Next Workout:  Saturday, March 6, meet at 8:45 AM, workout at 9:00 AM
Back to our regular location:  the Parking lot of Columbia Island Marina!


Walk-to-Run Trainees:


Welcome to the ninth week of our program.


1)  Back to the Marina!


I went down to the Marina this morning, and all of the large debris that 
had blocked the footpaths there has now been removed.


The memorial grove still bears scars of the blizzards, and probably will 
for years to come.  But soon, the sprouts of spring will appear next to 
the broken and twisted limbs, and will show that nature bounces back 
from trials and adversity.   So can you!


Please remember that the core of our "progressive overload" training 
consists of breaking down old bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments 
through effort and exercise, so that the body can generate replacements 
for them that are stronger than the original.   The momentary aches and 
pains of every hard workout are a signal that you are doing just that, 
and will come back stronger than before.


But just as a tree can lose a limb and still come back, but cannot 
suffer total uprooting and still survive, so too your body.   Small, 
regular demands upon your physique will lead to improvement, but sudden 
jolts of excess effort and strain can break it.   Do your workouts 
regularly, but do them within the prescribed distances, paces, and 
modalities.   Increase your training workload gradually, without overuse 
spikes, and you will be like the tree that sprouts green shoots after a 
tough winter.



2)  Our workout for Saturday, March 6.


Coach Bev will lead our workout this Saturday, because Laura and I will 
be moving into our new (to us) home!


And as we did last Saturday, every five-minute cycle will consist of 
three minutes walking, two minutes running.


Now, my watch and I won't be there, so here's your chance to use your 
own watch and do your own walk/run timing!


Our four-mile route will head up to and across Memorial Bridge, and 
around the circle in front of the Lincoln Memorial. At the entrance to 
the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, hang a sharp right and head down the 
path paralleling the reflecting pool. Our turnaround is about half-way 
down that path, before we get to the WW II Memorial.


Please print out this map ahead of time and bring it with you:


http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3451943


In future weeks, we may go all the way to the WW II Memorial for a 
clearly-defined turnaround, but no need for that this Saturday.



3)   New 5K Race Series


One of the trainees alerted me to a new 5K race series, every Friday 
night from April 2 through April 30 in Crystal City, VA:

http://www.active.com/running/arlington-va/crystal-run-5k-fridays-2010


It's a Springtime version of a popular race series that started last 
year in mid-Summer.


As I told that trainee, I think any of these races would be a good 
target 5K for you.  But aim for one of the later ones, so you can get in 
a few more weeks of training before it.  And if you participate in more 
than one of these weekly 5Ks, don't "race" more than one - treat the 
others as chip-timed training runs with better course support.  




4)  Care for Running Injuries:


Many books have been written about running injuries. I don't intend to 
write another!


Here, I just want to outline some things you should know about 
preventing running injuries, recognizing an injury if you have one, care 
for injuries and when to seek professional medical care.


First off, everything I have tried to do in this program is to train you 
to run a 5K while minimizing injuries. Gradual increases in intensity 
and length of workouts,as we are doing, is far better than sudden spikes 
in mileage.


If, however, you haven't been able to keep up the midweek workouts, or 
have missed several Saturday workouts, trying to run 4 miles on Saturday 
may, in fact, risk injury.


Any running injury that is classified as "overuse" comes about either 
because of these spikes in mileage or intensity, or a training regime 
that is higher in mileage, pace, frequency, or any other stress, than 
the body can handle. The body needs rest to recover from workouts and to 
gain benefit from them. Push it too hard without rest, and it very well 
may break, at its weakest link.


Does a layoff from running, then, condemn one back to the couch? Of 
course not! Pick up from where you left off, and build back up. But 
please run multiple times per week, or your body might not think you're 
serious about it, and might not adapt enough to prevent injury.


Injury prevention is also why I was rather fascist about running shoes. 
A mis-alignment of foot-strike, repeated hundreds or thousands of times 
when your run, can have repercussions up and down your skeleton. Very 
often, the part of your body trying to compensate for a mis-alignment in 
your footstrike or toe-off - the ankle, or the knee, or the hip - is the 
part that's going to give way from repetitive stress that it just can 't 
handle.


And that brings up another important point about running injuries.  The 
part that hurts may _not_ be the part that causes the problem.  In a 
street crime, is the screaming victim at fault for the crime?   No - 
most of the time, there's a perp off in the shadows that's to blame.  So 
too with running injuries. Start with the screaming victim, but look for 
the real perp, or else you won't truly solve the problem.


Pre-existing injuries often contribute to a running injury.   Every year 
I coach this program, one or more trainees has to lay off due to an old 
injury.   The most common injury point has been the knee, but not 
exclusively.


Last year, one trainee was fighting what she *thought* (and had been 
told by medical professionals) was Achilles Tendinitis, which she had 
first suffered 20 years prior.  Later, she learned that her tendons were 
fine, but the bursa (the fluid-filled sacs at the location where the 
Achilles tendon joins to the heel bone) were inflamed.


The sports podiatrist told her to avoid dorsiflection of the foot - the 
stretching of the foot you get when you try to raise your toes while 
keeping your heel on the ground.  That stretches and further inflames 
the bursa.  He gave her heel lifts to put in her running shoes, and told 
her to avoid hills.   From a base of zero miles in January, she trained 
throughout the Spring and Summer, and despite that "pre-existing 
injury," she finished a half marathon last September.


That story has three morals, IMHO:


1)  A "pre-existing" injury need not debilitate, nor prevent you from 
running.  You may need to modify your goals and your training regimin. 
   But success (improvement as a runner) may still be possible;


2)  If the last time you had a diagnosis of your pre-existing injury was 
years or decades ago, it never hurts to get a current opinion. 
Medicine, particularly sports medicine, is not a static field, and 
current research has led to new test modalities and treatments for old 
injuries.  Also, as my trainee with the bursa found out, you may not 
have what you _think_ you have;   and


3)  If weakness in surrounding muscles and tendons is a contributing 
factor to an old injury, such as a bad knee, or an ankle, then 
strengthening those surrounding muscles and tendons may not only let you 
run, but may improve your ability to function in everyday life.



Sometimes, however, you train perfectly, you wear the best shoes (for 
you) that any footwear expert can find, you have no pre-existing 
injuries, you do everything right......and you still have a running 
injury.   Why?


That's because very few of us are bio-mechanically perfect.  Very few of 
us are totally symmetrical, side to side, front to back.  We favor one 
arm over the other.  We may always start a run or walk with the same 
leg.  We may be strong in one joint....but because of that, weak in 
another.


And even the few of us born "perfect" don't stay that way.   What do 25 
years of flip flops....or high heels.....or army boots....or basketball 
shoes....really do to the human foot?   What does lifting a heavy 
suitcase, or a cord of lumber, or a growing child, do to the physique? 
  How's that desk chair you sit in all day?   How's your diet?   And 
nobody ever suffers from aging, do they?


Even the professional athletes among us, get injured, so it's no 
surprise that weekend warriors such as ourselves may also.   Your body 
may have compensated for something over the last 25, 35, or 45 years, 
but it just can't keep up compensating with the intensity of running.


But is that an excuse for sloth?  No!  It's a challenge!   Your mission 
is to keep yourself in shape, no matter what the universe throws against 
you.   Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.......or a better 
runner.


Most runners I know have had some running injury that they either cured, 
or are continuing to overcome, through training modification, strength 
or flexibility drills, orthotics, braces or other device, or continuing 
medical or home remedy. There are really only two types of runners: 
those who have had a running injury already, and those who will get one 
in the future.


But what does that mean for the beginning runner?   To me, it means that 
most running injuries can be fixed, and won't prevent you from running. 
If an injury really does bar you from running, that doesn't prevent you 
from cross-training to maintain fitness, with a possible return to 
running after the injury is healed, and its underlying cause fixed. Few 
injuries mean the end of your running career, and even fewer require a 
lifer of inactivity.


[Better to find and fix a condition which prevents you from running now, 
than waiting for that same condition to prevent you from walking in old 
age.]


For what should you be on the lookout? I'll classify injuries in three 
categories - minor, episodic, and serious.


Minor injuries include all the soreness, small aches and pains, and 
stiffness runners often have after hard or long workouts.


Pain in muscles can be due to micro-tears in muscle tissue and blood 
vessels, causing blood to seep out around overstressed tissue. These 
minor injuries are part of the "breaking down" of the body which 
exercise creates, but without which improvement cannot occur. With 
normal rest, the body will repair all the soreness, aches and pains, and 
minor inflammation, and the body will become stronger than before.  A 
_little_ soreness or stiffness is GOOD!


[From which generates the hoary and, IMHO overused, maxim:  "No pain, no 
gain!"]


I would classify "episodic" as any acute pain or weakness in a 
particular body part - foot, ankle, calf, knee, thy, hip, glute, etc. 
Apart from any general, overall soreness, this part really smarts. The 
pain may make running difficult, or even make you stop running altogether.


Episodic injuries may hurt once or twice, but they go away after a day 
or two. You can self-treat minor and episodic injuries, and very often, 
rest and variations in training may solve the problem.   You cannot 
often abuse your body, without your body telling you so.


When an episodic injury doesn't go away after a day or so, or when the 
injury get progressively worse the more you run, that's when an injury 
is "serious."   For these injuries, medical attention is required.


However, for most running injuries, self treatment can reduce injury, or 
may even prevent it from becoming serious.  That self-treatment is 
summarized in the acronym, "R.I.C.E." which stands for:


Rest


Ice


Compression


Elevation.


REST is just as it sounds. Rest the injured part, don't stress it 
further. The rest could be passive - rest, sleep or inactivity - or 
active, which uses cross-training to maintain fitness while sparing the 
motion or impact that jars the injured part. For many running injuries, 
a non-impact activity working the legs can still be used while the 
injury heals - cycling, swimming, pool-running are several examples.


Walking is the cross-training activity which most closely mimics the 
motions of running, but without the impact.   If you can't run, but you 
can still walk, keep walking to maintain your fitness, and to keep your 
leg muscles working.



ICE means cooling inflamed tissue. Inflammation is the body's natural 
response to injury, speeding blood to the problem area. But too much 
inflammation can be problematic. Cooling inflammation is generally 
preferred to anti-inflammatory drugs, because cooling counters the 
_effects_ of inflammation while letting the underlying process heal. 
Drugs may stop inflammation altogether, inhibiting healing.


When cooling inflammation, never apply ice directly to skin, which will 
damage it. Rather apply ice to a covering, such as a towel, which will 
transfer the cold, but protect skin. Apply cold for 10-15 minutes, back 
off 10-15 minutes, then re-apply.   Diminution of swelling may take a while.


Many runners freeze paper cups of water, so their ice has a handle.


A bag of frozen vegetables sometimes serves as a great wrap-around ice 
pack.  Just don't ever eat any veggies you've partially-thawed in 
therapy for your body.  I always use a big bag of some vegetable that I 
absolutely hate - so I know I'll never accidentally eat my used 
therapy-pack.  


And recent research suggests that a slurry of ice and cold water 
actually does a better job of transferring cold to muscles than straight 
ice.  The liquid water is a better transmitter of cold, and makes better 
contact with the totality of skin and underlying muscle.   So a secure, 
half-thawed, bag of ice might work for you.



COMPRESSION means wrapping the injured part, so it doesn't swell like 
crazy. Unless you're trained and versatile with first-aid, don't attempt 
your own special tourniquet on an injury.  Also, on some body parts, it 
easier for a partner to do the wrapping than yourself.


But there are compression tights and shorts which may do the same thing, 
and may help an injury in the legs or knees. Some knee braces also 
compress knee tissue, allegedly preventing or helping repair damaged knees.



ELEVATION means getting the injured body party higher than the level of 
your heart. It usually means lying down, or sitting in a reclining 
chair, and propping up your leg, so blood doesn't pool down at the 
injury site. I have never heard of elevating an injured hip or glute - 
that might be awkward, or incredibly funny.....or both!  




As with anything else, each runner is individual, and each injury can be 
idiosyncratic. The injury may respond better to ice than rest, or 
compression may be just the thing, and ice doesn't do diddly-squat.


Some runners swear by sticks you can roll over sore or injured parts to 
stimulate blood flow and healing. There are all sorts of gadgets which 
runners use to self-treat, before, during or after the run.  They might 
work for you, too.  And you will learn about them as you run more, and 
hang around other runners.   But, as always, your mileage may vary.


When an injury doesn't respond to rest, doesn't improve with self-help 
R.I.C.E. or over-the-counter treatments, gets worse, or starts to impact 
your running more than before, that's when you need to consult the 
professionals.


The best doctor to consult is one who practices "Sports Medicine," which 
is an emerging specialty. A doctor who is also physically active will 
not indiscriminately tell you to stop running, but may actually be more 
motivated to find the cause of your injury. Don't be afraid to get an 
X-ray or MRI. Even if those tests don't pinpoint the cause of your 
injury, they may rule out certain causes, preventing mistreatment.


Often, finding the cause of your injury requires the skills of a sleuth, 
and experience dealing with sports injuries that may be beyond the 
typical primary care physician.


But specialists have their own foibles. Each favors the tools and 
methods of his or her own training, and may be predisposed to find 
certain conditions.  The specialist may have a blind spot to the 
limitations of his or her discipline - and they all have limitations.


Surgeons like cutting people open and "fixing" things with a knife and 
sutures - but sometimes they think that can fix everything.  Surgery 
should be a last resort, except for two, very specific conditions, which 
I'll tell you about on a long run, sometime.  And after surgery, you may 
or may not get back to the exact status quo before you had the injury - 
all surgeries leave some scar tissue.


Chiropractors specialize in soft tissue injuries, and can be very 
helpful, but favor tactile therapies and are restricted in the 
treatments they can use.  Some chiros limit themselves to manipulations 
of soft tissue, while others experiment with newer modalities.   Some 
runners swear by chiropractic treatment, but others feel it may be 
better at *preventing* injury, than dealing with an injury that's 
already occurred.   It is certainly worth trying.


Podiatrists, obviously, specialize on the foot.   And while improper 
footstrike is the cause of many running injuries, it's not the cause of 
_all_ of them.   A podiatrist may or may not be holistic enough to 
recognize injuries from improper training, or injuries caused by 
weakness above the ankle.   And the common knock against podiatrists is 
that they want to treat everything, and I mean everything - from heart 
palpitations to pneumonia - with orthotics.  


If you are prescribed any expensive treatment by any medical 
practitioner, or a treatment with a long recovery time, or........if 
something that just doesn't sound right.......please get a second 
opinion.  Sometimes, it's worth seeing another doctor if the first one 
merely treats symptoms, but doesn't discern the true cause of your 
injury.


If you see three different doctors, and get three different diagnoses, 
the totality doesn't tell you squat about the root cause of your injury. 
  And sometimes you don't pinpoint the cause of your injury, until 
you've tried different treatments.  But until you find the real cause or 
causes, you cannot hope for lasting, effective treatment, that will 
remove the injury from your running life, or at least, make it 
manageable.   I cannot stress that enough.


Because running injuries are those of a body in motion, they are not as 
cut and dried as many other medical conditions.  If medical specialists, 
  physical therapists, coaches, "experts" and others are the various 
tradespeople working on your "project" (your physique), you have to be 
the general contractor tying all the work together, to the goal of 
keeping you running.   Don't suffer in silence.  Read, listen, ask 
questions.  Become your own expert.



The thing that finally fixes your own, personal, running injury may come 
from textbook medicine, or from left field.  Sometimes it's a total 
cure, or other times the fix leaves your injury as just something you 
have to watch and fiddle with, so it doesn't impact your running.   But 
whatever the fix is, if it works for you, just go with it.


[If you're looking to pass the time during a long run sometime, just run 
with me and ask me about the saga of my left foot.   ]


In a future newsletter, I'll run down some "common" running injuries and 
recovery techniques runners have used. But for now, if something hurts 
after the run, talk to me. I'm only a coach, not a doctor, but I can 
tell you if the symptoms seem familiar. And I will always tell you when 
I think you should seek a real medical opinion.



Anyway, I'll miss you guys on Saturday!   Please treat Coach Bev right.


And please print out the route map, and walk/run together with someone, 
so you don't get lost.  Bev doesn't like having to send out the St. 
Bernards looking for you. 


I'll see you next Saturday down at the Marina.


Until then, happy trails!



Coach John



John H. Steitz
RRCA Certified Running Coach
USATF Level 1 Certified Track and Field Coach
Marathon Charity Cooperation
703-371-5171
http://www.mc-coop.org/walktorun/