Monday, June 29, 2009
Staying Alive Longer in your Running - http://www.icanrunamarathon.com/talks/900178
Staying Alive Longer
If you're keen on not being run down - always (whenever possible) run facing the traffic.
If you run when it is dark or poor visibility wear light clothing, wear a reflective strip and possibly wear a flashing light.
Be careful of cars approaching from behind (when you are running on the same side as the traffic). When you're tired you tend to use your hearing rather than having to turn around. This means listening to music makes you less aware. However, if you hear a car approaching from behind, and move further off the road, be careful once it has passed of moving back to your former position, without looking, as often there is another car directly behind the first who is not expecting you to move suddenly back towards the road.
Being squashed should not be part of your training plan - rather be careful, especially when you get tired.
www.runningeasy.com
If you run when it is dark or poor visibility wear light clothing, wear a reflective strip and possibly wear a flashing light.
Be careful of cars approaching from behind (when you are running on the same side as the traffic). When you're tired you tend to use your hearing rather than having to turn around. This means listening to music makes you less aware. However, if you hear a car approaching from behind, and move further off the road, be careful once it has passed of moving back to your former position, without looking, as often there is another car directly behind the first who is not expecting you to move suddenly back towards the road.
Being squashed should not be part of your training plan - rather be careful, especially when you get tired.
www.runningeasy.com
"During a typical year, about 65 percent of runners suffer from serious overuse injury." Try Running Easy - www.runningeasy.com
Two Types of Fitness
There are 2 main parts to fitness - well actually there are 5 parts - Cardiorespiratory, Muscular strength, Muscular endurance, Physical flexibility, Body composition - but we want to keep this simple and useful. You're not going to be jogging along the road thinking about the crossover point between your cardiorespiratory gain and body composition. More likely you're puffing and wheezing and got sore muscles. So, we're going to simplify it down to two elements;
- Cardio Fitness - that's the huffing part.
- Structural Fitness - that's the aching parts.
Cardio fitness is to do with the fitness of your heart and lungs - essentially it is how efficient they are. After all we basically need air to live and do everything. If the big pump (heart) and air reservoir (lungs) are optimized then your cardiovascular fitness is operating well and running (or any exercise) will feel easy.
Structural Fitness is the condition of your muscles, joints and all the other parts of your body that are doing all the moving when the Cardio engine is pumping.
It is a lack of Cardio fitness that makes most non-runners feel that it must be impossible to run anything more than a couple of kilometers, let alone a marathon. "Hang! I'm huffing and panting just when I get up from the dinner table, and sweating like a Turkish wrestler after walking up the road, there is just no way I could run a marathon!" The hardest part of your training is developing the cardio fitness. But the good news is that this fitness is quickly acquired and by Week 2 or 3 of our marathon program (assuming you started with the required 5km core fitness) the cardio fitness issues will be minimal.
The first phase sees you experiencing high levels of effort relating to developing cardio fitness. The second phase sees the cardio effort dropping off significantly while the strain on the structural component increases. Then finally the third phase, where the training reaches the peak weeks just prior to the taper, the strain on the structural fitness component increases the most. This is when there are lots of sore muscles, joints and others parts of your body you never knew you had.
So as you can see by the time you develop your marathon fitness your cardio fitness feels easier and easier, and with rest your structural fitness also starts to feel easier.
Yours in running easy....
Craig & Nicky
www.runningeasy.com
- Cardio Fitness - that's the huffing part.
- Structural Fitness - that's the aching parts.
Cardio fitness is to do with the fitness of your heart and lungs - essentially it is how efficient they are. After all we basically need air to live and do everything. If the big pump (heart) and air reservoir (lungs) are optimized then your cardiovascular fitness is operating well and running (or any exercise) will feel easy.
Structural Fitness is the condition of your muscles, joints and all the other parts of your body that are doing all the moving when the Cardio engine is pumping.
It is a lack of Cardio fitness that makes most non-runners feel that it must be impossible to run anything more than a couple of kilometers, let alone a marathon. "Hang! I'm huffing and panting just when I get up from the dinner table, and sweating like a Turkish wrestler after walking up the road, there is just no way I could run a marathon!" The hardest part of your training is developing the cardio fitness. But the good news is that this fitness is quickly acquired and by Week 2 or 3 of our marathon program (assuming you started with the required 5km core fitness) the cardio fitness issues will be minimal.
The first phase sees you experiencing high levels of effort relating to developing cardio fitness. The second phase sees the cardio effort dropping off significantly while the strain on the structural component increases. Then finally the third phase, where the training reaches the peak weeks just prior to the taper, the strain on the structural fitness component increases the most. This is when there are lots of sore muscles, joints and others parts of your body you never knew you had.
So as you can see by the time you develop your marathon fitness your cardio fitness feels easier and easier, and with rest your structural fitness also starts to feel easier.
Yours in running easy....
Craig & Nicky
www.runningeasy.com
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Your body remembers
It is amazing how clever our body is. As we have mentioned in the marathon course, our body uses a "run-rest-repair" process. So we don't actually get fit when we are running we get fit when we rest. While we are running our body breaks down, then while we rest it repairs, but stronger than it was before. This is awesome, but also underlines the importance of rest.
Research has shown that the effect of running on our metabolism last for 48 hours. This is great because we have an increased metabolism and hence weight loss during this period. However this period is also the period where the body is running around repairing itself, while we sleep, watch TV, go to work. It's amazing - but can also be sore. The soreness we experience is this process of the body repairing and strengthening. Your body is really clever, it remembers what you did to it and it does not want to go through it again so it's going to try and make itself stronger - just in case you're crazy enough to do this again. Which of course we are :-)
However your body also remembers if you push yourself too soon after a long run. You may even feel fine, the memory of the long run faded into the pizzas and burgers of the intervening weeks. But your body remembers. I remember when we had run an ultra marathon and about 4 weeks later we went to run a marathon. Four weeks after a long run the stiffness is all a distant memory, you feel as good as new. But your body remembers. We started fine, enjoying the run - until we got to about 20kms. Then all of a sudden we felt tired, and it got worse and worse, until we crawled over the finish line. We couldn't understand it. We were fit enough - we'd run an ultra (56km) this should have been easy. But although we felt fine our body remembered the ultra too! It had not forgotten and was still busy repairing. So as soon as we hit a certain distance it threw its toys out the cot and we suddenly felt drained.
So the lesson is to make sure that you take it easy after a long run. This is not only true after running a marathon, but also your long training runs. Make sure the next day is more relaxing and the next run. This does not mean we cant push our bodies, as this is how they get stronger - but your body remembers and this memory is communicated in clear "pain" language. That is why our training program (and all good programs) have several weeks of taper to let your body repair and forget....
C:-)
Research has shown that the effect of running on our metabolism last for 48 hours. This is great because we have an increased metabolism and hence weight loss during this period. However this period is also the period where the body is running around repairing itself, while we sleep, watch TV, go to work. It's amazing - but can also be sore. The soreness we experience is this process of the body repairing and strengthening. Your body is really clever, it remembers what you did to it and it does not want to go through it again so it's going to try and make itself stronger - just in case you're crazy enough to do this again. Which of course we are :-)
However your body also remembers if you push yourself too soon after a long run. You may even feel fine, the memory of the long run faded into the pizzas and burgers of the intervening weeks. But your body remembers. I remember when we had run an ultra marathon and about 4 weeks later we went to run a marathon. Four weeks after a long run the stiffness is all a distant memory, you feel as good as new. But your body remembers. We started fine, enjoying the run - until we got to about 20kms. Then all of a sudden we felt tired, and it got worse and worse, until we crawled over the finish line. We couldn't understand it. We were fit enough - we'd run an ultra (56km) this should have been easy. But although we felt fine our body remembered the ultra too! It had not forgotten and was still busy repairing. So as soon as we hit a certain distance it threw its toys out the cot and we suddenly felt drained.
So the lesson is to make sure that you take it easy after a long run. This is not only true after running a marathon, but also your long training runs. Make sure the next day is more relaxing and the next run. This does not mean we cant push our bodies, as this is how they get stronger - but your body remembers and this memory is communicated in clear "pain" language. That is why our training program (and all good programs) have several weeks of taper to let your body repair and forget....
C:-)
Labels: pain, repair, rest, stiffness
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Running Easy means Running Longer
I's just over 2 weeks since we ran the Comrades Marathon (89km) and we are back on the road enjoying our running. Today Nicky and I dropped our car off for a service and ran back home (about 8km) along part of the final route of Comrades. The amazing thing is how good we felt, and we were again seeing that Runny Easy is the way to go.
Essentially Running Easy is a philosophy that sees the journey as more important than the destination. We run because we love being outdoors, we love feeling fit, we love seeing interesting places. Some people run merely for a destination - to beat a time, to run faster, to run harder. It matters little how the run felt, as long as the goal is achieved. The sad part about this is that it simply can't be sustained. Besides age, which will eventually make PBs (personal bests) less likely, there is also the damage that this philosophy does to the body.
I was very sore after Comrades - Hey, but then it is a long way and some pain is expected. The runners' area looks like a war zone with hundreds of people collapsed on the grass, stretcher bearers doing their thing, limping runners supported by friends slowly leaving the stadium. Yet, the key is, how long do the runners feel like this. Many of the people who race (rather than run easy) stay away from running for 8 weeks in order to let their body recover. The damage of racing, of running harder, lasts much longer than when you run easy. Because we ran easy, within a couple of weeks we feel as good as new - but still we are running easy - and absolutely enjoying it.
The other factor to consider when choosing your running approach is how long you would like to run for. We've witnessed many racers, run-harders who reach 60, and as much as the would like to run, are unable to. They need hip replacements, knee replacements, body replacements. Running hard is hard! It takes it's toll on your body. Just try it. Run fast down a hill or even on a flat and notice how it feels on your joints. Then try and run easy and notice the difference.
So running easy will not only let you enjoy your journey, it will give you many more years of enjoying the great experience of feeling alive, fit, healthy as you see the world on foot.
Yours in running easy....
Craig
Labels: age, injury, running easy
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
The quest for a marathon
"Runners are no longer content with fitness but are seeking a new awareness of the self in the total experience of running - and more often than not they are culminating that quest by running a marathon." - George Sheehan
This quote which is from Runner's World has got it spot on. Running is much more than just fitness, it is a total experience. It's just a pity that so few people realise it. If you look at most of the training programs they are all about time, speed, more, harder....Nicky just showed me this one today also from Runner's World - WOW - the only experience here is pain and sweat - This is to run 5K's -
"Before you sign up for your first 5-K, you should be comfortable running at least four times a week." and if you think that is excessive for 5k's you haven't head the rest - "New York City coach Joshua Levin-Soler suggests this week of training when you have a 5-K on the weekend that you're going to use as a fun run.
- Monday: Rest
- Tuesday: Easy run of up to 5 miles at 70% of max heart rate. Finish with 6 to 10 strides up a slight incline.
- Wednesday: Run or cross-train at 70% of max heart rate, for 1 hour.
- Thursday: Run up to 1 hour, with 10 20-second pickups at 80% of max heart rate, recovering for 90 seconds in between.
- Friday: Run or cross-train at 70% of max heart rate for 30 to 60 minutes, depending on your fitness level.
- Saturday: Race as a fun run. Take it easy! No higher than 75?80% of max heart rate.
- Sunday: Run 45 to 60 minutes at up to 70% of max heart rate."
And all that just for a 5K "fun run"!
Yet there is so much more to be discovered when running is an experience not a race. When running is not about 6 day a week programs, max heart rates, striding inclines, cross training....when running is purely about running. When running is purely about being out on the road - just you - alone with the fresh air, the sites and sounds of the landscape as it races past you, the feeling of freedom, of health - "the total experience of running." It is this philosophy that we are trying to develop in people - not just in word - but in action. Forget your watch, your splits, your times, your pace - run because you're alive. And when you do this you find a side of running that is amazing - that will stay with you for all your days, unlike the fading hopes of PBs (personal bests) as you get older.
C'mon go out there and run - just because you can....
Yours in running easy....
Craig
Labels: 5km, relax, running easy
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