We all want to be better, faster and stronger. When we first start training we are told to get better we need to up our mileage. We also increase our intensity for our hard workouts. Then our long workouts are supposed to get faster. Now let's add in some strength training. Next is lifting heavier weights (for some). More, more, more... faster, faster, faster.... harder, harder, harder!!!! And the better we want to be the more we start to think we have to do more, all the time.
But more is not always better.
Last May I competed at the World Team Championships of Race Walking in Rome, Italy. One of the benefits of making Team USA is when we travel as a team we have a medical person travel with us. I have found that they can be a source of invaluable knowledge and wisdom and every trip I take I learn so much! Rome was no exception as our physio was absolutely amazing. She was very dismayed by the lack of flexibility in my hips. Now, as a race walker, you would think I'd have super mobile hips, but not so. When I was a kid I never sat cross legged. Whenever I do cobbler's pose in yoga my knees are always up pretty high, I've never in my life had them on the ground in that position. I figured it was just the way I was built, and I would of course continue to stretch but not worry too much about it.
The physio said not so! I could gain more flexibility! She worked like crazy on me and gave me a bunch of stretches and mobility exercises. And they were working! My knees were getting closer and closer to the ground! Thus started my journey to increased hip flexibility. And like any good athlete, more is better! I'd do them all the time. Then in November in New Zealand I saw a physio who gave me more exercises to do! Hazzah! More is better! These were focused a bit more on flexibility in the joints. So I dove right in to those as well.
After a while though I started noticing that when I'd do some of the exercises on my right side my hip would ache. No sharp pains, just a dull ache that would take a few minutes to go away. But then it would happen sooner and sooner and get more and more painful. So I figured I just needed to put my big girl panties on and push through it.
Here in New Zealand I have an amazing massage therapist. She's awesome, knows how to get in deep and has tons of experience working on race walkers and race walking specific issues. I told her about wanting to increase my mobility. She was totally for it! So she'd work away, we'd talk over the issue, try new things. Then one day we were really working deep in there and it was a few days after a 10K PB and my body was tired and WHAM! My muscles totally spasamed up. It took about a week for them to calm down and a week of sub par training.
More was definitely NOT better.
I have since gone to see another physio to look at my right hip. Basically he thinks there could be some spots where some of the cartilage is thin and that's what's causing the dull ache in my hip. So we take out the stretches that stretch the joint and keep the ones that stretch the muscles. Whew! Luckily an easy fix. But one that could've been so, so much worse.
So what's my point? More is not always better. Yes, train hard. Yes, increase your mileage. Yes, get stronger. But don't go overboard. That's one of the main benefits to having either a coach or someone to advise you. Very, very rarely does anyone have to tell me that I'm not working hard enough and get my tooshie in gear. More often someone has to say to me, hey, you've done enough, time to stop. There's a time and a place to push yourself to your limits. There's a time and a place to challenge your body past what you think you can do. But there's also times where you need to listen to your body and back off just a bit. I would rather have a month of really solid training with no amazing, spectacular, PB performances than only having one spectacular performance and a bunch of sub-par efforts.
Having someone to monitor you and keep their eyes on you and an independent opinion of how things are going can be crucial. If it was left up to me I'd probably work myself to death, especially during 50K training as I LOVE to go long.
More is not always better. Train hard, but train smart. And have fun doing it!
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