Missing a training run, or even two, won’t kill you if it’s an
occasional occurrence. But missing a month or two due to a major injury
or having to skip key workouts because you keep ignoring the minor
problems, those sorts of things really kill your momentum and make it
hard to improve.
Article updated: 3/30/2010 8:50:01 AM
The first time I saw a sports medicine doctor was in June of 2008. I wanted to become as competitive of a runner as I had once been as a cyclist and had just committed to taking my training to a new level. I was coming off three years of relative inactivity after my collegiate cycling career and 1½ years of minimal and inconsistent running after that. My body simply couldn’t handle the work that I actually wanted to put in. I had dabbled in the 50-60 miles per week range earlier that spring and was aiming to finish my first 80-mile week with an easy 16 miler. I did that run, however, with a new training partner that was stronger and more experienced than me and, in hindsight, got a bit carried away with the pace. My Achilles started hurting with a couple of miles to go and continued to hurt in the days following.
I took a few days off, and that helped, but it was still wasn’t 100% a week later. I visited the doctor at Commonwealth Sports Medicine and she prescribed a treatment plan that included wearing temporary heel inserts to avoid overstretching the Achilles, physical therapy exercises to do at home, and wearing an iontophoresis patch which uses an electric charge to deliver medicine through the skin. More importantly, we also did some manual therapy, conducted a gait analysis, and got me on the Alter-G treadmill for my next two workouts.
The gait analysis showed that my form needed some consolidation, while having access to the Alter-G helped me stay on track aerobically and leg-speed- wise as I prepared for an upcoming race. The Alter-G treadmill reduces your body weight by creating a seal around your waist and then inflating so you sort of “float” above the treadmill. It allowed me to do those two hard runs at 75% body weight which put much less stress on the Achilles and calf area. Afterwards, I was able to put together a really solid block of training, and only 8 weeks later, won my first event as a runner, the Patrick Henry Half Marathon. My time in that 2008 marathon was about 11 minutes faster than what I had run there a year prior.
This past June I turned and sprained my ankle while trail running. I had just finished up my spring racing season with a victory at the Stratford Hills 10k. My doctor told me what to do and not do while caring for it, showed me how to wrap it, and sent me on my way. After 3 days off, I could run with only minimal soreness and no tension in the ankle. Later in the summer, I was really pushing myself as I built my base for fall racing. I was running doubles to increase my mileage and was doing a fair amount of intensity as well. The day after one of the Cul de Sac 5k races, I had some tenderness in the foot, but I couldn’t tell if it was bone or tendon. Fortunately it turned out to be nothing.
Five days later, I was able to race the Pony Pasture 5k with no problem at all. Two weeks after that, I experienced more frustration when my calf got extremely tight while doing strides after my Monday morning recovery run. It literally came out of nowhere and showed me that I had really found my current training limits. I was still able to run easy that week, but was worried that I had ruined my fall season when it was still tight even a week later. Thanks to some manual therapy however, I was able to get in three key workouts that following week as I prepared for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach.
Three weeks after the calf flared up on me, I would run a PR in the Virginia Beach Half Marathon. Although I was happy with that performance, I still knew I could do better. Over the next ten weeks, I was able to string together the best and most consistent training I’ve ever had as a runner. I knew when I woke up the morning of the 2009 SunTrust Half Marathon that it was going to be a great day as the temperature was perfect for running hard. I would run a 1:13:41 to finish 7th overall and PR by over 3 minutes, my proudest moment yet as a runner.
So if I had a tip for any runner, regardless of ability, it would be to listen to your body. You’ve got to push yourself if you want to improve, and if you really push yourself, your body is occasionally going to push back. The important thing is that you catch those signs early enough so that they don’t become real problems. Missing a training run, or even two, won’t kill you if it’s an occasional occurrence. But missing a month or two due to a major injury or having to skip key workouts because you keep ignoring the minor problems, those sorts of things really kill your momentum and make it hard to improve. To really improve year over year, you’ve got to build off your past advances and not go back to square one each season. The only way you can accomplish that is with steady, consistent, sub-maximal training.
Article first appeared in SBQ Issue #12, January/February | 2010
