Coach Crowe's Healthy Training Tips!

I was not alive during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, although many of my athletes seem to think so.  As runners we have never faced something of this magnitude before. It’s easy to feel hopeless and worried about the future and of our sport.  Reading or hearing the accounts of covid-19 on the news accelerates these anxieties. One of the ways running can help is to allow us time away from the endless news cycles. I think that it is important if you have been on a training program to maintain the consistency of that training.  I would suggest if your goal races have been cancelled to adjust the training in accordance with that. Maybe move back from a competition or race specific phase to a training or general phase. Some cautions to keep in mind, while running and exercise is beneficial to a strong immune system running is a stress.  Anerobic training or pushing the training to where it becomes over training can suppress the immune system. There is some thought that longer duration runs which deplete the body of glycogen also lower the immune system.   So, what is my take away here.  Fitness is the body's adaptation to stress; we stress ourselves through running and we adapt to become stronger runners.  The idea is that large changes to our training can have a detrimental effect on our immune system. My advice is if you have been doing hard workouts continue but tone down the intensity a notch.  Drop the duration of your long run by several miles or minutes. In a paper published in the 2019 Journal of Sport and Health Science Dr. David Nieman outlined some great tips to enhance your immune health. Develop a specific training plan built around ample recovery, sleep and possible mental stressers. Don’t do individual workouts or weekly total workouts significantly harder than you’ve been doing. Monitor yourself closely for early signs of illness and/or over training, and adjust accordingly. Skip the gym with its crowds and potential pathogens. Run outdoors. Avoid excessive alcohol intake. Adapt stress management strategies to control for life’s hassles. I would add to that to eat plenty of carbohydrates don’t allow yourself to be in a glycogen depleted situation. Remember moderation is the key.  If you do increase your mileage or workout intensity do it gradually and get plenty of fuel and rest afterwards. We will get through this time and we will come out of it as better runners.