By Marty Ayres
There are so many running apps these days that track your running. There’s legitimately one called ‘Map My Run’, but our favourite at Back In Motion Eltham is Strava.
Strava maps your run and links you up with your friends so you can run together, even when you are apart. However, the main reason that we love these apps, is to track your running history.
We can track your Boom/Bust throughout your running career. As it’s not only about the very beginning of your running season, it can also happen after any sudden increase in the load on our muscles and joints.
How do we measure load?
Load, or “how much my muscles have worked this week” can be measured by checking the run intensity, duration, how fatigued you were or total distance covered.
On Strava, we get all of those details.
Strava tells us how many hills you went up, giving us an idea of intensity; it shows us how far you ran and how long you ran for.
Plus, with a handy tip from us, you can label your Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) at the end of each run in the title of the session, which is going to come in super handy.
See we like to do a simple bit of math’s over the previous months of your running when you present with an injury.
RPE x Time spent running = Load number
We like to look at any recent SPIKES or BOOMS in load (particularly after a period of de-loading where you may have had some time away from the running track). For example: Green = normal progression, Blue = de-loading, Red = boom
In this example, there was a de-load in week 3. So, the Run 1 was still within strike range of a progression from Week 2, but there was a huge jump in the LSR in week 4, creating a total fatigue at the end of the week.
This does not mean that you will definitely have an injury! It’s just something to look out for.
We spike all the time in life. Painting the house overhead all weekend without having done shoulder exercise for a long time, sometimes resulting in a trip to the physio with sore shoulders the next week.
It all comes down to SUPPLY and DEMAND in your body!
If you demand more of your body, suddenly increasing the load, we need to have adequate supply of muscle strength. That is why Strength and Conditioning is so important for the runner, so these spikes don’t affect us as much.
This blog series is written by Marty Ayres - Physiotherapist, Grad Cert in Sports Physiotherapy and Melbourne Marathon completer at Back In Motion Eltham.
If you would like further information, please contact our practice on 9439 6776 to book in a consultation with Marty.