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’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.

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

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!

This is the second part of the [Definitive Guide] Interval Training For Runners – Part 1.

In the first part of this article series, we talked about what interval training is, how interval training will help your marathon training, and the triple threat components of interval training. My one goal with this post and this blog is to push you outside your comfort zone. Try interval training at least once before you make any final decisions.

Why You Need to Sprinkle Interval Training Into Your Marathon Training

There are many benefits to interval training but a few dominant benefits can make a dramatic impact on your marathon time.

By running at higher intensities, you have the ability to develop your muscles and transform your current form to an efficient form. Running at higher intensities over and over again, your muscle memory kicks in and creates an “imprint”. Next time you run at that intensity, your muscles will remember how they worked last time so you can further perfect the running form through the current run.

photo credit: tonivc

Training at higher intensities also reduces the likeliness of injury, believe it or not. If you are thinking, “How the heck am I NOT supposed to get injured when I’m running like the wind?!?” The fact of the matter is that when you consistently implement interval training, you build a higher threshold for your joints and muscles to endure without feeling any pain, discomfort or “hit the wall” early in your run.

The Key To Interval Training Success: Warm Up!

Runners don’t want to warm up because it’s boring, it’s time consuming and it’s lame. You know what’s more boring and lame? Sitting at home on race day because of a stupid, preventable overuse injury that took out your knee.

Instead of thinking of a warm up as a waste of time, perceive it as insurance. Warming up is your back up which is similar to insurance; “just in case”. You know that no one plans to get in a head on collision. This goes for running as well: no runner prays for a paralyzing knee injury.

Do a quick 5-minute warm up before your training session and a 5-minute cool down after your race.

Example of an Interval Training Session

• 5 minutes of Warm Up + Stretching
• 3 minutes of low intensity work – run at a pace where you could comfortably talk to the person beside you
• 1 minutes of high intensity work – Hit your target heart zone
• 3 minutes of low intensity work – reduce your pace so that you’re back at that comfortably speaking pace. If you are just too tired too continue, stop completely and start again after the full rest. Turn it down a notch on your high intensity runs.
• 1 minutes of high intensity work – Hit your target heart zone. You’ll find that you might be tired but you get more comfortable with the level of intensity.
• 3 minutes of low intensity work – reduce your pace so that you’re back at that comfortably speaking pace.
• 5 minutes of cool down.

The above example is based on the 1:3 Work/Rest ratio we discussed. If you didn’t read that, go through it to understand what it means. This example is to illustrate how to structure your interval training sessions. You can easily tailor them to your own fitness levels.

Taking Action!

Please, please, PLEASE don’t make this blog another one to skim through and brush it off. I taught you why you need interval training in your marathon training and a beginner’s example for an interval workout. If there’s anything I can do to help explain interval training in a way where you can understand it thoroughly, please ask.

PS: What are your experiences with interval training? Liked it? Hated it? If you still have questions, give me a shout below! :)

Interval training plays an important role in your ability to run fast. Interval training requires you working your muscles at high intensities so if you are a complete newbie to running, I recommend that you start with the 3 part article on Beginner’s Guide to Distance Running. Once you have a foundation built, you can really reap the rewards of interval training and other forms of training without risking an injury.

What is Interval Training

Interval training is physical activity with burst of high intensity work alternating with periods of low activity or rest. As an example, a part of your interval training may consist of you running at a 7 mph pace for three minutes and then rest at a 2.5 mph pace for one minute.

photo credit: kk

How Interval Training Works

Unlike regular running with a consistent pace, interval training alternates between periods of high intensities and low intensities. This means that when you’re doing interval training, you are working both your aerobic (with oxygen) and anaerobic (without oxygen) systems.

While training the aerobic system is important, training your anaerobic system allows you to blast through the wall. Effective anaerobic training is necessary to increase each runner’s anaerobic threshold. The individual anaerobic threshold is a factor that determines the athlete’s level of peak performance.

Let’s put this in English:

“For the past few months, Fred has been consistently running 2 miles three times a week.  He decided to start training for a 10K and increased his mileage. When he began running longer distances, he noticed that at 2.5 miles, he would “hit the wall” so hard that he had to stop (low anaerobic threshold).

As he started implementing interval training into his schedule, he realized that each week, he would be able to run further before “hitting the wall” or feeling the same level of discomfort (increase in anaerobic threshold).”

The Triple Threat

There are three components of interval training that when compounded, can make your bland run into a hell of a ride!

1) Intensity

The intensity you train at during your high intensity periods as well as your low intensity periods play a huge role in your ability to grow as a runner. Here are the two extremes: if your high intensity periods are too intense, your going to burn yourself out SUPER FAST. On the other side of the coin, if your low intensity periods are too intense, than there is no period of recovery. If runners aren’t able to recover in that low intensity period, their high intensity periods will consist of a sub par performance.

2) Work/Rest Ratio

Intensity is the most important factor of interval training but if there isn’t an equal balance between the high and low intensity periods, there is a higher risk of getting injured. There needs to be an equal balance because both the anaerobic and aerobic systems must be worked enough to challenge the targeted muscles so on race day, you are physically prepared.

An example of work/rest ratios are 1:1, 1:2 or 1:3. These ratios would translate as follows: (1:1)  high intensity for 1 min, low intensity for 1 min, (1:2)  high intensity for 1 min, low intensity for 2 mins, and (1:3)  high intensity for 1 min, low intensity for 3 mins. There is nothing with resting for 3 minutes. If that’s how long it takes for your body to recover, so be it.

3) Duration

Our goal as runners is to run longer distance races such as marathons and half marathons. To run these longer distance, our primary goal isn’t to be a “Speedy Gonzalez” to finish the whole marathon; you’d be out of your mind! Our goal is to push that anaerobic threshold further to prevent injury and reduce the chance of “hitting the wall”. I will provide an example of an interval training session below, but I believe less is more. There’s a fine line, but I don’t believe that interval training for a couple of hours will do anything positive for your marathon running hopes.

Interval training has really helped me during my runs because it gives me confidence during those periods where you feel too tired to keep running. I recommend you try the example I will give you in part 2 of this article or your own tailored version of the example to really take advantage of interval training. Just keep in mind, quality over quantity.

Part 2: [Definitive Guide] Interval Training For Runners – Part 2

PS: What are your experiences with interval training? Liked it? Hated it? If you still have questions, give me a shout below! :)

Your training for your marathon is going well. You’re religiously following your plan, you eat nutritional meals throughout the day while keeping yourself hydrated and you even bought those Asics with the cool “gel thingy”; you are ready to go! Or are you…

Training for the marathon is only half the battle. There are a lot of influences race day brings that creates anxiety, nervousness and put pressure on you. Tune up races provide an experience that you just can’t get out of your regular training. A tune up race is used to create the same environment as race day to challenge you mentally as well as physically.

photo credit: miguel77

Pre-race anxiety is a big obstacle that prevents runners to run their best race. There is a level of uncertainty and the unknown prior to the race which creates a level of discomfort. By using a tune up race as practice, you can get a better idea of what kind of routine you need for race preparation to reduce as much of as that anxiety as possible. Learning what helps you during the tune up race will reflect what will help you on race day. Some things that you want to be aware of during the tune up race are how many hours you slept, stress levels, what you ate the night before, etc.

Three Reasons To Run A Tune Up Race

Pete Pfitzinger, exercise physiologist and a senior writer for Running Times, explains three benefits of tune up races. Tune up races:

“1) make you experience the nervous preparation for racing which helps reduce your anxiety before your goal race; 2) toughen you mentally and physically by taking you to your limit; and 3) provide feedback on your current fitness level.”

Tune up races illustrate how well a runner is conditioned based on their current fitness level. This type of race is not used as an “end-all-be-all” in terms of the results from the tune up. Instead, the tune up helps communicate how close you are relative to your own race day goals. For example, if a runner runs a tune up race that she is off her pace/mile by 2 minutes, she can make the proper adjustments such as reassessing her training goals as well as her race day goals to make them more realistic.

When To Do Your Tune Up Race

Pfitzinger recommends that you before you run a tune up race that you build a solid base through the first half of your training. An example:

“If you are devoting 16 weeks to preparing for a goal ½ marathon, for example, you might do an 8 week base training phase, and have your first tune-up race with 8 weeks to go.”

After the first tune up during week 8, running every other week is the best scenario that will keep your training fresh. A tune up race will challenge you mentally so when you arrive at the course with your head held high, the many influences on the course will have no effect to shake your confidence.

With at least two tune ups before your marathon, you will be prepared to brush off the pre-race anxiety and remain focused on your goal.

Don’t Be Mistaken By This Number!

The time you finish the tune up race isn’t going to be as fast as your race day time will. The reason is simply because you are in the midst of your training in the week of the tune up whereas you will be well rested through a taper on race day.

Don’t be discouraged by your tune up race result. The last thing you want to do is look at the race time and start to train harder than your schedule recommends. If you fall into this trap, you will begin to damage your joints and likely be stricken with an overuse injury.

Running in the rain isn’t the most popular time runners want to get out on the road. Most runners prefer running on a warm, beautiful, sunny day rather than a dark depressing one, me included. But, my mindset towards running in this weather changed after I said “You know, screw it! I’m gonna go for the run anyways!”

photo credit: rajeshkunnath

Let me back up a bit. Here in Toronto, there is a Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon going on. Walking around downtown and around the venue, I saw herds of runners nervous, excited and exhilarated for the marathon. For some marathoners, running in the rain can be intimidating because they might have not done it before.

It really is challenging IF (and this is a big if) you make it challenging. There are a lot of excuses we feed ourselves and confuse the mind to make it absolutely ok for you not to run. So instead of continuing to feeding your mind crap, I want to transform your perspective of running in the rain and why this will actually help your running.

Here are 7 reasons you should run in the rain:

1. You train yourself in challenging situations that allow you to overcome challenging periods of your marathon.
2. You will be physically more comfortable in different weather conditions as well as more layers (this is true for the  freezing, cold marathons early in the morning that transform into a beautiful day halfway through your race.
3. The relaxing shower after really feels like no other. At the end of the shower, you feel renewed.
4. It will clean your shoes so you don’t have to :)
5. There is no one else running – while everyone else is feeding themselves a buffet of excuses, you are “trimming down” and training to run your next PR!
6. You will become tougher physically and mentally – EXCUSES BE GONE!
7. If you get cold, there’s only one thing you can do to make yourself warmer: keep running!

There are literally hundreds of reasons why you should and will run in the rain and for every runner, there is a unique answer. Find the reason why you like running. Maybe it’s the beautiful sounds of the water or the feeling of tranquility when you run in a fall trail path.

Whatever it is, use your reason to get the most out of it as a motivator to get you out running in the rain.