The best way to know where you’re going with your training is to see where you’ve been. Keeping a personal journal of your runs helps you track your progress, avoid past pitfalls and even inspire you to new accomplishments. Your journal can be as simple as a few dashed notes of the distance and time you ran each day, or more detailed with lengthier entries about your route, the way you feel, and the stuff you thought about on the run.   For a great online running journal, go to www.fastrunningblog.com.  It’s free and the support from fellow members is great!

Every runner has experienced the dreaded side stitch, a sudden sharp pain in the side of the upper abdomen at the base of the ribs. The pain is caused by a spasm of the diaphragm, the muscle that controls your breathing. A stitch will usually go away quickly after slowing down or stopping, but even on the run, you can often make it go away by bringing your breathing into careful control.

Concentrate on belly breathing, pushing your belly out when you breathe in and relaxing it as you breathe out. Take deep breaths on the intake, and exhale suddenly, even noisily. To get the diaphragm to contract in rhythm with your steps, try to inhale and exhale as you land on your left foot. Click here for more about side stitches.

Most running injuries respond well to the “RICE” treatment: Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. Ice the trouble spot for ten minutes on, then ten minutes off, repeating as necessary. You should ice as soon as possible after you have been injured, and immediately after a run if you are running with an injury. Combined with compression (with a cold pack, for example) and elevation, icing goes far to reduce pain and swelling. Heat should only be applied to an injury after the inflammation is gone, probably after about 72 hours. If your swelling has gone down quite a bit, but there’s still a little bit of inflammation, try alternating heat and ice after a few days of ice-only treatment.

Aah…. Springtime is almost here! And that means it’s time to start incorporating faster paced workouts into your training.

After a long winter of mainly slow base running it’s time to wake the body up by doing 10-20 fast pickups of 100-200 meters in length with complete recovery in between. Run these at a brisk but not all out sprint effort risking leaving your wheels at the side of the track! These will remind the body and mind what it was like to run fast again.

After a few weeks when you are comfortable with this regimen, it’s time to get to work with the more event specific training such as intervals or my favorite workout, sub threshold running. Decide what type of event you want to focus on at least 4-6 weeks in advance and apply these key workouts; 5-10k-Vo2 max intervals, half marathon and marathon-sub threshold running.

Here are a few fast and furious examples that will give the added 5-10 sec/mile boost you might seek;

5k-10k- Long intervals of 3-4 minutes in duration with 4-8×3min at 95-97% maximum heart rate or hard 5k pace. Start with equal rest periods and cut by 30 seconds each following week until you reach a maximum 30 sec rest interval. Don’t try to force the pace but rather keep it around 10-20 seconds per mile faster than race pace.

15k-marathon-Sub threshold running. Start with 20 min of running at 10 sec/mile faster than your current marathon pace and every other week either add 5 minutes to the duration or quicken the pace as your fitness progresses. You can accurately test this by using a heart rate monitor and tracking your heart rate and corresponding pace. Heart rate should slowly go down over the period of 4-6 weeks. Next week I will discuss training with a monitor in more detail and applying methods such as the maximum aerobic pace formula and such. Above all remember to listen to your body and always be well hydrated before and after workouts.

If you are like me you probably have some time constraints in your life. With family, job, and various other commitments we often find ourselves wishing for a 30 hr day! Having the time to train for the marathon can seem daunting at best. Not to fear, there is a solution. And no, I’m not talking about hiring a ghost runner either. Focusing on training for the specific demands of a race is the quickest and most effective means to accomplish your goal. Specificity of training is the most important key principle when it comes to preparing for an event such as the marathon. By training at marathon pace for a significant portion of your run, you prepare the body for the unique demands of the event. The benefits are increased efficiency in the form of better stride mechanics, reduction in the amount of glycogen spent and feeling more comfortable at marathon pace.

After completing an initial training block of low intensity running for about 6-8 weeks you can slowly begin to incorporate such workouts. Start out with just one session a week and depending on the amount mileage that you are currently training, run at least 4-6 miles at your goal pace. Run this workout somewhere in the middle portion of your workout and cap the distance at no more than 10 miles per session. After a period of 4 weeks include another session with at least 2 days of easy running for recovery. Long runs are superb for this type of training, but be sure that you don’t over do it and consider taking the day off afterward. When including such training, I have found that there is no need to go over 16 miles in any one run.

While you are out and about consider focusing on form and relaxation. This will reinforce your training and will pay off in huge dividends come race day. Being able to relax and run smoothly enables you to burn less oxygen and fuel by way of increased efficiency and less wasted movement. By focusing on these core methods you will come prepared to the starting line in a complete and thorough way.