Going for a run used to be as simple as throwing on an outfit, lacing up my shoes and heading out the door.
I didn’t ever think about things like activating my glutes, doing a pre-run roll, or whether I’d adequately hydrated and fueled for the miles ahead. Running was just running. It didn’t spill over the edges of its allotted time. Even when I was running competitively in college. Until about a year ago, I didn’t even own a GPS watch. Weekly mileage? Did I get that segment? Hell if I knew. I was just going for a run. I was just getting out there to feel the ground. Remember how to take deep breaths. Lose touch with my responsibilities. Work out my anger. During a particularly angry phase of my life, I ran pretty much every run at tempo pace and never felt tired.
One of my college coaches had this saying about running: “Let’s keep the main thing the main thing.” And for the longest time, I believed I could do that.
Everything is different now.
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In the past several months, I’ve learned the hard way that “running” no longer simply means running. Running is all in the details that surround it and make it possible.
Rehabbing a long-term running injury while continuing to train is an immense time commitment. For me, it has meant committing more time to activities that aren’t running than the runs themselves. If you were to look at my Strava profile, where I’ve been tracking rehab activities alongside weekly training, you’d notice the first two activities that appear on my progress page aren’t even running. They’re “Workout” and “Yoga.” AKA, my best buds, strength and stretching. I have to admit that tracking these things has been helpful, but I still get a twinge of jealousy when I see another runner’s clean and beautiful progression of 60-mile weeks. I compare it to the peaks and valleys and scattered cross training activities on my page and start to wonder again how I’ll ever run this marathon.
But, as we’re all aware at this point, using social platforms like Strava to compare your progress to others is highly unproductive if not damaging to your mental state. You can only do what you can do. So, here’s a breakdown of the things I need to do if I want to keep running.
Pre-Run
Rolling before a run? Never would have thought to do that. In the past, I’ve only used rolling as a way to massage sore muscles after runs as needed. Now it’s a daily ritual both before AND after running. I’m now so extra that I use different rollers for different muscle groups to get the best effect. It’s the first key step I take in warming my muscles up. Doing this for my quads especially helps loosen them up so they don’t fight with my kneecaps as early into the run. I’ll follow up the pre-run roll with a dynamic warm up. This includes some dynamic stretching and activation drills. All said and done, it takes about 15 minutes. This has been the hardest habit to incorporate. Some days I just straight up forget, and I notice a legitimate difference in the way I feel when I remember about halfway through the run. Facepalm.
Strength
To figure out what to spend your time strengthening, you have to figure out what’s weak. My PT did not hold back on telling me exactly how weak my glutes and quads were, and now after recovering from that ego hit, I’ve incorporated plenty of exercises to begin to correct that. I’m still looking forward to getting other opinions and more exercises to bring into the routine. I do two days a week of short weightlifting sessions (about 30 mins each) where I build these kinds of exercises in, and three days a week of short core routines (5-10 minutes each). I do all of these after my run so I can run less fatigued, in the spirit of at least trying to “keep the main thing the main thing.”
Post- Run Static Stretching & Rolling
When I finally committed to seeing a physical therapist for my knee pain, the first thing he told me to do was essentially “go home and stretch.” He spent about twenty minutes frowning down at my leg muscles as he ran them through a series of movements, and then handed me a few sheets of paper showing me how I needed to stretch and roll my quads, IT bands and calves. He explained that before we could even begin strength work, I needed to do these stretches every single day, 30-45 seconds for three reps each leg.
I was skeptical. Why on earth was I paying someone to tell me I needed to stretch? Didn’t I already know how to do that? The bottom line: I was already stretching, but I wasn’t stretching nearly enough. When I did all of the prescribed stretching for the first time, I was dismayed at how long it took. Almost thirty extra minutes on top of my run. I’m not going to lie…it’s a grind.
As it turns out, though, they have helped with my pain levels. And there isn’t a shortcut. I just have to put on an audiobook or podcast, or give someone a long overdue phone call to help the time pass. I have continued to do these stretches each day I run or cross train, and when I skip them, I wish I hadn’t.
Ice
The very last step in this laundry list of things I do. About 15 minutes of icy compression on the knees whether they hurt that day or not. Sometimes it’s preventative, sometimes it’s the needed repair after I’ve pushed it a little too far.
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If this all sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. I’m lucky that I’ve had some extra time and space to work these things into my schedule as a teacher on summer break. When school starts, I’ll have to adapt. Learning how to adapt without sacrificing these things will be another adventure entirely. Week 2 of marathon training is just wrapping up, and I’m already a bit drained. None of these things have completely eliminated my knee pain, and I’m waking up to the fact that there’s no magic fix. But I’ve kept it manageable by doing the extras. And for now, that’s enough.
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