- October 27, 2016
Having the right equipment is very important as this will reduce soreness, blistering and injury. So proper shoes is where we start. It’s important to bring your old shoes into the running store where you’re buying your new ones as the experts there can see where the wear is on your current shoes and how you strike the ground to make sure you get fitted for the proper shoes. We would also recommend you go to a store that has gait analysis so they can see how you strike the ground and how your ankle reacts once you strike the ground to make sure you are fitted with the proper shoe. Socks are very important because not only do they provide support and help with compression on the fascia of your foot, but it will also reduce friction. Therefore preventing blisters.
Hydration. One of the biggest keys in your training, so this is not only important on race day, but all of your training days. So for every 1% that you are dehydrated, you lose 15 to 20% of your output. So this is exponential if you’re 2, 3, 5% dehydrated. So if we can get you drinking plenty of water, you’re going to see not only your training is better, your recovery is going to be better and definitely your performance is going to be better. So we want to give you that key that one ounce per pound of body weight on days you train and a minimum of a half an ounce per pound of body weight on days you’re resting.
So race day nutrition, very important. We have that old school train of thought of you want to carve up the night before he as much pasta as you can and that way you’ll have energy for the next day. Well your body can only store anywhere between 1,820 200 grams of carbohydrates and you cannot store all of that one day. It takes a few days of carving up, if you will to make that happen. So we just add have you add two or three sweet potatoes a day to what you’re eating up to race day and then day of you’re going to have something along the lines of oatmeal, banana, an hour or two before the race. And then that way as you’re fueling throughout the race, you can keep your blood sugar and your glycemic levels where you need to to perform and not bomb.
Okay, so we just got back from our warmup jog. So we’re going to start out with high knees for beginner and intermediate athletes. You’re just going to pull that knee into your chest. So each time you step, you want to pull a little bit higher. This is going to help to mobilize your hips and your knees, which is very important to stay injury free during your training. If you’re an advanced athlete, you’re going to get high knees. This is going to be fast and dynamic, so it’s going to not only signal that to your brain, but you’re able to allow yourself to get that hip and those knees moving. So we’re going to move into bud kicks. So for beginners, you’re just putting your hands behind yourself and trying to get your foot to your hand. So you’re just tapping your heel. This is stretching out your quad from a dynamic standpoint and getting those knees ready for the work. If you’re advanced, you have experience with this. We want you to do the dynamic butt kicks or you can see that we’re getting contact on our hands and our backside.
Now what we’re going to work into is toy soldiers. So for beginners, we want you to just reach out. This is opposite hand, opposite leg. He’s keeping his leg extended and each time he steps he’s trying to reach a little bit farther up with that leg to increase the stretch and he’s just touching his knee. As a beginner for advanced, you’re going to try to reach and touch your toe. Now again, each one of these very important as you step through kick higher each time. Key point is to not kick as high as you can on the first couple of steps as we want to work the muscles and those joints properly. All right, now we’re going to go into walking lunge with a twist. So what we want to do is have that neutral gaze. He’s going to step out. You want to have that 90 degree at the knee, both knees, and he’s turning into the leg in front of him.
So this is helping that hip flexor, your quads as well as the rotation of your core, which is key during running to get warmed up properly. So you’re going to see that he’s turning into that front leg and what we see is a very key point is when he lunges, the back knee is directly under his hip. You want to refrain from having that long step that is going to strain that hip we’re wanting. We want to warm it up properly. All right, now we’re going into scooping the grapes, so as we all would like some fruit during our run, you’re going to see that he’s taking three heel-toe steps. This will help us alternate each leg and we do these steps to keep our balance and keep us neurologically intact. During this, it’s easier to focus on it. He’s pushing his hips back, keeping the knee straight, so we’re able to see a good stretch on an entire posterior chain, which is your lower back, glutes, hamstrings, and calves.
Last but not least, we’re going to go into the downward dog. So we just want you to get on the ground in a pushup position. Chest, a deck here. And what he’s going to do is lift his hips up, push back so you can see his heads between his biceps now and what he’s doing. His E’s pushing his heel into the ground and alternating feet. So you’re going to have a three to five count in each one of these. We want you to do anywhere from 20 to 10 reps per side, and this is key to feel that stretch and push into it a little bit more each time. We don’t want to achieve maximum stretch on the first rep, but by the last rep you should be at maximal tension that you can handle. Okay?
We want to emphasize that we want you to first and foremost be relaxed during your run, but some of the points that are necessary to make this happen is starting up top. So we want your head position to be leveled to the ground. So you’re looking at the horizon, having your jawline parallel to the ground. This is going to encourage your hips to stay forward. So during that run, if we let your hips sit back or you’re sitting back in the saddle, as we call it, you’re going to put a lot more pressure and stress on your ankles, knees, and hips, which we are trying to avoid. Last, we want to look at your arms swings. So it’s important that you try to keep your hands, elbows, and shoulders running in front of each other. You want to really avoid swinging your arms completely across your body.
This puts a lot of extra strain and stress in your body to try to straighten you out. As you are moving laterally as you’re trying to go forward, listen to your body is very important. So as you feel any pain that does not resolve before your next workout, we want you to consider there might be some over-training. So if you have an injury that is not resolving with short rest or you have a hot spot, we want you to try to get recovery time increased. Also ice and more hydration. Very important not to run through the pain. Ignoring these sides can not only lead to further injury, but sometimes permanent. And when you’re in doubt, we want you to ask a medical professional. The friendly staff at Florida Orthopaedic Institute is here to help and as you’re running on a regular basis, paying attention to your nutrition is very important as carbohydrates are key to your performance and to your recovery, but definitely want you to emphasize the fat and protein in your diet.
Post-workout, we want to give the same rule of thumb of and protein only. Avoid fat until your second meal after the workout as again. It does slow your digestion and we want to get those calories in to help support that recovery from the workout. This is a lifelong sport and we want you to enjoy it for many years to come. This is only going to happen if you are paying attention to your running form and listening to your body. So stopping and resting when you need to, stretching when you need to. Having proper nutrition and hydration and best of all smiling and having a good time during your workout.