Run for Your Life

by Mark Cucuzzella

  I’ve distilled these drills into four groups: “Mostability,” “Awakening your springs,” “Strengthening your springs,” and “Extras.” The summaries of them here are referenced to page numbers in the text, for more complete descriptions. Also, I urge you to see the Run for Your Life website (runfo­ryourl­ifebook.com) for videos of most of the drills that are listed here.

  MOSTABILITY (MOBILITY AND STABILITY)

  You’re up, mobile, outside (or in the gym)—and ready to move. That means you’re most of the way there! Do these movements throughout the day and you will be more prepared to run consistently and without injury. I do short versions of these when I am warming up before a run, too. We know that forceful stretching is not beneficial before running, but many of these movements are “dynamic” stretches, because you are increasing your mobility and releasing restrictions through controlled, gentle movement—not by pulling and stretching.

  TRY THESE POSITIONS OR DRILLS:

  Video reference

  Short foot posture. This is your foundation. Train the foot throughout the day, as you stand and walk.

  Short Foot

  Single-leg balance. Single-leg stability is key. Master this for thirty seconds with eyes opened, and fifteen seconds with eyes closed. (If you can, move into a single-leg hop and run, described later.)

  Single Leg

  Golfer’s pickup. Bend at the waist as if picking up a golf ball—swinging one straight leg directly behind you, while keeping the balancing leg straight.

  Golfer’s Pickup

  Leg swings. Stand tall, keep your pelvis neutral and stable, and swing your leg like a pendulum—forward and back, and side to side.

  Leg Swings

  Lunge matrix. Focus on balance and smoothness.

  Lunge Matrix

  Mountain climber. Done correctly, this is great for opening the hips.

  Mountain Climbers

  Awesomizer. This can be done any time you can place your foot on a chair or stool. It involves balance, rotation, hip extension, and an upper body reset, all in a smooth movement.

  Awesomizer

  Supple hips. The supple hips/windshield wiper progression is my morning hip opener. It maintains internal and external hip rotation. Great for your golf swing, too.

  Supple Hips

  Six-position foot walk. A perfect exercise snack.

  Six-Position Foot Walk

  Heel raises. While balancing on your right foot, slowly lift your heel so that you are balancing on the ball of your foot. Switch feet.

  Heel Raises

  Mindful walking. Pay attention to an erect posture, smoothness of movement, and efficiency. Press off the big toe.

  Get your arms moving and upper body rotating—feel the spring as your stride opens up behind you.

  Mindful Walking

  Backward walking. This works the muscles on the back of the leg. Keeping the thigh vertical, bend the knee so that the shin is horizontal. Make sure you know where you are going.

  Backward Walking

  Abdominal breathing. Breathe slowly and deeply, pulling your diaphragm toward your spine as you exhale.

  Abdominal Breathing

  AWAKENING YOUR SPRINGS

  Even if you are fit and healthy, you may well have lost that pop off the ground that is so critical for running. Let’s start by restoring this—by waking up our springs.

  TRY THESE POSITIONS OR DRILLS:

  Video reference

  Light hopping, and skipping rope. Jumping rope builds elastic recoil. This trains our feet and ankles to work like powerful springs. Jump with light, quick, full-foot contact, timed to a cadence of about 180 beats per minute. When your cadence, springiness, and rhythm are good, add the jump rope. Start with a duration of one minute, and build to five minutes. Then try running with it.

  Jump Rope

  Ninja squat jumps. Begin by doing a few to a low platform the height of a curb. Focus on landing softly, with low impact. Raise the platform gradually. Practice jumping down, also quietly.

  Ninja Squat Jumps

  Experimental barefoot jogging. Try it for short distances, slowly, on clean pavement. It will remind you of good running technique: smooth, with low impact.

  Barefoot Jogging

  STRENGTHENING YOUR SPRINGS

  Now that you have a little spring in your step, you can add a few more challenges (in a safe and low-intensity way). Proceed cautiously, and avoid anything painful. Good mechanics and fast, springy feet are the goals. Never do these drills to the point of fatigue or failure.

  TRY THESE POSITIONS OR DRILLS:

  Video reference

  Burpees. Doing sets of six to eight of this age-old exercise is safe, fun, and sustainable.

  Burpees

  The grapevine drill (also known as karaoke). Moving sideways, keep your arms outstretched, and have the trailing leg alternately go across the front, then the back. Keep the upper body still while the hips rotate through 180 degrees.

  Grapevine

  Strides, or pickups. In the middle of your run or after your run, two or three days a week, do ten-second sprints: turn it on, lengthen your stride, and test your full range of motion.

  Strides

  Lateral jumps. Jumping sideways, with feet together, is a great skiing exercise and recruits your lateral hip stabilizers. Stand alongside any type of object from one inch to mid-shin height—a log, for instance. Jump over it, back and forth, for ten reps, staying on the ground as little as possible. Aim for three or four sets.

  Lateral Jumps

  Single-leg hop/run. After mastering the single-leg balance, become a one-legged pogo stick and hop on one foot, with minimal ground contact time. Then try running a short distance on one leg.

  Single-Leg Run

  Run with a tether. Run while restrained by a stretchy tether (and while standing on a mini-trampoline, if available). Maintain a neutral posture as you focus on driving away from the anchor.

  Run with Tether

  Turkish getup. The perfect full-body strengthening excercise

  Turkish Getup

  EXTRAS

  There are a handful of additional, highly beneficial drills that are best demonstrated by live people, and are not included in the text. Please visit the videos page of the Run for Your Life website (runfo­ryourli­febook.com) to see these excellent drills performed.

  TRY THESE POSITIONS OR DRILLS:

  Video reference

  World’s greatest stretch and sumo. After the lunge matrix, there is no better progression than these two multiplanar, dynamic movements. Together, they open up not just your lower extremities and hips but also your torso and shoulders.

  World’s Greatest Stretch and Sumo

  The heel lift drill. This teaches us to lift the foot by using the back of the leg, instead of the front, by activating the glutes and hamstrings. While doing this, lean slightly forward (or backward), as if on a Segway. The goal is to maintain springy contact with the ground, not to run fast.

  Heel Lift

  Ankling,
or fast feet. Fold your foot elastically down to the surface, from toe to heel. The heel barely touches the surface before bouncing off, as you push down and back from the glutes. Keep the cadence high. Relax your upper body, and move your feet—fast!

  Fast Feet

  Stair or curb hops. With a sense of play, move up and down on a stair (or curb). Land softly and quietly as you step up and step down, lightly hopping. Focus on quick, springy, and quiet feet. Begin slowly!

  Curb Hops

  Four square. Like hopscotch. Do a single-leg hop, with quick direction changes, in a square pattern. Make a square grid on the floor with tape, do it on a tile floor to simulate the grid, or simply eyeball your marks on the ground.

  Four Square

  ABCD skips. Become a sprinter again, and relearn this classic track drill.

  SKIPS: with strong hip extension, propel yourself forward with a high knee flight.

  SKIPS: pull the leg down with the glutes and hamstrings, preparing for the impact phase.

  SKIPS: extend from the push-off leg, like a ballet leap. Keep the pelvis neutral.

  SKIPS: with a strong and springy foot, flick the heel up toward the glutes.

  Perform these in a series, A-B-C-D, traveling forward about 10 yards each time. Then relax, turn around, and return to the start with a fast 40-meter stride. Do four to six sets of these, making sure to fully recover between sets.

  ABCD

  123 run. A simple progression to start a run with proper technique

  123 Run

  Principles of natural running. At a million views and going strong, learn the basics of natural running

  Principles of Natural Running

  Barefoot running style. My first barefoot running video, presented at the 2011 Boston Marathon.

  Barefoot Running Style

  Going for a run. One of life’s simple pleasures is going for a run outside.

  West Virginia kids running revolution. Kids are our future.

  WV Kids Run Revolution

  This may appear to be an ambitious, or even daunting, list of drills. Simply do the ones that feel right, and when you are done be sure to include the most important drill of all: chill out—relax and recover. Breathe deeply, walk mindfully, eat healthfully, and sleep well.

  Appendix III

  TRAINING PLANS FOR A 5K, A HALF MARATHON, AND A MARATHON

  If you would like to work up to competition—even for a modest goal such as a citizens’ 5K race—then you may benefit by adopting the training plans that follow. As always, you should count on progressing slowly, in sequence, as you build endurance and strength. The path to competition is not a race.

  The first of these training schedules, “To 5K and beyond,” is designed for the runner who is just starting out, or returning to running after an extended break, or recovering from illness or injury. The goal throughout is to develop a safe and gradual adaption to fitness.

  It’s not essential that you follow these schedules rigidly. The matrices are flexible, and include a variety of activities, so that you’ll make movement a daily—and fun—habit. If you are already partially fit, you can pick up this schedule somewhere in the middle. But be honest with yourself. Listen to your body.

  By the final weeks of the sixteen-week “To 5K and beyond” plan, you should be comfortably jogging for thirty minutes, most days of the week. Only then embark on the half-marathon (twelve-week) or marathon (sixteen-week) plans once you have developed the aerobic system.

  Unlike with some other training regimens, here I emphasize aerobic development, running skills, mobility, strength, stability, enjoyment, play, long-term progression, and overall health—not high-intensity workouts. High-intensity training programs can offer short-term gains, but at a high risk of injury, and often declining overall health. There is no risk with aerobic development.

  Most important, pay attention to recovery, which is the time when you actually gain fitness and health. Nutrition, rest, and destressing are critical. As Dr. Tim Noakes reiterates, “What you are training for is to live a long and productive life, and maintain health.” This was repeatedly confirmed, from long experience, by the legendary Arthur Lydiard when he said, “Train, don’t strain.”

  Make activity a daily habit, and you’ll succeed in both fitness and in health.

  TO 5K AND BEYOND—SIXTEEN-WEEK TRAINING PLAN

  HALF MARATHON—12-WEEK TRAINING PLAN

  MARATHON—16-WEEK TRAINING PLAN

  OVERVIEW OF THE KEY PARTS OF THE THREE RUNNING PROGRAMS

  Aerobic runs

  Aerobic runs are the foundation of fitness and health. Run at or slightly below your maximum aerobic heart rate (MAHR) for the duration of the run—a speed at which you should be able to easily converse. At least 80 percent of your running should be done at or below your MAHR—until four to six weeks prior to an event or PT test. The first ten minutes of the aerobic runs in this plan are intended as a relaxed warm-up and to gradually raise your heart rate toward your MAHR. When you finish these runs, you should feel as if you could run more.

  To find your maximum aerobic heart rate, use Dr. Phil Maffetone’s 180 Formula. Example below is a thirty-year-old runner.

  Subtract your age from 180 (example: 180 – 30 = 150).

  Modify this number by selecting the option below that best matches your health profile:

  If you have, or are recovering from, a major illness or are taking medication, subtract an additional 10 (example: 150 – 10 = 140).

  If you have not exercised before, have been training inconsistently or been injured, have not recently progressed in training or competition, get more than two colds or bouts of flu per year, or have allergies, subtract an additional 5 (ex ample: 140 – 5 = 135).

  If you’ve been exercising regularly (at least four times weekly) for up to two years without any of the problems listed in a. and b., keep the number the same as in 1 (example: 180 – 30 = 150).

  If you have been competing for more than two years without any of the problems listed above and have improved in competition without injury, add 5 (example: 180 – 30 + 5 = 155).

  Body adaptation: Aerobic development. Growth of capillaries and mitochondria. Increased fat-burning capacity. Relaxed running form.

  Common mistakes:

  Ignoring your MAHR and your level of effort. (When you run above your MAHR, you are burning mostly glucose/glycogen, tapping into anaerobic metabolism, and inhibiting aerobic development.)

  Trying to run at a fixed pace.

  Going too fast up hills.

  Long runs

  Long, slow runs (longer than one hour) are a significant aerobic stimulus. Time on your feet is the goal—not speed. In a sugar-depleted “fasting” state (no carbohydrates before or during the run), you’ll teach your body to burn fat and recruit more muscle fibers—that is, you will recruit fast twitch aerobic muscle fibers as slow twitch muscles fatigue. You should take a long run no more than once every one to two weeks.

  Start comfortably below your MAHR. On the return leg, you may run at your MAHR. Slowly build up your pace, and slowly extend the time on your feet to an hour and a half (two hours for experienced runners).

  Maintain adequate hydration by following your thirst cues—not overdrinking, as this can lead to hyponatremia—a life-threatening condition that occurs when your sodium levels are too low. Replace fluids with a good recovery meal shortly after a long run, preferably within half an hour. As you get closer to race day, if you’re feeling good, do the second half of your
long runs at near-marathon pace.

  Body adaptation: Aerobic development. Growth of capillaries and mitochondria. Increased fat-burning capacity and relaxed running form. Longer runs, even though you may feel comfortable and are not pushing very hard, stimulate maximum muscle recruitment.

  Common mistakes:

  Running too fast so that you finish fatigued (and slow). As with all training runs, you should feel as if you could turn around and do this run again if you had to.

  Starting out above your MAHR and tapping out your glucose reserves, instead of stimulating your fat burning capability.

  Relying on carbs for energy, rather than training your body to mobilize fat as fuel.

  Making a single long run more than 50 percent of your weekly miles.

  Jog (slow jog)

  The jogs in this plan help you recover and focus on a relaxed and efficient movement pattern. They’re also good for mental relaxation, stress reduction, and general health. You should run much more slowly than you’re capable of, below your MAHR. Use a light, springy running motion, and keep your cadence close to 180 steps per minute. The goal is an easy twenty to thirty minutes of activity.