Dear Body,

I need you to hold me up to run the marathon! Quit giving me weird pains in my legs with no warning. Right shin occasionally feeling a shin splint kind of pain. Left knee tingles weirdly and I have tight ITB bands. I don’t know if I am being overly sensitive or if I’m just listening to my body A LOT. You treat me well during the runs (my times are great, I am right on schedule with the plan- it’s after the run where you start talking to me). I really want to have a good marathon experience but all these weird pains are making me paranoid. I am attempting to treat you with respect: stretching, core work, myo-fascial release, resting (?!!)

From: Brain Training for Runners by Matt Fitzgerald.

Illiotibial Band Friction Syndrome means weak abductors, tight ITB bands, and the remedy is strengthening hip flexors, stretching and deep tissue massage.

Shin Splints caused by increasing mileage too quickly or overstriding and the remedy is to reduce running then increase it more slowly, gait retraining, and changing shoes.

Patellofemoral Pain syndrome (runner’s knee) caused by weak hip adbductors, weak quadriceps, week deep abdominal muscles and the remedy is to strengthen hip abductors, quadriceps, and deep abdominals.

Message here:

Runner’s need as much core/functional strength as you can get!! The more I run, the more I stretch and strengthen on those off days. Thinking that the weight training is almost more important than the running.

Eccentric Leg Squats for Runners:

Stand up straight. Lift one leg up to a 90 degree angle and do a half squat. 10 repetitions on each leg for 2 sets. This exercise can be done in a variety of ways- but the bottom line is to strengthen weak quad muscles as well as your balance.

What do you guys think?