Running Relaxed, Running Fast

At the 11AM recess bell on Wednesday, kids started running to the basketball court for the start of day two of the cross country team. It was great to see so many kids coming out, after the crazy hailstorm on Monday kept us in the gym. What was even better, was to see all the smiles and happy faces.

We started the day with an easy lap of the school loop. This was to warm up the muscles and to get the heart and lungs ready for some running. I noticed that all the kids did the warm up lap using jog speed this time, instead of launching right into warp speed! This was excellent, though I am happy to see all the speed too!

After the warm up jog, we did a few stretches for our calves and thigh muscles (called ‘quads’ in run talk). And did some good arm circle warm ups for our shoulders. Why the arm circles? You use your arms in running! You use them to balance out your upper and lower body, to help drive your knees forward while running, and to help keep balance while running downhill! (we will cover how to run downhill really fast next week!).

We talked about being relaxed while running fast. Sometimes when you start to run really fast, you can feel tired because of all the effort that you are giving! It can feel hard and the trick is to run fast and stay relaxed because it takes less effort to be relaxed. That way your energy is going into making your legs go fast and not into clenching your jaw or hunching up your shoulders.

For the next part of the run, we practiced running fast and jogging slow. The goal was to run fast and relaxed for part of the route, and slow and relaxed for the other part!

I stood on the grass and watched all the runners dash in for the final stretch of the route. Almost everybody was smiling as they sprinted past me! I saw a lot of great running, and noticed kids who were really driving their arms forward as they ran, and trying to make their legs go fast. The big smiling faces told me 2 things: kids were having fun while they ran fast and they were relaxed. Did you know that it takes less energy to smile than to frown? So all those smiles meant that runners were putting more energy into going fast! Good Job!

And thank you to the teachers for helping with the course!

So here are some things we have learned this week:

1. All the sports you play, and all your physical activity, even the playground games like tag are making you healthier and fitter and will help you run cross country.

2. Running well is about trying hard to make your legs move fast, while keeping your arms and face relaxed.

3. There are different speeds in running and runners can train to go faster by using bursts of fast running (speed) followed by slower (recovery or rest) jogging.

What Elite Athletes Do:

Elite athletes often wear extra layers of clothes for the warm up part of practices, to help stay warm and let their muscles warm up faster. For the main part of the practice, or fo the race—when they are going to be running faster—they take off layers to stop from getting too hot.


Question of the day:

Q: What is that pain in my side I get sometimes when I try to run fast?

Lucy Says: That pain in your side is called a ‘stitch’ and almost all runners have had one. When I get a side stitch in training, I slow my running a little to make sure I am relaxed and I take some really deep breaths in and out. I try to make my tummy relaxed too. If I am racing I try to be tough about it. I don’t let the side stitch make me stop trying.

To prevent side stitch, I try to eat about 2 hours before a training run to make sure that my food has digested before I run, and I drink a little bit of water before running too. I warm up slowly and make sure I am breathing in and out really well in my warm up.

If you have a questions you would like Lucy to answer, you can write it on a piece of paper and give it to one of the teachers or to Lucy at practice.

Coming Next Week!

Running well uphill and downhills!
How to start a race
Eating to run