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MAY 2013
Beginners Guide to Distance Running RACE CALENDAR Workouts Cardio Tips
PLAN YOUR RACES
Nutrition Strip Away Fat Race Listings
2013
MAY 2013
SHOES GUIDE
THE SPARTAN RACE NOT YOUR ORDINARY FUN RUN!
Contents
Featured
3 The Spartan Race
Attire
First Spartan Race, True Test of Will Brandon Sneed
12 Obstacle Racing in America Playing dirty Scott Keneally
16 The Spartan Blog 3 Months of Training
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4 Nike Neon Trend This season’s hottest colors
7 Nighttime Safety Be seen in Dark Johnathan Butler
Tony Reys
19 Tough Muddler vs. Spartan
10 2013 Shoe Collection
What Kind of Shoe is Right for You Kelly Rockwell
The Rugged Regimen Adam Lawn
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5 Elite Runner’s Stategies to Maintain Motivation for Running Create personal systems Katie Pierce
Nutrition
6 Top Food for Runners Increase endurance fast Anthony Demeri
8 A Guide to Fartlek Running Interval training with a twist
9 A Runner’s food guide to Nutrition Weekly Food Diary Jaimie Wiesser
Luis Palmer
13 Energy Supplments
11 Running Injury Recovery Tips Get back on your feet Jeffrey Williams
When and how to use them Kelsey Low
18 Good Calories Loose fat quickly
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Gen Marlo
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Credited photography: New Active Image
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Obstacles Test Athlete
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es’ Grit By: Dina Kraft
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Obstacle racing, more commonly known as a Spartan Race, Tough Mudder, Warrior Race, or Zombie Run, seems to be the new chic in terms of trendy physical fitness. Just as cross-training, P90x, Zumba, and other forms of exercise pop into the cultural mainframe, you may find yourself signing up for one of these bad boys without really knowing what you are in for.
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ast August, nearly 5,000 people gathered in Killington, Vermont, to compete in the Spartan Beast race, a 12-mile cross-country run up, down, and across the ski hill’s muddy slopes. A guy in a red cloak and Spartan war helmet announced the rules—“no whining, no complaining”—prompting a loud “Ah-roo!” from the crowd. The course featured more than a dozen obstacles, including a mud bog strung over with barbed wire, a greased climbing wall, a hurdle of smoldering hay bales, and a final gauntlet of brawny, shirtless “warriors” waiting to thrash racers with padded cudgels. Yeah, it hurt, but that’s part of the allure. Obstacle races combine mud and trail runs with boot-camp obstructions and even mind games, all designed to result in mental and physical collapse. Last year in the U.S., roughly a million people signed up for events in the four most popular series: Spartan Race, Tough Mudder, Warrior Dash, and Muddy Buddy. None are more than ten years old, but already there’s talk of world domination in the air. “By the end of 2012,” Tough Mudder’s website says, “we aim to replace Ironman as the preeminent brand in endurance sports.” Nobody’s quite sure what’s driving the sudden interest in hell-week-as-sport, but sheer novelty has to be part of it. “It’s a lot more fun to compete in, more fun to train for, and more spectator-friendly,” says Hobie Call, an air-conditioning technician from South Jordan, Utah, who has won 11 of these races. Joe Desena, Spartan Race’s founder and a former Wall Street trader, agrees. “People have grown bored with traditional linear races,” he says. Apparently, they’re also tired of made-for-TV adventure ordeals like Eco-Challenge, which ended in 2003, and Primal Quest, which is rumored to have seen sponsor cash dry up. Last year, Desena put on 29 Spartan events in 16 states, from three-mile sprints to the 48-hour Death Race (see Mark Jenkins’s firsthand account of the latter in “Bury My Pride at Wounded Knees,” November 2010). In 2012, Desena plans to hold up to 40 events. The rise of obstacle races comes just as high-intensity workout trends like CrossFit are mushrooming, giving Spartan, Tough Mudder, and other competitions massive social-media
potential. In October, in advance of the Death Race, Desena announced that racers who failed to hype the event online would have an extra obstacle added to their race. Cultish tactics like these have helped Spartan galvanize a network of more than 630,000 Facebook fans, up from 50,000 a year earlier. Tough Mudder has over a million. And then there’s the quasi-military motif of many of the events. “Mention anything about the armed forces on our forum,” says Desena, “and you get a thousand replies.” Though race participants are mostly civilians, some, like Jeff Cain, 41, a University of Kentucky professor who’s completed two Warrior Dashes and two Spartan races, appreciate the soldier’s-fantasycamp vibe. “I love the battle,” says Cain, “without the bullets.” Indeed, obstacle-course challenges take much of their DNA from boot-camp classics like the 18-year-old Camp Pendleton Mud Run, held near San Diego, and Staffordshire, England’s Tough Guy Challenge. Founded in 1986 by an eccentric ex-officer in the B ritish Army, the Tough Guy originally included a 40-foot crawl through flooded tunnels and long mud slithers with machine-gun blanks fired overhead. In 2011, more than 5,000 people competed. Stateside, the impressive turnouts have made obstacle-course events a commercial windfall. Last June, Beaver Creek, Colorado, attracted more than 20,000 people to its first Tough Mudder. By comparison, the XTerra off-road triathlon championship, held there in July, drew just 2,000. “Tough Mudder was among the biggest summer weekends in the history of Beaver Creek,” says Tim Baker, the resort’s executive director. “Our lodging was sold out for two nights.” Desena says he’s fielded countless inquiries from officials as far away as Japan and Australia who want to host races. He also claims he’s been offered millions by investors. So far he’s declined. “We want to change people’s lives,” he says, “not just make a bunch of dough.” Of course, the events haven’t been without incident. At the 2009 Tough Guy in England, 600 people were treated for hypothermia. After the Spartan Sprint in Birmingham, England,
“Yeah, it hurt, but that’s part of the allure”
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a woman posted a photo of herself lying in a medical tent, with the caption “The sweetest feeling! Spartan medal and broken ankle.” At the 2011 Warrior Dash in Kansas, one man died of heatstroke and another of unknown causes. “These races introduce a lot of risks,” says Jean Knack, executive director of the Road Runners Club of America, which hosts hundreds of traditional marathons each year. “We don’t encourage members to participate in events with man-made obstacles where there’s a decent chance of getting hurt.” Knack, like others in the running community, doesn’t seem too concerned that obstacle racing will bleed the ranks of traditional competitions. While there’s some overlap, she says, “it’s a popular trend. We’ll have to see what happens down the road. Let’s not forget what happened to inline skating.” Indeed, it seems unlikely that obstacle racing will replace tri anytime soon. “Triathlon, from beginner to pro, is as healthy and vibrant as ever,” says Chuck Menke, marketing and communications director for USA Triathlon. The numbers would seem to bear that out: in 2010, 2.3 million people entered 3,500 sanctioned triathlons, a 55 percent increase over the previous year, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. But even if obstacle racing has a long way to go, it’s starting to draw top talent. Hobie Call qualified for the U.S. Olympic marathon trials with a 2:16 before switching disciplines. Last year, he took up another Desena publicity challenge—a $100,000 prize for anyone who could win 14 of 16 events—and was on track to collect until he nearly became hypothermic during the Death Race. The only other Spartan event Call entered and didn’t win was the Spartan Beast, at Killington. That win went to Marc-André Bédard, 25, a member of the Canadian biathlon team. Bédard passed Call near the end of the course, then had to swim across a pond, ascend a rope, and crash through the Spartan bullies at the finish. “It was really tough, but I loved it,” says Bédard. “It’s the most excited I’ve been about an event since the Olympics.” “Spartans, prepare for glory!” bellows a bearded man in a cape and helmet as he paces before more than 1,700 jittery aspiring warriors. “No retreat! No surrender! That is Spartan law. Remember to return with your shield—or on it!” Then he grunts—”Ah-roo!”—and a horde of adrenalized hoplites charges forth with abandon.
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So begins the Brooklyn (N.Y.) installment of Spartan Race, a 5K sprint that’s equal parts Medieval Times, American Gladiators, and corporate road race. Spartan Race is just one of the extreme adventure challenges growing in popularity among young professionals, particularly those in finance. The race is the creation of 27-year-old Brit Richard Lee, a former Royal Marine, and his girlfriend, Montrealer Selica Sevigny. Competitors, who pay entry fees between $50 and $70, make their way past a dozen obstacles—including a crawl under barbed wire and a leap through fire—planted throughout the race, which is currently making its inaugural tour through nine cities in Canada, the U.S., and Britain. The first modern adventure race is generally considered to be the 1989 Raid Gauloises in New Zealand, in which competitors traversed great distances by snowshoeing, camel riding, and other equally practical means of conveyance. Television producer Mark Burnett, of Survivor fame, launched an offshoot in 1995, the Eco-Challenge. The event was aired by turns on MTV, ESPN, the Discovery Channel, and the USA Network for nine years. These races, along with the continuing popularity of extreme sports, have offered a third way for professionals seeking something more strenuous than company softball and less militaristic than paintball. Lee estimates that 60 percent of the more than 15,000 anticipated challengers this year are on corporate teams. Spartan Race is hardly alone in its attempt to transport white-collar professionals back to heartier, dirtier times. In the Warrior Dash series—which has courses from Southern California to the Northeast—participants receive a horned “warrior helmet” reminiscent of Hägar the Horrible’s. There’s also the British Tough Guy race, the arduous Tough Mudder series
it’s nothing like how hard it used to be.” Soil abounds in Brooklyn’s Spartan Race. For more than three miles, racers overcome irregularly spaced hurdles, a 12-foot-high pile of wood and dirt, a horizontal climbing wall, an inclined ramp greased with shortening, and—just before the finish line—two bare-chested men with jousting sticks. It’s messy, but is it really Spartan? “I’m a big fan of the movie 300, and we were looking for a symbol that represented ingenuity, bravery, strength, and the will to overcome adversity,” says co-founder Sevigny. “The Spartans were renowned for that.” The six fastest finishers in Spartan Race— three male and three female—receive free admission to the forebodingly named Death Race, held in March and June in Pittsfield, Vt. The 24-hour-or-so 10-mile course pits racers against a series of bizarre surprise challenges intended to tax them mentally as much as physically. Before entry, participants are required to sign a waiver with the sobering line: “I may die.” Both the Spartan Race and Death Race are operated by parent company Peak Races, which is owned by Joseph Desena, 41, a former Wall Street banker and the current managing director of portfolio trading at Pittsfield (Vt.)-based financial adviser Collins Stewart. “Our best analogy to present our message is that we are all animals,” Desena says. “Visualize this: You come home one day and your pet is watching Oprah, drinking a coffee, toenails painted, smoking a cigarette, and complaining that she needs a new mattress. Or you come home and that same dog just ran 22 miles chasing a bird, killed it, ate it raw, and drank some water. Which animal is the normal one?” Desena claims that entrance fees to the races allow Peak to “just about break even,” but money seems secondary. “There is something greater to do than worry about maximum profit,”
that travels the U.S., and the two-person Muddy Buddy race. Their common ingredient? Mud. “Corporate life, and life as we know it today, is very comfortable,” says Brian Duncanson, CEO of Spartan Race, which is a subsidiary of Peak Races. “People may think they have it hard, but
he says. “Just ask Bernie Madoff.” New Yorker Stefanie Bishop, 27, vice-president for equity derivatives at brokerage firm Elevation, won the winter Death Race and finished first among women, and sixth overall, in the June event. (Spartan Race skews about two-
“It’s a lot more fun to compete in, more fun to train for, and more spectator-friendly”
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thirds male; Death Race, which rigorously screens admissions and limits participation to 100, is even more testosterone-heavy.) To win, Bishop had to submerge herself in an ice-broken pond for 45 minutes and drink a gallon of milk. “One of the girls was lactose-intolerant,” she recalls. “She put it down pretty quickly, but part of it came up.”
Spartan Locations & Times This season’s schedule • 5/11 Montana • 5/18,19 Texas • 5/25,26 Montreal • 6/1 Vancouver • 6/1,2 Tri-State • 6/2 Quebec • 6/8 Tri-State #2 • 6/15,16 Ottawa • 6/22,23 Toronto • 6/29 Utah • 6/29,30 Edmonton • 6/30 Montreal • 7/13,14 Penn. • 7/14 Toronto • 7/20,21 Midwest • 7/21 Ottawa • 8/3,4 Pacific • 8/10,11 England • 8/10 Monterey • 8/17, 18 Calgary • 8/17 Hawaii • 8/24,25 Atlantic • 8/25 London • 9/1 Cambridge • 9/7,8 Tri-State NJ • 9/7 Miller Park • 9/7 Red Deer • 9/8 Yorkshire • 9/14 Seattle • 9/15 Edinburgh • 9/21 Vermont Ultra • 9/21,22 Vermont • 9/21 Midlands • 9/28 Citizens Bank • 9/28 Sun Peaks • 9/29 Sun Peaks • 10/5 Wisconsin • 10/7 Ohio • 10/8 Ohio • 10/15 Tampa
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Another bafflingly cruel Death Race task required Bishop to bushwhack through mountainous woods carrying a pack filled with $50 worth of pennies (about 28 lbs.), 10 lbs. of raw onions, and an 8-lb. Greek language primer (for later use in translating the sentence “The race is only a quarter over”). In the middle of the woods they were met by a crowned man who called himself the Onion King. Contestants were forced to chop up the onions in 1-in.-by-1-in. pieces, sort them into 1-lb. bags, and eat one bag. On the other side of the mountain, they had to eat another pound. It could have been worse: During the winter running of the race, contestants were given a sequence of eight two-and three-digit numbers to memorize. After running four miles, they had to recite it correctly—or else run back up the mountain. Bored by triathlons, Bishop prefers wood chopping (she owns an ax) and snaking under her own barbed-wire course to doing time at the gym. She contends that adventure races have also expanded her business network. “By the time you finish, you might have a new group of friends and contacts,” she says. “If I have a client who runs 5Ks but is not extreme, I’ll encourage them, and I’ll do it with them. They’re always happy about it, and it’s a bonding experience for us.” Ex-U.S. Marine Alex Fell, co-founder and drill instructor at Warrior Fitness Boot Camp in Manhattan, trained about 50 runners for this year’s Spartan Race. “The majority of our clients are in finance,” he says. “They have that type-A, real competitive personality; they want to see if they have what it takes to survive this kind of training.” The recession may also explain the surging popularity of adventure races. Sara Rouf, an analyst at financial-services firm Stone & Youngberg, began training with Warrior Fitness after she lost her last job because of restructuring at JPMorgan Chase (JPM). “People who work in finance need to have some sort of hungry attack-mode challenge every day,” she says of the laid-off bankers who’ve used newfound downtime to practice crawling beneath barbed wire.
On the sidelines of Spartan Race, Marines man a pull-up bar where Spartans can test their mettle. Anyone matching the strongest Marine’s streak of 30 full-extension pull-ups receives a free T-shirt. No one comes close. In one area, at least, the Spartans return home in ignominy, and steel themselves for battle on Monday morning—in search of another form of glory. Running hurts. There’s the burning lungs, the aching legs, even the side stitches that feel like a pack of needles attacking right beneath your rib cage. To slightly alter the sign from the Muck Farm: Running is repetitive and redundant, not to mention repetitive and redundant. The popularity of road racing continues to grow, but there are different options to the races along the roads: obstacle racing. Millennials are swarming to the obstacle races made popular by Tough Mudders and Spartan Races because they turn the idea of a normal, boring run on its head. Instead, the races are action packed and, albeit a little terrifying and somewhat dangerous, fun. An obstacle race is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of lining up and racing along the streets like a road race, the participants line up and race along mud drenched paths while powering through obstacles with barbed wire, electric shocks, and fires. The big three in obstacle racing are Tough Mudder, Spartan Race, and Warrior Dash. Tough Mudder is always 10-12 miles with obstacles, Spartan Races range in distances from 3-miles on up, and Warrior Dash is a sprint in comparison. With each race organizer’s origins starting in 2009 and 2010, the races have seen rapid success. In 2012, about 1.5 million participants got in on the obstacle racing craze. As a comparison, Running USA reported that nearly 14 million racers finished road races in 2011 (this would count one person finishing two different road races as two). While obstacle races are behind in numbers, it is worth noting the average age of participants. Running USA breaks the average age of runners down by race distance. Females running
Fire jump-Leesburg Trifecta New Active Image Photography the 5-kilometer race are about 33 and those running the marathon have an average age of 36. The Men are a little older, 34 is the average age of 5-k road racers while marathoners are almost 40-years-old. Meanwhile, Tough Mudder reports on its website that the median age of it’s competitors is 29-years-old. The new form of racing may not have the numbers of the old standard of road racing, but the younger base bodes well for the future. The reason, perhaps, for the younger crowd is the excitability and bruteness associated with the event. In a Men’s Journal article about Tough Mudders, Jonathan Geller, a 31-year-old personal trainer from New Jersey, said of doing Tough Mudder, “It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve done in my life. I dislocated my shoulder three times on the first lap.” The websites of Tough Mudder, Spartan Race, and Warrior Dash all have military-like YouTube commercials that look more like a trailer for Act of Valor than a promotion for a race. The promos harp on a theme similar to one the Marine’s used in past ad campaigns: “The Few. The Proud. The Marines.” They even take “hoo-rah!” straight from the military slogan book. The marketing is working. Millennials are swarming to the event. In an article for Outside, Renee Jacques wrote about why the race is popular among young Americans: “Every day we are faced with negativity, older generations telling us our future is bleak, prophesying our destinies like really mean fortune tellers … The Tough Mudder forces you to forget about your responsibilities and just live in the moment.
Aftermath of Barbed Wire crawl -Leesburg Trifecta New Active Image Photography
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Upcoming Obstacles You can expect to see each obstacle within your race. Get prepared, and don’t get scared!
FIRE JUMP
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GLADIATOR ARENA
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What: You leap over burning hay, coal, or logs. Risks: Singed undercarriage; or if you fall, serious burns Origins: Rituals celebrating the Persian New Year and St. John’s Eve
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What: Two men with padded pugil sticks pummel you just before the finish line. Risks: Bruises, broken nose Origins: Ancient Rome
TUBE CRAWL
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What: You wiggle through 18-inch-diameter drainage tubes flooded with muddy water. Risks: Freaking out, passing out, hypothermia if the water is cold Origins: Battlegrounds, especially the Vietnam War
NET CRAWL
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ELECTROSHOCK THERAPY
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What: You run or crawl under dangling wires juiced with 10,000 volts. Risks: Bumps and bruises if you collapse awkwardly, though electrocution can cause cramps and even heart attacks Origins: Torture methods, psychological experiments
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What:You slither through mud under a cargo net fixed at the corners. Risks: Entanglement, embarrassment Origins: Military courses, though recruits typically crawl over nets
EVEREST
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What: You scrape your way up a quarter-pipe covered with mud and grease. Risks: Abrasions, dislocated shoulders, ankle strains, gashes Origins: Military courses; skateboarding
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Racing Create Systems So You Don’t Have to Think About Running
Elite Runners’ Strategies to Maintain Motivation for Running 1. The first step is to identify the
When you’re running 13 to 14 times per week for months on end, often for hours at a time, running can quickly consume your entire thought process. While this might be sustainable for a week or two, even the most dedicated runner will lose motivation when running becomes a constant chore. Therefore, one of the most effective secrets employed by elite runners is to implement systems so they don’t need to think about training. Through efficiency, they can eliminate most of the thinking involved with training; this gets them out the door when they are less than inspired.
specific areas and times that most often lead to your sapped motivation. Think back to the last time you skipped a run, and try and recall your “reasons” for missing the run or where you got hung up. For example, did you pull the covers up when the alarm went off because it was too cold or too early? Did you feel hungry and in need of a snack first? Get as detailed as possible; try to cover any possible reason that keeps you from putting on your shoes.
Creating an effective system for your lifestyle and specific motivational challenges can seem daunting. However, here is a step-by-step process that can help you create a foolproof system to power through those days you just don’t want to run.
Top Food for Runners Black Beans
Sweet Potatoes
Coffee
Berries
Quinoa
Lean Beef
Eggs
Bananas
Salmon
Powerful trio of fiber rich carbs, protein and antioxidants. Caries fuel your run, while protein and antioxidants promote muscle recovery.
Studies have shown that t he high amounts of antioxidants and vitamins in berries help stare off soreness after a hard workout.
Conveinent form of protein that contains all the amino acids the body needs to rebiuld the muscle that is broken down during exercise.
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2. Next, think about creative ways you can eliminate the above issues, distractions or weak moments. If you struggle with getting out of bed, consider putting your alarm in the next room next to your running clothes so you have to get up to turn it off. Too cold to run? Buy a cheap ceramic heater and get the room you get dressed in nice and toasty so you’ll forget it’s cold outside. Organize or lay out your clothes so you don’t have to think about what to wear in any given temperature.
A highly nutritious source of carbohydrate. They provide tons of beta-carotene and potassium which both prompte recovery. Also contains manganese which may improve performance since it is essential for healthy muscle function. It’s a healthy carboydrate that also provides muscle biulding protein. Not only that, but it also contains the 8 amino acids that the body requires to put that protein to good use.
Perfect pre-run, high carb snack, straight from nature. High in potassium which is important in balancing electrolytes and may protect you from getting leg cramps.
Studies have shown that caffeine boosts performance, endurance, and recovery. In the form of black coffee, you’ll also get a nearly calorie free dose of powerful antioxidants.
Runners have a higher blood volume than most which make their iron stores deplete faster. The body also loses iron through sweating. Iron deficiency= zero energy to run. Keep your levels up by eating lean beef, one of the best sources of complete iron.
Provides omega-3 fats, which counteract imflammatioin and promote recovery.
A Guide to Fartlek Running Interval training with a twist!
The word ‘fartlek’ means ‘speed play’ in Swedish, and a fartlek run aims to do just that, alternating fast and slow pace during the course of a long run. This system was initially designed in the 1930’s by Swedish coach Gösta Holmér for the Swedish cross-country team. This form of training has a number of advantages: The runs develop both your speed and endurance capacities, by increasing aerobic and anaerobic fitness level. When you change pace during a run, you take the stress off some muscles and place it on others. Fartlek running can therefore be a way to ‘spread the load’ on your leg muscles and avoid overuse injuries. On a mental level, a fartlek run with lots of different stages can be more appealing than one long continuous run. Many people add one fartlek session a week to
their normal runs for variety. Fartlek can be adapted to training not only for races, but also for field games like football or rugby, which also require alternating periods of fast and slow motion. However, it must be said that to use fartlek as part of an intensive training program, the runner must already have sufficient experience to be able to judge
his pace and strike a fine line between ensuring he has a demanding workout but at the same time doesn’t overdo it and cause injury. This can be quite hard to do when you are out running in the open country, which is why many people will recommend that beginners get some experience with interval training before they start serious fartlek running. If you are just making the transition to incorporating fartlek in your training, it is better to carry a stopwatch and have a well thought out plan beforehand. (With time and experience, you will be able to ‘run on feel’).
How do you motivate yourself during monotonous weeks of training?
Here are some sample plans for different distances - all of them should start with a 10 minute warmup jog and end with a 10 minute warmdown jog.
Astrand Fartlek
Watson Fartlek
Gerschler Fartlek
–10 minutes warm up jog. –Full speed for 75 seconds, 150 seconds recovery jogging, then full speed for 60 seconds, followed by 120 seconds jog run. Repeat this twice - three circuits in all. –10 minute warm down jog
–10 minutes warm up jog. –Race pace for 4 minutes with 1 minute recovery jogging - repeat 8 times –10 minute warm down jog (Alternatively for shorter distances up to 5k you can stride hard for 3 minutes, repeated 6 times)
–10 minutes warm up jog. –Race pace for 30 seconds, then recovery jogging for 90 seconds. Repeat with 15 second decreases in recovery jog e.g. 30-90, 30-75, 30-60, 30-45, 30-30, 30-15 and 3015-30. Repeat this circuit twice, for a total of 3 circuits per session
Running Injury Recovery Tips
Themed Races to Look Out For
The Color Run™ Washington D.C. This 5k is going down in Washington D.C. on May 19th, 2013! Race it solo or form a “color team” of 4+ members.
The Glowrun 5k (Tulsa OK.) Glowrun Tulsa will take place on Saturday, August 24th at 8:30pm. The run/walk and post run after party will light up Veterans Park as thousands of runners and walkers make their way through the course and party late into the night.
Krispy Kreme Challenge Let’s start with the stats: 2.5 miles out, one dozen doughnuts in, another 2.5 miles back. Oh, and do it in under 60 minutes. At 2,400 calories consumed per competitor, the Krispy Kreme Challenge is a gloriously gluttonous affair.
Cross-train Instead of Running
While you’re resting your injury, cross-training is one way you can help maintain your fitness. You should only do activities that are pain-free. If you’re under a doctor or physical therapist’s care, make sure you check with him or her about safe activities. Biking and swimming are excellent aerobic exercises that keep you off your feet but still give you a good workout. Ease Back into Running
Go easy when you first return to running because if you run too hard, you risk re-injuring yourself. If you’ve been out of your running shoes for only a week or two, start at about half the distance you were running before your injury. You should be able to build back to your former level in two to four weeks. Dealing With the Emotional Impact
When you’re recovering from a running injury, you become very aware of how running is a huge part of your life. You’ll likely feel more stressed, since running is a stress reliever for many people. Try not to adopt a “woe-is-me” attitude. An optimistic outlook can help speed up your recovery.
Get back on your feet fast!
Run For Your Lives A zombie-infested obstacle race? Count us in. This frightful 5K combines flesh-starved, virus-spreading zombies along with a series of mud (and blood) covered obstacles. Don’t let them steal your flag or you will become one of them!
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