Image via WikipediaFor the last two months, the main focus of this blog has been training for a marathon. In the first blog, we talked about the equipment that is vital in run training. The second blog focused on what exactly goes into a marathon workout. How far a person should push themselves week after week. Then the third blog discussed the diet of a marathoner. This blog I’d like to focus on one thing: days off.Days off, or rest days, are just as vital to a runner as training days are. We touched on this subject a little bit in the Training for a Marathon Part #2, but it needs to be discussed further.
Think about it, if you’re constantly pushing a car to press on, eventually, something is going to give. If you constantly run a car, it’s very possible that something is going to break. You need to let the engine and all the parts cool down. The same thing applies to us as people. If a person constantly pushes themselves, never allowing themselves to cool down and rest, something is going to break, which results in an injury.
One thing you need to listen to is your own body. Pain is your bodies way of telling you something is wrong. Yes we all have little pains that we ignore, but when there is a constant pain, something is wrong or broken. The other thing that can happen if you don’t allow your body rest days is that you will probably become sick. Again, constantly pushing your body day after day eventually leads to something going wrong, and when your body is tired and worn down, so is it’s ability to protect against illnesses. If your body can’t protect itself, then you can expect a cold or flu right around the corner. The interesting thing is that when your get an injury or get sick, you are forced to rest to heal. Kind of ironic.
If you have any questions on foot or ankle injuries, contact East Penn Foot & Ankle Associates.
