Jay,

I was curious what you thought about the morning of "shake out" run. For example the team I'm an assistant for now goes for about a 5 minute run the morning of their XC race. Do you do this with your athletes and do you think this helps more physiologically or psychologically? Would be curious what you think of this.

Thanks,
Travis

Travis-

Thanks for the question. I think this question is one of those where you will not only get ten different answers talking to ten different coaches, but there is also little science to give us an indication about "the right way" to get ready for a race. But it's important not only for HS and collegiate athletes but for anyone who has a race at 9am, yet who normally runs at 5am or 6am.

The idea with these "shake out" runs is that you're only running 10 minutes, maybe 15 at the most. If you're fit then you're not really getting tired and unless your running a marathon you're not depleting your glycogen stores. But to me the keys are as follows. If you are racing at night and tend to get nervous sitting around all day then this a great way to break up the day. It's also a great way to make sure your body is ready; if you do range of motion (ROM) work before this 10 minute run, then do some light mobility or ROM after it, you may feel better in your race. Finally, some people simply need to wake up early to calm the butterflies and if you normally run at 5am or 6am, but are waiting for a 10am race, then it might make sense. You do this run at the normal time, then read the paper and have a light breakfast.

Finally, this run assumes you're fit and that you've got a significant number of miles under your belt. This type of run will make little sense for the novice running their first 10k.

Thanks Travis!

Coach Jay-

Am I crazy or do my knees and feet hurt more when it's raining outside?

-Heather

Heather-

Okay, like all of the questions pertaining to injuries, I'm hesitant to answer this one because I'm not a doctor, yet I do think this one falls squarely into the "weird things hurt when there is a change in barometric pressure" and runners often feel it as much or more than the general population. While only in my thirties, I have a very specific spot in my left foot that hurts when the barometric pressure changes; it's not so painful that I can't run, but until I made the connection it was disconcerting to think I might have a stress fracture in my foot. Basically, the same arthritic symptoms that we assume only occur in geriatric populations occur in runners; if we gain a little weight or run a race when we're not quite fit enough to handle to pace, we can exacerbate these structural issues that we all have. Does this mean you have to stop running? Of course not. But it may mean that change your workouts and just run easy on these days or if you do run the workout, you carefully monitor the next 4-5 days of training to make sure the discomfort was weather related and not the start of something bigger...because 95% of the big injuries in running start as something little.

Obviously you need to see a doctor or PT or chiropractor, someone who can give you a real medical opinion on this. But, there is no doubt the part of a running life is an achey area when the barometric pressure changes dramatically.

Thanks for the question Heather and I wish you the best in you training.

-Jay

Coach Jay coaches athletes at RunnersCoach.com and blogs at CoachJayJohnson.com. And don't forget, if you have training question for Coach Jay, email him here: coachjay@nike.com.

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