I have a question.  If I walk a lot during the day and then train at night (after work), will this help with part of the endurance building?

I have a theory… I have been running pretty consistently now for about a year.  Running came easily for me and I think it is because I had been walking before running.  I have been walking a dog (Bailey first and then Bear) twice a day for, Holy Cow, almost 17 years!!! When I run my long distances (15 to 20 miles), my feet really start to hurt.  This does not happen when I am on my shorter runs.  I have even tried different shoes with the same results.  Maybe I am being unrealistic, 20 miles creates a lot of pounding down there.  I am lucky that I have not had any other energies along the way… the knees hurt once in a while, but I’m not going through the Tiger Balm like the earlier days (that’s right, there was a lot of pain, but I will remember it as the “good pain” now that it is a distant memory).

Back to the theory.  This has come about because I am looking for a new job.  As I was looking at the online classifieds, the post for the USPS (postal service) came up. I started to picture delivering mail during the day and running during the evenings.  This should be great training for the little foot muscles (as well as some bigger leg muscles).  Wallah… a theory is borne.

This may be my favorite training tip because I use it on almost every run.

This one actually taught me two things about myself.  I find that it usually takes me about a mile to “warm up” both literally and figuratively.

Literally – I found that heat can really drain my energy.  If I am dressed all warm and toasty when I start running, I am sweating by mile 1.

Figuratively – it takes about a mile for me to work out the little pains in my feet and knees.  I also like to  check in with all my body parts.  This is like a pre-flight checklist that a plane would go through before going airborne.  I will check in with different muscle groups to see how we are feeling today.  I will check in with my posture, my pace and any current “problem areas” that may be more on my radar then usual.

The first thing that I learned was that I “breath on stride”.  What is meant by this is that I inhale and exhale timed with my stride (I naturally inhale and exhale with the impact of my left foot).  As much as I check in with my self during runs, I never realized I was doing this.  I guess I was more concerned with getting enough air, not when it was coming and going.

Second, if we switch which foot we make contact with/breathing with, it changes the little muscles that help stabilize our core and can detour a side ache.

So when I feel a side ache coming on, I will consciously check in to see which foot impact is timed with my breathing (usually my left).  I will switch to breathing with the impact of my right foot, inhaling and exhaling as my right foot makes impact on the ground.  I will feel relief almost immediately and shortly after I switch my breathing, I will have no more problems with the side ache.