Hi, Friends & Fellow Runners:
Check the pulse of
your training, if you would, and ask yourself a few simple questions: Are you
wearing the right shoes (you’re probably not if you bought them anywhere but at
a specialty running store)? Are you
eating well (lots of complex carbohydrates – fruits, vegetables and whole
grains)? Are you doing your running at a
controlled, conversational pace (instead of ending each workout at the edge of
exhaustion)? If your answers are yes,
yes and yes, you’ve already started building a protective wall against
injuries. Now finish the job by
following the eight rules of injury prevention listed below. Doing so will get you to your goal race healthy,
fit, and ready to perform at your best.
Curb
Your Enthusiasm
The easiest way to
get injured is to try to do too much. Everyone
has an injury threshold. That threshold
may be measured in kilometres per week, pace per workout, frequency of training
sessions, or a combination of all three.
And just because you may not have reached your threshold yet doesn’t
mean it’s not there. That’s why, in the
final analysis, the principle of rest and recovery must be an integral part of
any training program. Muscles, joints
and soft tissue need time to mend and grow stronger after a hard workout so
they can handle the demands of an even more challenging bout of training going
forward. Rushing that process
short-circuits the cycle of breakdown and build-up, and puts the body at risk. That’s why you should limit your hard workouts (such as Long Distance and Tempo runs, Hill Repeats and Speed Intervals) to three a week and cap your increase in total mileage at 10% from one week to the next.
Listen
when Your Body Talks
Usually, injuries
suffered by runners are neither abrupt nor dramatic. They signal their approach with aches,
soreness and pain that’s unlike anything you may have felt before. If and when that pain reaches a point where
it increases in intensity as you run or forces you to change your gait, you
should take a few days off, resort to the “RICE” treatment (see below), and
engage in cross training activities like swimming or cycling. The idea is to continue to strengthen your
heart and lungs while giving your skeletal system a break. After three or four days, resume your
run-related workouts if you’re able, but at a slower pace than before. Then, during the balance of a ten-day period,
try to gradually ease back into the demands of your regular training. Obviously, if the pain continues or just gets
worse after that, a visit to a sports medicine professional would be
appropriate.
Function
follows Form
In a recent email
about biomechanics (entitled “The Right Way to Run”), the point was made that a
shorter stride, more rapid leg turnover and midsole strike can have a dramatic
and beneficial impact on your energy efficiency and thus maximize performance by
greatly improving your running economy.
Such changes in running form can also help you avoid injury. The shorter the stride, the lighter the
impact on landing – which means less wear and tear on your working
muscles. And the flatter foot strike
that naturally results from a reduced stride length virtually eliminates the
skeletal misalignment caused by excess pronation (i.e., inward rotation of the
foot). It was once thought that changing
your stride was as difficult as changing your fingerprints, but recent research
has disproven that view. You can
kick-start the process by shaving 10% off your normal stride length and
increasing leg turnover accordingly during a portion of each of your
workouts. Then you could gradually
expand the effort from there, until the shorter stride became a natural part of
your biomechanics in all your training sessions. A positive result would prove to be a win-win
all around in terms of injury avoidance and performance improvement.
Get Hip to Effective Stretching
Evidence is
mounting that most below-the-waist injuries (to the Achilles tendon, knee,
hamstrings, etc.) can be attributed to weak hip stabilization muscles. So act proactively to strengthen your hip
abductors and adductors as well as glutes by engaging in what’s called dynamic
stretching both before and after a run.
The effect over time will be to increase leg stability all the way down
to the ankle.
On point here are warm
up exercises that target the muscles used for running – leg pendulum swings,
walking lunges and the like. Then you
should add a few minutes of jogging, first with an exaggerated knee life and
then while kicking your heels up to touch your buttocks. [For detailed descriptions of dynamic
stretches, google runnersworld.com/ADynamicRoutine.]
By the way, if you’re
going to do any traditional static stretching at all, do it independently of
your running and focus on the hamstring and calf muscles. Because these muscle groups tend to tighten
with consistent running, conventional stretching can be applied to increase
their flexibility and range of motion, thereby making them less injury-prone
than they would otherwise be.
RICE Is More than Just a Food
The acronym, RICE,
is familiar to all veteran runners. It
stands for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation – and
it’s the preferred option for the immediate treatment of muscle and joint
pain. The process promotes healing by
easing the pain, reducing any swelling, and protecting damaged tissue. Most importantly, it prevents minor aches and
soreness from escalating into a major injury.
The sooner and more frequently you apply RICE, the better. You should first do it when you return home
after the hard workout that gave rise to the pain initially. The treatment itself could hardly be
simpler. Just fill a Ziploc bag with ice
cubes and water, wrap it around the affected area with a belt or, preferably,
an Ace compression bandage, and prop the injured extremity on a pillow while
lying down. The ice should be applied
for 20 minutes, removed for 10, and then applied again for 20 more
minutes. Repeat the process the next evening
while taking a day of complete rest in your training. Then continue with the icing for as many days
as necessary until the pain dissipates or disappears -- or until you decide
it’s time to visit a sports doctor.
Cross
Training with a Purpose
I believe in cross
training, and with good reason. It
provides an opportunity for active recovery on days between the hard workouts
prescribed in our clinic program, and it keeps your body balanced by
maintaining the strength and elasticity of key muscle groups that are of
secondary importance in endurance running.
The simple truth is that your
muscles, joints and connective tissues grow weary from the cumulative impact of
thousands of foot strikes over the course of a week. So they welcome the relief of non-weight
bearing activities such as swimming, cycling, elliptical training, and
rowing. All of these offer a much-needed
measure of injury protection while improving your aerobic fitness – a pairing
of goals that is critical to any training effort. There is also a very important place for
cross training during any post-injury recovery period. In fact, cross training is a much better bet
than complete rest if you want to perform well on Race Day.
Of
Surface Importance
You live in a city,
so the world in which you run is made up largely of asphalt and concrete. These are far from ideal surfaces when your
feet are pounding away at a rate of 160 to 180 times a minute and creating
impact forces equal to three times your body weight. Is it any wonder that lower-extremity
injuries are more common among runners in urban areas than in the countryside?
No one is
suggesting that you move to the sticks so that you can more comfortably feed
your running habit. But you can take
simple precautions. On your visits to
relatives in smaller communities or rural areas, look to run more on dirt
trails or bike paths And if you have
access to a gym, consider doing your solo runs during the week on the soft mat
of a treadmill. Finally, when you are
running your usual routes on concrete sidewalks or asphalt pathways, think
about moving onto any adjacent dirt or grass.
The key is to find soft and level surfaces. Your knees, calves, shins and feet will thank
you for it.
...And
Last but Not Least
There are several
sources of discomfort that can make the training experience more difficult than
it has to be. Heading the list are
probably foot blisters and skin chafing.
You can avoid the first by making sure your shoes are the right size and
also allow for some expansion of the feet during long-distance workouts. Another way to combat blisters is by wearing
non-cotton, double-layered socks. As
for chafing, which can be a special problem in cold and wet weather, the
preferred treatment is with a skin lubricant called Body Glide – a product
that’s available at Running Room and most specialty stores selling athletic wear.
Coach Stephen
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