Runner's Corner
Longevity Secrets to Running for Life
March 2008 Runner’s Corner
By Kitty A. Consolo, Ph.D.
How long do you plan on running? A month? A year? A lifetime? If your answer is the latter, read on, and I will share with you some secrets that can keep you running for life.
Longevity Secrets to Training
Warm up: Always
As long as you are making time to go for a run, it’s important to always, always, start slow and allow your body to warm up. Give your body a chance to start sweating before you go into any fast pace or charge any hills. The colder the day or the older you get requires more warm up time so don’t be in any hurry to force a fast pace until your body is really warm. Sticking with this guideline ensures you years of healthy training and reduces your risk of injuries.
Stop While you Feel Good
You’ve probably heard “train, don’t strain.” This is a key concept to keeping you running a lifetime. Regardless of whether you are doing a long run, a track workout or intervals, stop your workout while you still feel good. You want to feel “pleasantly tired,” not exhausted. You want to feel you could do more rather than you need to head to bed. This concept keeps you hungry for the next workout and avoids burn out. Bill Rodgers once told me the most you want to push in training is 85%, only go 100% in races. When I took courses in Exercise Science, I learned this concept was backed by science as well, and that pushing above 85% in training did not lead to added gains and often leads to the risk of injuries and burnout.
Make Training Fun and Flexible
Do you look forward to your workouts or have they become a burden? Workouts should not only have a purpose for achieving your goals, but be enjoyable and fun, otherwise you are less likely to continue to train. Try finding new beautiful courses to run. Enlist a training buddy, a dog or a group such as Premierraces Teams in Training. Having partners a few times a week can really be fun and make training time go faster.
Listen to your body each day and be willing to change scheduled workouts to meet your needs that day. I often move a long run or hard interval if I am not feeling up to it and I always get more out of it when I do these workouts motivated. Also pay attention to weather conditions and do not put your health in jeopardy by forcing a long run if it is too hot and humid or windchills are dangerous. Pay attention to the road too and avoid slippery surfaces to reduce the risk of a fall and injury. Feel free to throw in some cross training on those bad weather days such as indoor swimming or treadmill running.
Cool Down: Always
As with warm up, if you have made time to work out, take time to cool your body down. After your workout, walk slowly to help waste products re-circulate to reduce soreness the next day. Get plenty of water and allow your body to cool down to normal temperatures before you hit the showers or you may pass out or cause abnormal heart rhythms. This is also the best time to stretch your muscles, while they are warm. Most cool downs can be accomplished in 10 minutes or so, taking the time to include these after every workout also reduces injury and improves the chances you’ll feel like working out again soon.
Longevity Secrets to Racing
Only Race When you are Really Ready! When you show up to race, you want to feel hungry for it, really motivated to be there and also have the necessary training behind you. Many runners end up injured or disappointed by going to races unprepared. Be sure you have really cut back your training for a few days and are really rested. I have never trained through races and I think it’s a bad idea though some coaches want their runners to race tired early in the season and then rest for big championships. I feel a race is all or nothing, it’s where you give 100% and you can’t to that if you are tired. You risk injury and having a performance below your potential which can hurt you psychologically if you race tired. This philosophy has helped me win over 400 races from the mile to the marathon and allows me to continue to enjoy racing and be successful after 33 years of running!
Have a Time Range Goal
Go to your race with a time range goal rather than a fixed goal of an exact time. Assess your current training and the current weather and course on race day and decide what would be your slowest and fastest time based on these factors and be happy if you finish somewhere in the middle.
Celebrate the Ability to Race and Finish
Racing requires a lot of energy, training and excellent health. Go into each race with appreciation that you are well enough to undertake such an endeavor. If you feel yourself feeling sorry for not running faster, visit a nursing home or those in hospital and get a real perspective of what a gift racing is.
Adjust your Goals and Times as You Age
Appreciate aging and the fact you are still running and racing. Allow yourself to compare yourself to those in your age group rather than just the open divisions and take pride you are still out there. I’ve been blessed to have been very successful in my early years of running by winning the 1985 and 1982 Cleveland marathon, going to Boston and finishing 18th and qualifying for the First Women’s Olympic marathon Trials in 1984. What surprises me is how few of the runners who were competing when I was in the 1970s and 1980s are still racing now. While some can not run due to injuries, many have told me if they can’t run what they did in their 20s they can’t race. It’s quite unrealistic to expect to run times in one’s 50s that one did in one’s 20s. To increase your motivation, consider comparing yourself to those your age who do not run. Unlike your sedentary counterparts, you are gaining incredible health rewards. The average sedentary male can expect to spend nearly 11 years in disability and the average sedentary female can expect to spend nearly 14 years in disability before passing on—those who engage in rigorous exercise not only feel better, have greater self esteem and health, but often can continue to live independently their entire lives and being disabled or have to live in nursing homes.
Allow More Recovery Time
Once we hit our 40s and beyond, our bodies need more time to recover from racing and hard workouts. Listen to your body and find a program that works for you. Jeff Galloway suggest days off, I prefer to have 4 easy days of 4 miles or less interspersed with 3 hard days. The important thing is to find a training and racing program that leaves you injury free and excited about running for life. Check out Jeff Galloway’s book Running Until You’re 100, it’s quite inspiring.
Hope to see you at the races, for many years to come.
Top
|