Some might say that I'm not the best person to bring up this subject since I have tended to be somewhat unorthodox regarding training and recovery methods over the years. I beg to differ. Although I have suffered my fair share of injuries and ran through many of them I am still having success after 22 years of competitive road and trail racing. Back in 1991 I found motivation to quit smoking and used running as a substitute habit. My initial thinking was if I ran well in high school then I should see if I still had any talent 6 years later. If I found something I was good at then it would probably keep me interested.
It's hard to say from a subjective point of view whether I was bound to be a competitive person from the early years of my upbringing or if I learned it later in life. I grew up with confidence issues due to a variety of things. I had a family environment where accomplishments weren't recognized; I wore glasses starting in the 4th grade and soon after that got fitted with braces on my teeth. On top of all this I was somewhat of a runt, always shorter than other kids and weighing less than 125 pounds into my senior year. I wasn't destined to be a starter on any team sports.
In elementary school I always did well in the running events like the 100 and 200 yard dash at the end of the year field meets. I still have a box full of 1st – 3rd place ribbons to prove it. Then in 9th grade after a family relocation to another town and high school I discovered the pain and ecstasy of cross country running. Eventually through my high school years I learned to run farther and more often which led to growing success in running events but not enough to excel at the collegiate level. I joined the Marine Corps instead.
Forget the recruiting posters you have seen for the Marines. That's not how all Marines look going to boot camp or coming out. I joined the Marines more as a 'middle finger' to the authority figures in my life. In my mind I would probably not survive the training so in a way it was a sick challenge. The Marine's success comes from the mental fortitude that is instilled from learning tradition combined with a high level of physical fitness and a huge sense of camaraderie for your fellow Marines. I learned a lot of things in boot camp and matured greatly but once I got into the fleet I focused on my specialty and spending my paycheck partying like an 18-year old with no curfew. So maybe just being around that environment of machismo attitudes and the slogan that proclaim Marines to be "A Few Good Men," all led to a good old fashioned brainwashing.
Fast forward a couple of years to 1991. I started training for the marathon when my son was born and quit smoking for his and my health. I had run my first marathon 5 years earlier on a whim when one of my supervisors challenged me to sign-up for the Marine Corps Marathon and go with him to the event. I didn't know what long runs were. I raced a couple half-marathons and figured that was good enough. I could run the 3-mile PT test in 16 minutes so I didn't need any speedwork right? I upped my weekly training runs to 6 miles three times a week. The race was painful but I finished and then didn't run again for 6 months. Now, five years later I found a book on marathon training and did everything it called for. I even set a 3 hour marathon goal.
#1. Always set realistic goals, short, mid, and long-term. Realism can prevent overdoing it. Setting goals helps keep you focused on what's important.
I did everything right. I finished in 2:45 and was completely elated and sore afterwards. I was enlisted in the Army National Guard at the time and discovered that they had a marathon team. I just ran one of the better times amongst other Guard runners in Minnesota so I was selected for the team. We traveled to the annual trials where I bettered my time and made selection to the National team. We traveled a half a dozen times per year to military sponsored marathons like Marine Corps in D.C., Navy in Florida, and Air Force in Ohio. If there was extra funding we did something more interesting like Juneau, Alaska.
For most of the 1990's I ran 4 marathons per year and ran them all hard for team and individual placement. My finishing times fluctuated from race to race depending on training routines and how well I recovered. I incurred minor injuries like Plantar Fasciitis and other tendinitis issues throughout my lower legs. I struggled with chrondomalacia or runner's knee. I ruptured my Iliopsoas muscle and had to do physical therapy to strengthen my core. Corework was not the hot topic fitness fix to all problems back then like it is now. Heck, who even knew a runner that lifted weights; and god forbid leg weights. I did sit-ups and push-ups routinely and that was about it. I didn't have time for anything else. Working full-time with a family and owning a home doesn't leave much free time. It takes ingenuity to fit 60-70 miles in per week without the family noticing you are gone. We all know that the 20-mile long run is accomplished on the weekends while everyone else is still in bed so that was a no-brainer; getting up at 4am and be done by 7:30.
#2. Glucosamine-Chondroitin is not a placebo. This supplement can strengthen cartilage alleviating the symptoms of 'runner's knee.'
#3. Strengthen your core; this is mandatory. Planks, yoga, weights, etc.
After moving to Tucson in 1994 I met a lot of local runners and we got together to train quite frequently. Being single after a divorce and living in an apartment I had nothing but time so I put it to good use by running two a days and 100-mile weeks. I went on road trips with my buddies throughout the State of Arizona to run road races and we would really clean-up on the awards. A lot of times during some of these races I felt like I had another gear that I couldn't reach. I finished a lot of races feeling like an underachiever, like I could have done better but didn't push it hard enough. I began to realize that during training I was overdoing it. I was racing most of my training runs. A few of us were highly competitive and when we ran together in training the pace would ratchet up and up until we were setting training course personal records. We hammered all of our workouts. I remember one workout where we ran 20 x 400 meter fast intervals on the outside lane of the track and walked the stagger (40 meters) for recovery.
#4. Don't leave your race in the workouts.
In retrospect I had some decent PRs but never realized it at the time. I will never come close to running like that again. After watching the results over the years some of my times remain highly competitive. I remember talking to my friend Rick and we were discussing our marathon training philosophy. We determined that in order for us to do well we needed to maintain a fitness level that would allow us to run a quality marathon with 4 weeks notice. That meant always maintaining enough endurance and tempo speed that if something came up you could sharpen for a couple of weeks and attempt a PR. This may have had some merit but more often than not I regularly ran marathon times 10-20 minutes slower than my PR. It wasn't until I remarried and broke away from "The Hammers," that I only ran one day on the weekend and actually got some rest.
#5. Plan rest days into your training schedule.
#6. Every race should not be a goal race.
The funny thing about the whole year after I got married and backed off hardcore training I was setting PRs in everything. I brought my marathon time down by 3 minutes and ran 2 other marathons in the mid 2:30s during the year of 1997. I ran my first 50K ultra-marathon and won the race. For almost 2 years I ran well and also did my first 50-mile race. I learned the value of a day off. I also learned that a day off from running could be used to cross-train. It didn't matter if it was biking, swimming, or lifting weights; I did something other than running.
#7. Cross-train; treat every 10 minutes of cross-training as one-mile of equivalent running. I cross-train less than most athletes but still accomplish over 250 miles of RE mileage every year.
I think it was the ultra-distance that ultimately taught me the value of recovery. I had this running/biking friend at work that used the philosophy of taking one day off of running for every mile of the race he had just run. I had a hard time with that when it came to the marathon. How could I have 26 easy days after every race? And if it was a 50-mile that kind of time off was just crazy; I would be completely out of shape. I understood the essence of what he meant. I would take a week off completely and then cut my normal mileage in half for a couple of weeks and intersperse cross-training on the other days. I also learned that it's ok to walk during an ultra-distance race especially on the uphill.
#8. Don't be afraid to take walk breaks, especially early. Saving your legs early will lead to running later. Running until you can't run anymore only leads to slow walking.
It wasn't until much later that I discovered exercise physiology. I used some of what I learned during physical therapy sessions and a lot of what I learned in books. This was also around the time that internet popularity took off and I eventually became very good at self-diagnosis, or so I thought. I lifted upper-body weights regularly but still avoided doing legs. I believed the myth that if you lifted your legs in the gym then your muscle bulk would slow you down.
The other thing I discovered was exercise science, to be exact, how to train more effectively for the marathon. I found ways to improve by adjusting the pace of my long runs. I would run easy for the first 4 miles and then build to marathon race pace for the next 10-12 miles and then finally cool down the last four miles. I eventually monitored my long runs in time run rather than distance covered although to this day I still keep a daily and yearly mileage record. I also learned the value of anaerobic threshold training. Rather than always doing intervals balls out I discovered there was a difference between running an interval at a medium pace with less rest versus running them faster with full recovery in between.
#9. Measure your long runs in time instead of distance. This way you can slow down if necessary and not be a slave to the mileage.
Honestly, it still took me a long time to figure a lot of this stuff out. I trained for and attempted my first 100-mile race and DNF'd. Then later I threw my training log in the trash and lost focus on everything competitive. I didn't even try out for the Guard Marathon team during those years. Due to a combination of mental burnout, multiple tendon and soft tissue injuries, and a career transition from enlisted to officer, I didn't run. During a long training school away from home I found time to contemplate my situation. After a long rest and recovery period over the previous 12 months I felt reinvigorated and set a goal to get in shape to run 50 miles. I would need these 50 miles to qualify to enter another 100-mile race.
#10. A soft tissue injury will heal itself in time unless you stress it before it heals, then it will become a stress fracture. Know the difference between the pain of healing and the discomfort of recovery.
I finished the race and the next few years I forged ahead on the 100-mile path. It wasn't until a couple years later it all came crashing down when I tore my upper hamstring attachments on one leg. It healed without surgery but I needed physical therapy to re-strengthen the hamstring. Once again, being a goal-setter I planned to run another 100-mile run four months later. The injury led to adopting a leg weight lifting routine. I learned that too much running leads to a disparity in hamstring and quadriceps strength. The only way to correct this is by other means; a crap-load of biking and/or leg curls and extensions in the gym. Instead of just getting on a normal road bike I bought a single-speed. You know the saying, "If it works then do more of it." I began a routine for lifting weights that I learned from PT as well as a dynamic stretching routine that is performed after a warm-up of 10-15 minutes. I still use this routine throughout the week after I warm-up and before I commence to run the main portion of my run.
#11. Myth: Lifting leg weights in the gym will make me a slower runner. Not true; lift for strength and endurance, 3 sets of 10-12 reps.
#12. Warm-up with easy jogging for 10 minutes and then stretch before the main workout.
#13. Yoga is great for increasing blood flow to tendons and joints as well as the meditative effects we all can use to deal with the stressors in our daily lives.
Now I am finding that no matter what I do aside from stepping away from competition I am always going to deal with soft tissue injuries in one form or another. The way to decrease the frequency of these issues is by being smart and using these things that I have learned and continuing to study new methods. I need to take appropriate time off when needed before I step back into another phase of speed improvement. I sometimes wonder if I had my wobble board, stick, foam roller, and stim machine back in 1995 would I have performed better. Maybe, but knowing me I would have just run that much harder leading to the same problems in the end. Nothing seems to work better than time, experience, and acquired wisdom.
Run smart; run easy then hard then easy again; run for fun; run for life; run for you. Stay thirsty my friends.
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