• Coming back after a layoff from running
• It hurts!
• No energy…
• Side pain
• I feel great one day; but the next day…
• No motivation
• Cramps in my leg muscles
• Upset stomach or diarrhea
• Headache
• Should I run when I have a cold?
The longer you’ve been away from running, the slower you must plan for your return. I want to warn you now that you will reach a point when you feel totally back in shape, but you are not. There are many terrain adaptations that you must bring back gradually. 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!
Less than two weeks off: You will feel like you are starting over again but should come back quickly. Let’s say that you were at week #10 but had to take 10 days off. Start back at week #2 for the first week. If all is well, skip to #3 or #4 for the second week. If that works well, gradually transition over the next two to three weeks back to the schedule you were using before you had your layoff.
14 days 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 5th week, transition back into what you were doing before the break.
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 in this book, 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. If you’re having no aches and pains and no lingering fatigue, you could increase more rapidly by skipping one week out of three. After two months of no problems, your conditioning can often be back to pre-injury levels.
Remember that you can walk most or all of the long runs. You will receive the same endurance from a long walk as from a long run. So when you miss a long run, you can catch up by walking most or all of the next long run. If you are going to be running some of that run, the best strategy is to walk the first portion. If you are very tired at the end, try to walk gently and slowly and finish the distance.
Most of the aches and pains felt when running will go away within a minute or two. If the pain comes on during a run, just walk for an additional two minutes, jog a few strides, and walk another two minutes. If the pain comes back after doing this four or five times, stop running and walk. If the pain does not go away when you walk, stop!
Walking pain: When the pain stays around when walking, try a very short stride. Walk for 30 to 60 seconds. If it still hurts when walking, try sitting down and massaging 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.
There’s inflammation or swelling in the area.
There’s loss of function; the foot or knee doesn’t work correctly.
There’s pain. It hurts and keeps hurting or even gets worse.
• See a doctor who has treated other runners very successfully and wants to get you back on the road or trail.
• Take at least two to five days off from any activity that could irritate the area to get the healing started—more if needed.
• If the injury site is close to the skin (tendon, foot), rub a chunk of ice on the area(s), 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 no good at all in most cases.
• 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.
• 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. A massage therapist’s magic fingers and hands can often work wonders.
• Sometimes the injury will heal enough to allow running on pavement but not on trails. Uneven terrain can aggravate an injury, so stay on solid ground until the injury can handle it.
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 Dr. David Hannaford and me.
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 blood sugar chapter in this book, or our book Running & Fat Burning for Women.
• Eat an energy bar, with water or caffeinated beverage, about 30 minutes before the run. Caffeine helps!
• Or, half an hour before exercising you could drink approximately 100 calories of a sports drink that has a mix of 80% simple carbohydrate and 20% protein. The product Accelerade already has this ratio.
• Just walk for five minutes away from your house or office, and the energy often kicks in. Forward movement gets the attitude moving, too. Once one starts walking down a trail, the motivation often picks up.
• One of the prime reasons for no energy is that you didn’t reload 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).
• Low-carb diets will result in low energy to get motivated before a workout and often no energy to finish the workout. Blood sugar boosting (as noted in the previous chapter) may help.
• 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 days, see a nutritionist that knows about the special needs of exercisers or get some blood work done. This may be due to inadequate iron, B vitamins, 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.
This is very common and usually has a simple fix. Normally it is not anything to worry about, 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 #2 easily by walking more at the beginning and slowing down your running pace.
Lower lung breathing from the beginning of a run has prevented side pain in a high percentage of cases I’ve seen. 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 do this from the beginning of a run, 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 over 50 years of running and helping others run, I’ve not seen any lasting negative effect from those who run with a side pain.
You don’t have to take in a maximum breath to perform this technique. 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 chest goes up and down, you are breathing shallowly.
Note: Never breathe in and out rapidly. This can lead to hyperventilation, dizziness, and fainting.
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.
• Pushing 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.
• Heat and humidity will make you feel worse. You will often feel great when the temperature is below 60 °F and miserable when it is 80 °F or above (especially at the end of the workout).
• Low blood sugar can make any run a bad run. You may feel good at the start and suddenly feel like you have no energy. Every step seems to take a major effort. Read about this topic in chapter 31.
• Low motivation. Use the rehearsal techniques in chapter 28 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.
• 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.
• Medication and alcohol, even when taken the day before, can leave a hangover that dampens a workout.
• 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.
At some point, most trail runners will 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.
Cramps vary in severity. Most are mild but some can 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.
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 walks in your training journal to see if you have been running too far, too fast, or both.
• Continuous running increases cramping. Taking walk breaks more often can reduce or eliminate cramps. Many runners who used to cramp when they ran a minute and walked a minute stopped cramping with a ratio of run 20-30 seconds and walk 30-60 seconds.
• During hot weather, a good electrolyte beverage can help to replace the salts that your body loses in sweating. A drink like Accelerade, for example, can help to top off these minerals when you drink approximately six to eight ounces every one to two hours during your workday.
• On very long hikes, walks, or runs, however, the continuous sweating, especially when drinking a lot of fluid, can push your sodium levels too low and produce muscle cramping. If you are mostly walking and are still experiencing cramps, a buffered salt tablet, like Succeed!, has helped greatly.
• Many medications, especially those designed to lower cholesterol, have muscle cramps as one of their known side effects. Runners who use medications and cramp should ask their doctor if there are alternatives.
Here are several ways of dealing with cramps:
• Take a longer and more gentle warm-up.
• Shorten your run segment.
• Shorten your stride, whether running or walking.
• Slow down your walk, and walk more.
• Shorten your distance on a hot or humid day.
• Break your run up into two segments.
• Look at any other exercise that could be causing the cramps.
• Take a buffered salt tablet at the beginning of your exercise.
• Shorten your stride—especially on hills.
• Note: If you have high blood pressure, ask your doctor before taking any salt product.
Sooner or later, virtually every runner has at least one episode with nausea or diarrhea (N/D). It comes from the build-up of total stress that you accumulate. Most commonly, it is the stress of running on that day due to the causes listed below. But stress can come from many unique conditions within the individual. Your body triggers the N/D to get you to reduce the exercise, which will reduce the stress.
Here are the common causes:
• Running too fast or too far 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 will help you manage the problem.
• 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.
• Eating a high-fat, high-fiber, or high-protein diet. Even one meal that has over 50% of the calories in fat or protein can lead to N/D hours later.
• 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).
• Heat and humidity 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. The best time to exercise in warm weather is before the sun rises above the horizon.
• Drinking too much water before or during a run. If you have too much water in your stomach, and you are bouncing around, you put stress on the digestive system. Reduce your intake to the bare minimum. Most runners don’t need to drink any fluid before a run that is 60 minutes or less.
• 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, 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.
• 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 six to eight ounces every 20 minutes or so. If you are particularly prone to 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.
• Don’t let running be stressful to you. Some runners get too obsessed about getting their run in 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.
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 running puts on the body can trigger a headache on a tough day—even considering 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 the causes and their solutions:
• Dehydration: If you run in the morning, make sure that you hydrate well the day before—and rehydrate gradually afterward. 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 the day before, will help to keep your fluid levels and your electrolytes topped off. If you run in the afternoon, follow the same advice leading up to your run on the day of the run.
• Medication: 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 rises above the horizon). When on a hot run, pour water over your head.
• Pollen, asthma, allergies: At certain times of the year, those who have allergies tend to get headaches. Check with your doctor about inhalers and allergy medicine.
• 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 that you 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.
• If prone to migraines: Generally avoid caffeine, and try your best to avoid dehydration. Talk to your doctor about other possibilities.
• 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 chapter 14 on running form and run upright.
There are so many individual health issues with a cold that you must talk with a doctor before you exercise when you have an infection. Usually you will be given the okay 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 infection and above: Most runners will be given the okay, but check with the doctor.
