Six weeks til Cherry Blossom

Can you believe the Cherry Blossom 10 miler is only six weeks away? The problem is these days a runner needs to register for an event months in advance of an event. This ineveitably results in an "oh, shoot" moment for many participants. You wake up one day to realize your fitness level has plummeted since you clicked the REGISTER button. The holidays, the weather, the "fill in the blank excuse du jour" all conspire to get us off our training game. The important thing at this juncture is to remain calm, and avoid one of the most common causes of injury: overtraining. That's right folks, I would say up to half of the running related injuries I see in the clinic are self inflicted. (http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3113/FAI.2008.0671) The classic scenario is with some warm weather people go from 0-60 with their training, which the body generally does not tolerate.
Common training pitfalls include ramping up the distance, pace, or terrain too quickly. My perspective is that with a race looming 6 weeks away, most of us would be better served to undershoot vs overshoot with their training efforts. Let's review some sound recommendations in each category to help you get to the start line injury-free.

Regarding distance, it is probably best not to try to increase you weekly mileage greater than 10% per week. This rule can be modified based on a runner's experience, and injury history. That said, the 10% rule actually forces you to plan your training in a way which allows the body to be gently stressed by the running. This gentle stress is good. In fact,  our joints, muscles, and tendons, will adapt to it, and be able to tolerate the stress without breaking down. Time is a key factor in this adaptation which is why we should not rush the training. Another factor to consider with running a distance like 10 miles is that your longest run per week should be less than 50% of your weekly mileage. This pricinple is much like the 10% rule in that we are trying to minimize the likelihood of overwhelming the body. Many tissues and joints such as the achilles tendon, and the knee joint, are sensitive to the repetitive loading stresses of running. Let's not forget that an average runner might take 90 minutes to run 10 miles. This can easily represent 15,000 foot strikes so we need to be kind to the tissues to avoid injury. Slow and steady wins the race here.

When you consider pace as you ready yourself for the 10 miler, it's probably best to consider your breath. What I mean is 10 miles is a long way. No need to rush your pace during the race, or in your training. Most of your training runs should be done at a conversational pace. If you are running at a gentle pace such that you can get a sentence of conversation out between your breaths, chances are you are at an approprite pace. When we are trying to return to fitness, I have found that your natural training pace is all over the place. You most likely start out too quickly, and finish too slowly as you run out of gas. Besides minding your breathing as a guide, a GPS watch is a very useful tool to keep you honest. Most watches will give you a real-time pace which you can use as a benchmark. A spot check of the watch can reveal what our breath tells us: too fast as pace= huffing/puffing, just right= control non-strugglinng belly breathing. If you are short on time preparing for an event like the Cherry Blossom, you are probably better off building up your base fitness by long slow running in an effort to start by targetinng your endurance.


Lastly, with the terrain you are running on, try to adhere to the slow and steady mantra we have already proposed. In fact, try to keep terrain out of the equation all together. Until you have build a base of miles, it is probably best to avoid an emphasis on hilly terrain. Additionally, if you have spent most of the winter training on a treadmill, there's even more incentive to get some time of your feet running outdoors in the spirit of letting the body adjust. I recognize that hill repeats are great stimulus for our leg and cardiovascular muscles. However, when short on time, best way to avoid seeing me in the clinic, is to focus on easing on down the road, especially the flatter one!

Let's look at the next six weeks as an opportunity to get the legs going a bit as we strive to get the start line injury free. Better to undershoot, than to overshoot with your training efforts. This mindset, as well as #slowandsteady is the perfect recipe for gearing up for a classic DC running event.
To help with your preparations, I will review some useful tips over the coming weeks to keep you on track.