Running Smarter

After a talk with Paul Hobrough and John Brewer at the Bloomsbury Institute in London on Thursday night, I'm working on my IT Band with special focus on the Tensor Fascia Latae.  I've got a couple of special stretches that I keep repping throughout the day just to stay healthy for the big race this coming Sunday.

So I'm reading both of these books, and I met and spoke (briefly) with both authors.  They are both very experienced and convey a combination of common sense and knowledgeable research.  Paul demonstrated two stretches in front of the smallish (20 or so in attendance) audience that had gathered that evening at Bedford Square, in a room with a fancy chandelier and book-lined walls.

He showed us how to stretch the Tensor Fascia Latae, which, with the gluteus maximus, controls the Iliotibial band that travels from the lateral hip down to the knee (and which for me has been aching a bit, but has not stopped me from running up to 20 miles at a time).

The other exercise I'm doing constantly now is the single leg squat, in reps of 3 x 15 throughout the day.  

Only two in the crowd claimed to currently have an injury (I also did not raise my hand), which surprised Paul.  But he showed us these two stretches specifically and after having done them for a couple of days I think I'm feeling bit better already.  Paul mentioned that only around 30% or so actually do the stretches assigned to them by their physiotherapist.

He's not even my physiotherapist, but I'm doing mine!  These are great stretches, offered for free!  So I bought his book, and I can highly recommend it.  Running Free lets you jump right to what ails you.  You don't need to read the whole book to start.

John's book is also excellent (he's the right of the three in the middle of the photo above), and you read it in sequence, start to finish.  As a beginning marathon runner, by around page 72 it was getting a bit advanced (i.e. advice for those who've done more than one marathon), but the training schedule is there, and both books have useful indexes.

Paul's book (Running Free) also has a training schedule, and he recommended a really reduced level of running in your last taper week.  So this week I'm only running 5 miles over Monday, Friday, and Saturday (total), before the big day.  He said to get out at the time you'll need to be up to start the race to get into the daily rhythm.  He also said, 'you need to feel like a runner' so just run a bit to keep that feeling.  

I'm not sure what else these two wizards could tell, just by looking at us. A lot I'm sure.  Do they have that 26.2 mile stare?  How do these people walk?  I could almost read their minds through the looks in their eyes for a second there...