By: Nikki Reiter

As runners, we know how to work hard in training, but do we know how to recover in order to reap the benefits of our efforts?  When it comes to running, more intensity is not always better.  Dr. Neil Eves is an Associate Professor in Exercise Physiology at UBC Okanagan and has worked with multiple Canadian national teams.  He has extensive experience monitoring how elite endurance athletes recover from the stresses their training imposes on them and has lots to share to help the average runner succeed in achieving proper recovery.

Recovery is Important for Performance

High intensity training challenges the body to adapt to and handle ever-increasing training demands.  Runners who engage in higher intensity workouts, followed by easier runs, cross training sessions or rest, often see improvements in their racing performance.  This is because the body is given the chance to adapt to the training stimulus of the higher intensity bout.  Dr. Eves warns that not enough recovery between workouts can eventually lead to overtraining and that hard workouts “come at a cost, as fatigue is the runner’s enemy when it comes to being able to continually perform in workouts and competition.”

The Physiology of Recovery

“During exercise the body utilizes energy reserves, creates unwanted byproducts of energy metabolism (i.e. lactic acid) and can develop micro-damage to tissues that all need to be restored, removed and repaired over time.”  During recovery, our bodies seek to undo the stress and adapt to future loading of stress.  Dr. Eves explains that depending on how hard we worked this process could be from a couple minutes to many days.

Research has yet to define how much time is required for recovery to occur, and this is due to the individual differences in the rate of recovery between runners.  According to Dr. Eves, “recovery times vary depending on the amount of training stress accumulated, the initial fitness of the athlete, the quality of the rest and recovery performed, the quality of sleep and the quality of nutrition the athlete gets, etc.”   Generally speaking though, one to two days of either light running or cross training will get you ready for your next key workout if you didn’t over-extend yourself in the prior workout.

Monitoring Recovery

Recovery is important for all athletes and can sometimes be more of a problem for the recreational athlete, especially those planning and monitoring their own training.  Listening to one’s body is step one.  “If you are becoming lethargic and loosing the drive to train, if you are tired all the time, waking up more frequently at night, etc., then you are most likely not managing stress well.”

“A key element to monitoring and managing training stress is to realize that exercise is only one form of stress and family, job, financial and relationship stress, etc. all add up on top of the training.”  Thus, it’s recommended that runners take these factors into consideration when planning when they will perform their key workouts.  A rule of thumb is to ensure your ‘easy’ or ‘rest’ days truly are that, and aren’t confounded by other life stressors.

Try This At Home

A simple monitoring technique to determine readiness for a hard workout session is monitoring morning resting heart rate (RHR).  Immediately upon waking, while lying in bed, take your RHR (this usually fluctuates naturally by ~3 beats/min each day and should remain stable or even decline slightly if you’re recovering and adapting appropriately to the training load).  Following a period of hard training, if RHR has increased by more than 5-6 beats/min, you may be accumulating stress and additional recovery strategies or better training sequencing is needed to avoid excessive fatigue.

Additionally, many upper end heart-rate monitors are now offering a heart rate variability (HRV) measurement, which is growing in popularity for optimizing training and recovery.  HRV is the difference in time between consecutive heartbeats.  Dr. Eves explains how you can use tool effectively to help monitor your training:

• HRV is measured while lying in bed, immediate upon waking.  An appropriately trained and well-rested individual will have considerable HRV, while an over-reached or under-recovered athlete would have more uniform beats (i.e. less HRV).
• Although this is an attractive monitoring technique, it should be noted that there is considerable variation between individuals and between days and there are a number of factors, which can affect daily HRV.
• Thus, an individual should perform multiple HRV measures first during the transition phase or off-season to gain a ‘baseline’ reading of their individual HRV.  An ‘upper limit’ can be determined after the end of a 2-3 week high volume training phase.
• A continuous-monitoring approach allows one to understand their ‘normal response’ to a period of recovery or significant training stimulus and then comparisons throughout the rest of the season can be made in relation to these responses.

In summary, Dr. Eves presents the idea that “it’s often believed by many athletes and coaches that ‘a day not training is a day wasted’ but in the science of training, quality rest and recovery is essential for optimum performance.  It is therefore important to change this philosophy and consider rest and recovery as training. “

Happy Running!

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Nikki Reiter is a Mizuno Running Brand Ambassador from Kelowna, BC.  She holds a master’s degree in biomechanics, coaches Cross Country at UBC Okanagan and is the founder of Run Right Gait Analysis Service (run-right.ca).

Mizuno will be featuring a staff member as a part of our monthly e-newsletter so runners in the community can begin to know a bit about our great brand ambassadors. The next time you see Kaireen at a store or event you will know a bit more about her!

By: Karen Karnis

Kaireen Patton took an unusual route to her position as a Territory Manager with Mizuno’s Running Division for Eastern Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada. She was first introduced to Mizuno shoes while running for a team sponsored by a running store in Texas in the late 1990s; when the time came to pick out a pair of shoes under the sponsorship, the store owner told her she had to try Mizuno. The self-described shoe junkie didn’t take much convincing – and she hasn’t looked back since.

A physiotherapist by training, Patton moved from Texas to Portland, Oregon for her next job, where she became good friends with a woman who was a sales rep for Mizuno. Three years later, when she moved back to Canada, Patton couldn’t find Mizuno shoes anywhere, so she asked her friend from Portland where she could find them.

Patton got more than she’d bargained for; as it turned out they were looking to expand in Canada and needed some tech reps, and Patton’s friend had passed on her name.

“As a physiotherapist with a background in foot mechanics and orthotics, it turns out it was a really good fit,” says Patton. “Things in the running shoe industry were getting more technical; you can teach the sales side fairly easily.” It wasn’t long before Mizuno asked Patton if she wanted to make her part-time “fun job” as a tech rep into a full-time gig. She says, “In a moment of weakness I just said yes, and that was over eight years ago.”

“I get to talk about running and shoes all day and get paid for it, what could be better?” laughs Patton when asked about the best part of the job. She’s quick to add: “I have awesome accounts. All of them – from Trenton to Newfoundland – they’re all awesome. They challenge me – in a good way!”

Patton loves the running business – she can’t remember a time that she wasn’t a runner. She ran in elementary school, joined the East Ottawa Lions in grade 6, ran through high school, and ran indoor track at Queen’s. For a few years she got into triathlons, completing several races including Ironman Canada and Hawaii in 2001. Now she’s back to running for the most part, and while she’s done several marathons, including Boston, she says her favourite distance at the moment is the half marathon. “It’s short enough that I can train to the level I want without neglecting the family,” she says.

She’s humble when the topic turns to speed. “My dad was a sub-three-hour marathoner,” she says. “I was blessed with great genes and a good build for running. I also had the benefit of great coaches from a young age.”

If you’re wondering, Patton’s current go-to shoes are the Mizuno Wave Precision (for her distance runs) and Musha (for speed work and racing), but she’s very excited to get into next spring’s Rider as soon as she can.

If you’ll be at Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend, be sure to stop by the Mizuno booth at the expo and say hello to Patton – she’ll be on hand to help with all of your Mizuno questions. She’s also trying her hand at pacing for the first time – look for her in the half marathon, sporting ears and a sign that says “1:45.”

By: Nikki Reiter
Photos by: Carter Brundage

Before a race, you may see some runners performing hops, skips or jumps (also referred to as ABC’s) to help them prepare for the event.  It looks strange, and not exactly like running, so why do they do this?  Great question!  Runners will give you a variety of answers – these ‘drills’ help improve form, or help you limber up, or perhaps they do it just because someone along the way told them to do so!  It’s now time to clarify what this is all about.

Drills, What are They Good For?

First off, running drills don’t directly contribute to learning better running form, since they don’t represent the same muscle firing patterns as running.  The excessive use of the hip flexors for the purposeful knee drive in A’s, the disproportionate use of the hamstrings in B’s and the purposeful lifting of the heel in C’s do not mimic how these muscles are used in running.

However, drills are great for developing body awareness and the ability to learn to use feedback to correct oneself.  For example, practicing the A-movement slowly works the hip flexors, which can contribute to improved hip stability.  Also, the single-leg stance helps identify if you are dropping either of your hips in the stance phase, and practicing drills can help bring this awareness and reinforce stable hips through repetition.   Practicing drills at full speed can help reinforce body position, such as a forward lean at the ankles or having the feet land under the body.

Drills are also a great part of a dynamic warm-up before speed work as they increase range of motion and get you moving more quickly.  Increased range of motion in the hips allows for a longer stride.  Additionally, practicing quick movement in faster drills relates to less ground contact time, a necessary component of increasing stride rate to run faster.

How to Implement Running Drills

A basic Internet search for ‘running drills’ will result in lots of variations of A’s, B’s, C’s.  Start slowly to mimic their motion for a strength workout, or to reinforce motor pathways, then speed up to develop coordination.  A quick tip if you’re struggling – try the motion with your ‘legs only’ and place your hands on your head.  This adjustment will also help develop your oblique muscles, as you will have to activate them to resist trunk rotation.

Other cues to remember:

• Walk in the ‘hips tall’ position, which teaches proper alignment (proper alignment leads to better economy of running)
• Head, shoulders and feet should be centered over/under hips
• Eyes should be straight ahead with chest forward
• Lean forward at the ankles, not the hips
• Arm motion happens at the shoulder, not at the elbow, and hands shouldn’t cross the midline of the body

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Nikki Reiter is a Mizuno Running Brand Ambassador from Kelowna, BC.  She holds a master’s degree in biomechanics, coaches Cross Country at UBC Okanagan and is the founder of Run Right Gait Analysis Service (run-right.ca).