Running — Recovery

The purpose of the interval run is to increase your speed, improve your running economy and teach your body to increase or “push back” your anaerobic threshold. During your interval workout, you should combine shorter periods of high intensity of extreme effort with recovery periods of jogging or walking.  

The pace of your high intensity period should be based on perceived effort levels, and you should feel the need to gasp and grab your knees at the end of the high intensity period to get the full effect (but not so much...

How many of you read our 6 Reason Why the Walk/Run Method May Be For You blog with a little bit of skepticism? I know when I first started researching the idea, I approached it with quite a bit of doubt because the common sense of it told me, I’d run faster and longer if I rate at a slow, consistent rate. When I read up on the concept, I was somewhat swayed by the arguments but, truth be told, I really wasn’t sold. 

But, I’m one of those athletes that has been injury prone for most of my life; I tore my right hamstring in Middle School, training for the Regional Track meet (a little brag here, I had won the District Meet in the 400 meter dash); I then tore that same hamstring playing baseball the following year; and, to add insult to injury I then ruptured my Achilles Tendon playing basketball in my late 20’s. 

As I took up distance running as I got older, I tended to have calf strains primarily which seemed to happen later in my runs and, in particular, during my long runs. So, this research was about self-survival as a runner entering his 60’s but I determined the research was based on large groups of people and I wanted to know how it would impact ME! 

Have you just started running? Maybe you’re coming back from an extended period of not running or possibly from an injury? Or maybe you are using the Couch to 5K method of training or you’re taking up running as you enter your middle age? 

In any of these apply to you, I’m guessing you’ve been advised to use the walk/run method to get into or back into shape. In doing so, many people see this as a “means to an end”; in other words, they are using the walk/run method to build up to training and running races with a continuous run. 

But, for some people, the walk/run method may be both the means and the end with benefits that will keep you motivated, injury free and running faster. That’s right, we’ll talk about some information that points to people running faster using the walk/run method, especially as the distance of the race gets longer. 

While there’s much debate about whether you should stretch before or after you run—or whether you even need to stretch at all—there are a few stretches that help with the typical problem areas that runners have. Many runners end up with super tight muscles that restrict their movement and cause injury, so the goal of stretching is to increase muscle elasticity and improve your range of motion.

The main areas of concern for most runners include one, some, or all of these:

• Hamstrings
• Quadriceps
• Calves
• Iliotibial band (IT band)
• Groin
• Glutes

Runner’s...