My Marathon is Over, Now What? -- Keys to a Fantastic Off-Season
Some of you may you have trained all year for this marathon, or at the very least, the last four months.You shared your glory with your friends and family after the race....you walked around the next day or two with your marathon medal around your neck...you spent the next
two or three weeks talking about how you could have run faster if you had only.........But after about three weeks of that, itʼs time to move on.. NOW WHAT?
Recovery And Regeneration
Some of you will rest and recover, while others will sign up for another marathon, tri-athalon, or similar endurance event before the sweat dries. While setting a new goal for yourself is commendable, continually exposing your body to stresses of endurance training without the proper amount of recovery, may simply result in being disappointed with your performance results and bringing your body one step closer to orthopedic injury.
Running marathons is very stressful on the human body. Undoubtedly, it involves a deeper level of muscle and joint tissue healing and a more complete resetting of the endocrine and immune systems than that which occurs during your normal race and training cycle. Aside from just putting a strain on all of the muscles in your legs, arms and torso, marathons can also affect your lungs and many of your other internal organs.
An Austrian study found that blood levels of antioxidant enzymes remained significantly reduced, while biomarkers of muscle damage and inflammation remained significantly elevated, in triathletes nearly three weeks after they had crossed an Ironman finish line. I would imagine that such abnormalities could be found in runners for at least a couple of weeks after they complete a high-workload training cycle culminating in a peak event such as a marathon. Because of this, it's important that you take some time off from running after completing a marathon. Marathon runners and marathon coaches often suggested different time frames that you should use when resting after a marathon before running again or running another marathon. The most common recommendation for resting after a marathon and running again is 2 to 4 weeks, before running another marathon, 16 to 20 weeks.
 |
| Bill Rodgers |
Professional Advice
On April 13, 2008, Ryan Hall finished 5th in the London Marathon with a time of 2:06:17-the fastest marathon time ever recorded by an American- born runner. Just 14 weeks later Hall ran the Beijing Olympic Marathon, finishing a disappointing 10th.Top-10 in the Olympic Marathon is nothing to be ashamed of, but Hall knew he could have done better.
After the Games, Hall confessed that his pre-Olympic training had gone poorly. He just couldn’t match the times he was accustomed to posting in key workouts, and the more he fell short the more he tried to force his training, and the more he forced it the worse he felt. In the immediate aftermath of Beijing, Hall wasn’t sure exactly why he had not been his usual self in the summer of 2008, but eventually he figured it out. “Looking back on it,” he said in a recent interview on runnersworld.com, “I think I never let my body totally recover from London so I never made the physical gains that I needed to.”
Many years ago, when asked how long one should wait after running a marathon before running another one, the great Bill Rodgers said, “Until you’ve forgotten it.” Ryan Hall probably defied this wisdom!
Training Cycles
For many runners, training cycles are year round. No change from month to month, season to season. But proper training for sport involve training cycles, with intense strength training and conditioning programs that lead into the seasonʼs schedule or event training program.
A runner can no more expect to train progressively year-round than a cornfield can expect to produce corn spring, summer, fall and winter. The body needs time to heal. Most professional and high-level competitive runners rest two to four weeks after completing a training cycle. The average should not be doing trying to emulate the professional runners training cycle.. A high-level runner has a team looking after them; a coach, trainer, massage therapist, physiotherapist, nutritionist, etc. They run, eat and sleep.. That’s it! The average runner is trying to cram in their miles within the confines of their forty to sixty hour workweek along with everyday responsibilities without the benefit of a team.
Create an Off-Season
With fall marathon season ending in November and with two to four weeks rest post race, the winter holiday season right on it’s heels....an ideal off- season for a runner should begin in January of the new year. The off- season allows the runner to: rest and recover from months of intense training, recovery from injury, and implement an off-season strength training and running training strategy. The off-season lasts 16 weeks. The same amount of time it takes to prepare for a marathon. This is the time it takes to establish a fitness foundation that will stand up to the demands of being an endurance athlete and allow the athlete to reduce the rate and risk of overuse injuries that plague endurance athletes as well as lead to improved performance.
Rather than using the spring race schedule to “get in shape”, runners should “be in shape” and simply use races to sharpen their times.
Getting Started
Letʼs break it down...We have 4 phases-each phase is a 4 week program periodized progressively and subdivided by workout days... then we start programming exercises. For those of you who followed a marathon training program.... the same principles apply.
Phase 1 (Intro phase-establish joint mobility, muscle flexibility, static and dynamic stability, improve posture.)
Phase 2 (Base conditioning phase-master movement patterns with specific exercises that emphasize your weaknesses.)
Phase 3 (Strength training phase-introduce load to movement patterns to improve neuromuscular recruitment.)
Phase 4 (Shock phase-add plyometric training to improve muscle elasticity and tissue tolerance.)
This cyclical approach to training that is progressive in nature results in peak levels of performance. But, before we begin our four phase conditioning program we must identify your weaknesses in order to make them stronger.
Know Before You Go
I have read many running related articles that discuss how to avoid common running related injuries. Few ever mention getting screened or assessed to see what your injury risk potential is! An assessment goes a long way in preventing training injuries in that it identifies the weak link in the athlete and allows the coach/trainer to target that weak link prior to the beginning of the training season.
Assessing injury risk is the first step to reducing that risk!! Itʼs far easier to prevent an injury than to treat an injury. The best way to prevent injury is by taking a pro-active approach. Injuries arise in runners because most simply try to add fitness or performance to a body out of balance or a body that is already injured and experiencing pain.
Strength Training for Runners
As runners STRENGTH TRAINING is something I think most runners feel that they “should” be doing, but as runners and endurance athletes we donʼt really know how to incorporated it into our training to make it beneficial to us. Thatʼs where the introduction of an off-season comes in.
 |
| Clara Grandt |
The benefits of strength training are numerous, strength training: increases strength of connective tissue (muscles, tendons, ligaments), increases bone density, improves resistance to muscular fatigue, maintains lean mass that gets catabolized in racing season, increases muscle POWER, improves running economy, reduces the rate and risk of training related injuries.
“Before each training cycle, I add one thing to focus on that will benefit my running, like doing strength training. This helps me to improve without risking injury by making drastic changes”. --Clara Grandt - 2011 Boston Marathon in 2:29:52 at age 24!
“Before each training cycle, I add one thing to focus on that will benefit my running, like doing strength training. This helps me to improve without risking injury by making drastic changes”. --Clara Grandt - 2011 Boston Marathon in 2:29:52 at age 24!
Strength training will help you: increase speed, resist fatigue, prevent injury, and maximize your athletic potential!
Why Runners Avoid Strength Training
So, with all these obvious benefits, why arenʼt more runners incorporating strength training into their programs? A recent on-line survey of runners revealed the following statistics.
What Strength Training do You do Regularly?
- Upper Body 27%
- Core and Legs 9%
- Entire Body 27%
- None 36%
There is a lot of controversy over the type of strength training an endurance athlete should be doing, when you do it, or whether they should be doing it at all. One reason runners avoid strength training is that they still figure that the way to get into better running shape is through more running. Although this seems logical, itʼs the very reason most road runners end up injured and rarely reach their running potential. Another reason runners avoid strength training is not enough time to do it. Itʼs hard enough to try to get in all the running you need to do, how can you fit in strength training into the mix? We tend to think of our training in terms of how many miles we can pack into our busy week, but yet doing the same thing season after season, and expecting different results is by definition, insanity! Lastly, lack of knowledge..they just donʼt know how.
Brett’s Bottom Line:
“Running pain and running injuries are not an inevitable part of training.” If you plan your off-season as well as you planned your racing season allowing your mind and body sufficient rest and recovery, get screened and implement a functional strength training program-endurance runners can improve their bodies and run injury free, spending more time on the roads and less time in rehab.
Brett Cohen is a Sports Performance Coach, Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach, Educator and Runner as well as creator of: “Ready to Run”, a comprehensive conditioning program specifically designed for runners and endurance athletes.
imakeufit@gmail.com
www.integratedtrainingsystems.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment