How to give running another chance, a mini-FAQ for the running idiots

**Teh El Macho** · Posted On: 3/16/2008 1:11pm

It's a convenient, but pretty ghey-looking gadget. It comes in different shapes and cost about $15.

**dinnerpig** · Posted On: 3/20/2008 8:40am

Originally Posted by Cassius

Also, if any part of your lower back or leg(s) is in pain, try doing IT band stretches a few times a day before you see a doctor, physical therapist, or even a chiropractor. Just google "IT band stretches" and a number of them will come up. I cannot overemphasize how important your Iliotibial band is to your body. If you don't take care of it, just running, walking, and even sitting will hurt, let alone any sort of martial arts activity. Not taking care of your IT band can result in herniated discs in your back, tendonitis in your knees, shin splints, destruction of cartilage in your knees, ACL/MCL strains and tears, uncounted problems with your hips, and all kinds of nasty ****. It's THAT important to your body, and it's so overlooked by most athletes, it's not even funny.

If have legs, you should be stretching your IT bands before you work out.

i wish i had been aware of this 5 years ago. i have tendonitis in both knees and suffer from pretty bad shin splints after everytime i run for more than 2 miles. i will search the internets for these stretches and plan on doing them today before my 2 PM appt with my phys therapist. Yeah...my body has been a big bowl of poo lately...

**Teh El Macho** · Posted On: 3/20/2008 9:09am

Search for samsom stretches (the lunge variety, the ones suggested by crossfit folks):

http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/faq.html#Exercises9

To perform the samson stretch you interlace your fingers and raise them overhead so your palms are facing the ceiling, lifting with your shoulders. Your legs are in a lunge position with the rear leg's knee touching the ground. Stretch your hands up, and stretch/sink into the lunge. For a more detailed explanation (and pictures), check out the April 2003 issue of the CrossFit Journal.

There are many other stretches, but this one is great as it deals not only with the IT band, but also with the hip flexors, thigh adductors and glutes. When done properly, you will feel the IT band and hip flexor stretch on the rear leg and on the glutes and thigh adductors on the forward leg.

Check the sticky when you have a chance and search for the thread on myofascial release (it has a section on how to deal with IT band inflexibility/inflamation.)

**Revised** · Posted On: 5/26/2008 9:15am

Im not sure if this was answered already. Im at work and i do not have the time to read everything just this second. For someone starting out running how many times a week should i be running?

***Cassius*** · Posted On: 5/26/2008 10:32am

That depends on your age, current health, and level of physical fitness. I'd recommend starting slowly with 2-3 short runs a week (preferably 3), then building up your mileage slowly over time. Once you're running more than 10 miles a week, take care not to increase your weekly mileage by much more than 10% at a time.

This advice is very conservative due to the fact that I don't know anything about you.

***Cassius*** · Posted On: 5/26/2008 10:51am

While this FAQ is up again, I guess I'll cover something I didn't previously: Stride.

Proper stride while running is extremely important to preserving the health of your entire body, not just your joints. While the current infatuation in running culture seems to have cycled back to barefoot running, that is not practical in the least for, well, most anyone. However, there are lessons to be learned from the way we run when we are barefoot. It's not heel/toe heel/toe, surprisingly. It's more of a midfoot stride, where your foot touches the ground directly underneath your body. This puts less pressure on the heel, the ball of the foot, and the shins, joints, etc.

As I said before, while it's not practical to run barefoot, it is a very good idea to mimic that stride as closely as possible while running with shoes on. Most amateur runners that are starting out tend to think "the bigger, the better" when it comes to running stride. This is completely true if your idea of better is shin splints and knee surgery. However, for the rest of us, not so much a good idea.

Fortunately, altering your stride to the healthier midfoot stride from whatever garbage you are likely using now is actually pretty easy. When you run, just focus on landing with your foot directly underneath your body. Don't necessarily worry about how far you are going with each step, at first. Just try to get your foot directly underneath your body every single time you land. You'd be surprised what a difference this makes.

**Eddie Hardon** · Posted On: 5/26/2008 12:24pm

Agree your para 2 on whole foot placement (that's how I read it). Stride, posture, breathing all interlink; together with Relaxation. You can bring about a very meditative state when your running as a unit.

Upright posture tends to bring lower back pain. Over-striding leads to over-exertion. Chest breathing is shallow and can induce a sense of stress in the runner.

I try to run with an even stride pattern (broken only during uneven terrain) with 1 breath IN per 4 strides and 1 breath OUT per 4 strides. I slightly lean forward so my whole body is over my flat foot as it meets the road surface. I also bring my arms forward but not too high. I try to breathe to my lower abdomen. I also try to release any sense of tension down my centreline and my spine. Am I successful, not always - I'm still trying to recover much lost fitness.

I also try to remember that it's an aerobic exercise not an anaerobic one.

Cheers

**Rock Ape** · Posted On: 5/26/2008 12:54pm

Just an update on my last post... haven't had any further issues with my legs, running 3-4 times a week (short runs then one long) and alternate weeks the runs are off road.

I'm now back in a gym every day for an hour alternating between upper and lower body and have another 5 months before my next deployment so should be well up to spec by then.

--Dave

**killer5279ae** · Posted On: 5/28/2008 12:53pm

It's been a while since I posted, but since I too am in the military, I'll throw out some pointers.

First of all, I hover around 190 pounds on my 5'8'' frame year round, and I mainly just did Rosstraining and GPP before I joined, so I aced everything but the damned running. My training was more fun. In boot camp I failed every running portion of every physical test we were administered (Navy PRT's) except the last one. I usually came in 15, 14, then finally 13 minutes on the mile and a half, but on that last one I got a damned 10 minute 40 seconds, a time I've never topped. I did so because that time we got a breakfast before. I swallowed 2 800 mg. horse pills of Ibuprofen, ate like 2 bananas for potassium, drank 2 cups of coffee because caffeine helps you ignore pain, ate a **** ton of whole grains for long term energy, and even some fiber. Everything nutritious I could think of that directly affects a run. I did only 60 pushups and curl-ups and ran so hard I hallucinated about holding my newborn baby child, which has never existed thanks to natural selection and abortion clinics. Nobody loves me after all. My running advice comes from someone who's struggled with it, believe me. I got shin splints every time I run more than 5 miles in a week, and I'm only 20 years old.

Alright, what Commissioner Runsalot said about everything was pretty on the spot. I first of all suggest POSE running, straight from their website at www.posetech.com. It emphasizes midfoot running, and how to properly use gravity and midfoot running to your advantage to create effortless and even enjoyable running. It's the only fucking program I know that actually teaches you HOW to run instead of just setting you out there with a base program like "run 5 miles a week". They just came out with a very helpful DVD companion to their book, and the whole kit and kaboodle is about 70 bucks I think. Yeah, it's expensive, but if you HAVE to run, whether it's because of your job or whatever, then it's worth it.

Vibram 5 Fingers. www.vibramfivefingers.com has a barefooting alternative shoe that has individual toe pockets. If you want to get used to the POSE running strategies more quickly as you read through the ill-put together Russian translated book you'll need to go barefooting, and the Vibram's will definately help out the learning process. Run on concrete barefoot for a mile and you'll discover that barefooters are natural midfoot runners, because they're trying to go kill Sabre Tooth Tigers and the like with their spears and slings without having to roll a save vs. shin splints. Again, they're expensive, like 80 bucks a pair, but if you HAVE to run, it's worth it. Buy the KSO's. They aren't as clumsy as the Sprints and more multi purpose than the others, and they look a lot less like a pair of toe socks.

Build your way up. After reading through the book and practicing the drills in the book and the DVD (without a partner, no one loves me again), I had to restart the Delayed Enlistment Program running guide I got before I joined. Yeah, I had to run 2 minutes and walk 3 four times twice a week until I built up enough mileage to run 30 minutes in combat boots and long pants all by my lonesome. I had to build up from Vibrams and drills, then Vibrams and running, to running shoes, then finally to boots and long pants.

This all being said, Rosstraining, General Physical Preparedness (Strongman type stuff and Time Under Tension), Tabata Sprints, Crossfit Style Workouts and sparring are all way the fudge better than long distance running for improving your combat specific strength and cardio from round to round, your reflexes, your ability to defend yourself, and yes, it produces far more muscle and burns a hell of a lot more fat than long slow mile by mile running. I WOULD NOT ever run long distance if I was in the civilian world unless I started to actually enjoy this piss, or for some reason I wanted to participate in a marathon, or got a different job that required me to run. It's just not sports specific. There are benefits yes, but I wouldn't make it my main focus if you want to be the next world champion in whatever.

**Mr Clean** · Posted On: 1/17/2009 9:05pm

Originally Posted by E-Van

I work at Fleet Feet Sacramento. Its a awsoome place to get started running. Come in and they will custom fit your feet with the perfect running shoe.

Just want to say that Fleet Feet is great. I've bought my last 4 pairs of running shoes there because they really work hard to find one that works perfectly for your stride and foot type. It's more expensive, but it's worth it, and you could even just buy 1 pair of shoes there then get the same exact ones off Amazon or eBay when you need new ones.