner loses all control over their body. The only thoughts circling their heads are “OMG!! I’m soo tired. I can barely keep up my pace…can I even finish this race anymore?”

These kind of thoughts are crippling for your confidence. As soon as you believe that these thoughts are true, you have just surrendered any ability to finish your marathon.

How to Take Fatigue Out of Your Running

photo credit: refractionless

There are many ways to deal with running fatigue and now, I will share with you 7 methods that I have found that worked for me:

1. Eliminate anxiety before running. When I begin a run, my goal initial goal is to run the mileage that I have been assigned based on my running schedule or a pre-determined mileage with the specific pace, heart rate, etc. But, when I finish my run, I want to feel ecstatic and be glad I ran so I can be super-energetic doing the rest of my tasks for the day.
2. Keep Your Body Hydrated. There are far too many runners that only hydrate during the race; this is a HUGE mistake. Your body needs to be hydrated before, during and after your race/training sessions because it will help the constant recovery of your body. To learn more of hydartion, here are two posts on the effects of dehydration and preventing dehydration with electrolytes.
3. Become Comfortable in Your Running Attire. The last thing you want is to be running a marathon and being bugged by that wierd bump in the shoe. Make sure you have on the right shoe, shirt, shorts, etc. for YOU! Everyone has their own preferences as we’re all different. Get comfortable clothing and shoes so that when you’re running, you’re putting all your efforts on finishing the race instead of trying to prevent from getting distracted by the annoying feeling in your shoe.
4. Get Racing Experience Through A Tune Up Race. Running your first marathon can be a little scary but with a tune up race, it makes the marathon much more pleasant. A tune up race is a shorter race that helps “break the ice”, if you will, and allow you to get comfortable with racing. There is a huge difference with your stress levels during your training sessions and on race day. Tune up races will help you get prepared mentally.
5. Becoming Aware. There are two schools of thought on this: either you prefer running being fully aware of your body and its signals while running or you completely zone everything out around you. I believe that being aware of your body and your surroundings is critical to your ability to increase endurance and prevent injuries. You might find this post interesting on meditating as you run: Body Meditation to Ease Stress.
6. Rest Your Way to the Finish Line. I took resting as a joke in the beginning because of my ego. I thought, “Meh, I’ll just keep going.” Needless to say, I got screwed. I became fatigued, naseaus and felt dizzy the week after because the mileage was too much for me to handle without the rest days necessary. Prevent yourself from running everyday, especially at the beginning. You want to run as few days as you can in the beginning to help your body adapt to your mileage. Resting becomes even more critical when you are into your high mileage weeks.
7. Use Running Logs to Prevent Feeling Overwhelmed. Running without the use of a running log is like running a marathon with a blind fold on. As fun as that sounds, you can be in a deep state of stress and faitgue on race day if you haven’t followed your running schedule leading up to the marathon and haven’t analyzed your running behaviour. You can use online or offline running logs. Here is a FREE one to get you started: Running Logs.

Remember, these are the methods that worked for me. Expirement with your body and your mind. Try these methods out during your running sessions and write down what worked and what didn’t. Fatigue is always going to be present.

Learn how to deal with running faituge and leverage it as motivation.

Racing without thoughts of anxiety is an obstacle that suddenly hits runners in the last week before the race. Runners usually face a level of uncertainty and a little self-doubt on their abilities to run a race. There are few reasons for why this happens and I will share some ways of getting rid of anxiety.

photo credit: cguille

WHY ME?!?!

When that wierd, uncomfortable feeling hits, it spirals out of control which can really mess with your head.  The common reasons for these feelings are:

• Self Doubt: When you believe that you aren’t ready to run your marathon or worse, you don’t believe you’re a runner, it can really damage your self image. You honestly have to believe that you are mentally and phsyically prepared to run your race.
• A Bad Run: If a runner has a bad run near the last couple of days before race day, it can hurt you mentally. The fact is that there are going to be some days where you feel like crap! Forget that day even happened and move on; you’re better than that!
• Getting Sick: There are runners who get sick during their training. It’s heart breaking to dedicate yourself to train for so long and all of it fall apart because of a cold. It depends on the severity of your sickness and how quick you recover.  This topic is sensitive because it depends on how badly you have fallen into a cold.

There are more reasons that creates a level of anxiety and I would like to hear what you think in the comments section below.

How Do I Get That Boost!

There are a lot of books, audios and videos to get yourself “out of the dumps” and get your mind focused on the task at hand: running the marathon to the best of your ability. Here are methods to cope with thoughts of anxiety:

• Learn to Meditate: there are a lot of activities that are going on around us everyday that every once in a while, we need a release. To let go of the built up stress, I recommend that you practice yoga. If you have never practiced yoga, you are really missing out because it helps strengthen your muscles while relaxing your body to state that you have never experienced before. If yoga is out of the question, practice deep breathing in a quiet environment and believe me, it helps.
• Run a Tune Up Race:  a tune up race is a shorter race that prepares you mentally to deal with all the hype and energy of a race. Once you run the tune up, you will feel you have a stronger ability to deal with situations where you would usually lose your cool.
• Consult Your Inner Circle: I strongly believe in expressing whatever is troubling you, you need to get it out of your system. I like writing in a journal to get my thoughts out and into the open. A better option that a journal is to talk to people who care and understand what you’re facing; this is priceless. Build a network around you where you can bounce questions off one another, deal with issues each person is facing, etc. What you’ll notice that your inner circle’s abilties as runners will increase dramatically.

If you have heard some of these tips before or think that you already “knew that”, ask yourself: how much of it have I actually put in practice? Have you tried yoga? Have you attempted deep breathing?

I had a belief that deep breathing not something I see myself doing but when I tried it, I have to say that it has helped me in situation where I would have struggled.

What’s Next?

Please, please, PLEASE put this into practice.

If you are still struggling to reduce your anxiety, I would recommend that you pick up a book to get a better understanding how to cope with your anxiety. To be truly transparent, I haven’t read these books but I hear positive feedback for these books through forums and their ratings on Amazon:

• From Panic to Power: Proven Techniques to Calm Your Anxieties, Conquer Your Fears, and Put You in Control of Your Life
• The 10 Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques: Understanding How Your Brain Makes You Anxious and What You Can Do to Change It

They couldn’t choose titles that were any longer? ;)

Look Nehal…I’M SCREWED!

If you are seriously having issues, I want you to do one thing: ASK ME!

Please don’t hesitate to talk to me because I’m here to facilitate. You are smarter than you think and I know you have knowledge to solve obstacles that you’re facing. I am here to help you find answers to questions that you already know how to answer. What you can do to get my attention is either leave me comment below OR if it’s private, you can contact me and share what you’re facing.

I Pass The Mic Over to You:

What kind of obstacles are you facing in terms of anxiety or any mental barriers? If you have already faced some obstacles before, how did you deal with them? New runners who are shy to comment will get value out of it! :)

Running an injury free marathon is a challenge in today’s running world. There are far too many runners that hurt themselves before even competing for their marathon or they have damaged their body through improper technique that when they run the 26.2, those same damaged joints take such a beating that they ultimately give up.

What is Chi Running?

Chi Running is perspective on running that incorporates principles of Tai Chi meshed with running. Chi Running is much different from the common perspective on running which is “no pain, no gain”. Instead, it involves a method of running that revolves around using your body’s core to run rather than individual muscles pushing you towards the finish line; a holistic approach if you will. The major differentiation is that Chi Running is an injury free method of running. With its holistic approach to running, the possibility of getting injured decreases dramatically.

Danny Dreyer, an ultra-distance runner, developed this method to teach runners how to relax their bodies while running long distances. The basic premise of Chi Running is to use the force of gravity to drive your forward.

To help implement Chi Running, there are basic principles and skills that will aid in the relaxation of the body and will allow a runner’s body to run longer distances without discomfort.

Chi Running Foundation Principles

There are three concepts that Danny prescribes runners to live by:

1. The first principle is called “Needle and Cotton” which illustrates the importance of centering a runner’s energy and relieving the rest of your body of stress and placing it in a state of relaxation; this makes the muscles soft as “cotton”. This principle emphasizes the proper posture and technique when running.
2. The second principle is “Gradual Process” which promotes the adaptation of dynamic training stages for a race. As the weekly mileage progressively increases, your body will be challenged in ways that it has never been challenged before; this principle makes that transition smoother.
3. The third principle is “Balance in Motion” which stems from the concept of yin and yang. This principle sheds light on why you must balance your body’s physical movements. While running, the body moves up and down, left and right and may sway in awkward directions because of weak/tired muscles. This principle helps teach why maintaining balance while running is important.

Chi Running’s Four Chi Skills

With the foundation now built, the four Chi Running skills build on that foundation to hone your skills as a marathoner and as a runner.

1. The first Chi Running skills in “Focusing Your Mind”. There are different perspectives on this topic as there are runners that prefer to doze off and think about “nothing”. Danny believes that your mind should be focused on your body to detect the hundreds, if not thousands of signals it sends out throughout your runs.
2. The second Chi Running skill is “Body Sensing”. Once your mind is focused on your running, you can direct that focus to sense the alerts your body springs up. Without being able to sense sensations in your body as you’re running, you won’t be able to make the necessary adjustments when they count most.
3. The third Chi Running skill is “Breathing”. You might be thinking, “Really?? This chapter is probably just a section to make the book look thicker.” I believe that this topic alone has helped me overcome a lot of moments during my runs that I felt I was just going to give up. Learning to breathe efficiently will aid in helping managing your energy while running and conserve that extra willpower to run that extra mile when it counts most.
4. The last Chi Running skill is “Relaxing”. Once you are physically and mentally focused on running, you will actually enjoy running more. There are parts of your runs that just feel like a chore. As you learn to relax, running becomes more of a therapeutic event rather than just another run.

I wanted to get to the bottom of why runners aren’t running injury free marathons so I went to the experts. I found Danny Dreyer through his best-selling ChiRunning: A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-Free Running
book to get to the bottom of it.

I wanted to ask these questions while sharing them with you. So, I interviewed him!

Interview with Danny Dreyer

In the 39 minute and 40 seconds interview with Danny Dreyer, I grill him on these revealing questions:

• The first and MOST important component to focus on when running your marathon.

• If you miss out on learning the key to mastering this component of your training, that little ache in your knee could become a surgery you wish you could’ve wished you prevented earlier.

• Why you need to become more aware of your body through Danny’s concept of “body sensing”

• Spending hundreds of dollars on shoes and expecting to be injury free is a ­­­­­myth! Listen to Danny’s opinion on shoes and if it’s all a load of bull.

• Much, much more!

Listening to the passion in Danny’s voice really gives you an idea of how much he really cares about helping runners run without injuries and live a healthy life.

The Interview

Having trouble listening to the interview? Listen to it here: http://www.runningblueprint.com/blog/audio/Danny-Interview-Final.mp3

BALTIMORE — A runner who collapsed Saturday morning while participating in the Baltimore Marathon and later died has been identified as an MIT graduate student.The runner was identified as Peter Curtin, 23, of Boston.

Baltimore City fire spokesman Kevin Cartwright said Curtin collapsed at mile 23 with a core body temperature of 107 or 108 degrees. Fire officials said he was in cardiac arrest when he was taken to Union Memorial Hospital at about 11:20 a.m.

Source: wbaltv.com

It’s sad to hear about stories such as this one because a marathon is an event where people reward themselves with a beautiful experience. Knowing one’s limits is important to your intensity of training for a marathon but especially tolls it can take on your long term health. Unfortunately, the runner pushed himself too hard and passed away

Running a cold, stuffy December marathon isn’t the dream marathon for average runner. For runners like you and me, we want a challenge. Running a December marathons, in almost all places around the world, isn’t always in a nice climate.

The training you do for the marathon will only get you there to race day. To actually run the race, you have to be mentally tough and prepared to run a challenging. This is something to keep in mind when facing an obstacle such as a marathon in colder climates. Below is a list of Marathons in the US…

photo credit: gatogrunge

 Marathons in December:

• Baton Rouge Beach Marathon – December 5, 2009
• Envirosports Death Valley Borax Marathon  - December 5, 2009
• St. Jude Memphis Marathon – December 5, 2009
• Tecumseh Trail Marathon  - December 5, 2009
• California International Marathon – December 6, 2009
• Zappos.com Las Vegas Marathon – December 6, 2009
• Marathon of the Palm Beaches – December 6, 2009
• Santa Barbara International Marathon – December 6, 2009
• St. Croix International Marathon, Half Marathon & Marathon Relay – December 6, 2009
• Charlotte’s Thunder Road Marathon – December 12, 2009
• Kiawah Island Marathon – December 12, 2009
• Rocket City Marathon – December 12, 2009
• Roxbury Marathon – December 12, 2009
• National Ding A Ling Day Marathon & Half Marathon – December 12, 2009
• Holualoa Tucson Marathon – December 13, 2009
• Season’s Greetings Marathon & Half Marathon – December 19, 2009
• Florida Marathon – December 19, 2009
• Jacksonville Bank Marathon – December 20, 2009
• Santa’s Marathon & Half Marathon – December 20, 2009
• Year End Marathon & Half Marathon – December 31, 2009

I would love to know if you’re running a December marathon above. Best of luck!