Running: Training, Problems, Techniques, Questions, etc

[Andyd513]

The good thing is you still have 2 months if you‘re going for summer reserve training.

Just jog 4-5 times a week. Don‘t let up, get up how ever early you need to do this.

Trust me you‘ll see results!

And make sure its jogging, try to do it before you eat breakfast as it will help prevent stitches. I‘m lucky in the fact theres a pre-measured route near my house.. if theres anything comparable or you have access to a health club with a treadmill you‘re set. If you have the club access you can switch it up with biking/stair master.

Lastly, if you haven‘t done your physical test yet you will do fine even if you aren‘t quite at the 2.4 k in 11:57 or whatever it is. I was about 30-45 secs behind that when I took it and still passed the cardio test.

 

[kbowes]

Originally posted by Andy_d:
[qb]And make sure its jogging, try to do it before you eat breakfast as it will help prevent stitches. [/qb]

Never heard ‘stitches‘ in such a context before...what does it mean?

Thanks

 

[quebecrunner]

increase your mileage or the time that you spent running by 10% per week. Try to run longer the week end. Also, do it slowly. For example, let‘s say that you usually run 20k per week:
Monday:gym/cycling
thuesday: 4K easy running
wednesday:gym/swimming
Thursday: 4k with pick-up (accelerate the pace for 20 sec about 10-20 time)
Friday: 4k easy running
saturday: off
sunday: 8k very easy. If you have to take walking breaks, do it. The goal is to finish it whenever the pace.

for pacing, you should be able to speak with someone during the run. Your breath should be regular.

Adjust this little training program with your weekly mileage. You should increase only the long run on sunday: its the most important.

And go to the gym!

 

[Andyd513]

Stitches are the pains you get in your sides when you jog. Its generally attributed to jogging too soon after you eat or poor breathing in my experience.

I get them slightly if I do PT between lunch + dinner or a few hours after dinner, if I do PT right when I wake up before I eat anything during the day I‘m fine.

 

[alexk]

Guys, thanks ALOT ive been drinking water like i breath and I eat a couple of bannanas a day. I usualy run 10 mins and get a cramp at about 5 today i went 25 and got nothing. Thanks again.

 

[GrahamD]

How do I know if I have got stitch ?
Typically, stitch is felt in the right upper abdomen, but may also occur on the left hand side, or may irradiate to upper or lower regions of the body. "Classic" stitch is more likely to occur to insufficiently trained people than well prepared athletes.

What causes Stitch ?
The reason for stitch is pretty simple. The inner organs are hanging from several ligaments, which, in turn, are fixed to the diaphragm, the muscular "plate" between chest and abdomen. Liver, spleen, stomach, small intestine and colon form a weight of several kilograms, hanging from the diaphragm. The impact of every step forces the inner organs to move downwards. Additionally, the diaphragm moves upwards on every expiration to force air out of the lungs. This continuous up/down stress may cause a cramp in the diaphragm: stitch. Stitch occurs most often on the right hand side because of the liver being the most heavy organ, and therefore the one stressing the diaphragm the most.

How do I get rid of Stitch ?
Should you suffer from stitch, the first (and best) cure is to slow down or stop until the stitch is gone. If you do not want to stop, you can try to press your hand onto the part of your abdomen where the stitch is, and release the pressure on expiration. Repeat this several times.

Tim Quinlivan, a PE Teacher in Australia, has found the following method works well with his young athletes:

Slow your pace slightly
Grasp your side where you feel the stitch just under the bottom rib and half way across between the side and the belly button. Thumb to the rear and fingers to the front
Squeeze firmly and bend at the waist (45-90 degrees) while still running
After about 15 metres slowing straighten
The stitch should have gone
An advanced method requires some thoughts about the reason why stitches occur. You should try to synchronise your breathing pattern with your running, and exhale when the foot on the not hurting side touches the ground, i.e. when you have stitch in your right hand side, try to exhale when your left foot touches the ground. You do not need to worry about inspiration - if your expiration is right, your inspiration will be, too. If you manage to keep this breathing pattern, your diaphragm moves downward at the same time as your intestines, thus decreasing the stress.

How can I avoid Stitch ?
Strengthen your abdominal muscles, keep your upper body warm, do not run too soon after meals and learn "abdominal breathing".

 

[Army_Deej]

it is my breathing that is getting me, Sh0rtbUs, like after about 1.5 km, i just start taking really big breathes, and it makes me slow down.

 

[Bert]

DEEJ

Improving the cardio is a process. Be patient.
If your‘re running and getting out of breath
and you‘re slowing down, don‘t worry about it,
just slow down. You‘ll catch your breathe
and you‘ll learn to regulate the breathing better.
Week after week you‘ll go farther and the pace will pick up.

You may want to mix up the pace. One night a week, run quickly or do sets of sprints. Another night, run slowly but steadily for distance. Another night, run steady for 2 kms then do a few short sets of sprints, then walk for a kilometer
at the end.

 

[Fusaki]

One thing I‘ve found is that its better to be more concerned about time then it is about distance. Say you want to go for 30 mins. Set your watch on a "timer" or the "chrono" function and start running for as long as you can. Then when you can‘t run, walk untill you get your breath back and run again.

Even if you spend more of that 30mins walking then running at the start, I guaruntee that if you stick to it you‘ll eventually be able to run the whole time. After you can run for the 30mins, set your time for 40 mins and proceed in the same way.

The secret to running is getting over the "hump". Usually between 15 and 25 minutes in I‘ll get to the hardest psychological point in my own runs. But after that your mind shuts off and you get into your "zone". Your pace will increase without you noticing, and you realize that you can go on for quite some time. Once you get out there and feel yourself get past that hump a few times, everything becomes easier. Even when you‘re feeling like a bag of ****, you can just look at your watch and say "Yup, a few more minutes and my mind will be wonderfully numb".

I hope that helps!!

 

[space_sldr]

Make sure you stretch otherwise you‘ll get injured. Don‘t bounce your stretches either. Hold a position for a good 30 seconds. The least you should so are calf, hamstring and quad stretches. It help you alot in the long run.

 

[rcr]

Originally posted by Ghostwalk:
[qb]
The secret to running is getting over the "hump". Usually between 15 and 25 minutes in I‘ll get to the hardest psychological point in my own runs. But after that your mind shuts off and you get into your "zone". Your pace will increase without you noticing, and you realize that you can go on for quite some time. Once you get out there and feel yourself get past that hump a few times, everything becomes easier. Even when you‘re feeling like a bag of ****, you can just look at your watch and say "Yup, a few more minutes and my mind will be wonderfully numb".
[/qb]

What Ghostwalk said is what has worked for me since I ‘re-started‘ my running after almost a year, even though i should‘ve started months ago.
You just have to plow through that hump, even if it takes talking to yourself. I can‘t speak for running with a walkman because I don‘t have one. After you get over that barrier running will become easier. Last week I was going for 25 minutes and after that I felt great and kept going trying to push to 35, but the treadmill shut off at 30, but hey, it felt good. I‘m off to do it again. Good luck!

 

[ZipperHead]

I suggest going to the Running Room website: www.runningroom.com. There are a lot of good tips, for free, and there is an excellent (IMO) book that you can order from them, called Running: Start to Finish. He espouses a theory called the 10/1. All‘s that means is run for 10 minutes, walk for 1, and carry on. It‘s brilliant in it‘s simplicity.

I have been running for many years (army for 16 years) but I never "learned" to run, I just flailed around, and never got good at it, and the furthest I ran was 10km (44 mins is my best). Using the 10/1 theory, I ran 19km a few weeks back, and average at least 10km twice a week (training for Cabot Trail Relay). Stretching is key, and as noted in this book, and elsewhere, if you only have minimal time to stretch, stretch AFTER you run (better than not at all).

Anyway, as advised, try not to do too much too soon (one of my classic injury producers) and only increase your distance by 10% per week.

Running isn‘t the end all to get in shape, but it‘s (relatively) cheap, and you can do it anywhere. I recommend getting "fitted" for the proper running shoes to suit your running style and body. It takes a little bit of time but it‘ll save you pain. Plus, afterwards, you can use the advice that you gained from the salesperson at specialty running shops like The Running Room(assuming you buy the shoes from the specialty shop..... it‘d be cheesy to get their help, and then go elsewhere with that advice) and get shoes at the big box stores, for cheaper, after that. BTW, The Running Room gives 10% discount to military pers (with ID shown).

Anyway, I can‘t say that I "enjoy" running but it has helped me lose weight that I‘ve packed on over the years, and it does help clear my head. One thing that I did that has helped me run the longer distances (which I used to hate) was to get an MP3 player to listen to tunes (CD players skip, no matter how swanky they claim to be, and are heavy). I bought a Palm Zire 71 (on eBay), and it plays MP3‘s, takes photos, and is a good PDA, too boot. It‘s heavier than most MP3 players, but way more versatile.

Anyway, that‘s enough free plugs for businesses that will never reward me for my loyalty......

Hope this helped Deej (and others),

Allan

 

[Northern Touch]

Originally posted by Ghostwalk:
[qb] One thing I‘ve found is that its better to be more concerned about time then it is about distance. Say you want to go for 30 mins. Set your watch on a "timer" or the "chrono" function and start running for as long as you can. Then when you can‘t run, walk untill you get your breath back and run again.

Even if you spend more of that 30mins walking then running at the start, I guaruntee that if you stick to it you‘ll eventually be able to run the whole time. After you can run for the 30mins, set your time for 40 mins and proceed in the same way.

The secret to running is getting over the "hump". Usually between 15 and 25 minutes in I‘ll get to the hardest psychological point in my own runs. But after that your mind shuts off and you get into your "zone". Your pace will increase without you noticing, and you realize that you can go on for quite some time. Once you get out there and feel yourself get past that hump a few times, everything becomes easier. Even when you‘re feeling like a bag of ****, you can just look at your watch and say "Yup, a few more minutes and my mind will be wonderfully numb".

I hope that helps!! [/qb]

I guess its all really personal preference. I find that if I concentrate more on distance, its easier for me to motivate myself because I can tell myself "only 5 more clicks to go". I guess distance seems more solid to me then time, expecially since you could run 10 minutes really fast, or really slow, where as with distance, its 5km and ALWAYS 5km. If your worried about time, you can always lengethen the distance of your runs to 6 or 7km.

Just my .02

 

[spenco]

I‘ve been doing 3 mile runs at about 8:30/mile pace and 2 mile runs at 8 min/mile, would this be satisfactory at BMQ or should I step it up a notch?

 

[Andyd513]

I sure hope you can run a 8:30 km, miles are actually longer and depending on how you‘re measuring some people just like to do it in miles.

The treadmill I use is in miles so thats what I base my results on. 1.5 miles = approx 2.4 km.

 

[Rick_Donald]

Don‘t get discouraged if you can‘t run long distances week one. Long distance running takes time to build up too. If you try to put in long distance too soon you will only hurt yourself and put yourself out of training. I know cause I‘ve done it to myself. Mind you I‘m 230 lbs and was out of training for a long time. I‘d been running thirty minutes a day. No particular distance. One day I felt really good and kept running for over an hour. The next day my knee and hip were stiffened rightup and I had to wait almost two months to hit the trail again.
I came back with a new approach. The trail I run on has km markers so I started at 1 km and every day added a 1/2 km. I made it up to 10 k in a couple of weeks. it‘s still hard work and I feel it every day after my run but it‘s a good kind of pain which I know will go away through consistant training. I felt the same pain at first with 1 km and now 1 km is a walk in the park.
Also try strapping a walkman on and listen to your favourite music as you run.

 

[Northern Touch]

Originally posted by DEEJ:
[qb] well isn‘t it really just distance or just time. Don‘t you think that it is the distance in the time? [/qb]

Yes, it is the distance in the time as well, thats why I said "I guess its more personal preference". What I was trying to say is, what good is running for say 20-25 minutes if your only running a minimal distance? This is where your preference comes in, if you like doing that, then just give ‘er. I prefer running distances because I always run at the same pace, and I can see myself improve. Running 7km for 2-3 weeks, then upping it to 8.5km the next weeks, and feeling the same when I‘m done. That way I KNOW I‘ve gone FARTHER and have pushed myself HARDER. I can work on speed once Ive gotten the distance down.

Just say you had to do a 5km run at basic, and that takes 21 minutes to run. You KNOW you can run 21 minutes, but can you run the distance?

Thats just my opinion, everybody has there own way to do things and thats cool. Find out what works best for you and just go with it.

And 1 Mile = 1.6 Km. Some people use miles or km, just do the quick math and convert it how you like.

 

[spenco]

Originally posted by Andy_d:
[qb] I sure hope you can run a 8:30 km, miles are actually longer and depending on how you‘re measuring some people just like to do it in miles.

The treadmill I use is in miles so thats what I base my results on. 1.5 miles = approx 2.4 km. [/qb]

Yes thats 8:30/MILE not km, I find it easier to run in miles because 1 lap on a track is a quarter mile as opposed to 400m, it just makes for the math being easier.

 

[webster]

I had the same problem as you, I wasn't able to run long distances. As a kid I would run forever and was always on my school track team but that was a few years ago and since then my fitness level has dropped. A few months ago when I started running again to prepare for my fitness test I would get tired just running around the block and was running 2.4km in 13 minutes. Two weeks ago I ran that same time in 11'07, and now just today ran it in under 10 min at 9'59!! My goal is to be able to run that distance in 9'25 by next week. I know i can do it.
So as u can see your cardio will improve in time you just need to push it and keep at it.

 

[torin25]

I have been running now for 3 months and I can not seem to get any further than when I started. I am currently leaving for basic 24th of Aug my cardio is great but my calves kill be every time i run the 2.4 k . They only hurt or burn up when I run the 2.4 while trying to reach the standards of 12:00 min .  Can anyone help me out here, I feel like im working my but off for nothing, any tips would be greatly appreciated.