Saturday, April 25, 2009

Ironman Training 4/25/09

Hi Everyone,

Today was a good training day. I ran 15 miles at the assigned 10:10 minute per mile pace. My coach has me doing my long runs extra slow for base endurance building. It feels like I am not moving at this speed, but by mile 12 you are still feeling it!

Heart rate seemed a little high today (was in the high 140's to low 150's). I suspect that was because of my lack of sleep the last few days. I had a business trip that lasted from Wednesday to Friday. I was supposed to come home on Thursday but my flight got diverted and I was stranded in Atlanta all night.

I have been getting a few questions lately about pain management (or rather avoiding the pain in the first place) while training. I can tell you all from personal experience that the following things work for me:

1. Stretch every night. Especially the hamstring, calves and the IT Band.
2. Make sure you are running loose. This was a common mistake I made earlier in my Triathlon exploits. After having some bad knee injuries (see earlier blog posts), my rehab guy taught me the right stretches to do. Remember it is not good to do too much stretching before you muscles are warmed up. It's better to stretch later.
3. Find a good running gate that works for you. This is another thing that I have been working on that has helped with injury and the ability to go long distances. You don't want to plant your foot too far ahead of your center of gravity. This actually slows you down as well as places tremendous forces on your joints with the braking motion it causes.
4. Wear the right type of shoes for your feet. I am an overpronator, so I need motion control shoes that keep my arches in place. This has helped a lot with the knee situation as well. You can go to a good running shoe store and have them evaluate your pronation and recommend the right type of shoes.

Well that is pretty much it for now. More tomorrow after I have my long bike/run brick workout.

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