Hello runner friends!
Welcome back to the Bass Pro Fitness Series
MIDWEEK M😊TIVATI😊N blog!
Now let's get started by talking about the need to shed or toss things (habits, hang-ups, etc.) if we want to "run the race with endurance."
Wow! If you were blessed enough to get out for a run yesterday, you'll get where I'm coming from today. It was warm! February 1st and it was 50 degrees on a morning run. Crazy right? What's crazier is that mid-run, I was so overheated that I decided it was time to shed my arm warmers and light gloves. Left with just a pair of shorts and a sleeveless shirt, I managed to get a negative split. Which leads me to my point. It's not only clothes that you and I need to take off sometimes if we want to stay motivated and finish strong. Everyone of us from time to time needs to take a good look at our habits and toss the ones that are keeping us from being the best runners that we can be.
So without further ado, here are a few of the bad running habits you and I should ditch and some good practices and patterns we should replace them with.
A lot of runners push themselves beyond their limits, exercising seven days a week and never letting their bodies recover. This not only leads to physical burnout and injuries but could lead to mental fatigue and waning motivation as well. Hence the reason to follow these rules to avoid overtraining:
-Take a day off following a hard run. Rest days are vital to your recovery and performance.
-Schedule recovery. Give yourself periodic rest weeks by reducing your mileage by 40 to 60 percent every fourth or fifth week.
-Cross-train. Rest is not always passive activity. Options such as walking, swimming, biking, and yoga are the ideal form of active recovery. I am a huge fan of aqua running which I refer to as "active recovery." By concentrating on motions that strengthen your hip flexors and core along with "running," you can use aqua running as both recovery and training with very little risk of injury (unless you trip getting in and out of the pool LOL).
-The 10 percent rule. Never increase your weekly mileage by more than 10 percent from one week to the next.
-Listen to your body. Watch out for telling signs of overtraining. These include elevated heart rate, fatigue, and persistent soreness. Heed your body’s warning signals and don’t run through pain... ever. I know what you're saying right now, "Melissa, you have broken all these rules." I'll own that. I'm guilty. But this is the deal. When I break these rules, I have to deal with the consequences. I want to save you from them!! On a good note though, I have learned to take more time off and to rest a few days to avoid a small pain from becoming something debilitating or chronic. I'm obviously a work in progress.
-Schedule recovery. Give yourself periodic rest weeks by reducing your mileage by 40 to 60 percent every fourth or fifth week.
-Cross-train. Rest is not always passive activity. Options such as walking, swimming, biking, and yoga are the ideal form of active recovery. I am a huge fan of aqua running which I refer to as "active recovery." By concentrating on motions that strengthen your hip flexors and core along with "running," you can use aqua running as both recovery and training with very little risk of injury (unless you trip getting in and out of the pool LOL).
-The 10 percent rule. Never increase your weekly mileage by more than 10 percent from one week to the next.
-Listen to your body. Watch out for telling signs of overtraining. These include elevated heart rate, fatigue, and persistent soreness. Heed your body’s warning signals and don’t run through pain... ever. I know what you're saying right now, "Melissa, you have broken all these rules." I'll own that. I'm guilty. But this is the deal. When I break these rules, I have to deal with the consequences. I want to save you from them!! On a good note though, I have learned to take more time off and to rest a few days to avoid a small pain from becoming something debilitating or chronic. I'm obviously a work in progress.
2. You have bad running form (something you may not even know).
I hate to break it to you, but If your running form isn’t dialed in, you’re hindering your own performance, big time. Our bodies are designed to run, but that doesn’t mean that your running form is automatically perfect. By the same token, not having the perfect running form isn't always a "bad" thing. Many runners that don't have the "perfect form" still run well. Think Steve Prefontaine who was a heel striker.
Here are the universal guidelines for proper form:
Mind your upper body. Run tall, with a slight forward lean.
Create flow. Keep moving your elbows forward and backward in tune with your lower body.
Stay relaxed.... it's super important! Keep your body relaxed, especially the face, shoulders, and hands. Envision that you are holding a potato chip with your fingers and you don't want to break it.
Seek help. Schedule a few sessions with a professional coach or take a class to work on fixing your bad form habit and learn proper techniques.
Doing a bit of supplementary strength work in addition to your run training can make a world of difference when it comes to injury prevention. In particular, research has shown that hip strength is of the utmost importance. One study found that when the hip strength of a group of runners with various leg injuries was compared to that of a group of healthy runners, the ailing harriers demonstrated strength imbalances and the healthy ones did not. When certain muscles are weak, others have to pick up the slack—this can overwork the stronger muscles, leading to increased inflammation and often injury. To be sure, a review of related research found that while foot mechanics didn’t increase the risk of injuries, weakness in the hip-stabilizing muscles caused atypical lower-extremity mechanics and injuries in turn.
So to avoid injuries that come from weak hips, incorporate these 6 Hip and Glute strengthening exercises into your weekly routine. To get you started, try working in this short strengthening routine 2–3 times per week. Complete 10–15 reps of each exercise for 2–3 total sets:
Donkey Kicks
Get on the ground on all fours with your hands and knees shoulder-width apart. Lift your right knee off the ground as you kick your foot upward so your thigh is in line with your back and the bottom of your foot is facing skyward. You should feel your core, especially your glutes, engaging during this motion. Bring your leg back down, repeat and switch legs.
Glute Bridges
Lie on your back on the ground with your arms at your sides, knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Lift your backside off the ground until you form a straight line from your shoulders to your knees. Push your heels into the ground, and feel your glutes stabilizing your body. Hold for two seconds, lower your body back down and repeat.
Side Leg Lifts
Lie on your right side with your legs straight and stacked on top of each other. You can rest your head on top of your right arm, and put your left hand on your hip or on the ground to help balance your body. Lift the top leg straight up as far as is comfortable, then lower back down. Repeat and switch sides.
Body-weight Squats
Stand with your arms extended in front of your body and your feet a little wider than shoulder width with your toes angled somewhat outward. Lower your backside down toward the ground as if you were going to sit. Lower until your quads are parallel with the ground, then stand back up and repeat.
Clamshells
Lie on your right side with your knees bent on top of each other and your right arm under your head to support it. Keeping your feet together, open the clamshell by lifting your top knee up. While your hips will rotate during this exercise, your pelvis and core should remain stable. Close the clamshell, repeat and switch sides.
Single Leg Squats
Stand with your arms extended in front of your body and your feet a little wider than shoulder width. Pick your right foot up off the ground, and extend that leg straight out in front of your body. Squat down as far as you can while balancing on the left leg, keeping that knee and foot aligned. Bring your body back up, repeat and switch legs.
Donkey Kicks
Get on the ground on all fours with your hands and knees shoulder-width apart. Lift your right knee off the ground as you kick your foot upward so your thigh is in line with your back and the bottom of your foot is facing skyward. You should feel your core, especially your glutes, engaging during this motion. Bring your leg back down, repeat and switch legs.
Glute Bridges
Lie on your back on the ground with your arms at your sides, knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Lift your backside off the ground until you form a straight line from your shoulders to your knees. Push your heels into the ground, and feel your glutes stabilizing your body. Hold for two seconds, lower your body back down and repeat.
Side Leg Lifts
Lie on your right side with your legs straight and stacked on top of each other. You can rest your head on top of your right arm, and put your left hand on your hip or on the ground to help balance your body. Lift the top leg straight up as far as is comfortable, then lower back down. Repeat and switch sides.
Body-weight Squats
Stand with your arms extended in front of your body and your feet a little wider than shoulder width with your toes angled somewhat outward. Lower your backside down toward the ground as if you were going to sit. Lower until your quads are parallel with the ground, then stand back up and repeat.
Clamshells
Lie on your right side with your knees bent on top of each other and your right arm under your head to support it. Keeping your feet together, open the clamshell by lifting your top knee up. While your hips will rotate during this exercise, your pelvis and core should remain stable. Close the clamshell, repeat and switch sides.
Single Leg Squats
Stand with your arms extended in front of your body and your feet a little wider than shoulder width. Pick your right foot up off the ground, and extend that leg straight out in front of your body. Squat down as far as you can while balancing on the left leg, keeping that knee and foot aligned. Bring your body back up, repeat and switch legs.
Research has begun to show that variability in the way you run from one foot strike to the next can help you skirt injuries. While there are numerous ways to achieve this, switching up your training terrain is perhaps the easiest. By running on pavement one day, grass the next and single-track (trails) the next, you activate slightly different muscles and avoid overloading any particular muscles. What’s more, getting off-road a couple days a week is a good method by which to avoid the jarring nature of constant pavement pounding.
5. You lose perspective.
Running is supposed to make us feel good and to take away our stress right? In fact, that's the reason many of us started doing it right? And then we found out that running also allows us to appreciate our lives in ways that we didn't before. From the friendships running creates to the sunrises we get to witness that make us feel like children again, running is special. It reminds us how great it is to be alive and to just have the ability to put one foot in front of the other. But sometimes we can lose that perspective and treat running as something that we have to do rather than something that we get to do.... an attitude that usually comes from taking a goal way too seriously. Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't have serious goals, I'm simply saying that we shouldn't take our goals so seriously that they cloud our vision. And here's three simple tips for maintaining your joy of running while getting some serious training in:
-Devote at least one run a week to having fun with friends. Make it your goal to laugh and recharge your batteries during this run with no thought of pace or reaching a goal. This will give you something to look forward to when you're logging those, "I'm gonna PR at Bass Pro this year" miles where your mind is determinedly fixed on your objective.
-If you're not paying the rent with your winnings, grant yourself some grace. Every run is not going to be stellar and it doesn't need to be. It's the sum of your runs that count.
-Remember that life is short and tomorrow isn't guaranteed. Even young runners drop dead unexpectedly. There's just no knowing whether we will live to see another day. So live in the moment and smile. Breathe in the fresh air. Make mental notes of the things around you. Count your blessings and just be... That's the way you put running into perspective.
So there you have it friends. Run often. Run long. But never outrun your joy of running. Grant yourself some grace. Do your best to replace some of your bad habits with good ones and just be thankful for the ability to log some miles. Today may be all we have so let's make the most of it. Happy Running!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment