How To Be A Better Runner

How do you become a better runner?

Stay injury-free and improve on your weaknesses, is the simplified answer.

How do you stay injury-free?

By training within your limits (we have more physical limitations as compared to our mental ones), you can keep serious injuries at bay. Mild injuries may be unavoidable when you step up on intensity, prior to a race. Thus, my promotion of 'Run Less, Run Faster' is pertinent, if you are already plagued by persistent niggles and soreness. 

Your build-up to the race needs to be sensible and realistic. Give yourself SMART Goals, and be mindful of how well you can prepare. Thus, in your off-season you would do better to focus on lower-intensity, fat-utilising, pace. I recommend lower-heartrate running, swimming and cycling to enhance your 'aerobic engine'. Drink Bullet Coffee (or coconut-oil infused beverages before training on an empty-stomach) to engage your body's ability to tap into your endurance system.

Get quality sleep to recover fully and reduce stress. Eat 'clean' to assist your body to assimilate new body tissues. Eat all major food groups, and eliminate food that cause you allergies. Consume more antioxidants, protect and nurture your gut flora (bacteria), and be well-hydrated. Go 80:20 with your nutrition/meals, and treat yourself,occasionally, to some 'comfort food'. I am a fan of craft-beers after hard training, and appreciate indulging in my sweet tooth. Your fitness will assist you in your day-to-day activities; not just for racing and earning PBs. Focus on building an organic machinery that enhances your life, and promotes your sporting lifestyle.

Training-wise, be smart and enlist assistance in ensuring you optimise your efforts and structural abilities: running-gait, footwear, core-strength, muscular-strength, balance and proprioception, joint-health, and muscular weakness (critical point of incidence). Diagnose your abilities and do a SWOT analysis, and tap on your collective potential and work on reducing your weaknesses. Race occasionally, so as to familiarise with your race-pace (5km, 10km, 21km and marathon).

More of these will be covered in my new Ebook.

Doing That Thing You Do

I am referring to rest. You know – that thing that you do (sounds like an oxymoron) when you do almost nothing physical.

Athletes need rest when they are not training; this excludes actual rest days in a week. The older the athlete, the more rest they require as their recovery and recuperative abilities diminishes with age. In your 20’s, you can probably recover reasonably well within 24 hours. In your 30’s, it is about 24-48 hours; in your 40’s and beyond, about 48-72 hours after an intense workout or race.

Rest is not defined as complete inactivity. It may mean spending a few days off from the actual cause of the soreness and fatigue. A long season of training can take its toll on your body through neural and physical fatigue. Physical fatigue stems from muscular stress and depletion of energy stores (over-arching), whereas neural fatigue is about the boredom and fatigue that stems from repetitive action and being adaptive to one type of sport. Cramping has also been attributed to neural fatigue due to overuse of the same muscle groups.

It is about two weeks away from Ironman Western Australia 2011, and the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2011. Some runners are still doing their long runs of up to 30K, which do not leave much room for full recovery. If our recovery experience and injuries can teach us: it is better to rest more, than bludgeon the body more. That is why a tapering period was designed prior to a race. It is a systematic way of reducing mileage but retaining the intensity of the activity. Just before the race, you can do short, sprints to activate the muscles lest the passive recovery and rest reduces muscle tone. You want to taper yet keep your muscles attuned to racing conditions. I tend to spin on the stationary-bike for about 20 minutes and do a 10-minute treadmill run, focused on my gait and landing. This is a pre-race rehearsal that prepares my muscles for the run about 12 hours before the race; I applied this approach over my previous two 3:30 marathons.

To ward off delayed muscle recovery, consider the formula for exercise known as FITT: frequency, intensity, type and time. This systemic approach to designing exercise programs can also be transferred to leadership and workplace processes such meetings, giving feedback, coaching, and measuring performance.

Leadership Lessons: How FITT are you as a manager? How often do you make time for proper rest? When do you know when to engage in argument and then ‘give it a rest’? How often do you call for a ‘timeout’ when things do not go well within your team?

Why Batter Yourself When You Can Better Yourself?

I have been asked why I elected to do triathlons and marathons? Wouldn’t I harm my knees? Isn’t it time consuming?

Yes, triathlon training during on-season can take up a lot of time. With a specific training and racing plan, your body can withstand progressive physical challenges. With adequate rest, you can become stronger. In your off-season, you can taper off your training yet retain most of your fitness. You deserve to rest after a lengthy season of racing and personal best timings.

Actually, my knees are in reasonably healthy condition; my plantar fasciitis has almost cleared. I never had a history of weak knees or injury, and I have met many younger athletes hobble home after a training session. I am most concerned with those who have their knees wrapped up in braces and struggling in pain. Why would you train through an injury? Isn’t rest the best way to heal your battered body. Their technique suffers most definitely, and their pronounced poor posture purposely places undue stress on other parts of their joints such as ankles and lower back. Walking would have been preferred and safer; running in the pool is another option.

My thighs are still aching after last Saturday’s 50K however that’s part of the deal I signed up for. Do the deed, got to have sore feet! Instead of bludgeoning yourself prematurely, rest and recuperation matter most in salvaging the body from additional and prolonged stress. I learnt to stretch more deeply, continue to feed my body good nutrition, and maintain normal activity.

After hearing that at Olympics-level, swimmers train up to 65,000 metres per week, what we train for triathlon sounds relatively minor. That is a whopping 10-12K per day of stroking up and down the chlorinated pool. You have to do a heap of mind games to stay sobre and centred. It can be almost insane chasing the unwavering line in the 50K choppy waters of the pool. However, that is the price of pursuing athletic achievement and accomplishment. Train with the best, rise like the rest!