Friday 18 May 2012

Just a few more running mistakes


Here's a few more mistakes I have made in my running career to date.  There are others but I'm not ready to admit to those, even if you promise not to tell anyone.

Running on hard surfaces

By this I mean avoiding running on concrete or tarmac all the time.  Why?  Simple.  It can cause injuries with your knees and ankles and is caused by the unrelenting shock being transmitted through those joints.  It is always better to map out runs that include some softer surfaces.  I like woodland trails best of all.

Forgetting how well we are made

When you look at an x-ray of a leg or foot or perhaps a diagram of bones, muscles and tendons it is incredibly wonderful.  The way we were created, such a marvellous design.  All too easy to take this for granted and for me that's a big mistake.

Family life

I often get this wrong, I think.  It's tricky picking a time when it's better to go for a run or not, as the case may be.  

Not resting enough

Resting in between runs is really important.  A rest can range from not running at all, through to running no more than four times in a week.  I know I have pushed my luck here and the worst was running for an hour each day for a week.  For me that's too much and over the last Christmas period I ran each day for over two weeks but I made sure the "rest runs" were little more than a gentle jog for 15 minutes.

There is no loss of pride through taking a rest.  Our bodies need time to regenerate, to heal.  Failing to do this properly will cause more short and long term injuries or problems.

Running too fast

When I started running, I think I ran too fast and suspect I am not alone in this.  For a new runner, you should run at a place where you could still have a fairly coherent conversation.  Much better to build up the distances before building up the speed.

You might like to read some early mistakes from a previous post.

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