In the run up to Irish Life’s Dublin Race Series this summer, we caught up with Irish Life Wellbeing Consultant Rebecca O’Mahony for her tips on getting ready for race day and avoiding injury along the way.
1. Planning your training days
This is a simple yet effective way to ensure that you get your training in. Your work and personal timetable may look different each week so it can be a good idea to review your calendar each Sunday for the week ahead. Having a visible timetable in the kitchen or telling your partner, housemate, children (anyone who needs to know your whereabouts in advance!) is always a good idea. This will help with accountability and ensure you can manage your time. When you’re planning your training days be sure to match them with your energy levels and schedule on any given day e.g. doing a longer run on the weekend if you’re tighter for time during the week. Also be sure to allow adequate rest days between runs and other activities such as resistance training.
2. Strengthening & mobility
Do not forget to include strength training involving the upper and lower body on at least two days a week. Exercises which target the muscles of the lower body such as squats, dead lift, glute bridges, lunges, calf raises and foot strengthening exercises are especially important to avoid injury. Be sure to allow adequate rest days between strengthening sessions and runs to avoid muscle fatigue or ‘heavy legs’ in the lead up to the race. A tip here would be to go gentle on any strengthening the day before and after a long run, perhaps look at focussing on the upper body or mobility work on those days. Mobility or active stretching such as walk lunges, plyometric exercises like hopping are a great idea to include as part of your warmups for your runs as well as in your strength or gym sessions. Post-run mobility work or a short walk can help reduce the build-up of lactic acid.
3. Gradually increasing mileage
To avoid overload injuries, make sure you gradually increase your mileage week to week. Remember cumulative load counts here e.g. if you usually run 5km twice a week and you decide to increase this distance to 4 times a week the next week, you are just as susceptible to a running related injury as you would if you decided to do one 15km run that week. This is because every kilometre counts. It can be helpful to increase your longer run by 1-1.5km a week and your other runs by 500m per week.
4. Getting your footwear right
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it! Make sure you have good supportive runners that suit your foot type. Remember not to drastically change your footwear in the lead up to any race or as you increase your mileage. If you are used to running in a more neutral/flatter runner it is not a good idea to change to one with a larger heel rocker such as a Hoka. Gradually building up to a different style of runner is recommended so that you can test out how your feet and body respond to the shoe as you train. This can significantly decrease the chances of any foot or lower limb injuries.
5. Using technology to your advantage
Smart watches such as Garmin, Fitbit and Apple are worth the investment if you are a runner. They allow you to track distance, sync music and other helpful apps that will help you to progress your training. There are great apps that can be used for planning routes, mapping your runs, and getting competitive with your friends like the MyLife app, Map my run or Strava. Other apps can be used to help build out training plans and these can be synced with your smart watch. Runna is an excellent app which develops a tailored plan to match your goals and allows you to be specific with your speed and distance for interval and speed sessions as well as recovery and longer runs. Having a decent playlist, podcast or audiobook can also be a good motivator as you run.
6. Creating accountability & support
Research strongly supports having a training buddy as it is shown to help with adherence towards a health behaviour such as running. This could be a friend, family member or colleague who you meet for one or more runs a week. It can also be helpful to join a local running club that meet on a weekly basis, not only will you get the social support, but you are guaranteed to be more structured in your training plan when part of a club. Running can be a great way to meet new people and have a bit of fun while you are at it. Running also positively impacts your mood, energy and alertness – so lace up and get out there!
The MyLife app is a health & wellbeing app from Irish Life. Download for free today to join the MyLife community and our Irish Life Race Series challenges this summer.