Take your workout outside: Part IV

Since I'm running 21 miles this weekend, it seems like a good time for Part IV of this series, focusing on off-the-road tips for current and aspiring long-distance runners. These will help keep your body (and your morale!) in top condition.

1. Get your body the nutrients it needs. As a former obsessive calorie-counter (who still obsesses about it sometimes), I have to tell you that you can't worry about eating too much if you're in serious physical training - especially the first time you're training for a long-distance race. Your metabolism is increasing, you're exercising significantly more and your body needs extra fuel to handle everything you're putting it through. If you don't eat enough, your workouts won't be successful. Period. If you're used to counting calories, use a tool like mapmyrun.com to track how much you're burning, so you know how many extra calories you need to eat. There are all kinds of complicated formulas for figuring out the perfect ratio of carbs to protein to fat for runners, but I just listen to my body. I carbo-load the night before a long run, usually with an obscene amount of (whole grain) pasta. By the time I get out of the shower afterward, I'm usually craving either a cheese omelette or a burger, which is my body's way of telling me it needs protein to rebuild the muscles I spent the last few hours tearing up. When I get hungry again, it's usually for something carb-y, because my body's realizing that I pretty much depleted those stores, but I try to toss in some type of protein too. I'm eating less this time around than I did the first, but still significantly more than I was in January, when 20-degree weather kept me inside most days.
2. Sleep tight! One of the keys to a good run is a good night's sleep beforehand. Running 14 miles on Saturday isn't going to be much fun if Friday happy hour lasts till midnight. (Not to sound like your mother, but alcohol in general is not the runner's friend in large quantities - it's dehydrating, and you're not going to run well if you're hungover.) Everyone's needs are different when it comes to sleep - I function best on seven or eight hours to begin with, so when I'm training hard I try to get eight or nine hours a night. My social life suffers, but my body is much happier!
   
3. Psych yourself up to avoid psyching yourself out. New distances are daunting, and no matter how ready your body is for them, a mental freak-out can trash a workout before you make it past mile 1. There are certain numbers that just sound scary (10 and 20 were the worst for me, the first time around), even if they're only a mile or two more than you've done before, so it's best to prep yourself mentally to keep your head from getting in your body's way. Something I started doing at about eight miles last year - and continue to do now at 16+ - was to mentally review my route a couple of times a day for a day or two before a long run. As mentioned in Part III, I generally map my routes at mapmyrun.com before I run them. That gives me a visual, and since the site lets you view maps in street view, satellite view or a combination of both, you can pick the visual that helps you most. I like "hybrid view" - the combo of street and satellite - and use it to remind myself where both on-street turns and physical landmarks will be. That way I can say, "Okay, when I cross that path to the marina parking lot, I'll be at six miles. When I hit the end of the airport fence, that's nine. That water fountain by the memorial is 12," etc. Keeping a general outline of your run in your head - whether it's in the style of an actual map or turn-by-turn directions - can keep your brain focused and let your body do what it already knows it can.
4. Listen to your body. Even for avid gym-goers, an intense outdoor regimen will put more strain on your body than it's used to, and you need to learn to listen to its cries for help in all areas. The most basic of those is fuel, as mentioned in #1. Then there's physical stress and injury. I can't imagine a training program ever being 100% discomfort-free, but if you pay attention to the low-grade aches and pains, they're less likely to become full-blown problems or injuries. If something hurts, figure out why. Most of the time you can probably do it on your own with basic rest, refueling, stretching, icing/heating and poking around on the web for information. But if it's been a week and nothing is helping, see a doctor - one who specializes in sports medicine is probably the most helpful if you're sure the issue is directly related to your training. Sometimes, a symptom you think is normal turns out to be a chronic problem (keep reading for an example) and you need to take unexpected steps to reverse it.
5. Give your body a break. My average weekday involves 10 or more escalators, which I generally pound up and down as fast as I can, one to two miles of walking, which I tend to speed-walk since they're part of my commute, and some 9.5-pound weight lifting when Nala decides to dash out the door every time I come in. Kitty-lifting aside, all of that adds up when you're running 35+ miles per week for months on end, and there are days that I leave for work feeling like I'm all but hobbling, my legs are so tired. I'm not a particularly patient person, but since I try to do #3, above, I make myself stand still on escalators (on the righthand side only, in D.C.!) when my legs are screaming at me to give them a break and pull my walking pace back to more of a stroll. And although it doesn't seem like much, it helps, and my shins especially thank me for the difference.
   

Okay, the example promised in #3: I coasted through most of my first round of training, both mentally and physically. Yeah, I was sore off and on. Yeah, I had some miles when variations of "Why am I doing this?" played on a loop in my head. Yeah, I spent (post-long run) Saturday afternoons collapsed on the floor, reading, watching movies, icing my knees and shins and stuffing my face in my quest to reach a net calorie count of at least "zero" for the day. And yeah, my social life was close to non-existent for a few months. But for the most part, it was pretty easy going.

Until last September, when I'd been training continuously for six months, and my calves started cramping up when I wasn't running. I'm not prone to muscle cramps in my legs, but I assumed it was just because I was reaching the peak of my training, and my body was tired and more than ready for the tapering-off portion of Operation: Run a Marathon. But when I woke up crying in the middle of the night (yeah, really - and I kind of wanted to scream, too) from a particularly painful spasm in my left calf that just wouldn't let go, I stopped thinking it was normal or would "just fade." I poked around on running message boards, WebMD and my best friend's knowledge of animal nutrition (more of veterinary medicine applies to people than you might think!) and figured out that I probably had a potassium deficiency.

Too much potassium can kill you (I'm sure that's been featured on at least one crime-scene drama), so supplements are hard to come by and a bad idea anyway. I researched potassium-rich foods, then stocked up on spinach, bananas, potatoes - it's the skin that's really rich in potassium - and the low-sodium V8 my boss' wife's doctor had recommended when she had a similar problem. And it worked! A few days after starting my effort to flood my system with potassium, the cramps eased up, then disappeared, and I was able to run my 23-miler, my longest training run, pain-free.

I'm back at the most intense month of training (this time for Rock 'n' Roll Seattle), and once again, my calves started getting tight after workouts, but this time I knew what to do. I'm stocked up on spinach and potatoes, alternate between orange juice (450mg of potassium per 8 ounces!) and low-sodium V8 (it's disgusting, but it works) and snack on raisins most afternoons. And guess what? I haven't woken up in pain even once!

The bottom line for successful long-distance training is to be smart, be safe, stay up-beat and keep your eyes on the finish line. Because when you get there? Baby, it's worth every step.