28 December 2007
Soap Box Babble
Posted by Mike Dopke under: Mike Dopke (Coach) .
Happy New Year everybody and I hope that your training is going well. It seems to me that a lot of people are getting injured lately. It is too early to be training like you are at your peak for the season folks. A good rule of thumb is to increase mileage by only 10 to 15 percent per week to avoid injury. For novice runners this can often be a hard thing to do as you are many times starting from square one. To compensate for this, try cross training by either riding a bike, swimming, or weight training on non-running days. We all want to perform well on May 10th, but you have to be patient and take your time when first starting out. Rest days are equally as important as training days because your body needs time to recover from hard workouts.
I see and hear about many people who attempt to run through injury to keep the miles up. They are worried that they are going to lose the fitness that they have gained running. To some extent this is true, but most times running through injury greatly prolongs recovery, or makes things worse. We all get little tweakers and twinges from time to time, and this is normal. It is sometimes difficult to decide whether or not you can continue running. Bottom line, if you are altering your gait to compensate for soreness or injury STOP! That pimp-stroll not only looks pathetic, but you are opening yourself up to further injury by throwing your body off balance. Take a couple days off and let your body repair itself.
I’ll get down now.
Mike
5 Comments so far...
Deb Says:
28 December 2007 at 5:47 pm.
Thanks for the words of wisdom Mike. It’s good for all of us to hear them. You are of course right! I’ve done the pimp stroll and it isn’t pretty!
Deb
Terry Says:
28 December 2007 at 6:04 pm.
Great advice for everyone Mike,
Terry
Shelly Says:
28 December 2007 at 7:21 pm.
You making fun of that pimp-stroll I had going on last year? You MUST have seen me at the finish line, didn’t you? You MUST have! And you didn’t even come over to say hello? Lol–thanks for the reminder to take it easy. I’m probably erring on the side of TOO cautious right now–every ache and twinge I feel in my foot turns me into a supersized wimp. Happy New Year, Mike! –shelly
Julie Hurley Says:
28 December 2007 at 8:47 pm.
Good advice Mike. I’ve remained injury-free so far (not running for eight days in a row sorta helps my stats there) but I’ll heed your advice as I get into the thick of training.
Darrin Says:
2 January 2008 at 9:35 am.
Right on, Mike. Going from 140 miles a month to 40 in Nov. due to injury was tough to handle. But coming back slow seems to be working. Went from running just a mile every other day in early Dec. and I’m back around 25 per week without losing a ton a fitness. Did the Resolution Run only about 45 seconds slower than my best 4-mile tempo run of the summer.