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Marathon Tips: Running Injuries, Anxiety, and More
Attack of the Nagging Fears
What are you afraid of? Injury? Blisters? The wall? Whatever it is, there's a way to fight back when running anxiety strikes
By
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Hurdle Your Running Worries
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1
Getting Injured
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2
Falling Behind
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3
Tackling Hard Hills
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4
Failing to Hit Speedwork Goals
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5
Coming in Last
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6
Falling Off the Treadmill
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7
Hitting the Wall
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8
Gaining Weight
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9
Facing Resistance from My Family
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10
Feeling Exhausted on Hot Runs
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11
Getting Blisters from New Shoes
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12
Saying Goodbye to Personal Bests
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13
Not Finishing
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14
Needing to Take an Unplanned Pit Stop
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15
Never Getting into a Bucket-List Race
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16
Race-Day Anxiety
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17
Getting Lost or Hurt on Trail Runs
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18
Catching a Cold
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19
Not Running Again
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20
Fear of [Fill in the Blank]
Hitting the Wall
The Fix: Knock it down with gels
Energy gels didn’t exist when I was racing in the ‘80s,” says Rainsberger, "so runners were bonking all the time. The body runs out of stored glycogen at about 20 miles, so the Wall was almost unavoidable. But if you take in calories—I suggest one gel [most are about 100 calories] every 40 minutes—there's no reason you should hit it." But the Wall still stands if you goof on race pace.
"If you take in calories and still hit the Wall, it means you ran a pace your body wasn't prepared to handle," Rainsberger says. Race-pace training runs and "test" races are tools you can use to decide on the ideal race pace. Still, many runners miscalculate, and Rainsberger says it's most often because the training timetable is too compressed. "Even the Olympic Trials runners I coach build up for five months," she says.
Think Positive: "If you run into a wall…climb it, go through it, or work around it." —Michael Jordan
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