The End of Traditional Marathon Training - Part I
Submitted by
performancegaines on Mon, 02/01/2010 at 9:04pm.
Today, many people look to more active lifestyle goals in order to feel a sense of accomplishment. It is this desire to be active and the need to feel "engaged" which causes most to look towards competitive activities to drive them to begin and continue their training. Commonly, people turn towards one of the simplest and basic of activities, running, as a means of channeling their primal urge to compete. Today's running athlete usually focuses his training on traditional Marathon Training, which typically follows the path of progressive volume increase (distance) over a period of weeks and months, eventually leading to a very predictable pattern of overuse injuries. This is due to the lack of biomechanical knowledge of one's own body and absence of corrective training at the onset of a Marathon Training Program. Standard programs focus solely on the cardiovascular improvement of the trainee and rarely address the foundational component of muscular balance and proper neural recruitment.
As a result, injuries such as plantar fasciitis, patelofemoral syndrome (Runner’s Knee) and IT Band Syndrome (Iliotibial Band) plague the running community. Over the years, I have encountered countless numbers of people who have either run marathons in the past or were currently training for a marathon, and most carried with them stories of how their training was affected by the painful symptoms they encountered. The bodies of a select few even, had not properly recovered from the climactic event, and they were still living with soreness, tightness and pain years later.
I began to wonder how it was that so many people encountered such similar adverse responses to running and believe that this is due primarily to the fact that their training is centered around “putting the miles in,” and not around making sure that their bodies are properly prepared for the repetitive stress that occurs with running.
To properly train for a marathon, one must do more than just decide what marathon to run and plan out their mileage strategy based upon the number of weeks left. It is critical that the runner find a reputable trainer who is adept at not only improving someone’s overall running efficiency, but also at improving general biomechanics which are often overlooked.
In the segments to follow, I will present the latest research results and outline a comprehensive approach to successfully training for a marathon without putting in miles upon miles. The focus here is primarily on optimizing the body’s biomechanical advantages and secondarily on increasing the intensity of the running workouts so that an equal amount of work and adaptation can be achieved in a shorter period of training time.
| 320 reads | 0 comments |
0 votes: