In this thread I will discuss in detail, proper cardio-vascular training methodology. If you train incorrectly, it can lead to permanent damage to your joints and ligaments.

Before starting, I think it’s important that people know where I’m coming from so that they know that I know what I’m talking about and not just making things up as a go along. My father was one of the best NCAA cross country runners in the country in the mid seventies, and still competes at the national level in the masters division.

I myself, ran three years of track and one year of cross country in high school, then two years of track in college. In college I trained under legendary distance runner Steve Spence. Steve Spence was a four time NCAA champion and ran the marathon in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, getting twelfth place, with a flu. The next year he won the bronze medal in the same event at the world championships.

Starting
The most important thing to remember is to start small. Your body can’t handle a marathon if you’ve been inactive, so don’t try one. You may have the cardio for it, but not the muscles. Most running injuries happen to small stabilizer muscles, because these are ones that people tend to forget about.

Every time your foot impacts the ground, that shock wave travels up your leg and your muscles tighten to absorb it. You quads and hamstrings are massive muscles, and can take it, but they push you, they don’t stabilize you. The muscles around your knees and ankles are tiny, and they are the ones that do most of the work on landing. If these muscles have atrophied, your stabilizers may pull or tear and your joints will jiggle around too much, leading to tendonitis, or even worse, arthritis. This can be especially true for those of you who may be overweight, the heavier that you are, the more strain you put on those muscles.

When first starting a regiment, do a little jogging, to warm up the muscles, then walk. For the first week, you should do as much or more walking than running. Walking strengthens these small muscles without putting so much strain on them that they will get injured. Once these muscles are strong enough, then you can run.

Shoes
A good set of running shoes is a good investment for someone doing a lot of cardio. Like those stabilizer muscles, a proper fitting set of shoes can dramatically decrease the shockwave that travels up your leg and into your joints.

When buying a new set of shoes, you should also take a week off from anything to strenuous so that they get broken in a little bit and your stabilizers get used to the new shoes. If you went from a pair of shoes that are very good at stabilizing one particular motion, to one designed for something else, the some of the muscles may have weakened. Things like switching from road shoes to cross trainers would certainly do this.

The best thing to do is to have multiple sets of shoes and alternate them every day. This keeps all stabilizers strong and extends the amount of time that you can train consistently and not have to stop to break in a new pair of shoes. A good pair of running shoes last about 500 miles, so having three of them means that you can run 1500 miles before re-calibrating your legs for a new shoe.

Make sure that your shoes fit perfectly, specifically around the arch. An arch that’s too high can cause shins splints, and arch that’s too low can also cause shin splints. Shin splints aren’t dangerous, but they are very painful. The shoe itself doesn’t need to accommodate this, if you find a good pair of shoes with the wrong arch support, buy then. You can swap in insoles easily and cheaply.

Before running
Some people stretch before running, this is dumb. Stretching pulls on your muscles and loosens them up, you want your muscles tight when you run, or else you aren’t as stable on your feet. You should do a minor stretch, but nothing extensive, and only after your muscles are properly warmed up.

For sprinting or something like that, stretching is more important, but not for cardio. For the most part, you can just run right out the door. Your workout and your warmup are one in the same, just don’t start out too fast. Even for runners who can do a sub five minute mile, eight minute pace should be the first mile or so of a distance run. For most, nine or ten is best.

Make sure that you are well hydrated even when it’s cool out. You sweat a lot, but you loose just as much water from your breathing, and people tend to forget that. The reason that you can see your breath when it’s cold out is because you are expelling water.

Don’t eat. For runs less than 10 miles, eating is not a good idea, your body will burn the food in your stomach before it burns any fat. Longer runs, you should eat during the run, not before. This is not true for a race, during a race you need fast energy, and only food can deliver that. Make it carbohydrates though, not sugar.

After Running
Now is the time to stretch, and stretch well. Stretching helps prevent soreness the next day, allowing you to run again the next day. It also helps your muscles stay nimble so that your flexibility is not compromised. Flexibility is what allows you to control your body under any circumstances. If you step incorrectly, how quickly you can move your legs to compensate is directly proportional to how flexible you are.

Ice. Even if you’re not injured, you have to ice your knees and shins. This is preventative treatment. After 5 miles, each knee has taken over two thousand small impacts, and they need ice to recover. Twenty minutes on, twenty minute off is the best way to do it. This is useful because you can alternate legs and constantly ice.

Now you may eat, although you should wait a little while, since your stomach is churning and eating might make you sick. Drink lots of water though. The best thing to eat after a run is food that are high in protein. Fish, eggs, and soy are the best.

Hearth Rate
How much you push yourself will affect how much weight you lose or how good of a cardio workout you get. In order to lose weight, you should keep your heart rate between 60 and 80%, this is not very difficult, a slow job will keep your heart rate about this level. It will burn fat because it’s not a difficult exercise, your body wants to save it’s carbs and sugar in case something happens to it and it needs to go into fight or flight state.

Strenuous activity, brining your heart rate between 80 and 95% will burn the food in your stomach and really get your heart beating. Your heart is a muscle too, exercising it is important. The number one killer of people in the us is heart problems, caused by smoking and obesity. Running won’t help with your smoking, but obesity is something that you can control with running.


I'll add more later.