Training

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

The holidays are here. We’re traveling and visiting people we don’t see on a regular basis. Students are spending more time inside and more letters are coming home to parents about various illnesses spreading through schools.

This is the time of the year where it’s hard to avoid catching some kind of virus. While the best thing to do is to avoid getting ill, that’s at times easier said than done. So what do you do as a runner if you do get ill?

When to run?

The first question we need to answer is whether we should be taking time off. When your body is weakened by illness, you sometimes need to remove the stress of running so it can have the strength to fight off the illness. However, there are times that the illness is minor enough that you don’t need complete rest.

So how do you know when to completely rest and when to keep running?

An old axiom experienced runners will talk about is, if the symptoms are all above the shoulders, keep running. If they are below the shoulders, rest.

Generally, that works pretty well. If the symptoms are below the shoulders, such as chest congestion or a stomach bug, the illness is often serious enough that you need to rest. If they are above the shoulder, such as nothing but nasal congestion or a sore throat, it’s often minor enough that you can continue running if you wish.

However, this isn’t perfect. Sometimes, the symptoms of a head cold are so significant that your body needs rest. This is where there is no simple formula. You have to use your judgement. If you’re feeling run down, think of the long term risk of trying to run through it. If you’re going to prolong the illness, a week or less of time off is most likely better than a month or more of compromised training.

How to adjust?

So you’ve decided you’re healthy enough to run. Now what? Do you just continue with the plan as though nothing is happening? Most likely, no.

If you’re experiencing truly minor issues, then you might be able to continue. However, most illnesses are significant enough to warrant at least some change in our training plans. I’ll list adjustments here in order based on severity. The first adjustments, when the illness is least severe, first. As things get more severe, the adjustments become more significant.

I won’t go into detail on what symptoms warrant what adjustments because, again, you need to use your judgement. The one thing I will state is play it safe. It’s better to back off a bit too much for a short period of time than not enough and deal with the illness for a long period of time.

Minor symptoms, small adjustments: If you don’t really feel any different other than a scratchy throat or some nasal congestion, you can probably continue near full load. You might want to cut your longest runs short a bit and take the edge off your hardest workouts by backing off the pace a bit or reducing the number of planned reps but not much is needed.

However, as you start getting a little more advanced, it’s time to start changing things. If not 100% healthy, I don’t like the idea of a 2+ hour long run. Cut it back. The long run can be very strenuous on your immune system, which is just what you don’t want.

Likewise, very hard workouts such as 5K pace repeats or tempo runs of grueling distance are very strenuous on your body. I prefer skipping any kind of repeat or interval workout completely. In its place, a tempo run of moderate effort can be done. Likewise with more grueling tempo runs. Make them a little more moderate.

Easy days can continue as normal, though it’s not a sin to shorten them at least slightly.

Moderate symptoms, moderate adjustments: When you feel low on energy or the symptoms are enough to have you feeling a bit beat up, more significant changes are needed but you can probably keep running.

Long runs of any kind are out. Personally, I won’t run for more than an hour if I’m feeling low on energy or the symptoms are more than minor nuisances.

Same for workouts. Just don’t do them. Even tempo runs. Even strides.

So what’s left? Relatively short runs of less than 1 hour. I even prefer the 30 minute range. Pace should be slow. You’re trying to warm up your body and get the blood flowing. Don’t think of training, think of just getting your body moving.

Severe symptoms, time off: As mentioned above, if the symptoms are severe, give your body the rest it needs.

In the end, it’s obviously best to avoid getting ill in the first place. However, nobody can always do that. When you do get ill, the best guidelines are common sense and your best judgement. Be smart and do what it will take to get back to 100% as soon as possible.

Photo credit: health ideas, on Flickr

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Thanksgiving is just two weeks away. Stores already have their Christmas products out. It’s the holiday season, a great time of the year but also a time of the year when keeping your running on track can be a challenge.

With travel, family events, and plenty of tasty but not necessarily healthy food, how do we keep our running on track so we can hit the new year ready to run strong?

I have a few practices I use to keep my running on track during the holidays.

Always take your gear with

Even if you’re not expecting to have a chance to run, take your gear with. An opportunity may present itself.

Plan to run early

As I’ve gotten older and had more responsibilities, I’ve found that the earlier in the day I plan to run, the better chance I have of getting the run in. The later in the day you plan to run, the more opportunity there is for your plan to get derailed.

Be flexible

While you should plan to run early in the day, don’t tie yourself down. Maybe a family breakfast will happen, maybe you have to hang around on Christmas morning until the kids open their presents. Whatever the case, be flexible both in the time of the day you run and in how much time you need.

Don’t be hard on yourself

It is the holidays. It’s a special time of the year. You might be seeing family you only see once a year. There are special events going on that only happen once a year. You have running every day. If you miss one run, it’s not the end of the world. Just get back on track as soon as possible and figure the once a year experience is worth it.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

It’s that time of the year again. Some of us have already finished our fall racing seasons. Some will be soon. All of us should be thinking about taking a break.

Why take a break, especially if we finish our racing season and are feeling good and highly motivated? Because your mind and body need it. If they don’t demand it now, they will. Nobody can keep going forever. It’s far better to take a planned break when you have no races on the immediate horizon than to take an unplanned break when your body or mind gives out as an important race is approaching.

What should you do for your break? It depends on you. Personally, I think almost everyone would be well served by taking some time completely away from running but, as most of you are probably are aware, I don’t do that myself. Running is such a big part of my life, far beyond competition, that I need to have it there. I’d probably have a mental breakdown if I was forced away from running for any significant period of time. So I keep running, short and easy. No “training” allowed, though. I’m just running because it’s what I love to do. If that’s what you need, then at least do that. If you can take some time away from running, all the better.

How long should the break be? Again, it depends on you. I think everyone would benefit from at least 4 weeks once a year with a true break from training. I usually give myself 4 weeks with no training, then tell myself I’ll start training when I feel ready again physically and mentally. That means I’m both physically feeling good and mentally feeling motivated to do the work that comes when training starts.

Once your racing is done, give yourself a break. Your body and mind will thank you with better training and racing next year.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Stride rate? Check.

Two weeks ago, we covered the fact that running speed can be broken down into two factors: stride length and stride rate. Last week, we discussed stride length. That means it’s time to discuss stride rate this week.

When thinking of stride rate, much like when thinking of stride length, we can think of two phases: when your foot is on the ground and when your foot is in the air. The difference is that it’s best to think of each foot individually. Not like stride length, when you’re thinking of when one foot is on the ground and when both feet are in the air.

In both cases, we’re essentially thinking of quickness.

When your foot is on the ground, the question is how quickly can you come into contact with the ground, use the ground to redirect your momentum, then get off the ground.

When your foot is in the air, the question is how quickly can you bring it forward and get it back on the ground.

How do we reduce our time on the ground (ground contact time)?

Last week, when discussing stride length, I brought up strength. You need to be strong enough to propel yourself a good distance. This week, it’s time to discuss power.

What’s the difference between strength and power? To keep it short, strength is a measure of how much force you can apply. Power is a measure of both how much force you can apply and how quickly you can apply that force. Obviously, when talking about stride rate, how quickly you can react to the ground and apply the force necessary to propel yourself through your next step matters.

Develop the strength but not power and you’ll have a nice, long stride. And it will take a relatively long time. Develop the strength first, then the power to use that strength in a quick, explosive manner and you now have a long stride with a quick stride rate that will result in greater speed.

So how do we develop the power?

Well, as I mentioned, first comes strength, which I covered last week.

Second comes power. This means explosive movements. Skipping, jumping, plyometrics such as box jumps. You’re looking for quick movements.

A couple of my favorite moves are quick skips and quick hopping. Both are just as they sound.

Quick skips are basically skipping, just like my 8 year old daughter likes to do, but with a focus on spending as little time on the ground as possible. How high you go doesn’t really matter, what matters is that, as soon as your foot hits the ground, you pop right back up.

Quick hops are essentially the same type of exercise. Landing and jumping with both feet, think of it as basically bouncing. As with the quick skips, the height of your hops doesn’t matter as much as spending as little time as possible on the ground. If you’re more coordinated than me, you can jump rope. If your level of coordination is similar to mine, you might want to leave out the rope so you don’t hurt yourself or have to keep stopping.

Important note: These are exercises that put a lot of stress on your body. Be cautious with these and don’t do too much. A little goes a long way. Also, one reason I stress strength first is because developing basic strength before working on power will reduce your injury risk. Likewise, I also recommend that you keep doing strength training for the same reason. You can’t do 6 months of strength training, then do nothing but box jumps and skipping exercises the rest of your life and expect to remain healthy.

How do we reduce the time our feet are in the air?

Obviously, this is also all about quickness but it’s about how quickly your leg can be brought forward.

Your hip flexors are the primary muscle group that pull your leg forward so strength and power development matter here. Exercises like front leg raises and scissor kicks are good.

Also, a much less considered aspect for many runners is foot position when bringing your leg forward. If you are a shuffler, keeping your feet close to the ground, this creates a longer pendulum to move forward, which requires more energy and takes longer. Watch faster runners and you will see that their feet come up pretty high. This creates a shorter pendulum and a more efficient forward swing.

To work on picking your feet up, you can focus on pulling your heel up during the skipping exercises I mentioned above. Even better are butt kick drills. Basically, jog at a real slow pace and focus on snapping your heel up to your butt.

Remember

Don’t forget, though, that taking more steps per minute is only half of the equation. We also want to do so without shortening our stride. A quick shuffle is not necessarily faster than a long, bounding stride.

Again, as I pointed out the past two weeks, remember that in the end you need the fitness and efficiency to be able to hold your effort through the duration of your run. Developing the power and quickness to be able to have a quick stride rate is an important step but doesn’t help without the conditioning to hold that stride rate for the duration of your upcoming race.

Note: This is part 3 of a 3 part series:

Part 1: Speed = stride length * stride rate. Period.

Part 2: Improving stride length

Part 3: Improving stride rate

David Rudisha by SNappa2006, on Flickr

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Long stride? Check.

Last week, we covered the fact that speed can be broken down into two factors: stride length and stride rate.

This week, I’d like to discuss stride length and how we can improve it.

There are essentially two phases of your stride to think about when increasing stride length. One is very limited, the other is technically unlimited but practically there obviously is some kind of limit.

While in contact with the ground

Every stride, we obviously have a period of time when our feet are on the ground. Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do to increase our distance covered while our feet are on the ground. Obviously, with your foot firmly planted on the ground, there’s only so far you can go.

What you can do

Many runners have very tight hip flexor muscles. If you’re one of these runners, you’ll find it’s hard to extend your leg behind your body as you run. If you look at pictures of yourself while running, your extension behind your body is limited. Nothing like the picture of David Rudisha at the top of this post. Improve hip flexor flexibility/range of motion and you can extend further back.

What you should not do

Many runners, when trying to run faster by lengthening their stride, reach out in front of their bodies. They overstride, sometimes significantly, which actually backfires on them. When you overstride, you’re essentially driving while applying the parking break. This slows you down. So don’t reach out in front to try to extend your stride length. You’re better off trying to reach back but, more important, you probably want to think more about what is happening while both of your feet are off the ground.

While airborne

One of the things that defines running and separates it from walking is the fact that you are usually completely off the ground at some point during each step. How much distance you cover while off the ground is the primary factor in how long your stride is.

So how do we develop a longer stride by covering more distance while airborne? By getting stronger. The more force you can push off with, the more distance you can cover.

It’s easy to think of strong calves and they are very important. However, don’t forget to go even higher. Your hamstrings, quads, glutes, and of course supporting muscles also are critical in applying more force to the ground. In addition, a strong core gives you the strong base to anchor the forces you’re applying through your legs.

Exercises like heel raises, lunges, and step-ups are the place to start. Develop the strength to control your body and move your body through space and you are developing the strength to propel your body through the air while running.

Remember

Don’t forget, though, that covering more distance per step is only half of the equation. We also want to do so without slowing down our stride rate. A long stride is good but not if it means you’re bounding with a slow stride rate instead of running. I’ll cover that part of the equation next week.

Again, as I pointed out last week, remember that in the end you need the fitness and efficiency to be able to hold your effort through the duration of your run. Developing the strength and mobility to be able to have a long stride is an important step but doesn’t help without the conditioning to hold that long stride for the duration of your upcoming race.

Note: This is part 2 of a 3 part series:

Part 1: Speed = stride length * stride rate. Period.

Part 2: Improving stride length

Part 3 Improving stride rate

Photo credit: David Rudisha by SNappa2006, on Flickr