Beijing Bound!

Boston was a success for our patients here at Innersport. We had 4 patients running the Boston Marathon and all finished with great times. Congratulations to Mirek Boruta, and Suzanne Franco, Magdalena (Magda) Lewy, Gabor Torak! I'll write more in our next newsletter due in May, however, here's an email I received from Gabor about his experience at the Boston Marathon and the Marathon Olympic Trials for women the day before. He writes:

"Steve and I came out of the T (subway) on Sun and right after the motorcycles the first runner was Magda. This was at mile 24 I think. A mile later she was passed by Deena K. Still it was cool to see the transports logo setting the pace.

Our run was great too; Steve and I ran together until about mile 19 at which point I decided to slow down (in order to stay alive.) The hills were not bad, but I had to hammer a bit on the last 5 miles to make a sub-3hr pace. Great crowds and weather!

Thanks again for all your help! I couldn't have done it without you!!
--Gabor"

For those of you who have not heard, Magda finished SECOND in the Olympic Trials with a time of 2:30:19. Yes, this means she is going to represent USA at the Beijing Olympics this summer! Congrats to Magda, Gabor, Mirek, and Suzanne!

Weekend Warrior

Occasionally, well, not so occasionally- frequently, some of my patients decide to cram in as many "weekend warrior" activities in an amazing 2 week trip as they can. Here's a summary of such an adventure from a dear patient:

"In February of this year I went on a 2 week trip to the south island of New Zealand. I went with a company called "Active New Zealand" and boy did they live up to their name! I came home in great shape although in need of some chiropractic and active release therapy treatment. I hiked, biked, kayaked, ran trails, bungee jumped and river boarded! I had never heard of river boarding prior to this trip. They suit you up in a wetsuit, with a helmet and flippers and a boogie board and send you off down the river to run the rapids with 30 other knuckleheads who also have no idea what they are in for. It was the most incredible workout I have had in years! When we were done with that, they dragged us around on a board off the back of a jetski and flung us back and forth (big fun), then sent us down a water slide (30 foot drop) and then off a rope swing in to the river! The bungee jump was off a bridge over a river (over 120 feet). The most beautiful scenery. An even more incredible adrenaline rush. Whew! I knew i should have base jumped off a paraglider but alas there just wasn't enough time!"

Training hard or overtraining?

Yep! Sick as a dog. I’m on the couch, watching “Semi Homemade” with Sandra Lee on the Food Network and writing my first blog. And since I’m unable to torture my patients with ART® these past two days, I’ve decided to talk about slowing down.

It is true, we all need to slow down in our daily and weekly lives to avoid the dreaded cold and flu. When you are out for the count, you are as useless as a dull knife. Attempting to get everything done ASAP can actually hurt you, and can even set you behind.
Training is no exception. There is such a thing as overtraining. And overtraining can hurt you. I know we all get excited to run our first marathon or do our first half Ironman or Full Ironman. And many of us are able to do so injury free. However, what you don’t feel during training can haunt you for future races.

I typically see many injuries occur during training for the second marathon, or the second half ironman. One possibility for this is we do not give ourselves ample recovery time. Our bodies have their own odometers and we cannot turn back the miles. If you have not been training consistently and then train for a marathon or half Ironman, you are racking up miles pretty quickly. Sticking with the car analogy, think of an injury springing up on you “out of the blue”. It’s like the wear and tear of a timing belt. You don’t know it’s wearing out until one day it breaks.

My advice? It’s ok to take a week off from training or to have “rest days.” Your body needs to recover. Most repetitive strain injuries occur due to the body’s inability to rebuild tendons in time before the next workout.

Whew… enough of Sandra Lee. GiadaDeLaurentis is on. Gotta learn some mean Italian cooking!