Lesson: Building Up Miles

Part of running for an extended period of time is building up your body to handle the stress. I assume that this is even more important when running on hard surfaces like the street or concrete, or when running faster.

I'm concerned because I don't want to injure myself before the marathon! Usually I think specifically about building up my lungs and muscles.

I found some medical postings that say your bones need to keep up with the stresses also. Problems usually occur when miles are increased quickly. You see, your bones grow much slower than muscles and require more time to catch up. This time lag means that you shouldn't increase your mileage more that 10% from one week to the next.

Running more mileage than your body is ready to handle can result in stress fractures that can take you out of the game.

posted by jim @ 9:13 AM Permanent Link |