Toe squincher—For plantar fascia and foot injuries
This strengthens the many muscles in the foot, promoting a strong push-off, reducing foot fatigue, and reducing foot damage. Point your foot down and contract the muscles of the foot, curling the toes in. Keep the contraction until the foot cramps. This can be done either wearing shoes or barefoot. Repeat 15 to 20 times a day.
Arm running—For back and shoulder soreness and pain
Holding dumbbells in each hand, go through a slightly exaggerated motion you would use when running for a set of 10 repetitions (one left and one right equals one repetition). Pick a weight that is heavy enough so that you feel you have strengthened the shoulder and neck muscles but don’t have to struggle to finish the last two repetitions. Note: I have a YouTube video showing this exercise.
Foam roller—For IT band injury and pain
This is the only treatment I’ve found that can speed the healing of the IT band. Use a cylinder of dense foam (illustrated on www.jeffgalloway.com). Lie down on your side, where the IT pain is felt. Rest your body weight on the roller and move your body with your hands so that you’re rolling from below the pain site to just above it. Roll for 5 minutes before the run, 5 minutes after the run, and 5 minutes before bed at night (probably the most effective).
The BFF—For any area where you experience pain
This is a vibrating massage tool that brings blood flow to needed areas, speeding recovery. It invigorates muscles and other damaged areas and has helped speed up recovery from long runs and speed workouts. For more info, visit www.jeffgalloway.com.
Ice massage—For pain in the Achilles and other tendons next to the skin
Freeze a paper cup filled with water. Peel off the outer layer at the top to expose part of the ice. Rub the ice constantly over the tendon for 15 minutes. The area should be numb after the treatment.
Night treatments may help the most
Experts tell me that most of the healing occurs overnight. If you perform one of these treatments before you go to bed, you may speed up the healing process.
Preventing speed injuries
Running faster than your comfortable pace for that day will increase injury risk. The farther and faster you go in a speed workout or race, the greater the risk. But since you must run faster during some workouts to run faster in races, here are some ways of reducing this risk.
Warm up thoroughly:
Walk for 3 minutes.
Then run-walk for 10 minutes, using a lot more walk breaks than you use in a normal run. If you use a 90-second run/30-second walk normally, do the first 10 minutes at a 30/30, 20/20, or 15/15 (run a minute and walk a minute).
Next, run for 5 minutes, starting slowly and gradually picking up the pace to a normal short run pace.
Finally, do four to eight acceleration gliders: Run for 15 steps at a slow jog and then 15 steps at a faster jog, gradually accelerating to workout pace over 15 steps and then gliding or coasting back down to a jog over 30 to 40 steps. Take a 30- to 60-second walk/jog and repeat. After four to eight of these, walk for 2 to 3 minutes and start the workout or line-up for the race.
Ease into the speed for the day. Run the first repetition at a pace that is 15 seconds per mile slower than you want to run in the middle of the workout. Run the first mile of your race about 15 to 30 seconds slower than your goal pace for that race.
Insert walk breaks from the beginning. These will vary based upon pace and race distance or repetition distance. For more information, see my books Running: Testing Yourself, 5K/10K Running, Half-Marathon: You Can Do It, and Running: A Year Round Plan.
Walk to recover between speed repetitions. The amount of walking will vary depending upon the distance of the goal race and the pace. It is better to err on the side of walking longer if you feel the need early on, there are more aches than usual, or the temperature is above 70 ˚F (14 ˚C).
Never run through pain, swelling, or loss of function—stop the workout. After walking for a few minutes, if the pain goes away, resume the workout with caution. If you start to limp in any way, stop.
Stay smooth even when tired. If your form is changing due to fatigue, slow down.
Run the last repetition 15 seconds per mile slower than the pace of the middle repetitions.
Don’t run too many speed workouts, races, or other fast runs too close together.
If you focus cognitively on your weak links, take the appropriate walk breaks and rest days, stop training when there could be an injury, and treat a damaged body part, it’s possible to avoid all serious injuries. This will bestow the greatest reward from running: enjoyment of every run.