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Tips from a half marathon champ
When Derick Williamson, who won the AT&T Half Marathon last year, read about my calf injury woes in this blog, he invited me over to talk.
Williamson works at Source Endurance, which designs and manages training plans for athletes. I headed over after swim practice to talk about how I was training when I got injured. Running injuries, he told me, are usually caused by a combination of poor shoe selection, compounded by too much too soon, and biomechanics.
Over the summer, I was doing two short runs — at a very easy pace — twice a week. I was still swimming four or five times a week, and doing some water skiing and cycling on the side. When I decided to train for the marathon, I went from two easy runs a week to four — including an intense track workout and a long run.
Williamson reminded me that runners sometimes get into trouble when they progress too quickly or at paces that are too brisk. A slow, progressive buildup is key.
As a swimmer, he told me, I’m already pretty well conditioned. But my legs — the soft and hard tissue — is not developed to the same degree. I upped intensity at the same time I increased volume. Since running beats your legs up, I might have been pushing my limits.
“With running, less is more,” Williamson said.
Last year before winning the half marathon, Williamson was running just four times a week, for 45 or 50 miles total. That’s really not all that much, for an elite runner.
Another surprise? Williamson, who can maintain a 5-minute-per-mile pace over 13 miles, does a lot of his training at 7:30 pace.
Many runners, he says, do their long runs at too fast a pace. “The goal should be to increase duration,” Williamson said. “It’s not about running fast.”
When I do go back to my running program, I can’t jump right back in where I left off. I have to take two or three steps back. “If you’re injured, you’ll never run the marathon,” he told me. “Let pain be your guide. You shouldn’t feel the injury when you’re walking. Then start with runs that are ridiculously easy — 5 or 10 minutes long.”
And remember that ice is your friend.
Fill some small paper cups three-fourths full of water and pop them in the freezer. When you feel the slightest muscle soreness, grab a cup, peel the paper off the top and rub the ice into the sore muscle. It’ll help decrease inflammation.
And this: “When you think you’re 100 percent and can run again, wait one more week.”
Ack!
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