HaftaRun - Running Tips
SUMMERTIME TIP:
Lathering Up with spf 15
While running during the Summer, should you wear sun screen? My conclusion is that the benefits outweigh the burdens. There is no question that you should always wear it on your face (don't forget your lips), particularly if you are running between the hours of 10:00 am and 4:00 PM. I would also suggest wearing a hat.
It is true that a layer of sun screen tends to keep some body heat in, but, the connection between extended, continuous exposure and skin cancer down the road is now well documented. I, for one, think that the minor discomfort of feeling slightly sticky is well worth it. Most races are held early in the morning when the sun's effects are minimized and sun screen is not needed.
So, in conclusion: any hard running should be done before 9:00 AM and after 5:00 PM when no sunscreen is needed. Any running done during daylight hours should be easy and sunscreen should be worn.
Frank Shorter
These Next tips are brought to you by: KickSports.Com
CARBOS ARE KING
For endurance athletes, carbohydrates are the fuel of choice
A few high-protein, high-fat diets are making their way through the masses with headlines and testimonials suggesting that they're the ticket for fast weight loss. And indeed, many have found success with these diets. But for endurance athletes, all the signs still point to high-carbohydrate diets for good health and performance.
FORM AND FUNCTION
Good posture and the right form make for better performance
A good runner is an efficient runner, whose economy of motion and energy means more left over for going the distance. That means form and posture are crucial; the way that a runner carries herself determines a great deal about the efficiency of her running. Active.com offers a guide to proper form, including the way you should hold your head, arms, hands, shoulders and hips.
"Some of the more common mistakes," writes Active.com, "are saggy shoulders, arms hanging too loosely by the runner’s sides or moving too far across the chest, the dreaded knock-kneed syndrome, or a runner actually sticking both thumbs straight up (affectionately known as 'The Fonz')."
For more, check out the full article at Active.com
BE PREPARED
Planning for the unexpected means smoother training and racing
Few things ever go as planned in life, and that includes running. Injury, slow recovery, weather -- they can all conspire to throw your training and racing off course. So sports psychologist Richard Ferguson suggests you expect the worst.
"If we can take steps to minimize the effects of changes in our plan before things get totally out of hand we are more likely to perform better and be less anxious and stressed in the process," Ferguson writes. "All of us do better when we can focus on things that are under our control. None of us can control the weather, competitors, or even the conditions of the course we run. However, we certainly can control how we think and how we deal with the unexpected. Remember that you are your own person and you should focus on YOUR plans, strategies, and performance."
No Pain, No Gain...? No Way.
First things first: running is not an invitation to pain and injury. The fact that you enjoy pushing yourself, enjoy exploring the roads and trails around you, enjoy the simple act of motion -- this does not doom you to bad knees and shredded tendons, despite popular myth. Running is not a filthy habit.
If you run strictly for fitness -- 30 minutes, three times a week -- you will probably never be injured except perhaps for some pesky shin splints when you're first starting out. Running is good for you; revel in your health and strength.
When you begin to run beyond that level, however, you are running for performance. By definition, this means that you are pushing your body to its limit in order to get ever better results. You're redlining. If you keep it up, then eventually you'll probably stray beyond what you can handle. When that happens, your body inevitably cries uncle.
Never fear, with the proper care you can nurse your legs back to health. But learn from your injuries. It's not running per se that causes your body to break down; it's the amount or the manner in which you run. Let your injury be a caution, and adjust your routine so that it doesn't happen again.
The Fix
Ouch. You've hurt yourself, but the pain you feel seems less important than the pain of not being able to run. Never fear, just about every running injury can be cured within a matter of weeks. Don't be discouraged, but do be responsible. Your injury is not a bolt from the blue. It happened either because you were doing something wrong, or because your body has a slight structural imbalance. Treating running injuries is about treating this cause, not just the pain and symptoms. In the words of Dr. George Sheehan, "Treat the reason, not the result."
Don't get us wrong, we aren't dismissing the pain of your symptoms. Before jumping into how to correct the root cause of your specific injury, a few general notes on easing your discomfort. Most injuries respond well to the RICE treatment: Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. Ice the trouble spot for ten minutes on, then ten minutes off, repeating as necessary. You should ice as soon as possible after you have been injured, and immediately after a run if you are running with an injury. Combined with compression (with a cold pack, for example) and elevation, icing goes far to reduce pain and swelling. Heat should only be applied to an injury after the inflammation is gone, probably after about 72 hours. If your swelling has gone down quite a bit, but there's still a little bit of inflammation, try alternating heat and ice after a few days of ice-only treatment.
Anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin or ibuprofin (e.g. Motrin and Advil) can also ease pain and swelling. But you should never use them to mask pain simply so that you can go running. In fact, never take anti-inflammatories before running, period. Pain, while plainly irritating, serves a useful purpose; it's your body's way of telling you to stop. You are not doing yourself any favors by covering up that pain and ignoring it so that you can run through an injury. You'll only do more harm. Feel free to use these drugs to speed your recovery and ease discomfort, but only when you are not involved in an activity that might aggravate your injury. (Don't forget to visit KickSports.Com for more info.
Stay Loose
You can do a lot to prevent injury simply by following a regular stretching program. Just a little light stretching before your run and fifteen minutes of stretching afterward will go far to keep your body from rebelling. Sure, fifteen minutes probably seems like a huge amount of time, but it's a small sacrifice for injury-free running. Drop in on the Stay Loose page of Kick's Good Running section for detailed information on stretching. And don't forget to do some gentle running both before and after your run to help keep your muscles from tightening up on you.
Treat Your Feet
Be sure that your shoes aren't worn out and that you have the right model. The modern running shoe has all kinds of high-falutin' gadgets and gizmos to adjust for the natural structural flaws in just about any foot out there. That's great if you're wearing a shoe that's designed to correct the specific imbalance in your foot. But it can be bad if you're wearing a shoe designed for a completely different type of foot. The wrong shoe can actually aggravate existing problems, causing injuries in your feet, legs, knees or hips. Be cautious when buying your shoes. Go to a specialty running shoe where you can be properly fitted, and replace them every 400 or 500 miles. If it turns out that you have biomechanically weak feet, you might also look into getting fitted for heel lifts or orthotics. Visit the Shoes page of Kick Sports, Gear section for lots of details on finding the shoe that's right for you.
Surface Matters
Now that you've got the right shoes, use them on the right surface. Avoid rock-hard surfaces like concrete sidewalks and aim instead for grass or dirt trails. The idea, of course, is to run where the ground will absorb more shock, instead of passing it along to your legs. Try to be consistent. A sudden change to a new running surface can itself be a cause of injury. Whatever you do, though, get off the concrete. It's approximately 10 times as hard as asphalt, and is easily the worst possible running surface. Runners World agrees, as evidenced by its ranking of surfaces on a scale of 1 (awful) to 10 (best):
Grass 9.5 - Wood chips 9 - Dirt 8 - Cinder track 7.5 - Track 7 - Treadmill 6.5 - Asphalt 6 - Sand 4 - Snow 2.5 - Concrete 1
Thanks Kick Sports for all your Running Tips
These next tips are from the Running Room
Cold Weather Running Tips
- Warm up properly and start at a comfortable pace before easing into a tempo that is lower than your normal training pace.
- Shorten your stride to improve your footing on icy roads. Many runners insert a handful of small dry-wall screws on the outsides of their soles to give them greater traction.
- Carry a couple of coins so you can make a telephone call in an emergency. Perhaps carry the cab fare home.
- Run into the wind and coast home with it at your back.
- Run with a group if possible. If you run by yourself, find a route that allows you to cut your run short and where help is readily available.
If you are going out by yourself, tell someone where you are going, give him or her your route and an estimate of how long you will be out.
Don't run lonely trails by yourself. In case you slip or fall on icy terrain, a twisted ankle or broken bone could leave you helpless.
- In extreme temperatures, cover all exposed skin with clothing or petroleum jelly for protection. If you are running with a partner, check each other's face regularly for the white tell-tale spots of frostbite.
- Run facing oncoming traffic in winter and wear reflective gloves.
- Mittens are warmer than gloves.
- Chapstick your lips, nose and ears.
- Petroleum jelly on the hands helps keep them warm and makes a great moisturizer.
- Keep your speed work for dry, indoor surfaces.
- Seek a warm, dry place and medical attention if you or a colleague suspect hypothermia. Hypothermia is caused by a drop in the body's core temperature. It can be very dangerous. Signs are incoherent, slurred speech; clumsy fingers; and other signs of poor coordination. Wet, windy days are often when difficulty is experienced.
We know of no runner who has frozen lungs in sub-zero weather, and we know some people who run outside when it is minus 40 degrees Celsius. The air is warmed by the body before it enters the lungs. If you find breathing cold air uncomfortable, wear a face mask to help warm the air.
- Change into dry clothes as soon as you can after your run.
Jeff Galloway in his book Galloway's Book on Running, describes the most frequent cause of running injury as increasing total weekly mileage. He further describes the main reasons for speed injuries as follows:
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The Top Seven:
- Inadequate warmup or warm down. Be sure to follow a thorough warmup procedure. By gradually getting the muscles active, you can avoid the trauma incurred when cold muscles go to a maximum exertion. Likewise, it's crucial to gradually ease off in a thorough warm down.
- Running Too Hard on Easy Days. The speed work and the long runs will take you to your goal. You must have easy running days in between these stress days to recover. If you run too fast on the easy day, you'll gradually accumulate stress and tiredness which can lead to injury. A good easy day pacing rule is to add 1 1/2 - 2 minutes per mile to your 10K race pace.
- Sprinting. Never run at top speed, not even in play, for there's great risk of injury. Even the form accelerations are designed to reach a maximum speed of only a hard one-mile pace.
- Too Many Weeks of Speed. For races of 10K or less, speed work should last no more than ten weeks. After this period, you run great injury risk by continuing.
- Too Many Hard Days. If you pack too many speed sessions, long runs and races into a short period of time, you're asking for trouble. Running slowly on the long runs and alternating weekends with races or easy runs will reduce stress. It's more important to complete the quality speed workouts and the long runs while minimizing races.
- Inadequate Transition. Some runners try a "shortcut" up the pyramid by minimizing or eliminating hill work and or the first few sessions. This forces the body to move too quickly from long slow running to intense speed work. Jolting the muscles this way tears them down and makes the rebuilding long and difficult. Each hill and speed workout is a part of a gradual program, a series of stepping stones in which you gradually apply stress and then recover.
- On A Bad Day. If you're not up to an interval workout, quit. Try it the next day or the day after. If it still doesn't feel right try a fartlek session or hill workout to simulate the intensity and duration of the interval work. If you suspect you're overly tired, take a low mileage week to recover and then try again.
Breathing
Breathing, the simply act of inhaling and exhaling, can be complicated. Much like running, the act of putting one foot in front of the other is a lot more complicated than one would expect. Watch the super talented singer who has mastered breathing. This mastery allows them to hit and hold the long high notes. Better yet, the swimmer has mastered breathing, if for no other reason than they do not what to get a mouth full of water. As runners we occasionally get caught up in our sport and forget some basics like breathing. We start our runs in a race or group environment and the excitement causes us to breath high in our chest rather than " belly" breathing. The short, high breathing can cause us to hyperventilate or get the dreaded "runners stitch". Here are some tips that will make your stitch go away and get you more relaxed in your breathing, thereby, allowing you to run faster.
Stand up tall, shoulders back and put one hand on your belly. Purse your lips and fully exhale. When we fully exhale we do not need to think about breathing in, as nature does this as part of our survival technique. We breathe in relaxed and "belly breathe" when we fully exhale. This deep breathing is both more relaxed and more efficient in the use of oxygen. Keep your breathing relaxed, deep, rhythmic and to time with your running stride by concentrating on fully exhaling. Inhale in a relaxed full deep breath. So now as you run, concentrate on the upper body being relaxed and rhythmic with the power of your running focused on your hip down. The initial power coming from the push off of the ankle and the glide and relaxed lift of the knee coming from the hip flexors. Save the huffing and puffing for the big bad wolf stories. Now you know why one of the most common things a coach gets the athlete to concentrate on is to relax. The more relaxed we are the higher the level of performance. Enjoy your running.
Thanks Running Room for helping us to be a smarter, safer and healthier runner.
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