I’m turning 36 this year and averaging about 80km/week these days. Although I didn’t stop for the pandemic.
The main thing that has helped me is to fix my form – make sure you always land with your leg straight down underneath your hip. Work with a reflective surface or a coach until you get this down and know what correct feels like. Then be conscious of this until it’s 2nd nature.
Second important thing are fresh shoes. No more than 600km.
Third – barbell squats and deadlifts. This gives your legs strength and balance so muscles/tendons can hold your joints steady.
Fourth – I added daily foam rolling this year and it really helped with tightness and resulting imbalances in my legs. Made running much easier.
Oh and make sure you eat enough. That helps with muscle soreness.
As credentials I offer that I ran a 3:15:28 marathon in November at 35, my fastest ever.
> I just run until they fall apart. A couple of thousand km easily.
Amazing! What kind of shoes do you use?
Mine do basically fall apart around 600km and I can feel a big difference in cushioning. New shoes feel like springs that give my feet a sproing, old shoes are like running barefoot – no sproing at all.
Adidas adizero adios (the old ones, before they grew a thick sole). Allbirds had a nice shoe they developed together with Adidas, which is discontinued now. Some Nike free, but they have too thick a sole for my taste… At the moment, the shoes I like best are discontinued. Luckily I have a couple of pairs in reserve. You know the writing is on the wall when they are heavily discounted; good time to buy a couple of pairs.
By the time I need to buy new ones, fashions will hopefully have shifted back…
By the way, when I say fall apart, I mean it literally: toes peeking out and losing bits of the sole.
I also rotate the shoes: the older ones are for the easy runs, the newer ones for tempo or intervals.
The main thing that has helped me is to fix my form – make sure you always land with your leg straight down underneath your hip. Work with a reflective surface or a coach until you get this down and know what correct feels like. Then be conscious of this until it’s 2nd nature.
Second important thing are fresh shoes. No more than 600km.
Third – barbell squats and deadlifts. This gives your legs strength and balance so muscles/tendons can hold your joints steady.
Fourth – I added daily foam rolling this year and it really helped with tightness and resulting imbalances in my legs. Made running much easier.
Oh and make sure you eat enough. That helps with muscle soreness.
As credentials I offer that I ran a 3:15:28 marathon in November at 35, my fastest ever.