Running 101: Health and Nutritional tips to improve your run

Today, we offer health and nutritional tips to improve your run. Whether you’re running on a treadmill or outside, little things can add up to big deals over the long haul. For instance, a skewed running form or the wrong type of shoes can add up to injury over many miles, or lack of motivation can cause an early exit when it doesn’t have to.
In order to get the most out of your training, Running 101 this week will
take a look at different areas of the sport that will help serious runners. Today, the focus is on health and nutritional tips:
* Keep your body well-hydrated. This process starts in the days leading up
to training, or even more importantly a race.
* The trimmer you are, the easier it will be to run. Losing weight and
running go hand in hand and if you’re lighter it will be easier to run.
* If you don’t like carrying water with you, bring some cash or change in
pocket and stop at a halfway point during an outside run and buy some
water or a sports drink if there’s a place available on your route. This place
may also be a good location to take a bathroom break.
* Get plenty of carbs in your system the day before a big run or race.
* Chaffing can be a problem sometimes, with sweat and clothing rubbing
together to cause irritation. A great solution to that is to purchase proper
fitting clothing geared toward running. Also you can apply Vaseline or
BodyGlide to specific areas chaffing occurs if it persists.
* Do not run extremely challenging workouts on back-to-back days. Give
yourself ample recovery time.
* Ice achy or sore muscles.
* Progress within reason as you psuh yourself running. Don’t up your
mileage more than 15 percent per week.
* If shin splint become a problem a great tip is to avoid running on
pavement and train on a treadmill or run on trails, which will provide softer
landings.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.com