All the Excuses in the World...

All the excuses in the world won't get a runner ready to be an ultrarunner. Excuses of mine so far: injuries. Time. Dissertation. Family. But there are plenty of runners out there with families and jobs and injuries who become world-class (or even just consistent) ultrarunners. For me, injury has been the key interrupter in my training.

Roy Stevenson, an exercise physiologist and writer for ultraRUNNING online, says of DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness), "It is very common for out-of-condition or beginning runners to experience DOMS. Its severity depends on how much and how intensely we exercise, and whether we have performed that exercise before. But it’s not just beginning runners who are susceptible to DOMS – even well-conditioned runners who’ve been training consistently for several years can experience DOMS after a race or vigorous training session, especially a lengthy downhill-running workout."

I can attest to having suffered DOMS. And Stevenson is right that those of us who think we're conditioned but are not. I was only running 25 miles a week when I pulled my right calf muscle, and that's not nearly enough mileage to consider a marathon, let alone an ultrarunning event. 

One of the most important things I can learn from Stevenson is that the actual damage done to muscles is real. Stevenson says, "Traumatized muscle is a war zone! Your leg muscles are under siege after repeated eccentric contractions and the descriptions of the damage sound horrifying. Here are some of the main protagonists: disruption to the muscle sarcomere; breaching of cell membranes; swollen muscle fibers; wear and tear on connective tissues (ligaments and tendons); calcium spillage from muscle tubules; cell inflammation and increased production of superoxide free radicals..." The pain we feel has a cause and can be medically identified; and so my month off, while it might not be the length of time required for full rest, was one of the smartest things I've done for my ultrarunning dreams.

Stevenson finishes by suggesting that "Apart from using the modalities recommended above as preventative methods (warm-up, ice, compression, some antioxidants, and post-training carbohydrate/protein mixtures), stimulating DOMS to a minor degree in training will prepare the runner better for DOMS muscle trauma." And this makes sense: runners, like all athletes, need to be fully prepared for the difficulties of DOMS during training and events. Knowing how muscle soreness feels and how to mitigate the damage will help me keep running even when DOMS flares up.