23 TROUBLESHOOTING

Knowing that there is a solution keeps you in the human brain, reduces stress, and improves attitude

How do I start back when I’ve had time off?

Many runners who take time off from running feel stressed when they start back. When the stress is high, the reflex brain triggers a series of actions that reduce motivation, including reduction of blood flow to key muscles, the brain, and the gut. It will also trigger negative attitude hormones that reduce motivation further. The longer you’ve been away from running, the greater the benefit from a plan which will allow the conscious brain to assume control over the anxiety-ridden reflex brain.

The use of walk breaks greatly improves confidence and attitude. Success is increased when you believe in your plan, and take conscious involvement to get out the door (review the chapter that details how to handle certain situations). I want to warn you now that you will reach a point when you feel totally back in shape—but you are not. Stay with the following plan for your return, and when in doubt, be more conservative. Remember that you are in this for the long run!

Note: I suggest using the proven training schedules in my books Marathon: You Can Do It, Running: A Year Round Plan, Galloway Training Programs, 5K/10K Running, Half-Marathon: You Can Do It, Cross-Country Running, or Running: Testing Yourself. Each week’s workouts are numbered in sequence, leading to the goal.

Less than 2 weeks off—You will feel like you are starting over again, but you should come back quickly. Look at the schedules. Let’s say that you were at week 20 but had to take 10 days off. Start back at week 2 for the first week. If all is well, skip to week 10 or 11 for the second week. If that works well, ease into week 17 or 18, and then move back into week 20.

14 to 29 days off–You will also feel like you are starting over again, and it will take longer to get it all back. Within about five to six weeks, you should be back to normal. Use the schedule of your choice (from week 1) for two weeks. If there are no aches, pains, or lingering fatigue, then use the schedule but skip every other week. After the fifth week, transition back into what you were doing before the layoff.

One month or more off—If you have not run for a month or more, start over again like a beginner. Use one of the schedules, following it exactly (from week 1) for the first few weeks. After two to three weeks, the safest plan is to continue with the schedule. But if you don’t have aches, pains, or lingering fatigue, you could increase more rapidly by skipping one week out of three. After two months of no problems, your conditioning should have returned.

It hurts! Is it just a passing ache or a real injury?

The one downside to effective mental training is that you can keep running when you have an injury and make it worse. So it is important to know whether it is TMS or just an ache or pain that is part of the training process.

Most of the aches and pains felt when running are temporary body adjustments. They don’t indicate a serious problem and will go away within a few minutes—or at least within 36 hours. Research shows that runners over the age of 50 have fewer orthopedic problems compared with non-runners the same age. But if you try to run when there is a potential injury, you can make the ache worse, requiring more time for recovery.

If the pain comes on when running, just walk for an additional 2 minutes, jog a few strides, and walk another 2 minutes. If it still hurts after doing this four or five times, stop running and walk. If the pain goes away when you walk, just walk for the rest of the workout.

Walking pain—When the pain stays around when walking, use a very short stride. Walk slowly for 30 to 60 seconds. If it still hurts when walking, sit down and massage the area that hurts, if you can. Sit for two to four minutes. When you try again to walk, and it still hurts, call it a day—your workout is over.

It’s an injury if…

Inflammation—There is swelling in the area.

Loss of function—The foot or knee, for example, doesn’t work correctly.

Pain—It hurts and keeps hurting or gets worse.

Treatment suggestions:

  1. See a doctor who has treated other runners very successfully and wants to get you back on the road or trail.

  2. Take at least two to five days off from any activity that could irritate it to get the healing started—take more if needed.

  3. If the area is next to the skin, rub a chunk of ice on the area, constantly rubbing for 15 minutes until the area gets numb. Continue to do this for a week after you feel no symptoms. Ice bags and gel ice do virtually no good at all according to my experience.

  4. If the problem is inside a joint or muscle, call your doctor and ask if you can use prescription strength anti-inflammatory medication. Don’t take any medication without a doctor’s advice—and follow that advice.

  5. If you have a muscle injury, see a veteran sports massage therapist. Try to find one who has a lot of successful experience treating the area where you are injured. The magic fingers and hands can often work wonders.

  6. Read the section on TMS. A high percentage of runner’s aches and pains come from TMS which can be dealt with. See the TMS section in this book, page______.

  7. Belief in treatment mode can energize your organism for healing and increase positive peptides.

This is advice from one runner to another. For more info on injuries and treatment, see a doctor and read Running Injuries: Treatment and Prevention by Hannaford and Galloway.

No energy today

There will be a number of days each year when you will not feel like exercising. On most of these, you can turn it around and feel great. Occasionally, you will not be able to do this, because of an infection, lingering fatigue, or other physical problems. Here’s a list of things that can give you energy. If these actions don’t lead you to a run, then read the nutrition sections—particularly the previous chapter on blood sugar levels—in Running and Fat Burning for Women or Nutrition for Runners.

  1. Eat an energy bar with water or caffeinated beverage about an hour before the run. Caffeine helps!

  2. Instead of the first option, 30 minutes before exercising, you could drink 100 to 200 calories of a sports drink that has a mix of 80 % simple carbohydrate and 20 % protein. The product Accelerade already has this ratio.

  3. Just walk for 5 minutes away from your house or office, and the energy often kicks in. Forward movement gets the attitude moving, too.

  4. One of the prime reasons for no energy is not reloading within 30 minutes after your last exercise session. Consume 200 to 300 calories of a mix that is 80 % simple carbohydrate and 20 % protein (Endurox R4 is the product that has this formulation).

  5. Low-carb diets will result in low energy, low blood sugar level, and low motivation before and during a workout.

  6. In most cases it is fine to keep going even if you aren’t energetic. But if you sense an infection, see a doctor. If the low energy stays around for several weeks, see a nutritionist who knows about the special needs of runners or get some blood work done. This may be due to inadequate iron, B vitamins, protein, or energy stores.

Note: If you have any problems with caffeine, don’t consume any products containing it. As always, if you sense any health problem, see a doctor.

Side pain

This is very common and usually has a simple fix. Normally you should not worry about this—it just hurts. This condition is due to 1) the lack of lower lung breathing and 2) going a little too fast from the beginning of the run. You can correct number 2 easily by walking more at the beginning and slowing down your running pace for the first 10 minutes of the run.

Lower lung breathing from the beginning of a run can prevent side pain. This way of inhaling air is performed by diverting the air you breathe into your lower lungs. Also called belly breathing, this is how we breathe when asleep, and it provides maximum opportunity for oxygen absorption. If you don’t breathe this way from the start of the run and you are not getting the oxygen you need, the side pain will tell you. By slowing down, walking, and breathing deeply for a while, the pain may go away. But sometimes it does not. Most runners just continue to run and walk with the side pain. In 50 years of running and helping others run, I’ve not seen any lasting negative effect from those who run with a side pain. But you can prevent this by breathing properly.

A maximum breath is not needed. Simply breathe a normal breath but send it to the lower lungs. You know that you have done this if your stomach goes up and down as you inhale and exhale. If your upper chest goes up and down, you are not bringing a lot of air into the lower lungs.

Note: Never breathe in and out rapidly. This can lead to hyperventilation, dizziness, and fainting.

I feel great one day, but the next day…

If you can solve this problem, you could become a very wealthy person. There are a few common reasons for this, but there will always be “those days” when the body doesn’t seem to work right, the gravity seems heavier than normal, and you cannot find a reason.

  1. Push through — In most cases, this is a one-day occurrence. Most runners just put more walking into the mix and get through it. Before pushing, however, make sure that you don’t have a medical reason why you feel bad. Don’t exercise when you have a lung infection, for example.

  2. Heat and humidity will make you feel worse — You will often feel great when the temperature is below 60 ˚F and miserable when 80 ˚F or above (especially at the end of the workout). During hot periods, try to exercise before the sun gets above the horizon.

  3. Low blood sugar can make any run a bad run — You may feel good at the start but suddenly feel like you have no energy. Every step seems to take a major effort. Read the previous chapter on blood sugar levels.

  4. Low motivation — Use the rehearsal techniques in chapter on situations to get you out the door on a bad day. These have helped numerous runners turn their minds around—even in the middle of a run.

  5. Infections — Infection can leave you feeling lethargic, achy, and unable to run at the same pace that was easy a few days earlier. Check the normal signs (fever, chills, swollen lymph glands) and at least call your doctor if you suspect something.

  6. Medication and alcohol, even when taken the day before, can leave a hangover that dampens a workout.

  7. A slower start can make the difference between a good day and a bad day. When your body is on the edge of fatigue or other stress, it only takes a few seconds too fast per mile, walking or running, to push into discomfort or worse.

Cramps in my muscles

At some point, most runners experience cramps. These muscle contractions usually occur in the feet or the calf muscles and may come during a run or walk, or they may hit at random. Most commonly, they will occur at night or when you are sitting around at your desk or watching TV in the afternoon or evening.

If you are dehydrated at the start of your run, you are more likely to experience cramps. Avoid alcohol and salty foods and hydrate well the day before a long run. A good sports drink like Accelerade, taken throughout the day before, will help to keep your fluid levels and your electrolytes topped off (maximum of 16 oz. per day).

If you have had several cramping episodes or one severe experience, the reflex brain remembers. For several weeks afterward, the reflex brain will trigger negative attitude peptides when you think about running. It is also possible that the reflex brain has reduced blood flow to the muscles, in response to the stress. See the chapter on situations for ways of getting back into the flow of running.

Cramps vary in severity. Most are mild, but some can grab so hard that they shut down the muscles and hurt when they seize up. Massage and a short, gentle movement of the muscle can help to bring most of the cramps around. Odds are that stretching will make the cramp worse or tear the muscle fibers. There may be soreness in the cramped muscles for several days. On the short running days, take a longer walk as warm-up and adjust the run walk run ratio to include more walking.

Most cramps are due to overuse, exercising farther or faster than in the recent past, or continuing to put yourself at your limit, especially in warm weather. Look at the pace and distance of your runs and run walk run strategy in your training journal to see if you have been running too far, or too fast, or have not taken walk breaks liberally enough.

Here are several ways of dealing with cramps:

  1. Take a longer and more gentle warm-up.

  2. When you start running, go slower.

  3. Shorten your run segment.

  4. Slow down your walk, and walk more.

  5. Shorten your distance on a hot and humid day.

  6. Break your run up into two segments.

  7. Look at any other exercise that could be causing the cramps.

  8. Take a buffered salt tablet at the beginning of your exercise.

  9. Shorten your stride—especially on hills.

Note: If you have high blood pressure, ask your doctor before taking any salt product.

Upset stomach or diarrhea

Nausea and diarrhea (N/D) are triggered by stress. Most commonly, it is the stress of running on that day due to the causes listed here. But stress can come from many unique conditions within the individual. Your reflex brain triggers the N/D to get you to reduce the exercise, which will reduce at least one source of stress. Here are the common causes.

  1. Running too fast or too far — This is the most common cause. Runners are confused about this, because the pace doesn’t feel too fast in the beginning. Each person has a level of fatigue that triggers these conditions. Slowing down and taking more walk breaks from the beginning will help you manage the problem.

  2. Eating too much or too soon before the run — Your system has to work hard when you’re running, and it works hard to digest food. Doing both at the same time raises stress and results in nausea. Having food in your stomach in the process of being digested is an extra stress and a likely target for elimination.

  3. Eating a high-fat or high-protein diet — Even one meal that has over 50 % of the calories in fat or protein can lead to N/D one to four hours later if you are running.

  4. Eating too much the afternoon or evening on the day before — A big evening meal will still be in the gut the next morning, being digested. When you bounce up and down on a run, which you will, you add stress to the system often producing N/D.

  5. Heat and humidity — These are a major cause of these problems. Some people don’t adapt to heat well and experience N/D with minimal build-up of temperature or humidity. But in hot conditions, everyone has a core body temperature increase that will result in significant stress to the system—often causing nausea and sometimes diarrhea. By slowing down, taking more walk breaks, and pouring water over your head, you can manage this better. The best time to exercise in warm weather is before the sun gets above the horizon.

  6. Drinking too much water before a run — If you have too much water in your stomach and you are bouncing around, you increase stress on the digestive system. Reduce your intake to the bare minimum (one 4- to 6-oz portion, right after getting out of bed). Most runners don’t need to drink any fluid before a run that is 60 minutes or less.

  7. Drinking too much of a sugar or electrolyte drink—Water is the easiest substance for the body to process. The addition of sugar or electrolyte minerals, such as in a sports drink, makes the substance harder to digest for many runners. During a run (especially on a hot day), it is best to drink only water. Cold water is best.

  8. Drinking too much fluid too soon after a run — Even if you are very thirsty, don’t gulp down large quantities of any fluid. Try to drink no more than 6 to 7 ounces every 20 minutes or so. If you are particularly prone to this N/D, just take two to four sips every five minutes or so. When the body is very stressed and tired, it’s not a good idea to consume a sugar drink. The extra stress of digesting the sugar can lead to problems.

  9. Don’t let running be stressful to you — Some runners get too obsessed about inserting a run into every single day or running at a specific pace. This adds stress to your life. Relax and let your run diffuse some of the other tensions in your life.

Headache

There are several reasons why runners get headaches on runs. While uncommon, they happen to the average runner about one to five times a year. The extra stress that running puts on the body can trigger a TMS headache on a tough day—even with the relaxation that comes from the run. Many runners find that a dose of an over-the-counter headache medication takes care of the problem. As always, consult with your doctor about use of medication. Here are some major causes and solutions.

Dehydration — If you run in the morning, make sure that you hydrate well the day before. Avoid alcohol if you run in the mornings and have headaches. Also watch the salt in your dinner meal the night before. A good sports drink like Accelerade taken throughout the day before will help to keep your fluid levels and your electrolytes topped off (maximum of 16 oz. per day). If you run in the afternoon, follow the same advice leading up to your run on the day of the run.

Medications can often produce dehydration—There are some medications that make runners more prone to headaches. Check with your doctor.

Too hot for you— Run at a cooler time of the day (usually in the morning before the sun gets above the horizon). When on a hot run, pour water over your head. Take more frequent walk breaks.

Running a little too fast — Start all runs more slowly, and walk more during the first half of the run.

Running farther than you have run in the recent past—Monitor your mileage, and don’t increase more than about 15 % farther than you have run on any single run in the past week.

Low blood sugar level — Be sure to boost your BLS with a snack about 30 to 60 minutes before you run. If you are used to having it, caffeine in a beverage can sometimes help this situation also.

Prone to migraines — There are many individual issues here. Try your best to avoid dehydration. Talk to your doctor about other possibilities. Read the section on TMS.

Watch your neck and lower back — If you have a slight forward lean as you run, you can put pressure on the spine, particularly in the neck and lower back. Read the chapter, Smooth Running Form Reduces Pain and Stress. Be a puppet on a string.

Should I run when I have a cold?

Talk to your doctor when you have an infection. There are many individual health issues. Usually you will be given the OK to gently exercise.

Lung infection — Don’t run! A virus in the lungs can move into the heart and kill you. Lung infections are usually indicated by coughing.

Common cold — There are many infections that initially seem to be a normal cold but are not. At least call your doctor’s office to get clearance before running. Be sure to explain how much you are running, and what, if any, medication you are taking.

Throat and sinus infection — Most runners will be given the OK, but check with the doctor.

Street safety

Each year several runners are hit by cars when running. Most of these are preventable. Here are the primary reasons and what you can do about them.

  1. The driver is intoxicated or preoccupied by cellphone — Always be on guard, even when running on the sidewalk or pedestrian trail. Many of the fatal crashes occurred when the driver lost control of the car and came up behind the runner on the wrong side of the road. I know it is wonderful to be on cruise control in your right brain, but you can avoid a life-threatening situation if you will just keep looking around and anticipating. Wear a blinking light or reflective gear after dark. I recommend the NiteBeams products.

  2. The runner dashes across an intersection against the traffic light — When running or walking with another person, don’t try to follow blindly across an intersection. Runners who quickly sprint across the street without looking are often surprised by cars coming from unexpected directions. The best rule is the one that you heard as a child: When you get to an intersection, stop, look both ways, and look both ways again (and again) before crossing. Have an option to bail out of the crossing if a car surprises you from any direction.

  3. Runners wander out into the street as they talk and run — One of the very positive aspects of running becomes a negative one in this case. Yes, chat and enjoy time with your friends. But every runner in a group needs to be responsible for his or her own safety, footing. Runners at the back of a group mistakenly assume that they don’t have to be concerned about traffic at all. This results in a very risky situation.

In general, be ready to save yourself from a variety of traffic problems by following these rules and any others that apply to specific situations. Even though the rules below seem obvious, many runners who are hit by cars tend to ignore them.