Wisdom for the Long Haul

The most common cause of injury among athletes is trying to do too much too fast. You have to be patient with your body - it needs time to adapt to workouts and recover between them. That said, the only way to improve performance is to push yourself. To balance these two seemingly opposing objectives, conventional running wisdom suggests you:

• Increase mileage, speed or time (choose one, not all three!) by no more than 10% each week.
• Prepare muscles for strenuous exercise by warming up 3-10 minutes.
• Take time to cool down to stave off soreness.
• Rest or go easy the day after an intensive workout to allow fibers to recover and glycogen to be replaced.
• Space races. Runner's World suggests taking one easy day or rest day for each mile you've raced.
• Cross-train for greater strength and calorie burn, fewer injuries, and mental toughness.

For more training advice visit:
www.coolrunning.com
www.runnersworld.com
www.active.com
www.copacabanarunners.net

Body Language

Listen to your body. Pain that persistently nags at you could be indicative of an injury. If you suspect this to be the case, stop running. The sooner you do, the sooner your recovery begins. Start by using the RICE method. Rest limits injury and minimizes swelling whereas ice constricts blood vessels, limiting inflammation and pain. Apply ice to injury immediately, in intervals of ten minutes on, ten minutes off for at least an hour. Compression and elevation help to limit swelling. While recovering, substitute other activities so you don't lose fitness - a week of rest requires two weeks of exercise to return to your pre-injury level of fitness. Return to training only when fully healed. And buy some insoles. Their shock-absorbing abilities go a long way in keeping feet - and therefore your body - injury-free.

For articles or more information on injury prevention and recovery visit:
www.active.com
www.runnersworld.com
www.runningnetworkarchives.com/runwashington/tips/recover.html