An experiment of one

Oof, it's been a while. But that's sort of relevant to this topic, anyway. So, yeah, I planned this break.

Last fall, I was a headless chicken. Barely keeping up with everything going on. And trying to train for a 50-mile race. To save time, I began eschewing my regular post-run stretch. (For several years I've ended each run with a short sequence of Active Isolated Stretching, focusing on hamstrings and soleus. Use a rope, hold for two seconds, repeat 10-15 times per muscle.) It's only 5 minutes but, hey, 5 free minutes!

That was fine through the fall, and I ran JFK without injury. But I'd fallen into the habit of not stretching.

Backing up. There's debate over whether it's better to stretch before running (but after a short warmup), after, both, or not at all. The USATF is conducting research about it now. But most people think that, like so many other things in running, it's all based on your personal experience. That is, we're all an experiment of one.

Around the first of the year, when I got up off the couch and started ramping up my mileage again to prepare for spring races, running wasn't fun. Things hurt. My knees were the worst. My shoes weren't that old (only 100ish miles) and I should have been pretty well recovered from JFK. But I couldn't deny the various aches and pains.

A couple of weeks ago, I dug out my trusty rope. It takes conscious thought, but I've been doing my stretching routine after each run for the past two weeks, and taking extra care after long runs.

My legs feel great. Springy and strong and no aches or tweaks or anything.

So now I know. For rallycaps, stretching after each run is very important. Whether that's true for other demographics I can't say; someone else will have to do that study.