So I’m training for a marathon. You knew that, right?
Yep. October 24th, I’ll be cruising along 26.2 miles from New York to Canada along Niagara Falls. I’m excited.
I started running this past January and I was very clueless about it. Luckily for me, my local running club is filled with seasoned, well-read, veteran runners. And they have taught me a thing or three.
1). Heel-striking is a bad, bad thing. That’s when you land on your heel. This leads to knee, hip, back, basically all kinds of injury. Try to land on the ball of your foot. An easy way to learn to do this is to take smaller strides. Start off by running in place, then lean forward and go.
2). When adding miles to your long run each week, it should be in a two-steps-forward-one-step-back format. For example, if you start with a long run of six miles, the next should be seven, then five, then eight. Continuing to add miles without ever decreasing wears your body out and leads to injury.
3). Speaking of breaks, your body builds muscle on your days off. So take some days off. Preferably before your long run, so you can be in tip top shape for it.
I could share more, but this is Three Things Thursday, so I’m not allowed. The Three Things Police would come and take me away. And then who would do laundry and change diapers?!
😉
So that’s all you get for now.
How many of you are running? Anyone training for anything in particular?
As chief of police for Three Things Thursday, I thank you for abiding by the rules. 😉 (Just kidding… I want to know more!!! Maybe you can do a part 2 sometime!)
Thanks so much for sharing these tips. I’ve noticed all your running “tweets” and I have so much admiration for all you’ve done! I’m one of those “walk/jog three miles a day” kind of girls… not ambitious enough, I guess. 😉 I have a brother-in-law, however, who ran a marathon and regularly does half-marathons. Still… I did not know these tips! Thanks for teaching me. 🙂
I’m a runner… but I used to run.
🙂
I am so ready to get back into it. It’s just finding the courage, and knowing that I can work it into our days. I just have to be disciplined about it…
I agree, I’d love to know more!
I enjoy running and would love to run a marathon one day. I bought Vibram 5 Finger shoes to try to get rid of my knee pain. They help but I still have pain.
Have you heard of Phil Maffetone? My husband has been reading his stuff and thinks he is a great resource for endurance training and has personally seen improvement in his running using his techniques. i just can’t seem to get rid of my knee pain and have begun to think I need to go back to cycling.
Funny how different trained runners say different things. I had iron man/triathalon/marathon/ blah blah blah a thons helping me when I trained for my half and they had different things to say. Not about the taking days off or the not heal striking (which until I saw the pictures of me running my half I had no clue I did, so I would say another thing to do is have someone film or take a picture of you running- you learn a lot).
Yah. you go girl. Run some for me. I’m anxious to get back out there in oh… 7 months ish and start running again.
You are my hero, Beth. Thanks for these tips! I plan to memorize them and hopefully use them next spring!