Deena Kastor
Fastest Marathon: 2:19:36
(American record)
Marathon Highlights:
Third place, 2004 Olympics;
First place, 2005 Chicago,
2006 London, and 2008 U.S.
Olympic Trials.
Deena Kastor won the 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials more than nine years after she first won a national title (that one being in cross country). In the interim, she set American records at distances ranging from 10,000 meters to the marathon and, most famously, won the bronze medal in the 2004 Olympic marathon.
Other than the broken foot she suffered during the 2008 Olympic marathon, she has remained remarkably resilient despite all those 120-mile weeks. Even more impressive, she has remained as hungry and dedicated as when she was up and coming, despite having achieved enough for two satisfying world-class running careers. How has she managed to stay fresh and focused, and what can the rest of us learn from her on this crucial matter?
Kastor views her training as a full-time pursuit. That means more than just putting in a lot of miles, doing regular core strength workouts, and performing the drills and other activities that challenge her body and mind. It means that, in addition to all the physical work, she places supreme importance on recovery. She’s acutely aware that what she does when she is not physically working determines how well she absorbs the benefits of a given session, whether it’s a long run on the roads or a strength session in the gym. As a result, she naps almost daily, gets plenty of sleep at night, begins refueling and rehydrating almost immediately after running, and chooses between-workout activities that require little physical or mental strain.
Of course, Kastor is a professional runner – being meticulous about recovery is as much a part of her job as following the economies of developing nations is part of a bond trader’s. Most of us can’t take daily naps and can’t always control what occurs between our runs. Nonetheless, we can – especially during a marathon buildup – eliminate as many outside stressors that drain our physical and mental energy as possible and we can try to get to bed a bit earlier. If this sounds like a lot of sacrifices, take another lesson from Kastor. She says, “We don’t make sacrifices. If we truly love this sport, and we have these goals and dreams, they’re not sacrifices. They’re choices that we make to fulfill our goals and dreams.”
Having those “goals and dreams” is what has helped Kastor stay so motivated for so long. She excels at selecting as her next major goal one that is most personally meaningful to her. Once she’s set the goal, everything else falls into place, and she can honestly view her lifestyle as being filled not with sacrifices, but with choices that help her reach her goal. That same mind-set is available to all marathoners.
Contrast therapy should ideally be used within about 20 minutes of running and consists of alternately submerging yourself in hot and cold water, generally using bathtubs or portable tubs at home or facilities at a fitness club. It is an extension of the use of heat and cold for physical therapy for injuries. The hot water is typically about 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius), and the cold water is in the range of 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit (10-16 degrees Celsius). There is obviously a danger in making the water too cold or too hot. For team sports, the athlete is ordinarily in the hot water two to three times longer than the cold water. For example, a typical protocol is 2 to 3 minutes hot followed by 1 minute cold, repeating the cycle three times. Athletes that Pete coaches find the cold most beneficial and like to alternate 4 minutes in cold water with a 2-minute hot shower. They typically finish with hot water in the winter and cold in the summer.
Here are three practical alternatives for contrast therapy at home:
1. Fill the bathtub with cold water, and alternately soak in the bath for 1 minute followed by a hot shower for 2 to 3 minutes.
2. On a hot day, alternate a cold bath (or a dip in the ocean or a lake) with simply getting out into the warm air.
3. Alternate hot and cold water in the shower. Although showering is not as effective as water submersion, it is far easier and more practical.
There is evidence that hot/cold contrast therapy causes alternating dilation and constriction of blood vessels to improve blood flow, thereby increasing elimination of lactate and other products of hard exercise. Contrast therapy also enhances relaxation, which reduces the metabolic rate and can increase the “perception” of recovery. Other unsubstantiated claims for contrast therapy include reduced inflammation and reduced DOMS.
Running causes muscle tightness and damage to muscle fibers. Your muscle fibers need time for repair and recovery before they can work optimally again. If you train hard before allowing your muscles to recover properly, then you’re likely to have a subpar workout using sore and tired muscles and your risk of injury will increase.
Massage therapy is widely used by competitive marathoners to improve recovery and prevent injury. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to design a scientific study to evaluate the benefits of massage. As a result, there is little scientific evidence but much anecdotal evidence for the benefits of massage therapy for athletes in general, and distance runners in particular.
The established benefits of massage are improved blood flow to the massaged area, enhanced muscle relaxation, improved mobility and flexibility of the muscle and surrounding connective tissue, general relaxation of the athlete, breakdown of scar tissue, and identification of tight areas before they lead to injury. Interestingly, research with horses has shown that massage therapy can increase both range of motion and stride length. These results with horses eliminate the placebo effect, which is one of the problems with massage studies conducted with human subjects, and indicate that, with the correct technique, there can be a performance benefit from massage.
If you can afford massage, anecdotal evidence suggests that it will help you recover more quickly from hard marathon training. To be effective, sports massage should be “pleasantly uncomfortable” (i.e., it shouldn’t be gentle). It is beneficial to supplement massage sessions with self-massage on tight muscles that can be easily reached, such as the quadriceps, calf muscles, and feet.
There are many different types of massage therapy, and as with any discipline there are wide ranges in expertise among massage therapists. Since the industry is relatively unregulated, it is best to use a massage therapist who is a member of the American Massage Therapy Association (or a similar national organization in other countries) and has been recommended by other runners, so you can be confident that the sessions will be effective.
If you’re like a lot of runners, your postworkout routine goes something like this: Stretch, drink water, shower, and get on with the rest of the day. Food? That can wait until you’re hungry, right?
Not if you want to feel your best on your next run. The sooner you replenish your glycogen stores by taking in some calories, the quicker you’ll recover for the next day’s training. The crucial period is the first hour after your run. If you wait until after then, your body’s ability to absorb and make glycogen out of what you consume drops by an astounding 66 percent, and you’ll likely feel sluggish the next day.
Shoot for consuming 300 to 400 calories during this recovery window. In this time, your body can best make glycogen out of simple sources of carbohydrate – think fruit, smoothies, sports drinks, and sports bars. In addition, research has shown that a little protein – about 1 gram of protein for every 4 grams of carbohydrate – will speed the process of replenishing glycogen.