No Pain No Gain?

It's 15-weeks into KL Marathon. 

If one thing I would want when getting on a marathon plan is to be injury-free. The closest I came to it was training for TNF100 last year - the mileage demands were super intense it created a whole whirpool of curiousity spanning all the way to San Francisco. Some time we runners can be a tad jealous, aren't we?

According to Ultrarunner Neal Gorman, some of his ways to steer clear off injuries are;

1) Listen and feel our body when going through trainings as opposed to all the HRM and other gadgets. We know our bodies.

2) Physical Therapy and Strength exercises to keep the old injuries off. Stretch and stretch. Overused muscle or tendon's natural defense is to tighten, causing inflammation and pain.

3) Core exercises! Dips, caf raises, one-legged squats, sit-ups, bridges, leg raise bridges, push-ups, chin ups

4) Yoga - sorry, but will skip this one.

5) Sports Massage will kick in as the mileage climbs, once a month. I will progress my (blind) massage from Week 12 onwards.

6) Exercise common sense. If we have a certain injury, other body parts usually over-compensate, and as a result further injuries. Rest is also part of training.

7) Do not rush recovery, it will make things worse. Active recovery works best for me, instead of putting my feet up the whole day.

8) Warm up always before the run, not stretching the cold muscle. Run/jog for 10 minutes, although usually it was super hard when you cangkuk friends already sprinting half way. But warming up is good to gauge how do you feel that day.

9) Cool down with quick stretch post-run focusing on the big three - quads, hamstrings, calves. Also focus on hips as they connect legs to upper body and make everything possible, considering the amount of swaying we do when running.

He ended his article with this,

'You feel equally as good taking care of your body doing this stuff. It might not be as fun as a trail run, but it's definitely worth it."

LOL!