Thank you so much for your comments regarding my last run. I'm feeling a little better today and hope to do a fairly long run before I scale down my mileage for the race Sunday.
Now, a running post in spirit of my half marathon this Sunday:
Lots of sites put out really great running tips, sites such as Runners World and Cool Running.
But maybe you’re like me, a novice runner with some handicaps and some big goals. I’ve made most of the great tips already available work into my training, but along the way I’ve also come up with a few of my own. I’d like to call these my Real Life Running Tips:
1. Make a schedule work for you. Everyone knows your long runs should be on the weekends, but weekends just wouldn’t work for me. Through trial and error I discovered Mondays are best for my long runs after a relaxing weekend and plenty of food in my belly.
2. Indoors or outdoors, it is still training. Most runners hate long runs on the treadmill. I actually prefer the treadmill for the distraction of the TV and the continuous speed control. Test different environments out to determine what suits you best. (At some point make sure to train in an environment like where your race will take place.)
3. Foam roll! My personal trainer was the first to tell me about foam rolling. She insisted I foam roll on a regular basis to protect my already-weak knees when I run. Holy cow does it work. If I foam roll, I don’t cramp up and my knees stay strong. If I don’t foam roll, it gets bad! (Info on foam rolling for runners)
4. Monitor how your belly affects your legs. Play with your nutrition to see what foods allow you to run your best. I’m best if I have a solid meal 1.5 hours before I run. Any sort of ‘fake’ food or too much sugar will ruin a run.
5. Breathe. My exercise-induced asthma made my runs really difficult. When I used my inhaler I could breathe better, but I got a headache and my stomach would start to hurt. If you have trouble breathing at first (feeling like you will die if you run one more second…), work through it. Stop when you have to stop to avoid hurting yourself, but do keep working at it. Eventually my breathing has gotten so much better.
Basically my tips boil down to find out what works best for you. Time of day, foods for fuel, location, music/no music/TV… test it out and determine what works. You can do it!
* Here are 100 pretty great running tips- useful for 5K-ers and marathoners alike!
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