Running

Spring starts the time for road races, trail races, and all the fun and preparation that comes with it. In order to keep your body healthy and happy during training, here are a few tips to think about:

Start slow and build up:

If you haven’t been running or training, don’t just jump into a ‘longer’ or more intense run. Start low and slow and build up. Start with walk/run intervals and progress towards more running and less walking.

An example would be to start your first week walking 4 minutes and running 1 minute. Repeat that for 4 sets. 3x in your first week. If that goes well try a 3 minute walk/ 2 minute run scheme and if that all keeps going well, keep increasing run time and decreasing walk time until you hit your projected distance/time you would like to run. This will allow your body to adapt to the new load you are placing on it, decreasing your likelihood of injury.

Incorporate Strength Training:

Strength training is a vital piece, for new and seasoned runners, to help prevent overuse injury, pain, and good health in general.

Running is an excellent exercise, but adding in a strength training piece will help keep you going.

Some exercises that help to strengthen your legs and hips include: Lunges, Single Leg Romanian DeadLifts, and Eccentric Calf raises. Adding progressive load here to keep you tired is a good goal. Below are examples with a barbell. Bodyweight, Kettlebells or dumbbells can be used for additional weight as well.

Lunge

Romanian Deadlift

Eccentric Calf Raises –

go up fast and down slow

Deadlift: Step 1

Deadlift: Step 2

Deadlift: Step 3

Consider How Your Body is Feeling:

Runners can typically push for weekly distance goals to stay on track for training. Utilizing a Relative Perceived Exertion (RPE) rating on each run can be helpful to know if your body is ready for what you’re asking it to do.

A 3-mile run can both be easy or hard depending on factors such as how much sleep you had, what you ate the day before, how much stress your body is under, if the run includes hills, or how fast you are running it. If every run in a week is rated at a 7/10 or harder – that could be a cue your body needs some rest.

Rest days are as important or more important than your training days! Rest days can still be active, but maybe a different activity is selected, like yoga, cycling, or swimming.

Running Analysis

If you run into injury or are curious about more information, making an appointment here at Impact Physical Therapy can help you stay on track for training, or get you started.

Using DartFish Motion Analysis, we can do a run analysis and screening to see if you are ready to go.