Help Yourself (the Repost)

OK, so let's talk about a few things up front. This is largely a repost, but with some things to bring it up to date.

Our schedule is pretty specific for certain reasons. For those doing Tuesday workouts, Wednesdays will be your cross training day, and then you run again Thursday. That first run after Tuesday's harder workouts may feel clunky - you might be tight and sore. Just go easy, and bear with it. The run, even short, will work some of that out, and help set you up for a Friday run and the Saturday long run.

For those doing a different schedule, like Wednesday workouts or Friday long runs... I'll work with you individually.

You might want to consider running in the mornings during the week. It's cooler, and helps sort of minimize the gaps between runs. Running in the morning also ramps up your metabolism for the day, which is good if you're wanting to burn some fat. If anyone would like to burn some of mine, feel free.

Some of you are gonna be sore. You might be sore starting out, and then later, you might be sore because you're hitting your stride and you're working harder, and then later because of the mileage. Great, huh? I do get to a time in my own training where I'm sore and feeling a little beat-up most of the time. The thing is, I also feel strong, and the soreness and beat-uppedness shouldn't be indicative of more serious issues, like muscle pulls or strains, shin splints, skeletal issues, or infestation by an incubating, parasitic alien.

At every phase of the training, we have to take responsibility and start taking extra care of ourselves. This is half marathon and marathon training, not a correspondence course in, I don't know, incubating parasitic alien infestations. There are things we can do to minimize or eliminate our discomfort, and help ward off injury. We'll talk more about some of these things as we go along, but here's a few points:

Ice baths - Yeah, ice baths. After long runs, and even after hard weekday workouts. It alleviates a lot of soreness, and hastens recovery, so that the next run is not so horrible. I know some of you have become believers - would you please weigh in on this in the comments?

Stretch - I am the worst about this. In fact, class one, we did foot drills, and then I thought food and beer, and didn't enforce stretching. Help keep me in line about stretching as a group, please.

For one thing, if you aren't very flexible, stretching doesn't seem very satisfying, and it can be a bit disheartening. We have to be disciplined and do it, though, especially as the weather gets colder. Light stretching before runs, then good stretching after every run. I like to try to stretch again a couple of hours after the run - we tend to get in our cars, go home or to work, and sit, making it as easy as possible for our leg muscles to tighten up. Tight muscles affect your stride, even your footstrike, increase the chance of some injuries, and generally makes life miserable. And with just 5-10 minutes a day, we could avoid a lot of that. Yoga is helpful - more on that in a moment.

Massage - Massage is another miracle worker. If you wanted to be completely serious about this running thing, you'd get them regularly. I know there's an expense factor. But even if you can get one once a month, it'll help tremendously.

Self massage is a good thing, too. No jokes, please. Look into foam rollers. They're a wonderful thing, if you remember to use them...

Get help now, not later - We all want to run, some of us are afraid of stopping and losing ground. But the algebra of this is simple - you can go get that pain looked at now, maybe have to sit out or minimize your running for a few weeks, or maybe just address it with rehab or changes in routine, or, you can ignore it and keep pounding at it, thinking the magical running fairies, or maybe your incubating, parasitic alien infestation are going to repair it, and end up injured, fat, and asleep on the morning of February 18.

Listen to your body - Facing and overcoming discomfort and fear, even pain, are attributes you need as a runner. But ignoring pain during training that is trying to warn you of an issue with your body is just stupid. Get to know your body, and pay attention to it.

Run softly - I keep our workouts on the streets, because that's what you'll be running your races on. Dick Beardsley told us last season that he thinks people train on trails, then run distance on the street and their bodies aren't ready for it. I think that with the great trail system we have here, that happens a lot. I have a friend that runs ultramarathons on real trails, and will run the occasional marathon, and he talks about what a difference it makes when you aren't used to it. But there is a very real cost in impact and wear and tear on our bodies. So, on your solo run days, I encourage you to run on the trail, or even in grass. Take any opportunity to minimize the impact. You're also getting a slightly harder workout when you run on a surface with more energy absorption and less traction.

Cross train - When the calendar says "cross training", that's not like, some admonition to get to church (yeah, that was bad. sorry). You should be using that day to give your legs a break, particularly from impact. I want cross training to be as non-impact as possible. Swimming, cycling (don't wear your legs out), yoga, weightlifting (don't wear your legs out) are good examples.

Jack and Adam's Bicycles, at Lamar and Barton Springs, has free core workouts on Mondays and Wednesdays, at 5:30pm. Free. Like, no money. Strengthening your core is going to help you run stronger, and maintain your form longer.

Also, some of Team Spee is already hitting the free Friday night yoga at Yoga Vida. Yoga is fantastic for flexibility and even building some core strength. I think all athletes should be doing yoga, actually - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar gives a lot of credit for his unusually long basketball career to his practice of yoga. In just a few weeks of returning to yoga myself, I've started to regain some flexibility. I can now touch my hands to my knees. OK, just my fingertips, but still.

There's more to discuss - nutrition is a huge consideration. I have someone that will come talk to us about that at some point. And, maintaining your mental well-being, though clearly already a lost cause in general for many of you (OK, of us), is important to. And, at some point, we'll talk about how to deal with incubating, parasitic alien infestations, with the pain and the screaming and gurgling and exploding and the Sigourney Weaver and what-not.

For now, if you have any questions, let me know.