If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done. – Thomas Jefferson
Occam’s Runner would have us believe the simplest best way to be a better runner is to run more. Back when the OGORs roamed the roads, alternatives, additions, supplemental activities never seemed a thought. If you had more time, you ran more. Simple.
Oft injured as a young runner, he managed a 2:25 marathon, an old buddy is now coaching high schoolers. Like to keep them injury-free if any way possible. Can’t help wondering, how fast could you go if you dodged bad wheels for a few years in a row?
Ask the OGORs a question for me, he wrote.
So many runners get injured before they reach their full potential. Your top tier racing career lasted for at least (—) years. What supplemental exercises, if any, did you do to avoid injuries?”
JIM PEARSON: Other than sporadic weight lifting and casual stretching, I basically just did my runs.
KEN MARTIN: Supplementary training: always leg weights and stretching.
Quad extensions, hamstrings, emphasizing the eccentric action (let down phase) of each machine lift. Many injuries have an eccentric action. This is important. Resist while the muscle is lengthening.
If I didn’t lift my hamstrings and quads would get weak. Maintenance weight training for me.
Lament getting away from steeple/agility drills and trails.
PATTI CATALANO DILLON: I did 500 push ups a day 1000 abs work a day, everyday including day of races. I remember a time in a limo with Greg Meyer and Herb Lindsey, telling them about Nautilus. Greg mentioned he tried it but got too tired for his run, so he wasn’t going to do it.
I started off with Nautilus in 1978, at Dr. Rob Roy McGregor’s sports center in Brookline, MA. The physio Peter Stone helped me by designing a routine. Though I soon graduated to free weights. Not too many women in the gym then, I was usually the only one. I had to make doubly sure I had great form as to not be snickered. I found a gym that had a nice feel, called Workout Plus in Dedham , MA., where many of the Patriots worked out. I was welcomed with open arms and my strength accelerated,as I was introduced to a heavy weight strength day once a week or ten days. I mainly worked out with John Smith, a place kicker, and tight end Don Hasselback
Towards the end of my career, I could bench 152 and squat 285. And I did ab work hanging from gravity boots from a high bar.
I even traveled to Japan carrying 45 lbs of weights with me. ( ask Billy ).
The runners I coach now are asked to do pushups up to 25 in a set 3-4 sets in the morning and evening.
I also ask them do abs.
They greet the challenge with glee😛.
I believe in overall strength in running.
MARK COVERT: I hate to say this but I did no weightlifting of any kind. Worse still I did very little real stretching. I would touch my toes a few times but other then that nothing. When I was training with Tabori – after our couple mile warmup – he would have us stretch for about 15 minutes or so before we would do strides but I didn’t put much effort into it. Not the answer you’re going to get from most of the OGORs.
BOB HODGE: My running striving for top shelf lasted 1969-1988.
In my early running life sophomore in High School I had my first running injury lower back could have been sacroiliac joint.
My coach knew a chiropractor a former football hero at my high school and Boston University.
He lived and practiced in Nashua NH not far from my Lowell home. At the time MA did not license Chiropracty.
http://www.lhsathletichalloffame.com/listings/titus-plomaritis-class-of-1949/
My Dad took me to see him and he threw me around that table a while and then sent me home with a sheet of plywood to sleep on.
I also wrote to Dr George Sheehan at Runners World and he told me I needed to strengthen my stomach muscles.
Core exercises.
Turned out the issue may have been a switch in shoes, as I had just got two new pairs of Tiger Cortez and wore them everywhere.
My body has taken me far and I am not complaining but I am flat footed (had bad plantar fasciitis right foot from the get-go) bow-legged and compensates for structural issues poor posture whatever plain ugliness.
I did calisthenics free weight bench press a bit. Swimming in the summer and barefoot running on grass and beach sand.
Later I did nautilus in spurts for overall body balance.
In 1981 I had a very serious injury torn adductor muscle. Sports medicine not even a thing then I went to some recommend docs bunch of quacks who told me I was nuts and to quit running 100 mile weeks.
I visited Bob Backus who had a gym near where I lived and that was the only time I had a really intense weight training program and it felt good.
He thought I should get a cortisone shot and may have suggested something stronger illegal but Hodgie don’t play that.
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/07/sports/bob-backus-is-dead-at-72-world-s-best-weight-thrower.html
One thing runners today do seem to have more avenues and knowledge for treating injuries and the importance of balance.
HAL HIGDON: I started running in 1947, my sophomore year in high school. I didn’t take running seriously until my junior or senior year in college, then made a quantum leap while training with a US Army team in Germany in 1956.
I strength trained most of my life, beginning in 1958 after (believe it or not) winning a set of barbells for placing 3rd in the National AAU 30K championships. But I wouldn’t claim that working out in a gym (which I still do) helps me prevent injuries. Consistent and intelligent training probably was the most important factor.
And good biomechanics, which I was fortunately handed at birth.
JACK LEYDIG: Shhhhhh, “if we had time to do anything supplemental” is the key phrase! Basically, I was “maxed out” in the 1970’s…president of one of the best clubs in the nation (West Valley Track Club), creator and editor of the NorCal Running Review all decade, a top-rated marathoner (ran in the 1968 and 1972 US Olympic Marathon Trials), and got married (1976) to Judy Gumbs, who was also a nationally ranked marathoner (2:45 and ran in the 1984 US Olympic Marathon Trials).
On top of that I organized and directed many regional and national championships, including the first US Women’s Marathon. Running anywhere from 70-90 miles per week was my “normal” training mileage on top of all that. Plus, I started (Jan. 1977) Jack’s Athletic Supply, which I still own and operate today…supplying event T-Shirts and finish-line equipment to hundreds of local and out-of-state distance events. I was and still am a one-person company. From 1968 through most of 1971 I had a full 5-Day 40-Hour week trying to make a living as well.
So, the answer to your question, “how did I avoid injuries during my ‘prime years’ of running”…I probably got lucky. I did not do much in the way of supplemental training (weights, stretching, etc.). The few minor injuries I got were short-lived.
I did sprain my ankle once jumping off of sand dunes on the Pacific Coast, putting me out of action for 4-6 weeks. I just stopped running completely during that period. I also had some arch problems from time to time, but they went away. My top years of running were 1960 through 1987, with my best running coming in the early to mid-70’s (1:39 for 30K, 2:25 for the marathon in 1972, and being ranked top NorCal distance runner in that year as well).
I basically stopped competitive running in 1987…too much else going on in my life, including two children! Most of my training (distance and intervals) was HARD effort, so it’s a wonder I didn’t get injured on a regular basis. If I had to do it all over again, I probably would not change much, except perhaps do more easy running, especially before marathons. In 1968 I did back-to-back marathons (a week apart), finishing in a PR 2:28 (second in AAU Nationals in Culver City), and then second in the Pacific AAU Marathon in 2:34. Not very smart!
Also, the running shoes back then were not really great for injury prevention, but that didn’t seem to give me any problem either. I ran mostly in Tiger/ASICS shoes (Boston’s).
Life is a journey!
ANNE AUDAIN: I ran at an international level for 22 years, beginning at age 14!
After reconstructive surgery on both feet, doctors and therapists recommended that going forward I choose shoes that were nearest thing to “ bare feet”! And that I must keep my feet strong as they determine rest of the body’s ( legs and butt) strength and gait !
I was fortunate to have two coaches who both believed passionately in hill repeats and hill running over miles! I did hill repeats twice a week and all my long runs over hilly terrain. Of course, coming from New Zealand where there is minimal flat land, we run hills daily.
When I had to find a USA training base, I first went to Denver, then Boise. Both cities, having mountains close by, allowed me to try something new! Both had roads going up to ski fields! I would start at the bottom and run 5 miles uphill ( altitude, too) and get someone to drive me down! Kept me very strong!
In my 22 years, I never suffered a running-related injury! I did no other exercises! At age 64 , I still do hill repeats twice a week! Hope that is what you were looking for!
RON WAYNE: I raced for 20 years, of which marathoning was for 9 years. My racing career started when I was a junior in high school. For cross country, we did a few calisthenics and a couple of leg stretches. Running cross country, indoor track and outdoor track in college, Neither the team nor I stretched. Post-collegiate, I did some minor calf and hamstring stretches that lasted no more than a minute or two.
In 1975, I had my only severe muscular injury. I was late for a group track workout on the Cal Berkeley Track. It was a cold damp day and I didn’t run my usual 2-mile warmup to get loose. I jumped in to the repeat 880’s speed workout and pulled my groin. Technically, it was called Osteitis Pubis, a tear of the muscle from the pubic bone. This took about 3 plus months to heal. I did strain my Achilles tendon doing uphill speed work once, but that only lasted a few weeks. In 1976, I had bronchial pneumonia for about a half year, causing me to miss the 1976 marathon trials, which had nothing to do with stretching.
Bottom line, I rarely stretched during my racing career. My wife owns a yoga studio and I run almost every day and still don’t stretch.
BILL RODGERS: Hi Jack,when I was a new (HS) runner I used to jump rope in my basement;lift some (light) weights;our Newington HS Track Team was captained by a shot putter,Tom Michaud,so we did Calisthenics,which i really enjoyed;that was during our 1st indoor season.
One benefit I had was our track was a grass field, our coach, Frank O’Rourke utilized, so it was 5 laps to a mile. I think I liked the grass track because, as kids, my brother, Charlie and I and best friend Jason, we walked and hiked everywhere,and that meant hiking on grass. Using your feet more than on asphalt walking. I think one strength the Kenyans and Ethiopians have is just that – often running on dirt and grass and strengthening their feet.
In my college track and cross-country Days, I went to the Gym some to use light weights. I increased my mileage from my high school days. After all, at Wesleyan I was chasing one of our country’s top XCountry racers, Ambrose Burfoot, 6th Twice at NCAAs and Jeff Galloway, a few years from making the ’72 USA Olympic Team. When I became a full-fledged Road Racer/Marathoner, I began 2 x a day training and after each run did 50 sit ups. I utilized hand-held weights for arm /shoulder strength, maybe 15 /20 lbs. each weight. After long runs I’d swim easy in the pool for recovery.
Exercise science was developing quickly in the 70s/80s, and today we all can benefit. I think the amount we rest is the Big question; today’s pros have much more information/data available to them. In my generation’s era, the 60s/70/s 80s, rest was a bit of dirty word.
DON KARDONG: If I understand this question, it’s what supplemental exercises did I do during my salad days. Basically, it was none. Stretching didn’t work for me, in fact I always seemed to injure myself stretching.
Sometime in my mid-thirties, I had recurring muscle pulls, but very minor ones that kept me from running for about 10 days. I finally figured out that massage would prevent the pulls, but massage costs money, so I developed a routine using “The Stick.” I start each day by using The Stick on calves and hamstrings, and I rarely get mini-pulls any more.
Of course, I also don’t run as often, as fast, or as far.
BENJI DURDEN: I was seldom injured during my prime years. I suppose this was due to good biomechanics, maintaining basic endurance strength in the weight room and occasionally hitting the pool.
I had Achilles issues from time to time, but running barefooted on grass fields helped keep that at bay for the most part. My only really serious injury was a bad case of plantar fasciitis that effectively ended my elite career.
JACQUELINE HANSEN:
Stretching and situps were part of our track workouts. We otherwise did not go to the weightroom. If injured, a physical therapist might have me lifting weights ‘though, with more elaborate stretching.
Mainly, to keep in shape when too injured to run on land, I would do pool-running. I also could stretch much better in the pool.
Eventually, in my later days, I was trained as an aqua-aerobics instructor. It was a full-body workout and as efficient as lifting weights. As a masters runner, I was in relatively better shape from weightroom and pool workouts both. I returned to track and had success as a masters world champion 1500 and 5000m.
In more recent years, I benefited from riding an ElliptiGO bike.
Perhaps cross-training would’ve served me well when I was younger.
