4 TIPS TO PREPARE FOR YOUR MARATHON

Training.  Preparing for a Marathon. 

The Auckland Marathon and Half Marathon people are constantly pestering me to enter their race in September. It appears that a few other race event companies also have my email and are also hounding me for my signature and check book (online CC payments are now the preferred way to access my life savings). If you have fallen into their marketing trap, then congratulations.  I truly believe that the money will be a great investment in your future health. However for that investment to feel successful, I advise that you do some training. That investment will also feel empty if you have paid that money and expect that money to somehow magically transform you into a superstar runner. You may also think that it is a bad and or expensive investment if you spend every week in the physio, chiro, osteopaths treatment room getting patched up. So Let’s then start thinking about how to best prepare you for the event. 

1. Start now. Not next week, not in 1 month. Start now. The key principle we use in the physio and training world is the idea of progressive overload. If You load your body in small incremental amounts, your body responds to that stress and makes it stronger. That is true for so many of your body's systems. Muscles, tendons, bones. They all strengthen if you load them.  However, if you load inappropriately, then you can break down those same tissues. And this is 90% of the running injuries that we see in clinics. Hence you have to go out and start loading your body's tissues, So Start now. Start slow, be kind to yourself. 

2. Listen to your body. Yep, you and your body are one in the same. We really want you and your body to talk to each other. Those tissues that we talk about above, ligaments, tendons, muscles these structures will tell you if you're loading too much. How will that message come? Twitter, facebook, imessage. Nope. Your body will tell you directly with a pain or an ache.  Your body feels when you're really tired. If you are experiencing these symptoms then turn the exercise dial down. That doesn't mean you have to stop completely. Maybe replace a 5 km run with 5km walk. Turn a 1 hr run into 5 x 10 mins run with some walking in between. Like we discussed above small amounts of loading regularly is the key. 

3. Strengthening Lower limb and pelvis.  Achilles, Gluteus Medius Tendinopathy, ITB Friction syndrome, Shin Splints are all examples of common running injuries that we see in clinics. These can be prevented…. (We also can help you to recover from them as quickly as possible). Those tissues need to be strong to be able to cope with the loading that comes with running. Those tissues need to be able to have enough strength, coordination and range of movement to cope with running. Mixing some runs up with some lower limb strengthening exercises can help you prevent and or recover, so you can get on with your running programme. Below is an example of a little 5 exercise circuit specifically to help with runners. 

4. Check out your biomechanics with a running assessment. This is my number one. I just get so much information from these assessments. We actually get to see how you run. After we have this information, it then becomes really easy to problem solve. We can give you little instructions (or we call ques) to help improve your running. We can advise on the tissues of your body that will be most vulnerable depending on your running style and give you specific exercises to develop the relevant strength. Everything that we direct your way is just so specific to you.

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