As the season gets underway in the northern hemisphere, the early season training injuries start to rear their ugly head. Running on bad surfaces including slushy trails is not my idea of safe ‘soft underfoot’ pseudo experts advice; more like “absolute danger with every step”. My advice is to run on firm and even surfaces.
It is common for athletes to attend early season one week training camps with no work or family commitments and bust themselves with nearly two times the volume of what they do at home. Only to go home and develop an injury within ten days. Off to the physio they then go, to be advised ’10 days no training and visit me 3 times a week for 2 weeks’ (at $90 dollars a pop).
Yet most athletes neglect to consider one of the best training tools they have at their disposal when injured, the shuffle, or its close neighbor, the walk. It’s like the plague for athletes to do either of these when injured. It's like the no-no of all time.
I view walking as a fantastic substitute for running. However if an athlete is injured and not supposed to run, they would rather pay $6 for a pool entry to bob up and down like a tea bag for 40 mins of ‘real training’. It’s great for the pool, its great for the physio and its great for their head.
However the reality is very different. They would get more benefit from watching past glories on YouTube for 30 minutes and get some positive reinforcement into their head. Compared to the benefits for injured athletes provided by walking, well let’s say that all pool running does is replace a bath.
What is the reason for the anti-shuffle / anti-walk brigade in our head? Why is it such a crime?
It would seem everybody has a predetermined pace in their head that if they can’t run that speed, then it’s not ‘training’, and of no benefit. This is incorrect, but it's very hard to break this line of thinking.
Then we have the injury brigade thinking of:
Tissue injury - don’t run.
Tendon injury - don’t run.
Bone injury - don’t run, walk, or anything.
In theory there is possibly some correctness in that call, but most is total nonsense! Only one injury does not benefit from walking and that is a completely torn achillies tendon. (Even then after the operation, if you decide to have it and once recovered, walking is most beneficial there too.)
Walking has been an essential part of training for former Ironman champions Bella Bayliss and Chrissie Wellington, leading to great Ironman victories. Both didn’t change their training or particularly their run training. They put in every hour and didn’t miss a beat. On their long run days, both put on a backpack with a weight in it and hiked 4 hours in the mountains.
I watched Loretta Harrop walk 80 km per week with stress fractures only to come out and smash the worlds best in ITU World Cups.
These athletes had one thing in common, strong minds and a will to understand walking without much impact not only kept their muscles in shape, but also helped with muscle memory when they resumed running. More importantly walking brought oxygen to their affected area for 10+ hours of rehab a week, all for a total price of $0.
Next time you have an injury think about the benefits of walking as an alternative to the $500 dollars worth of physio, new pair of shoes or orthotics (if you see the wrong guy), adding up to at least a $1000 remedy. While you could get out the door and fix yourself and get back to racing quicker by understanding this one principle:
Running is nothing more than walking fast.
Walk on, Sutto
Comments