Ouch!

"Listen to your body" is an oft-heard phrase that is rarely heeded in running circles. We get so obsessed with our training logs and mileage targets that we're afraid to recover. So here I am two days after a hilly 10K and my calves are shot. I was limping around the office yesterday and still gimpy today so I'm just going to wait until I feel like I can run again. If you're too sore to walk much, why run? Lesson learned from ignoring my quad injury this Spring.

Pete Magill just published an excellent article about post-race recovery for masters runners in the new issue of Running Times. You can find it online here.  As Pete puts it:

Most masters runners treat training as if it were a bank account.

We believe the more distance, tempo and interval work we can deposit into our training logs, the more we can withdraw come race day.

Only one problem: Our bodies aren't S&Ls. They're complex organisms. We don't "bank" workouts; instead, we use them to stimulate physiological adaptations that lead to better running performance. And these adaptations can occur only with proper recovery.

Read the article. I feel like I quote Pete all the time on this blog but he really knows his stuff!

This brings me to a final point, however. Simply put there do not seem to be that many good resources for competitive masters runners. I love the profiles of elite masters runners in Running Times, but those guys and gals are the rare exceptions, world class performers who typically age grade in the 90-95 (or higher!) range. On the other extreme magazines like Runners World are geared to fun runners who just want to be 'fit.' Nothing wrong with that, but it would be nice to see more articles geared to the more 'mortal' competitive masters runner.




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