Running: Injury Prevention (Part 3)

After the mild weather has finally set in, you’ve probably gone on a few runs and then realized: “Holy crap, I haven’t run in ages, and I can’t get to the street corner without sucking wind.” Let’s address this in the third and final article of my running series: endurance and training without ending your running season early.

Click here for footwear and flexibility, and here for warming up.

How do you work on getting past that street corner? Time to hit the books.

A study done in 2013¹ compared low and high volume intensive endurance training in 26 inactive overweight men (BMI’s of 25-30) by having one group walk/jog/run on treadmills 3 times a week in intervals for one month versus the control (1x/week) after warming up until they reached 70% of their maximum heart rate.

The study found increased endurance after measuring their VO₂max, which has been established as a relatively solid measurement of aerobic endurance.

Another study done in 2012² looked at a variety of resistance training variations and their effects on sprint acceleration kinematics, muscle strength, and power in field athletes. The four variations were sprinting, weight training, plyometrics, and resisted sprint training. 35 men were divided into four groups and were trained 2x/week for 60 minutes, and were assessed for speed in 0-5m and 0-10m sprints, step frequency, and a bounding test.

After assessment, all four groups demonstrated a 10% increase in both sprints as well as decreased step frequency, and the sprinting group showed an increase in 5-step bounding.

What do these two studies mean?

Obviously, your training should be specific to the activity that you’re trying to get into. You’re not going to start running 50+ miles a week if you’re looking to dominate your neighborhood 5k (although you probably should if you do that anyway).

Cross training is your friend; use other activities like weightlifting, interval training, plyometrics, and RUNNING (functionality, obviously) to improve how you run; you’re not going to get better if you’re not running (duh). If you’re having issues with endurance, interval training is your friend. Don’t be afraid to start with 1:1 work to rest intervals and work yourself up

The literature this article is limited because NYU sucks and despite paying them 6 figures of my money after graduation, I am not allowed to use their libraries or their databases to look up articles. Rest assured that a lot of strengthening and conditioning as well as exercise science classes show support for cross training and interval training in the development of endurance.

What I will be talking about will be suggestions for a week-long short to mid-distance training protocol, which is around 3-10 miles. (This is a sample from one week of my workouts from last month.)

Monday: High Intensity Interval Training

Warm up – dynamic stretching, light jogging.

Workout –

Strength: 3RM hang clean

Conditioning: 30 minutes, one exercise per minute (rotating)

Minute 1: 15 calorie row

Minute 2: 10 burpees

Minute 3: 30 double unders

Tuesday: Sprint Interval Training

Warm up – see here (part 2 of series)

Workout – on 400m track, 5 rounds of:

4 x 100 m sprint (sprinting straightaway, jogging curves) with maintained 100m split

2 x 200 m sprint with maintained 200m split

Wednesday: Strength Training

Warmup – dynaming stretching and light jogging

Workout –

Strength: 10 RM front squat

Conditioning: Descending ladder (10 reps – 9 reps – 8 reps… 2 reps – 1 rep)

Front Squat to overhead

30 double unders (every round of reps)

Thursday: Distance and tempo training

Warmup – see part 2 of this series

Workout – 4-5 miles of sub-maximal to maximal effort; try to maintain your mile splits

Friday: Yoga and static stretching, rolling out on foam roller

Saturday: Resisted running and plyometics

Warmup – see part 2

Workout –  Hill sprints (100-150m) x 10 at 60-80% exertion

Box jumps (dropping down from the top to go from ground back to the top of the box… or picnic table) x 50

Sunday: Rest Day

Get productive, get creative (or find a trainer like me) and get RUNNING!
@e2winnn

Sources:

1. Tjonna AE, Leinan AM, Bartnes AT, Jenssen BM, Gibala MJ, Winett RA, Wisloff U. Low and High volume of intensive endurance training significantly improves maximal oxygen uptake after 10 weeks of training in healthy men. PLOS One, 2013 May 29; 8(5):e65382
2. Lockie RG, Murphy AJ, Schults AB, Knight TJ, Janse de Jonge XA. The effects of different speed training protocols on sprint acceleration kinematics and muscle strength and power in field sport athletes. J Strength Cond Res. 2012; 26(6): 1539-60.