File this one under "do as I say, not as I do."
Runners are pretty often Type-A, borderline-obsessive compulsive personalities. We like to maximize all the performance enhancing details (nutrition, flexibility, strength, etc.) while also running more, more, more; faster, faster; faster. Except sometimes, the best thing to do is the opposite.
Case in point: I haven't been running much for the past two weeks. Just some off-and-on mileage. Why? The good ol' hamstring's a little strained.
In the days before the Music City Distance Carnival, I had a short tune-up workout: a 20-minute aerobic threshold run and then 10 x 200 at fast (ish) but controlled effort. And what inevitably happened? I felt really good and was psyched to race that weekend, so I ran the aerobic threshold too fast. Then I got even more pumped that I was running well and blasted the 200s too hard.
I knew what I was doing was bad for my future performance, and yet I couldn't stop myself.
And the results speak for themselves: a mediocre race days later, and a currently-strained hamstring.
There are many lessons to take from this little snafu, but I want to focus on just two. Two that focus on running less in the short term to run faster in the long term.
1) Have the discipline to stay under control the week before a goal race. You're not going to gain any fitness in that final week, so why try to push your body? Save that for the race. The week leading up to a key race is all about recovery and getting your legs back under you, so that you're primed to run hard on race day. So don't run too hard before the race! This is something every runner should learn in high school, but it often bears repeating as we mature.
2) Have the confidence to rest if you're feeling an injury coming on. There's a fine line between routine soreness and damaging injury; part of the training process is learning about your body enough to ride that line. You're going to get sore during training, and you can't back off every time you feel sore or else you'll never have the consistency to gain fitness. But how do you tell the difference between being sore and being injured? Here are a couple rules of thumb: if it doesn't subside with a few days of easy jogging, then you're injured. Also, if you find yourself changing your form while running, then you're injured. If you're injured, stop running! Don't try to train through it, don't try to gut it out; shut down and allow your body to heal. If you continue training, you're only sacrificing potential long term gains and risking a potentially more serious injury. It's better to miss a week now than a month later, or to be hampered by a chronic, nagging injury for good. Training should always be done with the long term benefits in mind, so treat injury management the same way.
Which leads me to where I am today: taking 4-6 days off a week before my key race this summer, the Hyde Park Blast. I should have done this last week instead of alternating running and resting hoping it'd get better. Oh well. Rest now, run faster later.
Runners are pretty often Type-A, borderline-obsessive compulsive personalities. We like to maximize all the performance enhancing details (nutrition, flexibility, strength, etc.) while also running more, more, more; faster, faster; faster. Except sometimes, the best thing to do is the opposite.
Case in point: I haven't been running much for the past two weeks. Just some off-and-on mileage. Why? The good ol' hamstring's a little strained.
In the days before the Music City Distance Carnival, I had a short tune-up workout: a 20-minute aerobic threshold run and then 10 x 200 at fast (ish) but controlled effort. And what inevitably happened? I felt really good and was psyched to race that weekend, so I ran the aerobic threshold too fast. Then I got even more pumped that I was running well and blasted the 200s too hard.
I knew what I was doing was bad for my future performance, and yet I couldn't stop myself.
And the results speak for themselves: a mediocre race days later, and a currently-strained hamstring.
There are many lessons to take from this little snafu, but I want to focus on just two. Two that focus on running less in the short term to run faster in the long term.
1) Have the discipline to stay under control the week before a goal race. You're not going to gain any fitness in that final week, so why try to push your body? Save that for the race. The week leading up to a key race is all about recovery and getting your legs back under you, so that you're primed to run hard on race day. So don't run too hard before the race! This is something every runner should learn in high school, but it often bears repeating as we mature.
2) Have the confidence to rest if you're feeling an injury coming on. There's a fine line between routine soreness and damaging injury; part of the training process is learning about your body enough to ride that line. You're going to get sore during training, and you can't back off every time you feel sore or else you'll never have the consistency to gain fitness. But how do you tell the difference between being sore and being injured? Here are a couple rules of thumb: if it doesn't subside with a few days of easy jogging, then you're injured. Also, if you find yourself changing your form while running, then you're injured. If you're injured, stop running! Don't try to train through it, don't try to gut it out; shut down and allow your body to heal. If you continue training, you're only sacrificing potential long term gains and risking a potentially more serious injury. It's better to miss a week now than a month later, or to be hampered by a chronic, nagging injury for good. Training should always be done with the long term benefits in mind, so treat injury management the same way.
Which leads me to where I am today: taking 4-6 days off a week before my key race this summer, the Hyde Park Blast. I should have done this last week instead of alternating running and resting hoping it'd get better. Oh well. Rest now, run faster later.
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