In the long run, it’s all about safety
Meet Zoë George. 38. Journalist. Sports enthusiast. Theatre kid. Gardener. Cat mum. Allergic to running. But for the next few weeks she’ll be sharing her filterless account of her training to take part in Auckland’s Round the Bays for the first time.
After weeks of listening to my postCovid body, I’ve finally reached the stage where I’m progressing from walking to running. Well, OK, I admit, it was more of an amble with a friend around Wellington’s Oriental Bay late one evening after work, while we chatted about everything from the weather and wine to rugby and travel. Running and walking with friends makes it easier.
But gosh my body ached the following day. I woke up, took my first few steps, creaked and groaned, and realised I had done very limited stretching before or after my training, and hadn’t had enough water.
Some “aqua therapy”, aka aqua jogging, with another friend at Thorndon Pool helped. But not prepping our bodies for our runs can lead to injuries, and we don’t want that as Round the Bays quickly approaches.
In 2022, ACC accepted more than 11,000 claims relating to running, costing more than $9m to help people recover. Those between 25 and 49 made up 52% of running-related injuries, which were mainly to knees and ankles.
(Don’t even get me started about the rise of ACL - anterior cruciate ligament - injuries in women’s football. I’m gutted to see so many women suffer this season-ending injury in the A League, and it was awful to witness Matildas star Sam Kerr experience one only seven months out from the Paris Olympics, all but ending her Olympic campaign.)
Coach Greig Rightford from HealthFit in Wellington says the most common injuries are achilles tendonitis and patellofemoral disorder, aka “runner’s knee”, when the front of the knee gets sore and you can get a lot of pain into the hips and lower back.
The reason why this happens is because these areas don’t get great blood flow
and they take a bit longer to recover. He says these areas take about three to four days to recover, compared to muscles that might take 48 hours. In some cases we return to running without letting our bodies recover, and while we might not feel it straight away, in two or three weeks the extent of the injury will start to show. Then there’s “load”.
“Sitting on the couch and deciding to go out for a 5km run off the bat is not a good idea,” he says. “Your tissues stretch and contract very quickly when you run. It's very difficult for your body to cope with no load and then go to the highest type of load very quickly.”
It’s about graduating our training (like I’ve been doing) to ensure we don’t put our bodies under too much stress. Then there’s assessing how much pain we are in the following day and adapting our training to what we are feeling.
“Your first 10 or 20 steps out of bed is a really good way to listen to your body and think about restriction and what is actually sore again.”
Then there’s proper warm-ups - which helps prepare our bodies for “load” and helps increase our blood supply around our body - and warm-downs. A proper warmdown helps “flush out leftover chemicals” in the body.
“It’s why hydrating really well around exercise is important, otherwise inflammation goes up. That’s part of your warm-down, along with those movements. And use a foam roller.”
He takes me through a few stretches that will help my body prepare and recover from running. There’s hip flexes that involve tucking my glutes (ha … mine are non-existent!) under my hips, hamstring stretches and dynamic calf stretches. All up, it should take 10 minutes, he tells me.
Since my session with Greig, I’m finding myself stretching more. I’ve started to do it not long after I wake up in the morning as the kettle boils for that first cup of coffee (I’m a Wellingtonian, what do you expect!), and at night while I’m watching my latest binge-worthy TV show.
It’s making a huge difference. I’m finding my hips and legs don’t ache as much and the early-morning groans as I take my first steps of the day are starting to dissipate. And I’m drinking more water. My skin is glowing right now.
So let’s keep going, team. Stretch it out for injury prevention, as Round the Bays is just around the corner. We’ve got this.
I’m finding myself stretching more. I’ve started to do it not long after I wake up in the morning as the kettle boils for that first cup of coffee.
Follow along
Are you running for the first time too, or picking exercise back up? I’d love to hear your trials and tribulations as well. We’re in this together. Email zoe.george@stuff.co.nz.
Curious about getting fit? Visit thepost. co.nz, our new Smart Fitness section will show you the basics and you can catch up with Zoë George’s video diary. Southern CrossRound the Bays is held in Auckland on March 3. Visit roundthebays.co.nz for more information.