dgte

Running, Racing Tips, Injury Prevention & Rehab

Toe Running

OK, lets get straight to business. I strongly believe that toe-running is the single most important thing that many
runners can focus on in order to improve their running. Rather than repeating it here, go to the Toe Running section of
the Training page to read my thoughts on the issue. It will be well worth your while.
Hill Running
Mention hill running to most people, and they will instantly assume you mean uphill. This need not be so. The merits of
uphill running are fairly obvious: improved strength, the extra aerobic work required, emphasis on better sprinting form,
etc. What is not so obvious is that downhill running can be equally beneficial. It does not help that downhill running is
often blamed for an assortment of injuries.
Downhill running is akin to over-speed training, i.e. the resistance work you often see sprinters doing. By lengthening
your stride and increasing your turnover, you are able to run at a significantly faster and more efficient rate than you
would otherwise. The key is to choose a gradual incline -- one that you feel comfortable running your hardest without
feeling like you are leaning back and braking.
It is that very braking motion which causes the majority of the injuries that give downhill running such a bad name. Try
to lean forward and visualize running on your toes. You will be amazed how much faster you can go with no extra effort.
Practice this for a while, and you'll be the talk of the team or the running club on the next trail run!

Proper Rest

Rest is a very underrated aspect of running, especially distance running. To be good at running, you must adopt a
mindset along the lines of, "the harder I push, the better I will be." Well, this is good only up to a point. As a coach of
mine said (specifically for summer training, but the general theory carries over into the competitive season, as well),
"make your hard days as hard as possible and your easy days as easy as possible." The idea is that if your easy days
are taking away from your hard days, you will merely run mediocre every day and not do the work necessary to become
faster. It is the hard workouts that make you a faster runner, not the easy ones.
Personally, I am in favor of three hard workouts a week (two if one of the days is a race), with an easy day between
hard workouts and races. I prefer six days a week of running, with the seventh day spent cross-training (bicycling, for
example) or resting, if need be. Many people go the route of seven days a week, 365 days a year. This works for some,
but breaks down many others. Find out what works for you, give the body time to get accustomed, and stick with that
routine.
There is much more to rest than when and how hard to run, however. Other related things to consider are: sleep, diet,
stress level, and mental preparation. All of these combine to dictate how your body will be able to react to your training
regimen. You've probably heard your coach say, "two days before the race is most important." This refers to both sleep
and food. Why two days before? Because the night before a race you will probably be too nervous and/or excited to
sleep, anyway! By eating correctly, your body replenishes the nutrients which are burned up through exercise.

Footwear

It can never be stressed enough to wear proper running shoes. I shake my head every time someone says they don't
understand why their body hurts here or there and then they say they've run in the same shoes for 2,000 miles!
Remember, 500. That's the maximum number of miles most shoes are rated for. Do not be fooled by tread life. A better
indication would be to look at the sides of the midsole (the foam part between the outsole and the upper). If it is
noticeable "wrinkly," it's probably time to switch to a new pair. Old running shoes make great walking shoes, so don't
despair.
Another excellent strategy is to rotate several pairs of running shoes at the same time, even if they are the same
model. This keeps any particular shoe from causing irratations or wearing excessively in a particular area. You'll have to
buy a certain number of shoes based on your mileage anyway, so you might as well have them now and keep your
body healthy; the shoes will last just as long either way. Lastly, make sure the shoes fit. Buy from local running stores
unless you have no other options. They will provide you the attention needed to find the right fitting shoe.

Belly Breathing

With a name like that, how can you help but be curious? Belly breathing is one of the more difficult techniques to
master, but is very helpful even if you are only mildly proficient. As always, here's the run-down: The idea is to
maximize the amount of air drawn into your lungs with every breath. Why not call it Lung Breathing, you ask? Because,
that's why. Anyway, here's how you do it. Roll your shoulders forward slightly (also known in stuffy circles as slouching)
and let them relax. As you breathe in, push out with your stomach and at the same time push down and out with your
diaphragm. This allows maximum room for your lungs to expand and draw in precious oxygen. If you're not sure where
and/or what your diaphragm is, check an anatomy book, because I'm not quite sure either! I know it's right around the
center of your chest near the bottom of the rib cage. Some help I am... Once you get comfortable with how this feels,
focus on how many strides you can cover between inhales. Initially, four strides (eight total steps, two steps per stride)
will probably be just about your limit, but after a little practice you should be able to reach eight strides. Give it some
time, it will start to feel more natural. And if you have problems with side cramps, this technique will put an instant
smile on your face.

*Please note: All exercise, training, health, and nutritional information on this page and throughout Run-Down should be
treated as educational in nature. Unless explicitly stated as otherwise, all advice contained within Run-Down's pages is
non-medical opinion. Please consult a doctor before embarking on any exercise or training regimen. Run-Down and Dan
Kaplan do not assume responsibility for any physical harm that may be caused as a result of advice given on these
pages.

Racing Tips

Eating

Eating is equally as important to racing as it is to rest. The reasons should be obvious. No one likes stomach cramps
and that oh-so-unpleasant nauseous feeling. At least I don't. Eating, more than any other area of race preparation, is a
very individual aspect. You really must experiment and find what works best for you.
That said, here are a few of the guidelines I have found that work well for me: Eat a full breakfast before a race. Wake
up earlier if you have to in order to have enough time to digest before early morning races. The longer the race, the more
important this is (proper digestion makes you feel better, and food provides the long-burning energy). I like to have
finished eating four to five hours before warming up. Consider the warm-up part of your race, from a food/digestion
standpoint. After the main part of the warm-up (the jog) -- about an hour to 1½ hours before the race -- I often eat half of
a PowerBar or a banana for a little extra energy to get me through the race. Either of these ought to digest quite easily.
Also, I have long avoided dairy products before racing, even before I knew I was allergic to dairy. It really makes a big
difference for a lot of people.

Mental Preparation

Let me share a story from early in my running career. My freshman track season in high school, all I heard from
teammates was how much faster everyone, myself included, would run at the conference meet. Being an inexperienced
runner, I believed it would be just as they said. Who was I to argue?!
Well, the conference meet finally rolled around, and I was quite sure that I would run my fastest times to date. It didn't
happen. I ran pretty much what I had averaged all that year. Why? I didn't prepare myself properly. As silly as it may
sound, I didn't understand at that time that I would run faster, not because other people were running faster, but
because I had created the necessary situation for myself to perform.
Fast forward three years to my senior year. Heading back to the conference meet, to be my last race of high school, I
had learned many running lessons. This time I spent two weeks visualizing every aspect of those two laps I was to run.
When I found my lane assignment the week before the race, I spent much of that week practicing breaking in off the
first turn and focusing in on the end of the straight. When the race finally rolled around, my mind was clear of everything
but the 800m. (The nice thing about high school as opposed to college, I learned later, is that you can focus your
attention on running for an entire week and not fall behind.) The first lap was truly effortless. In fact, it was only one
second slower than my 400m PR, which I had just run the previous week. Unfortunately, I was not in quite the
necessary shape to hold that pace, and I struggled to find the finish line. Still, I ran nearly a 2 second PR, after already
having improved 6 seconds that season. Some of the improvement can surely be attributed to competition and
conditioning, but the major reason was undoubtedly due to mental preparation.

Ice Baths

This item could equally well be placed under Running Tips or Injury Prevention, but I look at it primarily as Race
Preparation. I haven't had the resources available for ice baths the past few years, but for several years I always took an
ice bath two days before a race. Why, you ask? Trust me, you're not the first. I began the practice as an
impressionable, young high school runner. Several of the really fast guys did it, so I thought I'd try it, too. Brr. It really
seemed to work well for getting a lot of the soreness out of the muscles that results from high intensity training, so I
stuck with it. However, I discoverd that if I took an ice bath the day before a race, I felt fairly stiff from it. I guess it takes
a while to thaw out! Two days before the race seemed just about right.
So, what is an ice bath (beyond the obvious), you ask once again? It works best in a whirlpool (of the athletic training
room variety -- tough to make enough ice in your own freezer) filled with enough cold water and ice so that the ice is not
fully melted after sitting in it for 20 minutes! The "recommended" range is 15-20 minutes, but I always went with the
higher end. Submerge yourself past your waste (please don't ask for details), and find a towel to bite down on! Some
people like to use the little neoprene toe covers; probably not a bad idea. Want to really have some fun? Talk all your
teammates into doing it, too, and watch the first-timers scream in ecstasy... Cool dippings.

*Please note: All exercise, training, health, and nutritional information on this page and throughout Run-Down should be
treated as educational in nature. Unless explicitly stated as otherwise, all advice contained within Run-Down's pages is
non-medical opinion. Please consult a doctor before embarking on any exercise or training regimen. Run-Down and Dan
Kaplan do not assume responsibility for any physical harm that may be caused as a result of advice given on these
pages.

Injury Prevention & Rehab

Shin Splints

Shin splints, the plague of many a high school runner. I suffered through them for three years, myself. I did all the
recommended exercises like walking on your heels, tapping your toes, spelling out the alphabet with your feet; I iced
and took advil several times daily, and I often rode the stationary bike the day after races (it hurt too much at times to
run). Many of the recommendations seemed to actually make them worse. Finally, a coach recommended I try a very
simple exercise to see if it would help.
There are two basic types of shin splints, although the symptoms can be further broken down into any of several
varieties. The first type, and the one I suffered from, is medial, or the inside of the shin. The second is lateral/anterior, or
front/outside of the shin.
The exercise that was recommended is, as I tend to refer to it, best described as figure-eights. Although, that
description confuses some people ... maybe just calling it circles in both directions is clearer. Find yourself an old
bicycle tube (bike shops will usually give you a punctured tube for free) or some surgical tubing, and tie a loop at one
end to put your foot through. Position your foot so that the ball of the foot is making contact with the tubing so that you
have good leverage. This is best done seated. Pull back on the other end with as much resistance as feels comfortable,
and rotate your foot in circles (point your toe, rotate clockwise toward you, then away from you, etc.). Vary how hard
you pull so that the resistance stays fairly even as the foot comes closer and moves further away. Change directions
from time to time, making slow, controlled movements. After five to ten minutes a day of this, my shin splints were
gone for good within a mere week or two. Had I only known about this three years earlier...
After 6 years of coaching college and high school athletes, both sprinters and distance runners, I've found the above
exercise to be amazingly effective, bordering on a miracle cure. Darn near 100% of athletes are better within 2 weeks,
and most show marked improvement within a week, even after suffering regularly from medial shin splints for a year or
more.
I have not seen this exact exercise recommended anywhere else, and it's rare to find a good description of the
underlying physiological principles. Here is the way I understand the process to work: There is a long, slender muscle
(anterior tibialis) that runs vertically along the front of your shin. Being a very small muscle, it can easily become weak
in relation to the opposing calf muscle (muscles can only exhert force while contracting, so they always work in
opposing groups). The result is muscle being pulled away from the bone and causing the un-scientific and very generic
term, shin splints. It is surprisingly easy to counter this affect by strengthening the muscle as described above.
Furthermore, I have learned through experience that running on pavement does not cause shin splints. The pavement
may aggravate the shin splints, but it does not cause them. Be careful to separate the symptom and the illness. When
I had shin splints, running on hard surfaces was excruciating. As soon as they were gone (and I mean a mere week
after they were gone) running on pavement never again caused me shin pain.
Important 2005 Update: As mentioned above, there are two basic varieties of shin splints. I have had exceptional
success curing medial (inside) shin splints with myself and my athletes, but I've been frustrated in my inability to come
up with an effective treatment for lateral/anterior (front/outside) ones. The tubing exercises help a bit, but they are
extremely hit or miss. Conventional and medical wisdom says both types are effectively the same thing, stem from the
same issues, result in the same symptoms, and are "treated" (I say so in quotes because conventional wisdom is that
they can't really be treated, only avoided or partially alleviated) the same. See here for an example. Originally, I thought
this to be untrue, because the two types respond so differently to treatment, with the treatment being something geared
toward correcting a muscle imbalance. However, through a collaborative effort with a former teammate (coach, personal
trainer, and exercise sports science masters degree), I now believe the solution to be much simpler than previously
feared.
What we determined is that lateral/anterior shin splints are effectively the same as medial shin splints, but they are a
more extreme case and thus do not respond as well to the basic tubing exercise. (As an aside, lateral/anterior shin
splints seem to be most common in more powerfully built athletes, especially females.) An exercise that I've found to
be effective is a partner drill, with the 2nd person acting as an aid to carefully control resistance. The patient (for lack of
a better term) is seated on the ground with one leg extended in front of them, toes pointed up. The aid is facing the
patient and grabs the foot -- probably best done with shoes on for grip -- and gives steady resistance while the patient
pulls the toes toward their body. Start with the toes pointed, pull to 90°, release, pull, etc. The aid should keep the
resistance just below the point where the foot starts trembling. Do as many as possible, right to the point where it feels
like there's no strength left in the leg (an attentive aid will know it when you feel it coming), then switch to the other leg.
Do each leg twice. Two to three times per week of this exercise seems to work well.

Achilles
The most difficult aspect of rehabbing from an achilles tendon injury is how darn long it takes! This is largely due to the
limited blood flow in that area. Also, the achilles rarely ever gets a rest. Be it walking, running, standing, or even
sleeping, there is always pressure on it. Sleeping, you ask?! You doubt me? If you sleep on your back, the weight of
the blankets pushes your foot down and interrupts the achilles' healing process.
The solution is a rather simple one, although rather annoying at the same time. Go to your local craft store and get
some casting cloth (plaster cloth or several other names), then find some knee-high socks you don't mind making a
mess of. You will need someone to help you with the next step. Lie on your stomach, with your feet hanging
comfortably off the end of a table, couch, etc. Put the sock on the injured leg, and with your foot perpendicular to your
leg (straight down), have your assistant create a cast of your lower leg. You only want to cast the back of your leg and
the bottom of your foot, wrapping around the sides slightly and to the ball of your foot for stability. Remember, you want
to be able to get it off! Once it has dried, take it off and cut it down to about mid-calf level. When you put it on at night,
wrap it with an ace bandage to hold it in place.
Remember I said something about it being annoying? Well, if you get up at night to go to the bathroom, you'll
understand... Especially if you have the cast on both feet!

IT Band
Like achilles problems, the IT Band can flare up with very little warning and take quite a while to go away. I was
fortunate -- once I discovered the cause of the problem and how to stretch the tendon, the pain disappeared rather
quickly.
The IT Band runs down the outside of your upper leg, from your hip down to your knee. It tends to be most troublesome
closer to the knee. Because of the area it is located in, it is pretty difficult to stretch. Here's what worked for me: If
you're trying to stretch your right IT, stand sideways on a step with your left leg dangling. Drop your left hip and push
your right hip to the right. Keep pushing gently and you should feel a good, deep stretch throughout the IT Band. Like
most stretches, hold it for 30 seconds, relax, and repeat. The other stretch that works fairly well is performed on flat
ground. Again, if you are working on your right IT Band, cross your left leg in front of your right and bend over as if
touching your toes. Instead of trying to stretch the back of your legs, lean to your left and push your hips to the right,
similar to the first method. Lastly, you might have some success continually massaging the area that is overly tight.
You will need your leg straightened for this to be possible, and relaxed. If you're sitting in class or at work and have
nothing better to do, find something to put your leg up on and dig in!
Biking
This could equally be included under the training tips, but I like to look at it as a way to prevent injuries and recover from
them should you be unfortunate enough to get hurt. It is often stated that bicycling in a standing position, specifically
hill sprints, is the closest exercise to running. This is probably true, although the similarities do not seem all that great.
At any rate, it can be an excellent way of maintaining conditioning while undergoing rehab -- I am unable to make the
same claim regarding pool running.

*Please note: All exercise, training, health, and nutritional information on this page and throughout Run-Down should be
treated as educational in nature. Unless explicitly stated as otherwise, all advice contained within Run-Down's pages is
non-medical opinion. Please consult a doctor before embarking on any exercise or training regimen. Run-Down and Dan
Kaplan do not assume responsibility for any physical harm that may be caused as a result of advice given on these
pages.