Community

The benefit that strikes out is the community aspect of racing. Racing brings the running community together. I am an introverted person, and I love my solo runs, but races are the perfect way to be surrounded by like-minded people, even for someone like me. Fellow runners in my race corrals have taught me so much about racing. From the marathon expo to the finish line, the support and camaraderie of runners is like none other. Races are like big fitness and running parties.

Motivation

I love the motivation that a scheduled race gives you. The date on the calendar is an excellent way to set a timeline for your running and fitness goals. For me, goals of running with a friend, setting a personal best, or just finishing strong are great for a confidence boost. After achieving the goals for a particular race, I am motivated to set the bar higher for the next race.

Structure

One of the best things about race training is the discipline and structure. I am a pretty self-disciplined person, but life happens; yes, I am talking about kids, work, and home. These things get in the way of exercise schedule quickly. Running with an aim, like a future race,  will help you put various runs on your calendar and motivate you to prioritize your running workouts. You will be able to gauge your progress with structured running.

Challenges

Racing always comes with challenges, managing the training schedule, staying healthy and injury-free, or a hilly course. I like to embrace challenges because they push me out of my comfort zone. I want to do more, push harder, get tougher, and races give me ample opportunities to do just that.

Travel

Racing is a great way to travel around the states and worldwide. I know a few athletes who have run a marathon in every continent of the world. Many runners set to complete the fifty-state challenge and go around to see all fifty states. What better way to explore a city than racing in it? It’s a perfect opportunity to explore the state and turn it into a runcation.

You can reap all these benefits from racing. Try putting a race on the calendar this spring and see where it takes you next. You might get hooked on racing and running.

The post Why You Should Put a Race on Your Calendar NOW 0 (0) first appeared on Tone & Strengthen.

How to Tell if You Are Quad Dominant

• If you’re not sure that you belong to the quad dominant group, here are some things to look out for.
• In a reclining core exercise, where your back is flat on the mat, you feel your hip flexors muscles. Hip flexor muscles is a group of muscles that run around your groin area and attach the upper legs to torso.
• You always feel the front of your legs when you squat and lunge but nothing much in the back of your leg.
• You feel a strong stretch in the front of your legs when you go into a bridge position.
• Your quads and hip flexors are sore after running and walking

What Causes Quad Dominance

Quads are the muscles across the front of the thigh that are responsible for flexing your knee. The muscles at the back of your legs, hamstrings, and glutes, are responsible for extending your knee and extending your hips. When your body relies primarily on the front on of your leg for extension and flexion of the knee and hips, that’s what’s called quad dominance. In simple terms, there is an imbalance between quads and hip flexors, and hamstrings and glutes.

The muscles in front of your body try to take over every movement even when its none of their business. Our bodies like to take the path of least resistance. When you have weak muscles in your body, the stronger muscles take over the work of weak muscles.

Modern humans like to sit for extended periods of time. All the sitting at the office desk shortens and weakens your hip-flexor muscles and shuts off your butt muscles. This results in a muscle imbalance in your legs and leads to quad dominance very quickly.

Runners and Quad Dominance

Quad dominance presents as overstriding for runners. Overstriding means that the runner’s leg is falling too far in front of the body with an overly extended leg. This results in the knee absorbing most of the landing force which stresses the knee. Overstriding can lead to injuries. Coach Caitlin Sapp explains it well in her blog, “your leg is the pendulum which should move equally in front and behind your body at any speed. When we overstride, the pendulum is swinging more forward than it is backward, as we are not getting the leg behind us while running.”

Another reason why quad dominance doesn’t work for runners is it leads to fatigue early. Quadriceps muscles are made for power and mostly consist of fast twitch muscle fibers which fatigue quickly. Glutes have mostly slow-twitch fibers and are supposed to endure. Relying on your quads results in less endurance and poor aerobic capacity.

Quad Dominant Running Injuries

Whenever I tell someone that I am a runner, people always tell me that they can’t run because it hurts their knee. The painful knees aren’t due to running. The painful knees are a result of poor posture and quad dominance. When a runner is running at speed, a lot of force is required from the muscles to extend the hips. Because of the poor posture and weak gluteus muscles, runners favor the quads to do the work instead of the glutes. This results in sheer forces at your knee which can lead to many injuries for runners.

The most common running injury because of this postural asymmetry is an adductor or quad strain.  Other common injuries seen in quad dominant runners are shin splints, tibial stress fractures, knee osteoarthritis and plantar fasciitis. Notice that these running injuries are in the front part of the legs, the muscles that are overused.

Bottom Line

Strengthening the weak muscles and placing your hips over your feet when you land, can relieve the knee pain, and avoid these leg injuries. Next time you go on your run, make a video of yourself running from a lateral view. Check if your legs are following the full pendulum swing or not.

The post What Does Quad Dominant Running Do? 4 (1) first appeared on Tone & Strengthen.

Just like we strength train our hamstrings and glutes we can train our diaphragm and intercostal muscles for deeper breathing. The diaphragm, a dome-shaped muscle that separates the chest cavity from the abdomen, is the most important muscle used for inhalation. The intercostal muscles help move the rib cage and assist in breathing.

Most of the runners take shallow breaths and practice chest breathing. Chest breathing can be a hard habit to kick since most of us spend many hours hunched over our computers, shortening the chest muscles, inhibiting deep breathing. A good way to switch to deep belly breathing is to do breathing exercises when you are not running.

Here are a few exercises that every runner should be doing.

Belly Breathing

Belly breathing activates your diaphragm. You can practice this exercise in a seated position or lying down on your back. Lying down on the floor is a better option because gravity isn’t working against your body.

• Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet on the floor.
• Place one hand on your belly and one on your chest.
• Inhale as deeply as you can. Imagine filling up your belly like a balloon.
• Deflate the balloon, emptying all the air from your stomach.
• Take 8 – 10 breaths for a pre-run warm-up or any time of the day.

Combination Breathing

Second breathing exercise is combination breathing with pursed lips. Combination breathing makes breathing slower and intentional. Inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.

• Come into a seated position or lay down on the floor.
• Inhale through your nose for two seconds.
• Purse your lips like you’re blowing a candle and exhale for 4-6 seconds.
• Repeat this exercise 8-10 times.

Rhythmic Breathing 

This breathing exercise is my favorite because you can do it while running. Try to practice a 3:2 breathing rhythm. Inhale for 3 strides and exhale for 2. Every time you exhale you will land on different foot. This breathing pattern reduces the chances of injury and muscle imbalance.  It’s a great technique for increasing lung capacity.

• Inhale through your nose.
• Take 3 steps on inhale and 2 steps on exhale.
• Repeat for 10 breath cycles and repeat as you can.
• Try to increase the number of breath cycles in each round.

References

• doi: 1177/1941738112445871

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Whether you are tackling your first 5K, upgraded to an 8K or are running a marathon, racing isn’t difficult if you are prepared for it. There’s no need to be stressed out, after all, racing is fun.

Here are some important steps to practice before the race and during your training to prepare for your next race.

Make Sleep a Priority – It’s important to log proper amount of sleep for your recovery and to be ready to race. Try to get at least seven to eight hours of sleep each night during your training. Research shows even sleep lag can impede your athletic performance. Try to be well rested as the race day approaches.

Practice and Plan- Practice makes you perfect. Running several times, a week during the training is going to get you ready for race day. Working with a coach or using a training plan is good idea.

Know the Racecourse- Familiarize yourself with the racecourse ahead of time. If you are local, it’s a good idea to run the route or drive or bike on it. If you are going to be traveling to the race, see the racecourse map. Outline the hills and the flats. Know when you are going to push and when you are going to backoff. Outline the fueling stations and where and how often would you like to stop. Determine your fueling strategy ahead of time. Would you like to take energy gels and how often?

Set a Goal and a Backup Goal- We all have a goal pace set for our races. I know many people achieve their goals. Keep in mind, things happen on race day that are out of our control. Things like weather, your stomach, cramps, and the list can go on and on. Keep a backup goal in case things don’t go your way on race day. Just finishing is a great goal to have too.

Hydrate Before and During the Race- Dehydration will not only make you feel sick you, but it will also hamper your performance. It’s good to practice hydrating before, during and after long runs. Practice will make you perfect.

Eat Familiar Meals- Practice what you eat the night before the long runs during your training. Try to stick with those foods for race day as well. If you are traveling and will be eating out, stick with simple foods like bowl of rice with chicken or noodles with chicken and boiled egg. Don’t go out trying sushi and steak the night before the race.

Get Ready the Night Before- Lay out your gear the night before. Make sure you have everything you need including your bib and you know where and how to pin it. Remember body glide for long races and shoes that you have ran with. It’s best not to try anything new on race day.

Stay Upbeat and Positive- Maintain a positive attitude and upbeat mode before and throughout your race. The last half of most long-distance races requires mental strength. Keeping a positive attitude will help you achieve your goal pace and enjoy the race.

Arrive Early- Plan to arrive at the race well before the start. This way you will have time to use the bathroom, and warm-up. Your first sprint shouldn’t be to the starting line.

Start Out Slow- You don’t need to win the race in the first mile. What you knew that? Start out slow and pace yourself out. Trust your training and have confidence that you will do well. Leave some energy stores for the final sprint.

Relax and Enjoy the Run- Yes, it’s true! Runners are competitive and Type-A people.  What can I say? We sometimes get carried away with our goals and where we want to place. Focus on the fact that races are positive community events. Try to keep yourself calm and relaxed by following a pre-run calming routine like breathing mindfully, stretching, and maybe listening to your favorite music.

After spending weeks training for your first race, you don’t want the last-minute stress to keep you from performing well at the race. To ensure your race day goes effortlessly try practicing these tips before race and during the training. These steps will ensure that you are prepared for what’s to come on race day.

The post 10 + 1 Tips for Successful Race Day 0 (0) first appeared on Tone & Strengthen.

1. It’s a great full-body workout. You move your whole body while doing this workout. You build a healthier heart and lungs and stronger core and legs.
2. Running is a sport that you can do no matter what the weather conditions are. In rain, snow, sleet, or hail, you can go out and get your run in.
3. Looking at my sneaker collection, you might disagree but running is a cheap sport. You don’t have to pay for any gym membership. Just put your running shoes on and hit the trail or pavement.
4. Running makes you mentally strong. Okay, I give in. Yes! Running isn’t the easiest, but you are living proof that you can overcome significant challenges when you work hard and eventually conquer a new distance or pace. Running makes your horizons expand and impossible become possible.
5. No one is too old to run. You might just add years to your life if you start running. Endurance exercise has been shown in studies to preserve telomere length. Telomeres are the heads of the chromosomes that determine your biological age.
6. Running clears your mind. There is something about the flow of oxygen to the muscles that simplifies the trickiest problems.
7. Runners are happier, more positive, and have higher self-esteem, according to a published in the Journal of Positive Psychology. The endorphin rush you get from the activity is a great pick-me-up.
8. Running strengthens the muscles around the knees and prevents arthritis. Study after study disproves the myth that running is bad for your knees. A recent study published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery found that veteran American marathoners had only half as much arthritis as non-runners.
9. Running can help relieve stress and eliminate depression. It’s the cheapest anti-depression drug on the market. Only a few minutes of running and your brain will start to secrete hormones that naturally improve your mood.
10. Running helps improve sleep quality. When you run, you force your body to exert excess energy and hormones. Running also helps to reduce your chances of developing tension headaches.
11. Are you always forgetting names or keys? Running improves memory. According to a study from the University of British Columbia, regular aerobic exercise increases the size of your hippocampus, an area of the brain responsible for memory and learning.
12. Running helps you explore new places. It’s a great way to explores cities on your vacation, national parks on your trail runs.
13. You can build new friendships or catch up with old ones on the run.                             13.1 You can eat carbs!

Running is a sport that takes determination and motivation to accomplish your goals, but it is totally worth all its benefits. Running can get you healthier and help you in many other parts of life. I suggest you go out and give running a try because you might enjoy it just as much as I do. Why are you still sitting on the couch? Lace-up

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