Hopefully, we’ve all been mostly injury free up until this point – maybe only a few blisters here and there and, of course, sore muscles.As we move up to 9 miles this week, let’s be more mindful than ever of how our bodies feel and how we can prevent any serious injuries from taking place. Below are three anti-injury technique categories that I’d like us to focus on.
Stability
Stability in your workouts will help you avoid injury. It becomes more and more important as our long walks/runs increase to keep up a consistent training schedule.
Continue to build up your mileage at the same rate each week. If you miss a long run, don’t jump to the next mileage level without catching up for the week you missed first. However, still be sure to give yourself several days between long mileage sessions.
Preventative
Taking notice to how your body feels will also help you stay injury free. If something doesn’t feel right during a workout, don’t push it. It’s always OK to stop, rest and recover. Stretch before any workout. When stretching, don’t bounce. Hold the stretch for about 10 counts. Be sure to focus on the muscles that will be most used during your training – running day stretches and cross training stretches may be different. Prevent dehydration by drinking fluids 30 minutes before your workout.
Recovery
After a tough training session consider taking an ice bath. Your muscles are inflamed from the workout so try to avoid taking a hot bath or sitting in a hot tub. If an ice bath is too cold, try putting an ice pack or a frozen bag of veggies on your sore muscles.
Now that your trainings are getting more vigorous, it’s important to work on proper breathing techniques while walking/running. Proper breathing can improve your endurance and help you to enjoy your training more. Breathing incorrectly can affect your performance by causing fatigue, which in turn, shortens the distance that you are able to complete. Added stress on your body can also be a result.
There are several universal breathing techniques that can be helpful. Learning breathing techniques while walking/running may be difficult or feel unnatural at the beginning. However, like with most things, with practice it will become easier. Start off by choosing one technique at a time and practice it while seated. Work on that specific technique until it feels natural and then incorporate it into a training session.Find your favorite and most useful technique and stick with it! The following are some breathing techniques:
1.Breathe through both your nose and mouth
This practice will assist in increasing the amount of oxygen taken into your air passages.
2.Breathe from your diaphragm
Close your eyes. Put one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly. Just breathe normally. Which hand is moving?The hand on the chest or the hand on the belly? Take time to focus on moving the belly while breathing instead of the chest. If you are moving the belly you are breathing from the diaphragm and your breaths will be more complete.
3.Maintain a 3:2 breathing ratio
Inhale for 3 steps, then exhale for the next two steps. This will assist in deeper controlled breaths. A 3:2 breathing ratio is suggested for people who do a light jog pace or less.
Check out this short video on breathing for additional information:
You may have noticed now that we are into the eighth week of training that you are able to walk longer or you get tired much later into your trainings.Well, that’s because marathon training builds stamina.According to Greg McMillan, marathon coach, there are 4 key training zones:
1.Endurance
2.Stamina
3.Speed
4. Sprint
Here’s a brief outline of each training zone:
Endurance is a slow easy pace.The goal is to build endurance.For beginners, you may spend 4 – 6 months in this phase being able to run or walk 5 miles easily.
Stamina training is when your training is “comfortably hard”. You are training at a pace where your heart rate beats between 83 – 92% of max.For beginners, you may start out at short intervals of incorporating 20 – 30 second intervals throughout your endurance training.Stamina training helps critical thresholds resulting in less lactate accumulation resulting in less fatigue.
During speed training, you are training with a 3 – 5k race speed. Your heart rate and oxygen levels are above the 92% of max.The effort in this training is hard.Speed training increases the enzymes that help liberate enzymes from our fuel source as well as stimulate and trains our fast twitch muscle fibers.Speed training will assist in running faster for longer periods of time.
Sprint training is where you are training with 800 – 2500m race pace.During these trainings your heart rate and Vo2 reach max.This type of training will assist with both your power and speed.
For most of us being beginners, our goal is usually to finish the half marathon.If you fall into this category, most of your training will be in the endurance and the stamina training zones.If you continue on for other marathons you may want to start incorporating some of the other zones to assist you in increasing your performance. For more info about the training zones visit check out the below link:
