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How to prevent knee-pain?

guest — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 17:58:12 GMT

One of these myriad "running blog / magazine / etc" sites I subscribe to had a simple input on impact-related stuff (knees, shins, hips - that sort of stuff). Increase cadence.

The "optimal" cadence of 180+ steps per minute swaps the impact-per-strike for number-of-strikes. In theory, more steps (thus of shorter distance, all other things being equal) means less impact. The image that works best for me is the idea that there is less up-and-down moementum as the legs more more toward the Looney-Tunes road-runner look. It proves out when I'm running next to someone with a more loping gait: you can see their shadow go up and down more than those with a faster gait.

Less impact seems to result in less shin and knee issues for some folks. (All? Dunno.)

Caveat emptor: this strike pattern is also associated with the minimalist / barefoot lunacy (of which I'm a practitioner); so it may result in less heel-strike as well, which may put stress on calves and achilles until they strengthen up. Or not. Changing stride type and cadence took me over a year and required some pain to get to the side with no pain and injuries. YMMV.

13.1 Miles

guest — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 21:18:21 GMT

I did my first HM less than a year ago. I got as much input / advice as I could; and after the race, there was some of it I agreed with and some not.

First a disclaimer: I'm 6' / 150lbs / 44 years old - and my goal for my first HM was 1:30. YMMV, IOW.

The advice I liked / that seemed to work:

- added a 10-miler per week to my meager 20-mile total weeks

- fuel was a non-issue with only 90 minutes on the course

- water WAS an issue - drinking it mattered

- the first 5-8 miles would / should feel pretty easy (like a tempo pace or less - NOT like a race pace)

The advice I wish I'd had:

- I wish I'd done a 15-miler or two in advance.

-- Partly to know what the distance actually felt like at the end, when I was more gassed than I'd ever been.

-- partly to test the "time on my feet" in a way that those 10-milers never did

- I wish I'd done the 10-milers slower

-- I've since learned that "time on my feet" is a factor. Running for the full time duration would have been more valuable than running it at the projected race-pace, as I did.

- Gassed and bonked are two different things

-- bonked is typically over two hours (fuel spent)

-- gassed can come any time (legs heavy / mentally and emotionally stressed / etc)

-- fuel is useful for bonked but worthless for gassed.

I've since done what I learned above and it has made this distance one of my favorites. I do 2-hour runs occaisonally - without much regard to pace - to keep accustomed to the time on my feet. (I still get micro-spasms in my calves somewhere around 1:10... whether I'm doing 6-minute miles or 9-minute miles... go figure.) And I pay more attention to heat-training and water intake.

Good luck!

48 year old

guest — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 00:45:33 GMT

Just to stir up the responses a bit: I'm a couple years behind you (45 this year). I hadn't run since high-school until 2008. I started with the 1-3 miles thing (while my missus was doing C25K). Here we are a few years later and I'm running kinda fast for my age.

If you're loving it, keep loving it. I have some CRAZY fast guys around here - over 50 doing 5Ks in under 15:30 - so I know very well that I have to love my runs for my own reasons. I am no world-record-setter and will not be.

I enjoy the "age graded performance" scales because they offer me a road-map to compete with myself for decades to come. Google it. Pretty cool. 100% is a world-record performance for your age. I'm aiming to get to 85%, but that doesn't mean what it would mean to a 20-year-old, time-wise.

I enjoy the time-based stuff... just to see if I'm getting better. And compared to whom. And I love it whatever the outcome may be. =)

Re: New runner with calf pain... help?

guest — Thu, 24 May 2012 03:26:21 GMT

My input: barefoot / minimalist / Chi / Pose low-impact, high-cadence running; daily stretching (yoga) essential but NOT necessarily before and after running; good diet and water as often as thirsty if not more.

The story:

I went through some debilitating versions of this within a few months of getting back to running (after 20 years of not running). Time off helped; but I'd end up back there again after a while. Maybe I trained too hard, didn't stretch enough, didn't ice enough... maybe it was just part of the process of putting those muscles to work after so much time of not really working them... no way of knowing.

After hearing and trying ALL the above advice - and trying all of the ice / rest / stretch / water / electrolyte / etc - I was a little discouraged to learn that the going expectations - from ALL running research - is that injuries are nearly a given. I figured if that's the best the experts could assure me, I'd give the whack-os a run for their money. I decided to try out this "barefoot" and "minimalist" thing - if the idea of it reducing these types of injuries was BS, how much worse off might I be? Not much, probably.

I started by trying the "Chi" and "Pose" approaches while still wearing my motion-control shoes. That was challenging; but not too bad... and not really rewarding. I was too much of a sissy to go full-hog - and love running fast (for me) too much to slow down for full-on barefoot - so I got some Nike Free 3.0s (back when they were much more minimal than they are now). I still got soreness and injuries, but the trend has been toward less and less of them - and zero shin / knee / and low-back pain. All the other injuries / pains seem to be less and farther between.

I have found a significant difference in pains if I do my daily yoga / stretching routine; but zero correlation whether I stretch before and/or after running; warming up a bit and cooling down a bit seem to be more than enough without stretching. But that's with daily 20-minutes of stretching at some other time.

That's the background to my input: barefoot / minimalist / Chi / Pose low-impact, high-cadence running; daily stretching (yoga) essential but NOT necessarily before and after running; good diet and water as often as thirsty if not more.

toes hurt?!

guest — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:45:12 GMT

I get that intermittently - different toes at different times. Sometimes, it's the shoe and/or the shoe I chose for a particular run. Downhill on pavement has a different impact on my feet / toes than even a really long run on trails. I use five different pairs of shoes (and sometimes none at all) and try to pick the right ones for the run. Seems to help minimize the foot and toe pains.

Mile Times....

guest — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:57:59 GMT

Kris (and anyone else "embarrassed" by their pace): it may not seem like it, but no matter how fast I go, the distance from my pace to the next level up is ALWAYS daunting and embarrassing. I find it even more embarrassing to strive for another 10 seconds and NOT be able to hit it than when I was striving for a minute per mile and struggling. It's exponentially harder, but my linear mindset makes it feel worse.

FTR, three years ago, I did not run a timed one-mile, but my average running pace for the 274 miles logged on my Garmin in 2009 was 10:38. Pretty embarrassing at the time. It felt easy and confidence-inspiring to pull that average down to 9-minute, then 8-minute; and to log a timed mile and various race times. But it continues to be harder and harder to pull it down further; and my pride struggles with it as I set ever smaller goals for gain.

Please be proud of your gains. And your efforts that get you there - or even miss. I keep trying to do the same.

Mile Times....

guest — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 22:36:23 GMT

Derek, I'm 44 and returned to running just under three years ago; I had not run since high-school. I've got the mile back under 5 minutes now. I think the keys have been all the standards for distance (endurance / duration runs, hill runs, hill workouts, tempo runs, etc) AND the track / speed work - ideally with other people to engage that competitiveness. On the track, it's 150-in-and-outs, 200s, 400s, 600s, 800s, 1200s - all at mile target pace or slightly better on the real speed workout days. Not /usually/ as all-outs, but as training for the 1-mile pace. 3-5 miles of them on the track. And fartlek workouts another day of the week or as a replacement for the track speed work. Again, the fartlek "on" pace is the mile pace; the rest pace is whatever's required.

I have the advantage of running with a guy my age who can still run a 4:10 mile. He does weekly speed work with other ultra-high-performance runners (high-school and college and others). I figure if that approach works for him, it's probably a pretty good one in general and seems to be working for me.

Good luck!