Don’t OverCook It –
Running Training For Peak Performance and Injury Prevention
by Ralph Havens PT IMTC
Beyond Limits Physical Therapy
Bellingham, WA and Worldwide via Zoom
How to avoid running injuries for peak performance. A systematic approach to running and healing from running injuries with Ralph Havens PT IMTC.
This is a key I’ve found so runners can avoid running injuries, stay healthy, and progress each year toward their goals and improved performance.
Running is one of the purest forms of athletics in my opinion. Every school boy or girl has lined up to see who is fastest on the playground.
Some young runners have dreams and aspirations of competing at the highest levels. Yet injuries and poor performances can get in the way of these dreams.
As an integrative physical therapist I get asked to help runners and other athletes recover from injuries, so they can get back in action and do their sport.
And I am able to find the root causes of running and sports injuries, even chronic pains which have hindered people from doing the sports and activities they love.
I will share some healing resources below so you can heal and do this as well.
Now what I want to share is how to avoid the injuries in the first place and how to progress each year, so as a young runner each year is faster and better than before.
I think these principles can apply to life and life goals as well.
The #1 key I’ve found to staying healthy and improving peak performance is to not “Overcook It”….
What I mean by this…. there is a “sweet spot” to training and life.
If it was just a matter of more is better, most people would be Olympic champions… It’s not about just going harder and longer than anyone else.
That’s just a way to get stale and at worst getting injured.
So with running heres the keys we use for ourselves and our athletes.
The key is that the athlete and the runners know
“What is the purpose of this workout?”
With the coach and athlete on board with the plan, then the tenacity of the athlete can be to do the “sweet spot” amount of training and not overcook it.
Think of cooking salmon. Cooking it too long and the salmon is dry and not as good. In life this seems to be key as well.
There’s an optimum amount of training.
Doing more can actually result in poorer results and in many cases injuries. An injured runner is not improving, so first let’s keep the runner healthy and happy.
One question to ask is… “how can we do the least amount of training for the biggest result?”
This keeps the athlete healthy, happy and eager for competition.
Here’s 4 keys:
- A progression and season for each stage of training.
- The optimal amount of rest and active rest.
- Trusting the process.
- Focusing on the desired races. Usually this means the end of the year championship races and not just racing all year long at the same intensity.
With the seasons we have 4 phases:
1. Phase 1: Base building. The purpose here is to build the heart muscle aerobically while strengthening the bones, tendons, ligaments and connective tissue, And not stressing the emotional adrenal systems or the speed systems. Incorporating a few strides and very light tempo a bit each week can keep things light and bouncy.
2. Phase 2: The purpose here is in building the engine and neuromuscular components to allow for more specific speed endurance training later in the next phase. Here we continue with mostly easy running, base building running and strides and we add in once a week repetition running (mile race pace with plenty of rest – think repeat 200 meters at mile race pace with 90 seconds to 2 minutes rest between reps). And we add in one day a week tempo runs ( 15k race pace intervals and runs – like 3 to 5 x mile at tempo or 3 mile continuous tempo running)
3. Phase 3: Anaerobic threshold training. The purpose here is to build the speed endurance for the middle of the race. Like laps 2 and 3 of a mile race or the 2nd and 3rd mile of a 5k race. Here we concentrate on tempo, the key to the middle of the race. 3 to 5 x a mile at tempo pace with short recovery 60 seconds. And continuing with strides at mile race pace. We also have a speed day of repetition running like 8 to 12 x 200 meters at mile race pace.
4. Phase 4 is the racing phase. The purpose here is to refine the speed systems, get rested and be ready to race. Here we emphasize tempo with more rest in between efforts. Like 3 x mile at tempo pace with 2 minutes rest. And we continue with repetition reps like 8 to 12 x 200 meters at mile race pace with 90 seconds or more rest between reps. We also do specific speed like 4 to 5 by 150 meters starting at mile race pace for the 1st 50 meters, then 800 meter race pace for the 2nd 50 meters, then 400 meter race pace for the 3rd 50 meters. Also with plenty of rest between reps. In this phase we would do only one quality workout in a week that has a race in it. And when the championship racing starts it would be mostly light jogging, strides at race pace and repetition running and tempo running at the usual speeds, but with extra rest in between reps. We keep the speed, but we decrease the number of reps and we increase the rest time between reps. This keeps the runner healthy and eager for the races.
With this type of training we add in specific Integrative Physical therapy treatments keep the athlete healthy so we’d be doing specific healing techniques to clear bone bruises, disruptions in membrane wall integrity and toxins. I will put a link here, so you can use some of these advanced integrative physical therapy techniques for yourself and your athletes. https://www.ralphhavens.com/RunnersWalkersReliefFromChronicPain
The key to this way of training is to do the “sweet spot” amount of training.
We keep the athlete healthy, happy and ready to run. We find this gets the athlete excited and seeing progressing during each season and year after year. Let’s get fast and have some fun!
If you have a specific injury that is slowing down your progress, email me directly at ralph@RalphHavens.com or call me 360-599-2217 and I can do a free consult for you and let you know what I see that’s at the root cause, so you can get back in action and run and play your sport at your highest level.
To your health and healing,
Ralph Havens PT IMTC
Bellingham Washington and worldwide via Zoom.
https://www.ralphhavens.com/
Special thanks to Jack Daniels PhD and The Running Formula for his years of dedication and research in training and running performance. For a copy of his essential book.
https://amzn.to/4dZ4hxe
And special thanks to all my teachers and healers throughout the years who helped me overcome running injuries and be able to run free and healthy on our beautiful trails up here in the pacific northwest of Bellingham and Fairhaven Washington.
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