Running up hills in training
When you are in training, don’t get disheartened if you have difficulty running up hills. I find that it doesn’t matter if you walk and jog up the hills; the most important thing is to do the distance. And when training, try to run up at least 50% of the hills ‘with effort’, but you can walk the rest. I find that it makes a big difference to my performance if I train with hills as opposed to training without them, but it doesn’t necessarily make a big difference whether I run all the way up or walk and jog up the...
read moreFocus on Breathing
Hard to believe it is only six weeks to go until the City2Surf. Where has the year gone! This week we will continue doing runs with increased focus on performance. There is a fartlek run on Tuesday and you should start to concentrate on our breathing. One of the things I’ve noticed is that many social runners take very shallow breaths when exercising. Your body needs oxygen as you run so deep breaths help to reduce the stress on your body. You want to get the oxygen deep into the diaphragm, not in the chest. Just like in swimming, a good...
read moreSore shin and a dickie heel
I didn’t do my morning run today because after my run yesterday I found my heel was painful to walk on and I also have minor shin splint in my right leg. Plantar fasciitis, commonly called ‘heel spurs’, in most people (including me this morning), shows up as heel pain with the first few steps in the morning. I felt fine after my run yesterday but unfortunately, it can take 12 to 36 hours after activity before the plantar fasciitis pain increases. These types of stress related injury are common when running shoes wear out and...
read morePreventing Running Injuries
I’m not a sports physio and I don’t like running injuries so I try my best to avoid them. Having said that, I have had a fair few, so if you have an injury, I can empathise with you. Running injuries usually come in the form of pains in the joints, pulled muscles, twisted ankles, stress fractures (such as shin splints), and tendinitis. And when you start to do longer distances, you may also get blisters and chaffing, (and chaffed nipples, which can be rather painful!). One of the important things I’ve learnt over the years...
read moreCalculating your Ideal Training Level
Training should be a mix of easy and hard workout sessions. In some training sessions you will go flat out, and you need to do this occasionally in order to build your anaerobic conditioning, but you also want to make sure you don’t over exert yourself too often. Remember that when you are training, you should be aiming on working at no more than an average of 75 to 80% of your maximum capacity. The idea is to build your conditioning without exhausting yourself so much that your body needs time to repair itself. Most running injuries...
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