Coach Amy’s Running Tips
Want to learn how to run healthy, strong, and at your best? Scroll down for Coach Amy’s tips! Not subscribed yet? Click on the box below.
Endurance athletes are susceptible to a severe medical condition called Acute Exercise-Induced Rhabdomyolysis (AER) which can have long-term implications. A combination of factors such as heat, dehydration, illness, injury, and the use of over-the-counter pain medications can cause this condition. Read Coach Amy’s full article about this topic: What Color is Your Pee? Signs, Symptoms, and Causes of Rhabdomyolysis.
“Running doesn’t make you strong. You need to be strong to run. ”
Running puts the body under a tremendous load. Some literature suggests your lower extremity is absorbing six times your body weight! Your ability to attenuate those forces and propel yourself forward efficiently and without causing injury requires a lot of strength and neuromuscular control.
Runners often carry a misconception that the act of running builds strength. That is not entirely accurate. Running with poor control and lack of strength is possible as most runners harbor weaknesses and manage to run for seasons without issues. But the risks are high for injury.
Control over the nervous system supports efficient form. Strengthening promotes:
speed
power
control
stabilization
protection of joints, muscles, and tendons.
Coach Amy leads classes influenced by physical therapy principles, barre, and pilates that build full-body strength and neuromuscular control specific to endurance sports.
Classes are held at the CoachAmyPT clinic on Thursday nights. Sessions are monthly and ongoing. Space is limited. To learn more, click on the button below.
“Beat out the freak-out.”
Life stress can increase susceptibility to injury. When we think of stress, we typically imagine adverse events like an ill family member or pet, a strained marriage, or divorce. Perhaps it is a conflict at work or job loss. But positive events can cause stress, too, like a move, a career change, or adding a new family member.
Whether negative or positive, stress can disrupt sleep, cause us to alter eating habits, distract us during workouts, and lead to inconsistencies in training —the perfect recipe for injury.
And that running injury adds fuel to the fire magnifying the stress. When an injury is severe enough that we cannot run, we've lost an essential stress-coping mechanism! How can we train through stressful periods and prevent this vicious cycle from taking hold?
In my tumultuous teenage years, my mom taught me to handle stress with a mantra, “Beat out the freak-out.” Below are my stress-busting tips specifically geared for athletes to “beat out the freak-out” and avoid injury.
Don’t suffer in silence. Share your life stressors with your coach. They can help you adjust your training plan and goals to create a safe and successful training/life balance.
Sleep helps muscles and tendons recover from training and is vital for our mental health. To prevent running injuries during stressful periods, prioritize your sleep and practice good sleep hygiene. What the heck is sleep hygiene? Check out this article written by the Sleep Foundation.
Log your food intake to hold yourself accountable and plan meals and snacks to avoid eating "bad for you foods." Check out this blog post I wrote on Foods to Avoid When Training.
Start a workout with a 2-minute time out. Breathe with a deep inhale and slowly exhale while emptying your mind. Tell yourself, "This is my time to be present and focus on the current task. I can think about [stressful thing] later.” Serotonin, a natural chemical you release during a workout, will help you process that stress in a healthy way.
As you run, thoughts may creep back in. Acknowledge them and let them go. Refocus on your current task - putting one foot before the other, one mile at a time.
It is tempting to shorten your warm-up or alter your training routine to "get it in" or "get it over with" when stressed. Stop and take your time. Rushing results in, at best, a poor-quality workout and, at worst, an injury.
Sometimes stress can overwhelm us. When it does so on the run, it may cause you to have difficulty breathing or you may break down crying. I have personal experience with this! Honor it. Take walk breaks and consider cutting the workout short instead of fighting it; live to run another day.
Positive and negative life stressors are inevitable during training. Recognize and acknowledge it, and take steps to manage it so you can continue running healthy no matter what comes your way.
No matter what area we live in, the transition to summer in the United States can make running more challenging and even dangerous. The most demanding conditions are the heat and sun combined with either high humidity or high altitude. But why does it feel so bad to run in those first few weeks of the summer heat, and what can we do about it?
Read More
This spring, improve your performance, efficiency, run form, and run strength. Coach Amy creates a workout personalized to each participant's goals and experience level.
Workouts include dynamic warm-ups, running drills, hill training, and running activities such as fartleks, intervals, and supersets. The class size is limited to 12 athletes.
Tuesday evenings 6:00 - 7:00 PM at Roe Park.
Running your best or fastest requires quality and precision of movement, power, and economy; we can achieve this with run-specific drills and skill development. - Coach Amy
Coach Amy specializes in running biomechanics and enjoys working with new runners, aging runners, those recovering from injury, and those who wish to improve their efficiency and speed.
Sometimes I wish to wrap my athletes in bubble wrap and hazmat suits so they avoid injury and illnesses, but that isn't realistic. While I can't protect my runners completely, I can educate them on how to best protect them from seemingly innocuous activities and alternative sports that may impact training. Below is the email I sent to my athletes last week. It may be helpful for you too!
“If your primary goal is to train for a run race or event, take care when participating in other sports or activities of daily living during the training period.
When you are participating in something out of your usual routine - assess the intensity and the repetition or length of time of that activity. Any of those factors can cause a nonrunning-related injury that impacts your ability to train.
For example, alternative sports like Cross Fit, soccer, and pickleball may cause direct injury. One of my runners decided to participate in a Cross Fit competition, fell, and suffered a grade II ankle sprain. As a result, she had to stop training for her half marathon.
Besides a direct injury, when combined with long-distance running training, participation in additional sports like these decreases opportunities for recovery and can cause overtraining. Injury, burn-out, and poor performance may result.
I recommend minimizing the intensity and frequency of playing other sports while you focus on training for a running race or event.
One caveat: triathlon is different. Training in this multisport is designed to accommodate all three sports, and swimming and cycling are not loading the body like running.
Other seemingly innocuous activities can also impact training.
For example, one of my runners jumped up and down at a Chiefs game and temporarily injured her back. It is not a particularly intense activity for a runner, but it is atypical and, if done repetitively for several hours, can lead to an injury.
Don’t paralyze yourself with fear or avoid all of life’s fun activities while training. Just play smart and be aware, and if you are unsure whether or not you should participate in a particular activity while training, [check with your coach]. ”
No matter how careful you are, life happens, and when it leads to an injury, follow my Acute Injury tips and live to run another day!
