• Cadence. IMHO, The most important aspect of running is cadence. Your cadence should be about 180 steps per minute; the lower the cadence, the higher the landing impact. http://www.active.com/story.cfm?CHECKSSO=0&STORY_ID=12114&CATEGORY=running [The running stride consists of about 50% of the time in contact with the ground and 50% of the time in flight. For the time in flight, the body will travel in a parabola. The longer the time in the air, the higher the body must go; the higher the body goes, the harder the landing impact.] Keeping the hands higher can improve cadence, as the natural frequency of the arm swing is higher.
• What changed?If you get injured, try to determine what has changed that might have triggered the injury. This may be something obvious, like increased mileage, new shoes, different training surface, more hills, higher intensity, but consider things that are more subtle. Are you running with a different partner? Are you listening to different music? (Music can change cadence.) Have you started to do more walking in your training? (Don’t assume walking is just easier running; it uses similar muscles, but inflicts different stress on the body.) What about non-running changes? New car, or driving position, different computer usage, lifting something heavy, etc.
• Find the source. Sometimes, where it hurts is not what is injured. I had a really bad ankle problem and physiotherapy did not help. I could run about 1/4 mile before the pain in my ankle shut me down. It turned out to be a problem in the calf (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peroneus_longus) that was causing a tendon in the ankle to be too tight. Once the calf muscle was relaxed, the ankle recovered in a couple of days. The book “trail guide to the body” is great, but wildly expensive; I eventually picked up a very cheap second hand copy.
• The Stick. This is a reasonably cheap massage device. It not only helps relax muscles, it also works as a great diagnostic device. By using it on my legs, I believe I have found sore spots and problems early, before they cause me grief. www.thestick.com.
• Ice. I use ice a lot and have found it to be close to miracle cure. I use the Ziploc hefty bags with the little plastic zipper to seal. I find they only last one or two sessions, especially if there is any weight on the bag. The established technique is to ice for 15-20 minutes; any longer can cause tissue damage, frostbite and nerve damage. That said, I routinely ice for up to two hours at a time. My limited understanding is that after about 10 minutes, the capillaries expand to prevent tissue damage (the Hunting effect) increasing blood flow. It is also advised never to apply ice directly to the skin; I apply the Ziploc bag directly to the skin as the melting ice should keep the temperature at a steady about 32 Fahrenheit. I avoid chemical ice packs like the plague. They start off too cold and can burn the skin, but do not stay cold for very long. By using ice, the state change from solid to liquid keeps the water near the skin cold. (http://www.brianmac.co.uk/cryo.htm)

By Tommy Neeson

Alas I digress, back to where I started – It’s been two days since I finished my first ultra marathon and I can now say, with all honesty, that I don’t feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. Stairs are still evil and I’m so thankful that I don’t drive a stick shift; however things are far better than yesterday.

The race, The Moonlight Boogie 50 miler. I can’t say for certain what drew me to selecting that as my first one, something tells me it’s the name of course something tells me I’m just an idiot – but again, I digress.

My buddy Steve has run the Boogie several times before and is hoping this year he’ll make the cut off. Now, I don’t want to ruin this story for you because we all love a good suspenseful story, but he doesn’t. Did I mention I’m an idiot?

At the start there are a few words of encouragement from the race director followed by last rites, excuse me, a prayer. We are off. Down a decent grade that really serves to only provide novices like myself a false sense of comfort. “Go easy the first lap”, were the words still echoing in my head from the race director. Well chief, maybe you should have started us out going up hill? In any event, I heed his words and do my best to ease into a comfortable pace. The two potty breaks at mile 6 and 10 certainly help me with that strategy. Lap one down and so far so good.