In article <c37316$jg5$1@newshispeed.ch>, Scrutor wrote:
> I had to give up running a couple of years ago because of
> constant problems with my Achilles tendon. I will admit,
> that I used bad running methods then - no warm-ups or
> stretches, etc.
Stretches aren't going to prevent you from hurting your
achilles tendon ...
> Can anyone advise me as to what the best things are to do
> before a five-kilometre run?
What you do *while* you're doing the 5k run is more
important.
> I'd appreciate any help.
Here's a description of what not to do:
<advice type="bad"> Run exactly the same route and exactly
the same distance every day. Run the route as fast as you
can. You will make rapid gains as a beginner, so make sure
you bring your stopwatch and set a new "PR" each time you
run. If todays run is not faster than yesterdays, it means
that you're doing something wrong. </advice>
The above is a pretty accurate description of the way
beginners often approach training, and it often leads to
long lasting soft-tissue injuries (like achilles
tendonitis). It did so with me. Some things you can do to
address this:
(1) Train at the proper pace. If you have some idea as to
how fast you are capable of running 5k, a good rule of
thumb for a typical training run is about 1:45 per
mile slower, which means that your ordinary training
runs should be *several minutes slower* than an all
out effort.
(2) Vary the distance you use to train. If you always run
5km, you will not have any sense of what an aerobic pace
is, because at such a short distance, you don't need to
maintain a purely aerobic pace. If your normal run is
5km, do a single 10km run each week.
(3) Don't always bring a stopwatch with you. Getting rid of
the stopwatch relieves pressure to run fast. A heart
rate monitor may be useful -- heart rate monitors are
good for monitoring intensity and making sure you're in
the aerobic range. When you're training with a heart
rate monitor, you try to keep your heart rate in a
certain range, and either slow down or take a walk break
(followed by a return to a slower pace) when your heart
rate exceeds a certain level.
(4) Pay attention to breathing. If you need to breathe every
4 steps, you are probably going too fast. You should be
able to maintain one breath every 6 steps or so (I
actually breathe 3-3-2 so that I can play music in 4-4
time signatures in my head and still breathe at an easy
pace). You may *prefer* to breathe every 4 steps, but if
you do so, it should be because you want to, not because
you need to. If you need to breathe more often than once
every 4 steps, if this happens, you're overextended
(should never happen except at the end of a race) --
stop and walk.
(5) Vary your training routes. Consider using a heart
rate monitor to keep track of intensity. You'll know
with acceptable accuracy how far you ran based on
effort level (heart rate monitor) and time --
acceptable for the purpose of logging milage anyway.
You won't know your exact pace, or compare your
workout "speed" to other workouts, but this is
actually a good thing (because you shouldn't be
gunning for a PR every workout)
Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/
