A number of you asked about the approach I took to training for the ½ marathon. I'll share some thoughts with the HUGE caveat of:
I am not a medical professional, nor do I play one on TV. I am not a professional running coach, personal trainer or athlete, for that matter. I am sharing what worked for me, but would encourage anyone who is thinking about doing this to work with a medical professional at a minimum to see if you personally have any health risk factors that could be exacerbated by training for something like this.
The first thing I'll add is that I targeted the ½ marathon because I felt it was a doable distance that wouldn't impact my lifestyle too much. When I lived in NYC, I knew plenty of people who did the NYC Marathon and they had to adapt to a certain lifestyle particularly in the last couple of months with the long runs on Saturdays, etc. I knew I wasn't ready for that, plus I like to work in stages. Start at the ½ and see how I feel after that.
Well it took me a lot longer than I would have liked to get to Sunday. Some of the delays were due to getting married, lots of travel, moving, etc. Unfortunately some of the delays were due to injuries. In a few of these instances, I was able to rectify the problems in a few weeks without taking drugs or causing any long-term issues physically. But I had a nemesis – namely, shin splints. Or 'Evil Shin Splints', I should say.
Yes, I had orthotics. Yes, I went to a specialty running store to get my sneakers. Yes, I cooled down and stretched properly. Yes, I did weights and core exercises in addition to my running. Still couldn't shake them. So at the start of the year, I called up Lesley and said that I wanted to resume working with her but I wanted to try something different. Something along the lines of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em". Since whatever I had tried up until that point had not worked, I told Lesley that I only wanted to run 2x/week and do the remainder of my cardio essentially on the elliptical, along with core/weight workouts. She signed up and we worked out a very conservative, but focused, plan.
One of my friends, Denise, recommended a book that she really liked that she thought could help called Chi Running. I don't recall the exact wording or phrasing, but there was an "AHA!" moment in the book that basically told me that my real enemy was the flip flops that I was wearing around the house constantly. I don't want to bore you with why wearing flip flops cause shin splints, but needless to say my shin splints went away after a couple of weeks of not wearing them. And coincidentally, I found an article in Women's Health magazine a couple of months later espousing the same words.
One of the tools that became invaluable to me was my heart rate monitor. These gizmos have pretty much progressed into being mini-computers on your wrist. I picked up a Garmin Forerunner 305 because Lesley used it and this way we could e-mail workout data back and forth to each other. Plus it stored so many different tidbits of data that it helped me gauge my progress. There are definitely less expensive models out there by Garmin and Polar. I used a Polar on in the past and found it to be very helpful, but the Garmin was what I wanted because of the sync up with Lesley.
I've talked about Lesley a few times but let me add some context here. Lesley is my running coach. I'm sure some of you may laugh that I hired someone to help me run, but there was huge value to me. When I first started running again in late 2004, I kept getting the same pain that I had when I ran on the treadmill back in NYC. I had no idea why. Plus I felt that running was always "hard" and I wanted to be like one of those people who make it look so easy running around Green Lake. Lesley hooked me up with a great sports medicine doctor, physical therapist, and identified a number of stretches that would help nip some of the injuries in the bud.
We would communicate on my workouts in terms of what worked and what didn't. She also coordinated group runs so I didn't have to run alone, which is a big issue in the winter in Seattle when daylight is so scarce. Anyway lots of people use running coaches for different reasons – accountability, education, improvement, whatever. The point is using one worked for me because as I started to amp up the intensity and mileage on my workouts, the guidance was helpful (i.e., the best gel for me to consume while running – trust me, this is important as you add mileage, or race day tidbits). If you can swing the costs (pricing varies based on a number of factors), I would recommend getting one but that's just my opinion. Plenty of people are able to just tie up their sneakers, run 10 miles and never have any issue. Unfortunately I am not one of those people.
So this is what I am going to tell you worked for me:
- Hiring the running coach.
- Buying a heart rate monitor (if you have a running coach or are thinking about it, talk to a coach about what watch they use so you can e-mail data back and forth)
- Buy running sneakers at a specialty running store. This is not the time to skimp and go the cheapest route. These stores place a lot of emphasis on service and generally have excellent return policies (i.e., if after a couple of weeks the shoes still hurt, they probably will take them back). Replace the shoes regularly depending on your mileage. Don't wear these sneakers to run errands – use them as running-only sneakers.
- It may be worth it to find a sports medicine doctor or podiatrist to get a prescription to bring to the running store (i.e., if you overpronate, the salesperson may identify a certain shoe that will work better for you based on the doctor's recommendation).
- Cool down – as you get older, cooling down takes on an increased level of importance. This is what I do.
- Build up the workouts slowly and stick to the schedule. Rome was not built in a day. I did most of my workouts in the early morning. It stunk. I hated it. But I also knew that realistically that was the only time I would guarantee that the workout would get in. The 5:30am runs in January were horrible. You know it's bad when you get back in the car at 6:30am and the temperature gauge reads 27 degrees.
- Don't be a hero. Find someone to run with, or run in a very public space with people around during the day. If I did go out on my own, Marc always knew where I was going to be. I also ran with a cellphone (no, I didn't take calls during runs J).
- Injuries happen. They suck (I know this isn't a family friendly word, sorry). They can derail the best momentum and they can happen even when you are doing everything "right". You have to let your body recover and get back to it.