How about those happy looking people in the photo!?! Meet Doreen and Henry, 70 and 71 years young, respectively. They both ran the Jack and Jill Downhill Marathon yesterday in Washington state and as you can see, they had favorable results. They have a few other things in common. They came to me a week apart, referred by people that read my blog posts. They both started with me later than I like in relation to when the marathon is. They both have run with various running groups in town and coincidently with the same group but unbeknownst to them, came to me basically at the same time. They both have been running consistent the last two years, including running marathons, but ran into some problems in their last training season and race. Doreen had GI issues at her last race that sabotaged her BQ efforts and Henry came to me with an irritated hamstring that sabotaged him getting back to Boston.
As part of my runner interview, I helped Doreen figure out how to get around her GI issue and I did a movement assessment on Henry and prescribed exercises to rehab his hamstring injury, while he continued to run train. I looked at what both had been doing previously in training before coming to me. I determined one was running too much and the other, not enough and regressed and progressed them from that point and now both will have their opportunity to go back to the Boston Marathon. I have had people in the past refer to my runners as my students. That always sounds silly to me because I know I am the student. I study the runner and must learn their body, what they can handle if they can handle more, and what is too much and if they have had too much, how to bring them back on track for just enough. There is a fine line between too much, not enough, and just enough and it is my job to figure that out. Now that the race is over, Henry gets to rest his angry gluteus medius and Doreen, well, Doreen is probably already wondering how much she may be able to improve. Has she reached her inherent ability? Has anyone reached their inherent ability? Run too many miles, you won’t reach it. Don’t run enough miles, you won’t reach it. Run just enough, you will reach it. Please do me a favor and take the time to hit the share button for Doreen and Henry’s story! Soon I will be composing a blog about exercise and the aging human being! Fight ON! Coach Gina
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