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Making Your Running Routine
Maintain adequate fluids. In addition to preventing heat illness, adequate hydration prevents muscle cramps, muscle strain and early fatigue. Muscles are 70 percent water, and a general health guideline is to consume eight to 12 glasses of water daily. Runners need not consume commercial sport drinks, unless they're running more than 75 minutes. Some signs and symptoms of dehydration are urine that's the color of apple juice or tea, headache, muscle cramps, nausea, weakness and dizziness.
Vary workouts. Eliminate the boredom of workouts by running at different times of the day and varying their running route. Beginning runners can train on roads, trails and tracks. You can substitute running workouts with trips to the gym, rides on a bike, swims or hikes. The goal is overall fitness, and any activity that keeps them there will help.
During running, an iPod can provide different kinds of invigorating or relaxing music. Runners also can vary workouts by increasing pace or distance, or combining walking with their routine. Many people use the running period to practice the mind-body art of visualization or positive imagery.
Enjoy the routine. If the workouts don't provide adequate enjoyment, people are doomed to fail. Runners can spruce up their fun in several ways. Knowledge can be a great motivator. Encourage patients to subscribe to one of the two major running magazines or read the autobiographies of great runners to learn more about training regimes, pace, nutrition and other technical aspects.
Other people can provide extra support. Prompt beginning runners to do their routines with friends or join a running group. Races also can provide added motivation. Participating in a fun run, 5K or 10K race allows runners to see how they progress and can keep them focused.
Keeping a record of workouts, which charts progress, also can help runners stay on track and prevent them from getting bored. They also may implement a system of tangible rewards for completing a week of regular workouts or reaching a particular milestone. MapMyRun provides a great free online training log and also allows you to map your running routes for extra motivation.
See a doctor. Know your own pre-existing conditions before you embark on a running plan. Running may seem like a straightforward sport, but it's full of contraindications and preventable hazards, even in moderation. Basic risk factors include hypertension, diabetes, smoking history and a family history of early heart disease. A doctor can help you determine whether you have exercise-induced asthma, back pain, excessive foot pronation and damaged or abnormal joints.
Knowing this information can help you tailor your programs. For example, if you are chronically riddled with low back pain, you may have tightness of the hamstrings, erector spinae or quadratus lumborum. Thus, enrolling in a low back class at a YMCA, fitness center or PT clinic before walking or jogging aerobically can help ensure you don't exacerbate the problem. Diabetics should first monitor their glucose levels and exercise very slowly, with glucotabs immediately accessible. Those who have coronary artery disease should pass an exercise stress test and have a cardiologist's clearance.
Manage injury. Runners of levels need to listen to their bodies. If something hurts, people most likely have reached a breaking point. Therefore, they should stop or significantly reduce workouts.
Be sure to stress the difference between hard workouts and overtraining. Some muscle soreness is normal for 12 to 48 hours after a new activity. This pain is usually the worst within the first two days, then subsides over the next several days.
Overtraining is different. The signs and symptoms of overuse include feeling more tired than normal during and after the workouts, elevated exercise and resting heart rate, and excessive delayed onset muscle soreness. Sleeping difficulty or emotion variances also may be signals of overtraining. Pain that persists or worsens is a sign that something is wrong and warrants medical attention.
Runners coming back from injury also need to re-enter the sport gradually. They must understand they cannot simply start where they left off.
Running can provide numerous benefits for the mind and body, but it takes a delicate balance between pushing and resting. By developing a sense of this balance, runners can keep off the couch and on the road, reaping the many benefits that come along with an increasingly accessible sport.
David G. Yeo, DPE, ATC, is a professor of health and physical education. He is the head athletic trainer at Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, Conn.