Training for a Marathon Part #4

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.

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Training for a Marathon Part #3

Image via WikipediaHopefully you have read part one and part two on training for a marathon.  So now, as you start training for your marathon, another thing you need to plan out is your diet.  If you have run for a while, you probably know what works for you and what doesn’t.  As you train, you need to listen to your body and note when you are running better and when you’re bogged down.  The key is probably your diet!

Pretty much every runner knows that carbohydrates are what they need to have the energy they need for running.  More than half of your diet should consist of carbs, which are foods that are rich in starch.  This means eat up on pasta, bread, and cereals.  One thing you’ll want to watch out for is those starchy foods that have a higher fat content to them.  So try for multigrain bread instead of cinnamon rolls, or shredded wheat instead of highly sweet cereals.  You want to get energy to run, but don’t want extra fats and sugars that will just bog you down. 

You also need to make sure that you are getting protein to build muscle.  This is important if you haven’t worked out in a while and are just starting off.  As you train, you’re body will be developing muscles and you need protein to fuel that process.  This way you can get stronger faster.  Also, try to keep your diet constant and eat throughout the day.  If you eat three medium meals and one healthy snack between each meal, you’ll keep your body’s metabolism up and burn fat more, getting you the lean, mean, running machine you’ll need for a marathon. 

If you have questions on training for a marathon, you should contact East Penn Foot & Ankle Associates.  We’d love to help and guide you so that you can achieve your goal of completing a marathon.

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Training for a Marathon Part #2

Image via WikipediaSo now that you have decided to start training for a marathon, the question arises as to how one exactly trains for a marathon?  A marathon is a little more that forty two kilometers long, making a little over twenty six miles.  Don’t get discouraged, you can do it, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work, which will be totally worth it when you cross that finish and accomplish your goal!  The first thing you need to do is to start off slow.  If you haven’t run in a long time or this is your first time in serious running, you should check out a blog we wrote earlier taking about the right running stance, and in the beginning training, don`’t worry about distance but just get your body use to running and work on correcting your running stance.  At the beginning, work up to being able to run for a half a hour, once you have reach that point, it’s time to find and sign up for your first marathon.  You probably need at least fourteen to sixteen weeks of serious training to get ready for a marathon.

One of the most important things is to take rest days seriously, meaning that you don’t go running which will help you avoid injury.  You need to discipline yourself to train probably four days a week with three rest days spread out every week.  Do not kill yourself by running more than five miles more than once a week, meaning only one day should be focused on long distance a week.  Work up to it, by starting at five miles and adding one or two every week, then with two weeks till the marathon, tackle the long haul of twenty seven.  The last week, go easy allowing your body to rest before the big day. 

If you have any questions, Dr. Teichman would love to talk to you about training and how to start.  Contact him at East Penn Foot & Ankle Associates.

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Running - Training for a Marathon Part #1

Image via WikipediaImage via WikipediaSo have you decided that you want to run a marathon?  Well we at East Penn Foot & Ankle Associates want to help you along the way.  To do this, we’re going to be writing about how to go about training for a marathon for some blogs.  So whatever your motivation, we want you to train correctly and avoid injuries. 

So first, before you get going out, there are some things you need to consider.  First of all is that you need to consider the equipment you have.  This doesn’t mean that you need to go out and spend hundreds of dollars getting all the best running gear, but you need also to make sure that the gear you have isn’t going to keep you from enjoying this new hobby.  Mostly you need to make sure that your shoes are up for the extreme punishment that you are about to put them through.  The constant pounding of your feet to the ground means that your shoes need to be supportive, durable, and comfortable.  Your get the supportive part from sole of the shoe.  Make sure to get shoes that match your foot arch and that the shoe is sturdy even that it doesn’t bend in the middle.  The durability of a shoe depends on how sturdy the sole is on the outside of the shoe.  Make sure that you get a running shoe that can take on payment, grass, and whatever else.  Lastly, the comfortability of the shoe comes from the insole of the shoe.  Again, make sure to get an insole that fits your foot arch.  Also make sure to have get a shoe with a nice cushion to help protect your feet.

You can get other equipment for running, but the shoes are the most important piece, kind of like a helmet is for a football player.  If you have any questions, please contact us as we would love to help you get into running.  Make sure to watch for more tips on training for a marathon and get going!

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